Whoopi was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in the category of Outstanding Art Direction For A Multi-Camera Series, for the episode "Sticky Fingers." NBC • Carsey-Werner-Mandabach in association with One 'Ho Productions Garvin Eddy (Production Designer), Ellen Waggett (Art Director), and Donna Hamilton (Set Decorator) Unfortunately, the Emmy went to Frasier.

Whoopi Goldberg starred as Mavis Rae, the owner of small, formerly elegant, New York Hotel for fifteen years. An ex-singer in a girl group, Mavis was as much of a diva running the hotel as she was in the group’s glory days. Courtney Rae was Mavis’ brother. A former attorney with Enron, Courtney was currently unemployed and staying at the hotel. He was not impressed with Mavis’ business skills and marveled that she kept things afloat. Courtney’s girlfriend was Rita, a white woman who was a wannabe "sister." Though they seem an unlikely pair, Rita adored Courtney and was solidly in his corner. Mavis’ biggest fan was Nasim, her handy man. A recent immigrant from Iran by way of Kuwait, Nasim loved Mavis’ songs and wanted to help her any way he could. Not content with the status quo, Mavis was determined to do whatever it took, using charm, wit and a little larceny, to fix up the hotel and turn it into a classy establishment worthy of a diva. Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner were the writers. Whoopi was Executive Producer, along with Carsey-Werner-Mandabach Company.

Episode Guide - Complete.

Ratings Guide - Complete.

Cast

Whoopi Goldberg	Mavis Rae	Reuters Interview
Wren T. Brown	Courtney Rae
Omid Djalili	Nasim	New York Daily News Interview TV Guide Interview
Elizabeth Regan	Rita	CNNfn Interview
Gordana Rashovich	Jadwiga
Mary Testa

We do a table read for an hour, from noon to 1pm on Wednesday, where everyone sits around a big table (duh!) and we read through the script together. Comments and suggestions are made and noted. We rehearse on Thursday and Friday, from 9:30am to 2pm, 3pm, sometimes 4pm in the afternoon. Usually the script has changed since the table reading on Wednesday, sometimes almost in it's entirety. We get more new script pages on Friday, rehearse some more and start to block (determine each character's location and movements on the set). We have Saturdays and Sundays off. Again we get new pages of the script on Monday, continue to block and rehearse, this time with cameras and lights, from 9:30am to as late as 4pm. On Tuesday we come in at noon to rehearse some more and then at 7pm we tape the show, in front of a LIVE audience which usually takes until 10:30pm, sometimes 11. Lines even will change on the fly on Tuesday night, if audience reaction isn't right. One week and it's all done. Then on Wednesday, we start all over again on the next episode.

Said Patrick Swayze after his guest-starring episode: "You've got writers in your ear changing the scene you're gonna do instantaneously before you walk on stage and giving you rewrites. I had to memorize massive quantities of dialogue the last day, right before we shot it, in 20 minutes."

IMDb Entry
Whoopi page at TV.com