The reputation, by all accounts, was well deserved. All four siblings -- Megan, Samantha, Laurence and Edwina -- as well as mom, Dawn Greenhalgh, and dad, Ted, were in show biz and renowned for their love of real-life theatrics.
"My parents were known as the Fighting Follows," grins Megan, best known to a global legion of fans as the feisty Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables TV movies. Boisterous arguments in the lead-up to, and fallout from, their parents' divorce many decades ago had tongues wagging for years in Canada's tight-knit theatre community.
"Our house was mad," the 34-year-old Gemini winner continues. "We're a family of no secrets. There are no shrinking violets. We let it all out." No wonder the neighbours were terrified. The walls often literally shook -- both with laughter and tears. But today, the century-old home, a hodgepodge of shabby-chic furnishings, is all quiet and calm. The girls have assembled in their 72-year-old mom's cluttered living room to talk about a new joint project they are about to begin. All parties are excited and not just a little nervous about it.
Called My Mother's House, it's a six-part CBC series by veteran writer-producer Charles Lazer and Edwina (scribe of the film The Dinosaur Hunter and such TV shows as Traders and Riverdale). It promises to explore the loving, but often battle-scarred, relations of a mother (played by Greenhalgh) and her youngest daughter (Megan).
A comedy/drama that is far more factual than most reality TV, My Mother's House begins when Megan moves back home to her mom's with two small kids after her marriage breaks up in L.A. (all of which happened).
Then, with loads of black humour, the show explores the challenges of being a child star, the loss of a sense of self when life hands out a sour lemon to suck on for a while, and how family shapes who we are -- good and bad. The lucky ones, like the Follows, somehow manage to stick through it all more or less intact.
"Stepping into her mother's house is like stepping on a land mine," says Megan, who is engaged to actor Stuart Hughes. "For someone so completely identified with Anne [Shirley], playing Megan Follows, a single mom with two kids, is like playing a completely different character," she adds.
Produced by Peter Meyboom (The Newsroom, Hemingway vs. Callaghan), the Follows women plan to start shooting this summer. "Picking up from when my marriage ended, and I moved home, I thought was the perfect way to explore those decisive moments in life, but have fun with it. To have a laugh at myself.
"The problem with growing up acting since 8 is you have a kind of warped sense of reality about who you really are. Actors are also perennially children, who like to play. There are huge rewards that go with that, but it also means you're not always so good living in the real world when it starts to fall apart. This show is about dysfunction and trying to make healthy choices. And all the crap in between."
Edwina, who lives with her husband and kids in Toronto, says there are always fireworks when show business and family life collide. Writing this series has helped her better understand her mom and sister's acting psyches.
"Edwina takes care of us all," quips her mother, a veteran of Stratford and Canadian Players, who keeps sneaking out onto the ramshackle front porch for quick smokes.
Edwina, 43, shrugs that off. "The show is ultimately a testament to everything we've experienced growing up in a theatrical family. It wasn't always easy, but none of us ran in the opposite direction and became accountants or engineers."
Indeed, they've all performed together before. In the early 1980s on CTV's The Littlest Hobo, the entire Follows clan participated. Then 20 years later they regrouped -- bringing along partners (Hughes) and spouses (Samantha's hubby Sean O'Bryan) -- to do Noel Coward's brilliant comedy Hay Fever at Ontario's Gravenhurst Theatre.
The play, which celebrates the days when theatrical dynasties put themselves and their family battles proudly on stage, got rave reviews, but was hell to make. The parents, much happier hanging out together now without familial obligations, got along famously. The siblings bickered non-stop, forcing the production manager to line them up one day and ask them to behave.
"I was the sacrificial lamb of that production," adds Megan. "I had to do love scenes with my father and my brother. Need I say more?"
"I was holding the play together -- as usual," says Dawn, not skipping a beat.
Edwina promises this new series will neatly encapsulate the essence of her lead characters, with all their bravado, bluster, vulnerability and insecurities. "Megan and mom are extremely close. They share a bond and understanding because this business can be so hard, so full of rejection and superficiality. But they do go at it. They're both drama queens," the eldest Follows child says.
"There's an ancient Chinese saying that two women living under one roof is dangerous. Well, two divas living under one roof is one better," she promises. "Our family is like war buddies, and we've been through the trenches together."
Samantha, who lives in L.A., will also have a guest-starring role.
For all its emphasis on farce, this TV show will also pull some heartstrings as it inevitably forces mother and daughter to explore some wounds of the past. That prospect has both Megan and Dawn terrified. "I'm exhilarated because I'm actively creating something," says Megan. "And I'm absolutely terrified because there's nothing to hide behind. This is about having the courage to really put yourself, as yourself, out there."
There's a line in one episode where a frustrated Megan says to Dawn: "Oh, right, I forgot. First you're an actress and then you're a mother."
An offended Dawn retorts: "That's absolutely untrue. You know I would die for you."
And Megan responds: "Yes, but only if it would make a good scene."
Ouch.
Biography. Real life. And fiction. Whatever it ends up being, My Mother's House won't be dull.