Lifetime makes history of a sort with “Ladies of the ’80s: A Diva Christmas,” gathering pop-culture “divas” Morgan Fairchild (“Falcon Crest”), Linda Gray (“Dallas”), Donna Mills (“Knots Landing”), Loni Anderson (“WKRP in Cincinnati”) and Nicollette Sheridan (“Knots Landing”) to appear together onscreen for the first time.
“We’re not divas — it’s an easy label to slap on powerful women,” Fairchild told The Post in a dual interview with Mills to talk about the movie. “I don’t think, having worked with these ladies, that anyone is a diva in real life … everyone is expecting you to be a diva but I have people coming up to me saying, ‘You’re so down-to-earth.”
“Ladies of the ’80s” — a holiday movie premiering Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. — posits Fairchild, Mills et al. as Margaux, Lauren, Lily, Dana and Juliette, former cast mates reuniting for a live holiday finale of their long-running ’80s TV soap, “The Great Lakes,” on which their offscreen relationships mirrored their onscreen lives: infighting, jealousy, betrayal — the works.
Directing “The Great Lakes” reunion special — which forces the five women to live under the same roof and somehow deal with each other — is its former child star Alex (Travis Burns), who’s corralled his ex-girlfriend, Nell (Taylor Ann Thompson), to direct the finale as the “Ladies” scheme to get the couple back together.
There are jokey references to diva-hood: “Fasten your facelifts, ladies,” Fairchild’s character, Margaux, says at one point, and she refers to her “Great Lakes” co-stars as “a nest of vipers.”
For good measure, and in keeping with the ’80s theme, Christopher Atkins (“The Blue Lagoon”) guest stars as Lauren’s (Gray) son, Pete.
“Sometimes it’s really fun to play the diva part, even in real life, because people expect it sometimes,” said Mills, whose manager, Larry Thompson, had the idea for the movie. “But it isn’t who we are. We had a lot of time sitting around the house on one set — once we got into the house we didn’t go back to our trailers — and we hung out a lot and talked over old times.”
Some of the women worked together before — Mills and Sheridan on “Knots Landing” and Fairchild and Sheridan on the ABC primetime soap “Paper Dolls,” which aired for one season (1983-1984).
Mills said she knew all the other women except for Anderson. “I met her briefly once a long time ago, but this is the first time all five of us are together and, mercifully, we all got along” — while Fairchild, who plays “The Great Lakes” stepmother — knew everyone going into the project, having worked not only with Sheridan, but with Mills and Anderson on an ’80s-era Bob Hope special.
“I kind of wonder why nobody did this before,” Fairchild said of “Ladies of the ’80s.” “There is a market for us getting together, a bunch of old broads kicking ass.”
Mills echoed those sentiments.
“It seems like such a natural idea, and it’s been a while since we’ve had ‘The Golden Girls,'” she said. “I think the idea of a bunch of ladies, whether it’s from the ’80s or not, is kind of a wonderful idea, and this Christmas movie is a nice start.”
Fairchild took it a step further.
“I thought, from the very beginning, since the idea came together, that it’s a series,” she said.
“How can it not be?” Mills added. “I see it in a lot of different ways as a series. The ‘Ladies of the ’80s’ in Paris, in Barcelona, we can take it anywhere and do lots of fun things.”
While the movie has yet to air, Fairchild said it’s been generating a lot of buzz on social media.
“At least on my social media it’s been how much people miss the glamour and the fun,” she said. “We all played bad characters but had a lot of fun and there’s an audience for that … not so much ‘divas,’ but powerful ladies who also look good.
“People are just loving the idea.”