Acclaimed character actress Joyce Van Patten has appeared in everything from Desperate Housewives to Bad News Bears; from The Danny Kaye Show, to our ever-favorite, Diane, to over twenty Broadway shows. So where do we even begin!? You Might Know Her From Monkey Shines, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!, Mame, Grown Ups, and numerous productions of Neil Simon works. JVP is the sister of character actor, Dick Van Patten, but she is also the first mother of one of our previous guests, Talia Balsam. Joyce gave us the skinny on getting her start as a child actor, working with a cast of Saturday Night Live alums, starring in the historic film version of Mame with Lucille Ball, and working with Dinah Manoff and Nell Carter in our favorite incredibly strange film, Maid for Each Other. Fill your iced tea glass with us and enjoy our chat with the wonderful Joyce Van Patten.

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Discussed this week: 

Joyce’s IMDB || IBDB

Talia and Joyce

Hawaii 5-0

Joyce’s brother Dick Van Patten

Gypsy with Ethel Merman “Rose’s Turn”

Ex-husband, character actor, Martin Balsam

Diane (2019) dir: Kent Jones

Monkey Shines (George A. Romero)

Sponge bathing Jason Beghe 1:28:02

Joyce’s death scene in Monkey Shines 

Night of the Living Dead 

God’s Pocket (directed by son-in-law, John Slattery) w/ JOhn Tutrurro and Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Maid for Each Other w/ Dinah Manoff and Nell Carter

I Oughta Be in Pictures (Neil Simon) also with Dinah 

Brighton Beach Memoirs (Neil Simon)

Toured with Same Time Next Year 

Joyce was on The Danny Kaye Show (Paul Mazursky & Larry Tucker) 

I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!

Peter “no purple” Sellers was mean to Jo Van Fleet

Drew Barrymore and Robert Osborne love I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! 

Dustin Hoffman and his method bullshit

Grown Ups (Dennis Dugan)

Joyce’s monologue from Grown Ups (Kevin James not great, Salma Hayek was nice)

Mame (1974) with Lucille Ball and Robert Preston

Shirley Booth

Joyce with Milton Berle on Jack Benny

Lee Grant

Niece-in-law is Eileen Davidson

Played Carol Prudy on Desperate Housewives opposite Paul Dooley & Teri Hatcher

Worked with Peter Friedman in The Great God Pan (Amy Herzog)Everyone loved Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation

Wants to do a Greg Pierce play