“Wanted to honor her”: Mid-Century Modern creators reveal how they incorporated Linda Lavin’s death into the narrative

Mid-Century Modern premiered on Hulu on March 28, 2025, and is already being praised by the audience for its endearing storyline. The comedy series tells the story of three middle-aged gay best friends who move into the luxurious home of the richest friend and have to share it with his mother, Sybil Schneiderman.

The cast and crew of the show went through a hard time during the shoot as actress Linda Lavin, who played Sybil, sadly passed away in December 2024. In an interview with TVLine, series creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan talked about how they changed the story to incorporate Linda’s death. Kohan said:

“We so wanted to honor her in the way that she deserved to be honored, so the question was, well, are we up to the task? What do we have? Well, we have the truth. We have the person that we knew and we have the truth of her experience.”

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Mid-Century Modern creators talk about incorporating Linda Lavin’s death into the story

In Mid-Century Modern, Sybil Schneiderman dies in episode 9 after suffering a heart attack. This leaves her son, Bunny, and his friends, Jerry and Arthur, heartbroken. Max Mutchnick revealed the show’s narrative mirrored Linda Lavin’s death and said:

“Linda said to us at the very end that she wanted us to write everything that was going on for her into the show. She certainly didn’t think it was going to take the turn that it did, but it allowed us to think of it that way when sat down to write.”

“[We thought} Let’s actually write what happened to her and to us, and what it’s like to have such a jarring, horrifying experience and then have to still pick yourself up and move on. That’s what we tried to do with that episode.”

Linda Lavin was a Golden Globe-winning actress who starred in several shows and films in her decades-long career. Apart from Mid-Century Modern, she was seen in television series like No Good Deed, B Positive, Sean Saves the World, and Room for Two.

Mid-Century Modern revolves around three best friends – Bunny, Jerry, and Arthur. After an unexpected event impacts their lives, the trio decides to start living together in Bunny’s posh mansion in Palm Springs, where his mother resides as well.

As the three adjust to their lives together, it leads to some humorous and heartwarming moments. The show stars Nathan Lane as Bunny Schneiderman, Nathan Lee Graham as Arthur Broussard, and Matt Bomer as Jerry Frank.

All 10 episodes of Mid-Century Modern are streaming on Hulu.