Friday Questions

Only five more days to get me something. Just remember who answered your Friday Questions.

KLAC Guy has the first one this week.

Was the romance between Niles and Daphne on Frasier conceived at the inception of the series, or did the idea develop as the series evolved?

It came about during the course of the first season.

And that’s why show runners and staff need to not get so far ahead on scripts that they can’t discover things along the way and make course corrections if they strike gold (or if something doesn’t pan out).

As I recall, from conception Daphne’s only real trait was her psychic ability and you’ll notice that that went away over time.  The jokes had run their course.

The key is to always be looking for ways to make characters more dimensional and ways to integrate relationships with your other characters.

If you want a masterclass on how to develop and nurture a series look no further than FRASIER.

RyderDA asks:

You write hilarious stuff. It amazes me that actors can deliver it without busting a gut (like Harvey Korman every time Tim Conway got him). So... how do the actors do it? Are they just such good actors that they can listen to a line that any human would guffaw over and just stand there with a straight face (and, do they go to Comedy Clubs to practice this skill of not laughing at funny stuff?) Or do they read and rehearse it so much that they become "immune" to it's humor, so it's not longer funny to them? Or do they stab themselves with hidden porcupine quills to mask it?

It does take lots of concentration and sometimes in early rehearsals actors will break. But eventually they lock in. And then, in front of an audience, they need to hold for laughs. And the good ones do. They’re equal part actors and technicians.

I'd say the key word is concentration.  But actors are humans and some of the best of them crack up.  On sitcoms you don't see that because they re-shoot the scene. 

But occasionally you see them have a hard time holding it in.  An example is the "Roz and the Schnoz" episode of FRASIER I directed.  I have some priceless shots of cast members almost losing it.  Meanwhile, Peri Gilpin and Kelsey Grammer somehow managed to keep it together. 

I will say this: it’s harder when you’re doing improv. You’re hearing the laugh line the first time as is the audience and that takes real concentration to not laugh.

I must admit, there are times I break. But I’m not that great.

There are improvisers who are amazingly funny and still commit to their characters and the scene and maintain full control. I’m in awe of those people.

By the way, regarding Tim Conway and Harvey Korman and Tim’s ability to crack up Harvey on THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, they used to tape two shows – one in the afternoon and then one later at night. For the afternoon taping Conway always adhered strictly to the script. So a clean version of the sketch was in the can.

At the evening taping he would sometimes go off book to get Korman to break, figuring these scenes would just wind up in the Christmas gag reel. But some were so hilarious (like the dentist sketch) that they used it instead.

One final note: Jimmy Fallon cracks up a lot and I find it incredibly annoying.

Finally, from Chris Dahl:

When you were a baseball broadcaster, did you need to make your own travel arrangements or was that taken care of by the team's travel coordinator? Did you fly/stay with the team on the road? And was it different between the minor leagues and the major leagues?

Each team has a Traveling Secretary who took care of all those details. So I traveled with the team (either plane or bus) and stayed in the team hotels. Both in the minors and majors.

But in the majors you fly chartered jets and stay in lovely hotels. In the minors you mostly travel by bus. In AAA though, you fly but commercial. And to ensure you make your next destination, teams are required to take the very first flight of the day to the next city. So we would finish an extra-innings game at 1 AM, get back to the hotel at 2:30 and have to be packed and down in the lobby at 5 to get to the airport for our 6 AM flight.

In the big leagues you fly right after the game. So you might get to your hotel at 5 AM but then you can sleep all day. There are times in the minors when you get to your hotel at 10 AM and the rooms aren’t ready. So after two hours sleep the previous night you sit in the lobby for three hours until your room is ready, and you hopefully get two more hours of sleep before having to go to ballpark at 3 PM. Sounds glamorous, doesn’t it?

And that's way better than the newspaper reporters who cover the team.  They don't fly with the team or stay in team hotels.  They need to write their stories after the game and don't get out of the ballpark until at least two hours after the game.  The team has left for its next destination long before that.   So sportswriters have to make their own travel arrangements.  

The only upside is they rack up tons of frequent flier miles and usually stay at Marriott Hotels and accumulate hotel credit points.   After the season they can have a nice Hawaiian or European vacation all on miles and hotel credit.  

What’s your Friday Question?