This is Fresh Air. I'm David Bean Cooley, Professor of Television Studies at Rowan University in New Jersey, Infra Terry Gross.

Today, Pamela Adlon, the co-creator, director, co-writer, and star of the FX comedy series Better Things.

After five seasons, the series ended last month, with an emotional and satisfying finale that left all its main characters in better circumstances.

It also ended with a charming and eccentric farewell to viewers by having all cast members sing along to money pythons always look on the bright side of life.

In Better Things, Adlon played Sam Fox, who, like Adlon, is raising three girls as a single mother while trying to keep her acting career alive, and also helping her aging mother who lives next door.

Young actresses portray her character Sam's daughters on TV, but in real life, Pamela Adlon's daughters are now 19, 22, and 25 years old.

Adlon herself has been acting since she was nine. She won an Emmy for her voice work as Bobby Hill, the son in the animated series King of the Hill, and appeared on seven seasons of the TV series California Cation.

She had a long collaborative relationship with Louis CK on his show Louis and his earlier show Lucky Louis. He and Adlon co-created her series Better Things, but she severed ties after he was accused of sexual misconduct by several women, and he admitted it was true.

Terry spoke with Pamela Adlon in 2019.

Let's start with a clip from Better Things. Adlon's character Sam is being examined by her doctor when she starts telling him how stressed out she is by all the mom stuff she has to take care of.

And he says, oh, like Aaron's, just let go of it. Everyone's got Aaron's. Here is her response.

No, no, Aaron's are like groceries and going to the post office, the real mom stuff, soccer club signups and dance classes and tutors and tuition payments and parent teacher conferences and schools and camps that I have to get them into and mean girl issues with my youngest at school and birth control with my oldest and cruelty from my middle daughter.

And then there's my own mom who is driving me nuts and I'm pretty sure she has a mental something disorder and my middle daughter is hitting puberty hard.

And I am definitely going through menopause yet I still get my period and I have a beard and two mortgages. So yeah, Dr. Babu, it's like it's a lot.

And some mornings I just, oh my god, you know, lay in bed in my room and I stare at the ceiling and I just say I just can't do it anymore. I just can't.

I just can't, I just can't, I can't, I can't.

So anyway, could you please just give me some Xanax or out of vans or ambians or something, anything you think did all help me get a full night sleep because that's what I really need.

Beers you I need a full night of sleep.

Pamela, I'm on welcome to fresh air and congratulations on season three of better things. Thank you so much, Terry.

So this season everyone is going through a change. Like you said, you know, your oldest is going to college, the middle's impuberty, your youngest is being bullied at school.

Your characters mother, it seems to be in the early stages of dementia. Your character is going through menopause.

These are the personal issues you've been dealing with?

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