Tracey Takes On...

Tracey Ullman and her cast of characters "take on" a different subject for each episode of the series.

All of my characters have a sadness or inadequacy about them.

— Tracey Ullman[15]

All of the characters in Tracey Takes On were original creations. Ullman shied away from doing straight-up impersonations of celebrities believing it was Saturday Night Live territory.[16] She instead chose to do amalgamations of many real-life everyday people, and in some instances, famous ones.[8]

The only character to return from The Tracey Ullman Show was Kay Clark, as Ullman was her sole creator; Fox owned the rights to all the other characters that appeared on that show. "I love Kay. I'm very fond of her. This little British spinster – she's so courageous, and to think she's sort of on national television in America is rather thrilling to me when I used to witness her in the local bank in my village. She'd say, 'Hello, Miss Ullman. How's Hollywood?' And to think she's on American television and – she doesn't know!"[2]

Ruby Romaine, who Ullman has described as "pure Hollywood white trash",[17] was based on many of the Hollywood union makeup artists sent to make her up over the years.[18] Ruby's look was inspired by Romaine Greene, a hairstylist who worked on many of Woody Allen's films,[19] while her voice was inspired by Florence Aadland, mother of actress Beverly Aadland, who at 15 had an affair with 48-year-old Errol Flynn. Ullman had played Florence in the one-woman Broadway show The Big Love, for which she had prepared by listening to hours' worth of Florence's dictations to writer Tedd Thomey, for their book of the same name.[20] There are parallels between Ruby Romaine's early days in Hollywood and those of Beverly Aadland, specifically Beverly's affair with Erroll Flynn.

The characters Fern and Harry Rosenthal and Linda Granger were created for Tracey Ullman Takes on New York. Ullman had toyed with the idea of giving Fern her own show but found that playing Fern left her "feeling like a limp rag" and that her husband avoided her afterward. She described Fern as "Loud, emotional with 'I'm from the suburbs' written all over her. She sat behind me at matinees of Cats and Les Misérables, not too shy to shout out to the performers, 'Speak up, darling, we can't hear you!'" When asked who had inspired washed-up Hollywood actress Linda Granger, and who they were, Ullman cited Loni Anderson and actresses that ended up guest-starring in episodes of Murder, She Wrote: "the kind of women that Ruby Romaine made up."[19]

The characters Trevor Ayliss, Virginia and Timothy Bugge, and Janie Pillsworth, along with her mother Jackie, were originally created for the 1993 special Tracey Ullman: A Class Act. Trevor was based on a real British Airways steward and an observation Ullman made about crewmen who would "butch up" when leaving the galley.[19] Ullman said of him, "I love Trevor. I've always wanted to do one of those gay air stewards because they're always so lovely to me. As Linda [Granger] says ... 'I have a wonderful homosexual fan base, and I love them!'"[21] Since playing the character, every male steward Ullman has encountered is convinced that she based it on them. "And I always say I did. I go, 'You're right, I based it on you,' because that way I get free caviar."[22] Fashion magazine editor Janie Pillsworth was an amalgamation of British editors such as Tina Brown and Anna Wintour.[8]

Feeling that it would have been passé to play a talent agent, Ullman opted instead to play an attorney, Sydney Kross, apropos in the wake of the OJ Simpson trial and Court TV. Critics immediately took note of the character’s uncanny resemblance to real-life attorney Leslie Abramson, who defended Lyle and Erik Menéndez. Ullman noted, "She has a fascinating look.... I think she'll recognize herself physically but not her personality.... I've got some things physically which [aren't her]. I've [had] some teeth [made] that look like sharks. I had the glasses, the suit, but then I put these teeth in, and it made me move my mouth in a certain way. And I filed my nails square. Women in L.A. have these square white nails, reeeelly square...."[8] When it came to Sydney's personality, Ullman found inspiration from an agent she had in Los Angeles named Holly, "who was insane." Always wanting to find some redeeming quality in all her characters, she was found herself stuck at first when it came Sydney. "[I]t seemed she had no redeeming features: she's horrid, cold, impersonal." But then she found a "humanizing trait": loneliness. "She's so aggressive, and so ugly! She's got adult acne, and her teeth are terrible! [...] She became sort of appealing to me. All of my characters have a sadness or inadequacy about them."[15]

Her Royal Highness was a combination of Queen Elizabeth's voice, Princess Margaret's lifestyle, the Duchess of Kent's hats, and Princess Anne's teeth. Ullman sent a copy of the show's "Royalty" episode to Princess Diana feeling that she could use a laugh, and Diana, through her lady-in-waiting, expressed that she had enjoyed it.[23]

The show's Asian doughnut shop owner, Mrs. Noh Nang Ning, was modeled after a real-life doughnut shop owner Ullman met while writing the show's first season in Los Angeles.[8] The character was the show's only encounter with controversy. An Asian American watchdog group protested the show, calling the character stereotypical and racist, and asked HBO to remove the character. HBO defended the character, saying, "Tracey Ullman is a brilliant satirist and comedienne, and all of her work is in the spirit of fun and good humor."[24] Ullman said of the controversy, "My criteria for doing a character is, do they exist, do they talk like this, would they indeed run a doughnut establishment? And I think Mrs. Noh Nang Ning meets all of that." However, she acknowledged, "Asian people don't necessarily see themselves in mainstream television and certainly not comic situations and after Mickey Rooney [as Mr. Yunioshi] in Breakfast at Tiffany's, I can understand why they're a little gun-shy."[18] The controversy later become comic fodder in season four when Ruby Romaine announces that she was behind Mickey Rooney's look in Breakfast at Tiffany's. True to form, Ruby doesn't understand the controversy and declares that she should have won an Oscar. Mrs. Noh Nang Ning was retired after season three; Ullman had been complaining for years that the character's makeup felt like being buried alive.[2] In fact, people of color, including Asian Americans, made up the show's largest fan base; Ullman commented, "It's such a diverse audience that I get. They're all those characters that I portray that are supposed to be politically incorrect. I get these Asian teenagers who come up and I think, 'Aren't you supposed to be offended by my doughnut-shop lady?' and they go, 'Oh, no! There's no one like that on TV. That's like my grandmother. I'd rather you do it than no one at all.'"[9]

Beverly Hills madam Madam Nadja was based on Elizabeth Adams (known as "Madam Alex"), of whom Ullman said, "I love that she kept money underneath her bed. She never gets up all day. If she ever has to get out of bed, it's like, 'Dammit, I've got to get out of bed. I've got to get dressed.' That's when something major happens that she has to get dressed. She's very angry because she had to get out of bed today because of some stupid hooker in Venice."[25]

The character Chic was based on a real New York City cab driver who once drove writer Allen Zipper to LaGuardia Airport. The line "You want to fuck me or you want to fuck my Mercedes?" was an actual comment from the driver, about how women in Los Angeles only cared about money. Ullman had a similar experience and spent the entire ride wondering how she could turn herself into the driver. The character was also partially based on a man she knew as a teenager in London, who worked in a restaurant and used the come-on line "Hey, darling, you like sex?"[22]

Guest stars marked with an asterisk (*) represent those who made recurring appearances.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Tracey Takes On....

• "Official web site". Archived from the original on June 23, 1998. Retrieved April 16, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• Tracey Takes On... at IMDb
• Tracey Takes On... at epguides.com
• Tracey Takes On... Emmy Awards
• Tracey Takes On... at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television