Phil Rosenthal, creator of EverybodyLovesRaymond, remembers Fred Willard: “There are way more famous comedians who can carry movies, but you can’t always guarantee that they’re going to be funny. Fred was a guarantee”
, a longtime friend and frequent on-screen partner. The two first met in 1977 on the set of “Fernwood 2 Night,” a late-night talk-show spoof produced by Norman Lear as a spinoff of his soap opera satire “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” Willard played the doltish, Ed McMahon-esque sidekick Jerry Hubbard to Mull’s noxious host Barth Gimble.
With Willard, Mull had a kind of comedic “telepathy” that was instantaneous and allowed them to go off script frequently. Willard’s skill and work ethic on the nightly series forced Mull to up his game.Mull and Willard later collaborated on the HBO comedy miniseries “The History of White People in America,” and they appeared together as a gay couple for three seasons on ABC’s “Roseanne.” The friendship they developed on “Fernwood” was enduring.
“Whenever he’d get a job, he’d ask for me [to be cast], and when I’d get a job I’d ask for him,” Mull says. “He was that way with me from day one. After he got successful, he didn’t change a whit. He was always Fred.” Rosenthal and Mull also remember Willard as a kind and generous person who was devoted to his wife of 50 years, playwright Mary Willard, and their daughter, Hope. Mary Willard died in 2018. The loss was particularly hard on Fred at a time when his health was declining.For years, Rosenthal and his wife, actor Monica Horan, had the Willards among their guests for Sunday-night movie screenings at their home.
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