Billie Frank (Rude Awakening)
Wilhelmina "Billie" Frank is a fictional character, played by Sherilyn Fenn on the US television sitcom, Rude Awakening, originally run by Showtime from 1998 to 2001.[1]
| Billie Frank | |||||||||
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| Rude Awakening character | |||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Sherilyn Fenn Kelli King (as a child) | ||||||||
| Duration | 1998-2001 | ||||||||
| First appearance | "Naked Again" | ||||||||
| Last appearance | "Altar Ego" | ||||||||
| Created by | Claudia Lonow | ||||||||
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One of the show's taglines describe the character of Billie as: "Rude. Bitchy. Promiscuous. And those are her good qualities."; in fact many gags of the show are based on Billie's bad attitudes. Despite this, however, it often proves to possess some good qualities, such as affection for family and friends, as well as being more significant than might at first sight seem.
Biography
Billie Frank was inspired by executive producer/creator Claudia Lonow's experience. Billie is an alcoholic has-been ex-soap actress who struggles with her self-destructive habits. She got famous for playing the part of Diana Gateway in the fictional daytime soap "Emerald Bluff" back in the 1980s. She was born in 1965, and has a complicated relationship with her nymphomaniac mother and resistant to the idea of growing old, Trudy Franks (Lynn Redgrave).
At the series beginning, Billie has a DWI accident and an embarrassing interview on an Entertainment Tonight type TV show, so with the help of her friends and the support of Alcoholics Anonymous, she decides to tries to manage her temper and her addictions. The show depicts her difficult relations with her mother, the other members of AA and her Neighbor, best friend, and later love interest, Dave Parelli (Jonathan Penner).
References
- Something Ain't Kosher Here: The Rise of the "Jewish" Sitcom 0813532116 Vincent Brook - 2003 A dire comment on the anomie and entropy of (post)modern American society, Billie Frank's substance-abuse problem can also be taken as a metaphor for a tortured Jewishness in conflict with itself."