Bette Midler wishes she had sued Lindsay Lohan for leaving her short-lived sitcom

Bette Midler is reflecting on the failure of her short-lived sitcom — and placing some blame on Lindsay Lohan.

On Tuesday's episode of David Duchovny's "Fail Better" podcast, the "Hocus Pocus" star, 78, discussed her experience making "Bette," which was canceled by CBS in 2001 after just one season. She described the sitcom as a "big, big mistake" and revealed she wishes she had sued Lohan, who starred as her character's daughter in the pilot episode but didn't return for the rest of the series.

"After the pilot, Lindsay Lohan decided she didn't want to do it, or she had other fish to fry," Midler said. "So Lindsay Lohan left the building, and I said, 'Well, now what do you do?' The studio didn't help me. ... It was extremely chaotic."

The "First Wives Club" actress added, "If I had known that part of my duties were to stand up and say, 'This absolutely will not do, I'm gonna sue,' then I would have done that."

Lohan, who was a teenager at the time, left "Bette" after the show moved production from New York to Los Angeles, Variety reported at the time.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Lohan for comment.

Lohan recently posted a throwback photo with Midler on the set of "Bette on Instagram and said she "had such a blast filming with the incredible" actress.

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Outside of the Lohan issue, Midler said the show was also a failure because she "simply did not understand" the medium of the TV sitcom. "I didn't realize what the pace was, and I didn't understand what the hierarchy was," she said. "And no one bothered to tell me."

She also explained that she didn't take charge more on set because she was "so terrified of being branded a grandstander again" after a bad previous experience on the movie "Jinxed!" Midler alleged the director, Don Siegel, was the "meanest man in show business," and when the 1982 film failed, he and a co-star blamed her by publicly labeling her "demanding" and "arrogant."

Looking back on "Bette," Midler even saw a problem with the show's title, asking, "Does it get any more generic than that?" But she argued the series would have worked if she "had a team that was on my side," noting that there were too many "competing personalities" behind the scenes.

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The "Beaches" star remembered being fired from her show just one day after telling David Letterman that it was the "worst thing that's ever happened to me in my entire life." Her reaction? Relief.

"I was so thrilled not to have to continue (the show) because I could not gather myself enough to make it work," she said. "I didn't know how to make it work for so many reasons. ... So I was glad to be fired."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bette Midler regrets not suing Lindsay Lohan for leaving 'Bette'