Brett came to be an
MG regular quite by accident. When the 1973
return was being planned, the producers begged Jack Klugman to do the
show. Jack steadily refused, but finally agreed to appear on the premiere
week - on one condition: that his wife also appear as a panelist on a
later date.
Klugman didn't work
well with the show at all, but Brett clicked with Gene and the gang almost
immediately and ended up making a nine-year job out
of it. She and Charles Nelson Reilly became great friends, and the byplay
between the two was often hysterical.
Brett, who divorced
Klugman
later, was best known prior to MG for
her appearances as the ex-wife of Klugman's character on The Odd
Couple. When her MG appearances began, she was also
appearing as a regular on a revival of Perry Mason. She has made
few TV appearances since the original
MG went off the air in 1982, including a couple of weeks on
the Ross Shaffer version. Her most recent appearance was on a game show-themed edition of Maury Povich's talk show - an episode that also featured Rayburn.
Brett currently lives in NYC. Thankfully, reports that she had battled cancer were false! Brett dispelled that story on the March 15, 2002 "Match Game Reunion" on CBS's Early Show. She is, of course, nutty as ever.