It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Kathy Garver as the big sister on Family Affair. The then- 21-year-old college student played teen Cissy Davis from 1966 to 1971 on the CBS sitcom, alongside co-stars Brian Keith (Bill Davis), Anissa Jones (Buffy), Johnny Whitaker (Jody), and Sebastian Cabot (Mr. Giles French), as it followed a businessman (Keith) raising his orphaned nieces and nephew in New York City.
During a September 2026 appearance on The Patrick Labyorsheaux podcast, Garver, 80, looked back on the audition process for the beloved family sitcom 60 years prior.
Garver already had a list of impressive acting credits under her belt when her mother called her sorority house to tell her she had an audition.
“And she says it’s already cast and they’re shooting the pilot which has already been sold and they’re looking for the teenage girl, the one that they had they couldn’t use,” Garver told host Patrick Labyorteaux. “And I say, ‘Okay, mom.’ She says, ‘The thing is they want somebody blonde.’ Well, at that time I did not have my lovely blonde locks. I was brunette. I had dark hair and dark eyes. My mother, ever the problem solver, comes over to the sorority house and she sprays my hair with this stuff called Streaks and Tips.”
“Now, back in the 60s… this was this substance that you just sprayed on your hair, and it changed it a different color,” Garver continued. “Not to purple or yellow or red that we have today, but like brown or brunette. So, it went blonde.”
Garver recalled that she was interviewing with Family Affair creator Ed Hartmann when he asked her, “What’s the matter with your hair?”
He then informed her, “It’s turning green.”
In light of the bad hair day, Hartmann sent Garver to get a wig.
“They sent me to Max Factor,” Garver shared. “I had this long blonde wig, and I went to wardrobe and I had this blue and white check dress on. I looked like Alice in Wonderland. …I did the screen test. My agent calls me the next day, and she says, ‘Well, you got the part. You’re going to play Cissy.’ And I said, ‘Oh, great.’ She says, ‘The only thing is never wear that wig again. And the other caveat, never wear that dress again.’ I said, ‘Oh, it’s a deal.’”
RELATED: Kathy Garver Reveals What Really Made ‘Family Affair’ a Classic
During her years on Family Affair, Garver’s character was known for her stylish side ponytail. But the actress wasn’t a fan of Cissy’s sweater sets and modest outfits.
“I was always wanting Cissy to be cooler,” Garver told Woman’s World in April. “I wanted miniskirts and discos. But the producers said, ‘You can save that for your off-screen life.’ They had a definite mission for how they wanted the show to be.”
CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images
Years before booking Family Affair, Garver had an easier audition for one of her earliest roles in the 1955 movie The Night of the Hunter. The film starred Shelley Winters, Robert Mitchum, Lillian Gish, and Peter Graves.
“I’ll never forget, and it’s still a picture in my mind when I went on the interview at RKO and there was Charles Laughton, who people knew as Hunchback of Notre Dame. This was going to be the first movie he had ever directed,” Garver told Labyorteaux on his podcast.
“So, we’re chatting and we’re talking and then he says, ‘I want you to uh run down this alley,'” the Family Affair alum recalled. “So being competitive with my brothers, I ran as fast as I can. …And he says, ‘Okay, now come and do it like a six-year-old would do it.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ So I stumbled along and he says, ‘Okay, you’re hired.’ And that was my first movie. And it was really a treat.”
Related: Kathy Garver Gives Update on Relationship with TV Brother 60 Years After ‘Family Affair’
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