The Young and the Restless, the glass is Half & Half full

“Now, make no mistake,” began Myles Warden, the host of a new podcast that is devoted to Half & Half, which is starting up next month. “I might call her ‘Big Dee Dee’ from Half & Half every now and then, but her name is Valarie Pettiford.

“I always respected her cause we call a lot of people ‘triple threats,’ but she actually is one,” Warden says, referring to the Daytime Emmy nominee’s talents as an actress, singer, and dancer!

“As a child, I actually got to see her work on stage, and nothing that she does in video compares to what you see in person with what she can do,” Warden raves. “Anywhere she goes, she always brings some of that theatrical training into the work.

“You can’t play Big Dee Dee on Half & Half without that, that, that energy, right?” Warden asks, rhetorically. “Because Big Dee Dee is actually really generic of a character. The only person [who] filled in the lines was Valarie Pettiford. In her performance, you can see the calculated thoughts, and this was on a sitcom.

The rest is yet unwritten, The Young and the Restless

“There are some actors that probably really did deserve major awards, for TV series, and they never got them,” Warden says, pointing out that it was difficult for the new network UPN (which was in business from 1995 to 2006) to get noticed by the golden girl. “UPN shows do not get nominated for Emmys.” (A rare exception was Star Trek: Voyager, which won an Emmy for its theme music.)

“But what I really love about some actors is that they don’t accept that fate,” Warden points out. “Because Valarie Pettiford, she’s gonna keep on popping up regardless, and I’m happy that she keeps popping up on TV…you never know. She could end up like Sheryl Lee Ralph [who stars on Abbott Elementary] with an Emmy for a show that somebody wrote with her in mind.”

Emmys aren’t the only accolades to be found in Hollywood. Pettiford caught wind of Warden’s post and responded to it with enthusiasm. “GOOD GOD THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH! THIS IS EVERYTHING AND EPIC! Blessings to you always 🎁🙏🏽,” Pettiford responded. Warden replied: “And it’s all true! You’re iconic! ❤️😍.”