Melody
Patterson Interview
from
The National Enquirer
May 15, 2001 Issue
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| A | LLY McBEAL and the skinny girls on sitcoms | ||
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'Friends' are a terrible influence on today's young women,"
says straight- shooting Melody Patterson, the curvy rootin'-tootin' cowgirl Wrangler Jane in the 1960s comedy "F Troop. The still sexy blonde reveals she was hounded by studio execs to stay rail-thin --- and the intense exercise she put herself through left her with a back injury that hurts to this day. "Teenage kids become fixated by the skeletal Ally McBeal look and diet themselves into the hospital," said the 51-year-old beauty in an exclusive interview. "Calista Flockhart might be a fine actress --- but her emaciated look encourages other young people to copy her. And that's unhealthy," warned Melody, who is studying to be a high school drama teacher. "I know --- because as a young actress, I was obsessed with staying under 102 pounds from ages 15 through 23," revealed the 5-foot-5 star. "When I gained a few pounds the studio executives would say" "You look so fat we can't fit your face on the screen.'" "They will send you to weight doctors for shots and pills. I worked out so hard, unsupervised in the gym, that I hurt my back and it still aches." " I lost a friend who died at age 32 because she took laxatives by the ton. I made a decision then that I wasn't going to live by the scales." "I refuse to worship at the altar of emaciation." "My beloved mother was a dancer and on a diet her entire life.. When she died in 1996 at age 74 of congestive heart failure, she was 5-foot-4 and weighed less than 100 pounds." Melody keeps her own weight at a shapely but sane 125 to 130 pounds. The actress landed the rib-tickling role of Wrangler Jane --modeled on the West's Calamity Jane --when she was 16. "F Troop," |
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ran from 1965-67, was a major hit in the U.S. and around the world. Afterward, she appeared on "Green Acres," "Death Valley Days" and other shows. At age 21, the stunning actress married James MacArthur, who played Detective Danny Williams on the long-running "Hawaii Five O." "I lived in Hawaii for the duration of our seven-year marriage and I was out of the Hollywood loop," she said. "My career went on hold." She later married businessman Robert Seaton and lived in Manalapan, Fla. After divorcing in 1993, she looked after her ailing |
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and enrolled in Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe. She graduated
with a bachelor's degree in visual and performing arts in 1999. Now with the same determination of Wrangler Jane, she's taking teachers' training courses so she can teach drama in high schools. "I hated school when I was doing 'F Troop,' when I was in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades," she said. "But I've come to discover how much I love learning and I want to pass that love and my knowledge along to others." In November 1998, Melody married Vern Miller, a banjo, mandolin and guitar player with a band called the Comstock Cowboys. |
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The couple live in a modest house in a small agricultural town 60 miles
east of Reno, Nev., and take care of Vern's parents, both in their 80's. "I am one semester away from becoming a teacher --- |
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has been my ambition for years. I also plan to write a semi auto-biographical
book and do more acting. "Playing Wrangler Jane was wonderful -- the high point in my acting life. People still talk about the show and contact me on my Web site at: www.wranglerjane.com "I've had a wonderful life. . . and as a teacher, I'm beginning all over again!"  |
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Article © 2001 by The National Enquirer
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