TV’s Funniest ‘Hot Mess’ Reveals Her Best Backstage Stories

Netflix This piece first ran on the Obsessed by Kevin Fallon Substack .

Subscribe here to read more like it! It’s not every day you get to interview Milwaukee Magazine ’s January 1998 “Most Intriguing Milwaukeean” cover star.

Kristen Johnston burst out laughing.

You know the laugh.

It’s the geyser that is at once a cackling honk, yet in its raw joy, somehow the warmest sound on Earth.

You heard it on 3rd Rock From the Sun , for which she won two Emmy Awards. (Arguably as prestigious as her Milwaukee distinction.) It was the exact prescription the “laughter is the best medicine” sobriety comedy needed during her run on the CBS sitcom Mom .

It’s been flavored with a bit of sweet tea to play Southern comedian Leanne Morgan ’s sister on the Netflix hit Leanne.

“You guys went down the rabbit hole,” she said.

“OK, I did that for my mother, who still lives in Milwaukee.” And don’t worry.

Johnston is pretty sure her mother framed it, too.

“She used to have tabloid covers all over her kitchen.

Like, not flattering stuff like, ‘Look who got fat!’ And my mom has it on her fridge.” Johnston is the first to admit she’s weathered a roller coaster of ups and downs, only occasionally buckled in, since those Milwaukee Magazine glory days.

At 3rd Rock ’s peak, she was one of the most popular actresses on one of the most-watched TV series at a time when, if you can even remember, everyone watched the big shows: “I was like going to the grocery store one day, and then the show aired, and the next day it was crazy.

I was like Elvis Presley all of a sudden.” She was in the smash sequel Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me .