Unrest in the Nest

Park Overall, who played feisty, opinionated and down-home nurse Laverne Todd on the NBC sitcom Empty Nest, says she squawked and ruffled quite a few feathers during the show's seven-year run (1988-95).

"I was extraordinarily difficult," Overall admits in a Lifetime Intimate Portrait, airing tonight (7 pm/ET). "But [executive producer] Paul Witt was able to handle me."

Overall let it be known from the get-go that Laverne would not be portrayed as yet another stereotypical Southern country bumpkin. "I had a hard time with what I call "not reality-based stuff" — things that [the writers] would make me do that were just hillbilly stuff, which drives me completely over the edge. I would fight to keep some integrity to the kind of character I was playing and keep it from being Hee Haw, which I did. But it wasn't easy."

Her tenacity paid off, and Laverne emerged as one of the show's most beloved characters — Tennessee accent and all. "It's my language," twangs Overall. "It's the music in my head."

Prior to roosting on Nest, Overall — a self-described "small time tobacco heiress" — appeared in numerous films, including Biloxi Blues and Mississippi Burning. Still, she says she felt like an outsider among her Hollywood-bred-and-trained co-stars, including the late Richard Mulligan. "I got a little testy [with him] on occasion," says Overall, adding that she didn't hit it off with Kristy McNichol and Dinah Manoff either.

Since Nest went off the air, Overall has been keeping busy with film, theater and TV projects. In fact. she's starring in the Lifetime movie When Andrew Came Home immediately following tonight's Intimate Portrait.

And as far as choosing future roles, Overall uses a pretty basic criteria. "I'm turned off by violence, gratuitous sex," she says. "I'm not interested in stupid stuff."