Monday, April 19, 2021

Stars I claimed to have discovered even though I really didn't


Anyone who has been producing TV series for any length of time will have similar stories. They can look back at actors they worked with or hired that since became big names. Here are some of mine.

Shelley Long – played a nurse once in MASH when I was there. I don’t remember much except she looked very cute in army fatigues.

Rita Wilson – same thing. Also cute in army fatigues. Worked with her again when she starred in VOLUNTEERS. Amazingly, she remembered me. I looked awful in army fatigues.

Katey Segal – From one of Bette Midler’s Harlettes to a series regular on the MARY SHOW. We knew from day one that she’d become a star. And that’s without even hearing her sing.

Leah Remini – She played one of Carla’s many daughters on CHEERS. One of my favorite episodes (written by me and David) was “Loathe & Marriage” from the final season where Leah’s character gets married. I also directed her in FIRED UP. She was funny before she was even old enough to drive.

Tim Busfield – He’ll probably cringe but one of his first acting jobs was playing a patient on AfterMASH. Yes, it was, Tim, don't deny it.

James Cromwell – Okay, he wasn’t an unknown when I worked with him but he wasn’t on anyone’s A-List either. He was pretty much a character actor who bounced around. I knew him as Jamie then. We used him on an episode of MASH as a real goofball. Couldn’t quite tell from that role that he’d go on to be nominated for an Oscar. By the way, did you know he was in both BABE and THE BABE?

David Letterman – did a cameo on an OPEN ALL NIGHT we were involved with.

Maggie Lawson – You loved her on PSYCH and seven other shows. I’ve loved her since writing and directing IT’S ALL RELATIVE.

David Ogden Stiers – Before he became Charles Winchester on MASH he was talk-show host Robert W. Cleaver on a TONY RANDALL SHOW David and I wrote. That was the episode that got huge laughs during rehearsal but silence during the filming. Later we learned that the bussed in audience spoke no English.

Annette O’Toole – had a small role on a TONY RANDALL SHOW. Tony didn’t like her at first. By show night he was pleading with us to bring her back. The English speaking audience loved her too although I must say she was beautiful in any language.

Lisa Kudrow – Did an episode of CHEERS. Very funny even in a small role. I was not surprised. She went to Taft High in Woodland Hills.

Sanaa Lathan – Directed her in LATELINE. I must’ve given her great notes on that three-page scene because she went on to become a movie queen. I went on to write a blog.

Willie Garson – Directed him in the stellar ASK HARRIET. When that show got cancelled he was free to take another assignment – SEX IN THE CITY. He also was a regular on WHITE COLLAR a few years ago.

Julie Benz – Another ASK HARRIET alum I directed. Probably best know for getting killed and chopped up in DEXTER.  Or getting killed and chopped up in SAW V.

Robert Pastorelli – Later to be a stalwart of MURPHY BROWN, but his greatest role was for us on the MARY show. He played sandwich guy, Mr. Yummy.

Jenna Elfmann – first cast in an ALMOST PERFECT as a whack-job secretary. She had no experience at the time and we knew it was a risk but there was something just so damn special about her. She killed in front of the audience. If ever there was someone I knew was going to make it besides Katey Segal it was Jenna.

And before I slap myself on the back too much for being such a great judge of talent, here are a few of the people I didn’t cast who once came in to read:

Martin Short, Kathy Bates, William H. Macy, Jane Lynch, Tea Leoni, Don Johnson, and Andrea Martin (although that was the network’s fault; we wanted her. They wanted Toni Tennille. Don't ask.),

30 comments :

Steve Bailey said...

I remembered James Cromwell as Archie Bunker's pal Stretch Cunningham on Norman Lear's "All in the Family," as well as another, more short-lived Lear series, "Hot L Baltimore." Was pleasantly surprised when BABE turned him into a star.

Chuck said...

Toni Tennille. Ask

Mike Barer said...

That is an impressive roll call.

kitano0 said...

Julie Benz greatest role was Darla on Buffy and Angel. She was perfect.

tavm said...

I do remember Ms. Segal on that 1985 Mary Tyler Moore show. If that show had lasted as long as the other MTM show, she might have been as well-regarded as Valerie Harper was with the similar delivery of wisecracks they both had. But then, she wouldn't have been cast in "Married...with Children" and it's hard to imagine who else could've done as well as she did as Peg Bundy...

Mibbitmaker said...

I happen to have fairly recently seen the M*A*S*H that Shelley Long was on. It was the one where Hawkeye had given up drinking. They were on a date that didn't go well. I couldn't resist commenting, "She's with a lovable wise-ass who'd given up alcohol, and they're arguing. Looks like she has a 'type',"

Paul Smith Jr. said...

Friday question: Why did Sam have a drawing of Jawaharlal Nehru on his office wall? (Prompted by this Reddit post.)

Ere I Saw Elba said...

Obliged to point out that Timothy Busfield was in the movie STRIPES in 1980 as the dipshit private ordered to shoot a mortar round by Captain John Larroquette, which ended up severely injuring Sgt. Hulka.

So he had military experience well before AFTERMASH. I assume there was no promotion in it for him.

Mibbitmaker said...

I *knew* I left something out of my last comment!

Should read: "She's with a loveable wiseass womanizer who'd given up alcohol, and they're arguing. Looks like she has a 'type'."

Good thing Hawkeye wasn't also a pro ball player or I would've really blown it!

JessyS said...

Actually being a patient in a cilvilan hospital is a demotion for Timothy Busfield.

==========================================================
Ken, you forgot to include Ed O'Neill who was up for the role of Sam on Cheers.

maxdebryn said...

Marty Short was ubiquitous on Canadian telly back in the '70s. I think that I saw him first on The David Steinberg Show (on CFTO, Channel 9, Cable 8 in Toronto) playing a goofy character called Johnny Del Bravo. The Steinberg show was a hoot !

maxdebryn said...

[If this already posted, colour me dopey] Marty Short was ubiquitous on Canadian telly back in the '70s. I think that I saw him first on The David Steinberg Show (on CFTO, Channel 9, Cable 8 in Toronto) playing a goofy character called Johnny Del Bravo. The Steinberg show was a hoot !

Michael said...

Cromwell also did a classic Barney Miller episode as a police artist griping about how he should be painting in Paris. George Murdock, who they brought back as Scanlan from IAB played an army officer reporting a bomb threat, and wound up with Yemana. As funny as both of them were--including the officer imitating the cough of the caller, who was played by another Barney Miller favorite, Don Calfa--it has one of Jack Soo's greatest moments. When the officer asks, "Why would someone want to blow up a U.S. military installation?" Yemana, who has had enough of the guy's bigotry, gets wide-eyed and says, "Nostalgia?"

Shelley Herman said...

My husband and I watched an episode of "Scrubs" and heard a balladear playing a song that expressed a character's inner thoughts. We thought he was great! We had never heard this song! I waited for the credits, then ran to the computer on to "discover" Colin Hay, a huge star who once fronted the band "Men at Work." He was singing an acoustical version of his hit song, "Overkill." Since then, we have been to about a dozen of his concerts and I have all his CD's and the documentary made of his tour.

Betty said...

I have to second @kitano0 's comment about Julie Benz - she turned Darla from a throw-away vampire into a major character in the Buffy/Angel universe.

Wallis Lane said...

All alumni of Taft High in Woodland Hills are brave, strong, talented and overqualified for any position.

Sincerely -
Alumnus of Taft High In Woodland Hills

benson said...

I was never a fan of the crude humor, etc, of Married With Children. (See Ken's post last week about TAGS and Mayberry)

But six season of Ms. Sagal as Jo Tucker on Mary would've been fine. Thirty five years later I still remember her singing Bob Dylan in one great episode of that series.

Buttermilk Sky said...

I think you recently wrote about designing sets to accommodate camera angles rather than reality. Some people on Reddit have spent their pandemic time realizing that Jerry Seinfeld's apartment is architecturally impossible. With diagrams:

https://www.indy100.com/ents/reddit-discovery-jerry-seinfeld-apartment-b1830770

Todd Everett said...

There was a local (L.A.) chain of casual dining joints that features servers who’d sing along with whatever else they were doing. Several of them cut an album as “The Group with No Name,” which I wish I still had.

Among them, Katey Sagal.

Anybody remember the name of the restaurants?

Another Sagal footnote:

Her two younger twin sisters, Jean and Liz, starred in a shirt-lived sitcom (“Double Trouble” of course). And Jean subsequently became a tv director with many credits.

maxdebryn said...

Re: "Don't ask" - http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2009/12/andrea-martin-and-toni-tennille-vie-for.html

Dixon Steele said...

And look what happened to Robert Pastorelli. It would make a good episode of DATELINE...

brian t said...

The list of actors who went through MASH is quite remarkable. I mean, Andrew Dice Clay, Brian Dennehy, Patrick Swayze, Laurence Fishburne?

Philly Cinephile said...

On a related note, am I imagining things or was Kevin Sorbo an extra in an episode of CHEERS?

Frederic Alden said...

I'm not sure it qualifies as a Mandela effect, but many of us don't remember that the show's title was actually "Sex AND the City".

N. Zakharenko said...

I first became aware of Shelley Long when she guested on "Family" and knew she would become a star.

She played a cello playing slightly klutzy friend of Mum, who ended up sleeping with Willie in his parent's home much to Mum's dismay.

Shelley appeared natural, engaging, likable, fun (but not forced - unlike perhaps some of her movies).

I've seen the episode several times, and consider it to be one of her best roles.

SummitCityScribe said...

I'd almost forgotten about Fired Up! The show had an old-school screwball vibe, and I loved both Leah Remini and Sharon Lawrence in it.

John Schrank said...

I know I read this whole saga when Ken first posted it, about the Casting Nightmare he and David experienced on the pilot CHARACTERS, but just now I went back and re-read parts 1 through 3. Can anyone help on finding the rest of the story? I have to know how it came out? And of course I am curious about all the people referred to but not by name...

RobW said...

Willie Garson was actually on the Cheers episode called The Cape Cad playing a hotel waiter ( with a full head of hair ) but it doesn't look like you had any involvement with that episode.

Mike McCann said...

I still can't envision Andrea Martin and Toni Tennille being up for the same role. That's like choosing Bette Midler instead of Barbara Hale. But very talented, but hardly similar.

Jahn Ghalt said...

she (Shelley Long) looked very cute in army fatigues.

(Rita Wilson) also cute in army fatigues



she would make a potato sack look good

This saying has particular "resonance" for me, since my father grew potatoes as "a hobby" in addition to his full-time job.

His "best year" yielded "five tons" - which dominated half of his double-truck garage.

(how did he know? (3) five-gallon buckets, salvaged from his work place, added up to (1) 100-pound burlap sack - count 300 - get five tons)

Flash forward, late 60s to the wonders of the internet. A simple google image search will yield many shots of an early-50s Marilyn Monroe in a nicely-tailored potato sack:


https://dangerousminds.net/comments/marilyn_monroe_in_a_potato_sack


I'm quite sure the lovely Long and Wilson have no objection to this "competition"