One Day at a Time ran for nine seasons, but one of Mackenzie Phillips’ earliest cast relationships left an impression that lasted long after Richard Masur’s relatively brief run on the sitcom.
During a reunion with Valerie Bertinelli on Getting Naked: The Podcast, Phillips identified Masur as the costar she remembers having trouble with when the CBS comedy was getting started. “Richard Masur wasn’t very nice,” she said, repeating the description when Bertinelli brought up his early time on the series.
Phillips did reveal was that the two encountered each other again years later, when Masur apologized even though, by her recollection, he no longer remembered the details of what had happened.
The story adds another piece to the complicated early history of One Day at a Time. Masur had frustrations of his own with the series, but when he has discussed leaving, his explanation has focused on the direction of his character, David Kane.
Phillips Says Masur ‘Wasn’t Very Nice’ During the Early Episodes
Phillips and Bertinelli were teenagers when One Day at a Time began. The official Sony Pictures description identifies Julie Cooper as 16 when the series begins and Barbara as a year younger. Phillips played the rebellious older sister, while Bertinelli played Barbara and Bonnie Franklin starred as their newly divorced mother, Ann Romano.
Masur played David Kane, the lawyer who handled Ann’s divorce and became one of her earliest romantic interests. When Bertinelli began recalling people from the show’s first years during their podcast reunion, Phillips did not hesitate over his name.
“One person, and I have made peace with this person and we’ve spoken, but Richard Masur wasn’t very nice,” Phillips said. She repeated the point moments later: “He wasn’t very nice.” PEOPLE said Masur’s representatives did not respond to its request for comment.
Masur Later Apologized Even Though He Couldn’t Remember What Happened
The relationship apparently changed during a chance encounter years later. Phillips recalled seeing Masur at what she believed was a Comic-Con event and said the two finally addressed their history.
According to Phillips, Masur told her he could not remember exactly what had happened or what he had said but apologized anyway.
She also remembered him telling her that he had always considered her extremely talented and noting how young everyone had been when the series began. Phillips described that meeting as the point when they “made peace.”
Masur Had His Own Reasons for Leaving the Show
Masur’s departure had a separate history. In a 2021 Smashing Interviews conversation, he said he had reservations about David Kane’s direction from the beginning and asked Norman Lear to promise that he could leave if the role stopped working for him.
His main concern was David’s repeatedly unsuccessful pursuit of Ann. Masur recalled warning Lear that having the character continually propose while Ann rejected him would quickly exhaust the storyline and make David seem increasingly ineffective.
Masur said he and Lear ultimately reached a mutual agreement after he became unhappy with how the part was developing. He remained into the beginning of Season 2 before departing as a regular, then returned years later for a guest appearance.
Masur has also said he remained grateful to Lear and to One Day at a Time despite his dissatisfaction with David’s trajectory. In his telling, leaving the show was a creative decision rather than evidence that he had rejected the production or regretted being part of it.
Phillips and Bertinelli Remember Norman Lear Very Differently
The same podcast conversation moved from one difficult cast memory to the producer both women credited with helping protect them while they were young actresses.
Bertinelli said she was frequently intimidated by Lear and worried that he might reprimand her, even while remembering him as deeply caring. She recalled him taking her aside when she struggled to cry during the first-season finale and helping her through a moment she did not yet know how to handle as a young performer. EW also reported Bertinelli’s description of feeling “very, very protected” under Lear.
Phillips shared much of that affection for him. The two women first met when they were 15 and spent their formative years working inside a sitcom that routinely dealt with divorce, adolescence, relationships and other subjects that were unusually direct for network television at the time.
Their reunion has also reopened less comfortable parts of that history. Phillips and Bertinelli acknowledged that they were jealous of each other when they were teenagers, while Phillips’ addiction eventually contributed to her firing from the series in 1980. She later returned before leaving for good in 1983.