Valerie Bertinelli’s ‘One Day at a Time’ mom sent her to therapy at 20

Valerie Bertinelli recently recalled how her late One Day at a Time costar and onscreen mom Bonnie Franklin nurtured her off screen, too.

The actress — who was only 15 years old when she joined the cast of the CBS sitcom as the sweet, girl next door Barbara in 1975 — revealed on Wednesday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show that Franklin was instrumental in helping her find a therapist after she confided in her while shooting the show, which ran for nine seasons.

“I mean, I finally went to Bonnie by the time I turned 20 and said, ‘I’m struggling,'” Bertinelli said of Franklin, who died at 69 in 2013. “And she could see that I was struggling, and she sent me to a psychiatrist. She sent me to a therapist — my mom TV.”

“Your mom on TV mom’d you and sent you to therapy?” host Drew Barrymore asked, to which Bertinelli replied, “Yeah.”

Their conversation came up during a discussion at the Drew’s News desk about Ariana Grande’s recent comments that studios and record labels should be required to include weekly therapy in their contracts for young artists. 

Bertinelli agreed, saying, “Ariana is absolutely spot-on. I think people need that support, absolutely.”

Barrymore, who was also thrust into the limelight as a child, said she appreciated that the comment was coming from someone like Grande, who has similarly navigated stardom from a young age after being cast in the Nickelodeon sitcoms Victorious and Sam & Cat.

“These are the people who have the lived experience,” the host said. “So I don’t feel like she would say these things for sensationalism or righteousness — she’s saying them in advocacy of supporting people.”

Fellow Drew Crew member Ross Mathews added that he couldn’t imagine the burden of being in the spotlight at such a young age. “I mean, when I was growing up, it was me alone in my room doing a one-man show of Saved by the Bell,” he said. “I was just, like, performing to myself. But I mean, Ariana [and] you two were on a public stage getting rejection, working, and getting opinions all the time. And imagine what kind of toll that could take on any human being.”

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He continued, “So the fact that people are having this conversation now and Ariana is leading it, bravo.”

Bertinelli told Entertainment Weekly that she can still vividly recall her first days on the One Day at a Time set ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary this December.

“I remember being 15, standing at the apartment door, and really thinking, at 15 years old, ‘This is gonna change my life,'” she said at the time. “Wow, I can still smell the smells. I can still see the audience. It’s like there’s certain moments — I mean, 15 is a long time ago from 50 years — so it’s hard to remember a lot of stuff that’s not that recent, but there’s certain memories from One Day at a Time that I still take with me. And that’s one of them.”

The Drew Barrymore Show airs weekdays on CBS.