Friday, August 27, 2021

Friday Questions

If you’re vaccinated I’d love to answer your Friday Question.  Here are this week’s:

Brandon in Virginia starts us off.

In watching a lot of MeTV over the years, I noticed Paramount and MTM used supporting cast members or character actors on other shows a lot. Off the top of my head, Tom Hanks did Taxi, Happy Days, and Family Ties a few months after Bosom Buddies's cancellation. Another is Christopher Lloyd as an artist on Cheers.

Were actors simply kept in a "database" for different shows, or did producers keep actors like Tom in mind, since they were probably on the same soundstage at Paramount?


Not so much a database as the writers from all those various shows knowing each other.  We all had a pipeline and would pass along names of actors who worked out well for us.  

We also admired each other’s shows so watched them ourselves.  And we’d make note of a guest actor who really impressed us.

In the case of Christopher Lloyd doing CHEERS, the Charles Brothers and Jimmy all worked on TAXI and knew him.  So, in that case, they just picked up the phone.  

From Call Me Mike:

After recently watching a "very special episode" of WKRP in Cincinnati, "In Concert," which addressed the Who concert disaster of 1979 and the dangers of festival seating, I realized Cheers never really did an issue episode such as that. Were you ever asked to write one? Did the network ever push for it?

CHEERS was not an issue-oriented show.  I guess you could say “Boys in the Bar” was an issue episode, but we made no big deal of it.  

We were more interested in relationships.  Besides, there was Normal Lear to do all the issue shows.  It’s not like we needed to fill a void.  

To their credit, NBC never pressed us.  In fact, they totally left us alone in regards to stories.  And in those days, stories did not have to be approved by the network.

Those “very special episodes” always sounded incredibly pretentious to me.  And most of the time it was the networks who branded these episodes as “special,” not the show runner.  

Kyle Burress asks:


During the course of your career what actor/actress that you worked with surprised you the most by their performance? Who far exceeded your expectations? On a similar note, who do you think grew and developed the most over the course of time that you worked with them?  

We knew Nancy Travis was good but were blown away by how spectacular she was.  

The actress who developed the most would be Kirstie Alley, but part of that was our fault.  As originally conceived, “Rebecca Howe” was a martinet.  It was only when we discovered she was funny when she was a mental wreck that her character really took off. And she just got better and better.  

And finally, from Puck:


What is the most egregious unprofessional behavior you've seen from an actor, both a regular and guest star? How did you as a writer/showrunner/director deal with those kinds of situations?

Hard to top this one.  On CHEERS a guest actor freaked out after the dress rehearsal, got in his car, drove off the lot, and never came back for the filming.   I don’t have to tell you that was the last TV acting gig he ever got.  Remember that pipeline?

We recast the role and filmed those scenes the following week. 

31 comments :

  1. "Freaked out" as in had something like a breakdown or "freaked out" as in went full diva?

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  2. When you call something a “special episode,” then what are you saying about the others that DON’T have that title?

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  3. Another "Kirstie Alley-like transformation" came from "Dream On" to "Just Shoot Me". My friend Mark and I agreed that there was almost nothing that the performance of Wendie Malick in DO to prepare us for the amazing work she did on JSM.

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  4. Stephen Cudmore8/27/2021 8:18 AM

    MASH had a lot of anachronisms in it, like Radar doing an impression of John Wayne from McClintock. Were these goofs, or at some point did the writers decide they were okay with the show not being set in any particular decade?

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  5. Regarding the database question:

    Even before the term came to be, watching all the Screen Gems shows filmed at Columbia Ranch, you'd see all these veteran character actors over and over again, sometimes in different roles just a few weeks apart.

    One thing that does jump out at you: back then, so many of the actors were over forty and fifty, maybe even in their 60's, but now, you only see one, maybe two actors in anything over a certain age.

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  6. Christopher Lloyd was also on Barney Miller

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  7. Ken, there are now numerous streaming services, on top of the existing cable and broadcast outlets. Production is way up an the amount of available shows is higher than ever. Are you enjoying TV more than ever? If not, what was your favorite time period for entertianment?

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  8. Thanks, Ken. And cd1515 makes an excellent point. So every other episode wasn't "special" and just average, huh? Well, at least they didn't stop the comedy for a PSA, I guess. So there's that.

    I wonder if any Youtuber or podcaster has done a rundown of the most egregious examples of very special episodes. Seems like some laughs (and quite a bit of eye-rolling) could be had there.

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  9. For the WKRP episode, it sounds like it was something pitched by a writer who felt it needed to be addressed. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/the-who-wkrp-in-concert/

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  10. CHEERS never had to do a Very Special Episode since during the early part of its run all the concurrent "child star" shows like SILVER SPOONS, DIFF'RENT STROKES, PUNKY BREWSTER and WEBSTER were doing VSEs every other week.

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  11. Jim, Cheers Fan8/27/2021 10:33 AM

    Another "Kirstie Alley-like transformation" came from "Dream On" to "Just Shoot Me". My friend Mark and I agreed that there was almost nothing that the performance of Wendie Malick in DO to prepare us for the amazing work she did on JSM.

    both seen as too pretty to be funny?

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  12. John Schrank8/27/2021 10:47 AM

    I think you're right that the whole phrase "a very special episode" was an invention of the promotion department.

    I have tried to research and guess who the performer was who walked off Cheers based on Ken's recollections and others, but I am sure Ken is too much of a gentleman to share that information. I remember that John Mahoney's willingness and ability to step into that role on short notice impressed everyone.

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  13. As a CHEERS fan from day one, I remember trying to convince myself that Kirstie Alley was a good replacement for Shelley but it wasn't until they made her character inherently 'funny' that she met my approval.

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  14. No doubt the phrase "a very special episode" was promoted first and foremost by the networks, but there were certain sitcoms that really leaned into the concept, sometimes to an absurd degree. It even reached the point where it wasn't promoted so much as a VSE, it was simply a part of the formula - Michelle learns a special lesson, cue touching piano music, Michelle and Danny hug. Rinse. Repeat.

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  15. Friday question, Was this a Very Special Blog Post?

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  16. Today's Guardian has a good piece on showrunners. The comments are even more interesting.

    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/aug/27/best-showrunners-shonda-rhimes-armando-iannucci-ryan-murphy

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  17. Here's something for you, Ken - Brandon Flowers of The Killers singing the "CHEERS" theme song

    https://youtu.be/IzLi6Oc5jvQ

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  18. Have always liked Nany Travis. She was perfect for Becker and Almost Perfect.

    I remember having my doubts about how good Cheers would be without Shelly Long, but the show was still great with Kirstie Alley.

    I'm glad Cheers didn't get preachy. I don't mind preachy, but I think Mash went too far with the Hawkeye's psychological issues (toward the end, after Ken and David left). Ken, would you ever have Hawkeye in a rowboat in a bloody river full of floating body parts? Sorry, for the spoiler, but its been almost 40 years.

    About the actor leaving and never coming back. Happens in all workplaces. No notice, no phone call, just stop coming to work.

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  19. Call You Mike, "Funny or Die" has done a 40 part series on YouTube entitled "A Very Special Episode"

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  20. Even in the early days, actors tended to make multiple guest appearances on certain series, especially if they were under contract to the studio. One afternoon not long ago I was watching "The Rifleman" and John Anderson guested in both episodes, but as different characters. I checked the IMDb and it turns out they did indeed air back-to-back in its original run. I guess folks had shorter memories back then.

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  21. @mike Schlesinger - This reminds me of something, which may be urban legend, about the Law and Order empire. Occasionally that collection of shows would repeat actors in different roles but supposedly if you were -killed- on a Dick Wolf, Inc. show (even as an un-IDed corpse), you could never come back.

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  22. John in NW Ohio8/27/2021 7:05 PM

    I went to see The Who at the Pontiac Silverdome less than a week after the Cincinnati disaster (1979). I remember an incredibly stoned kid, probably about 18 or so, walking around in a daze. He was wearing a cheap red windbreaker with "Please don't trample me" written on the back in Magic Marker.

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  23. There are special episodes and there are special episodes. WKRP is set in Cincinnati at a rock station; the show's credibility would have taken a hit if it did not address the concert disaster. But Gordon Jump as a pedophile on "Diff'rent Strokes?" That's the opposite of special.

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  24. @ douglass trapasso

    Jay O. Sanders has multiple appearances [9 times] but played two different characters. First time 2002 as a killer and then the final season as chief of the major case squad. Sorta blew my mind he goes from being a bad guy to a good cop 9 years later. I probably wouldn't have remembered it but one of those diginet TV stations that show 27 hours a day of L&O didn't have them in sequential order so one show has him as a killer and next one after he was Chief of Detectives or Captain or somebody in charge.

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  25. benson,

    There are still plenty of actors over a certain age. It's just that they're doing everything they can not to look it.

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  26. A Friday question: How different was it to write on Frasier during Seasons 8-10 with a new showrunner and with Niles and Daphne together?

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  27. Seeing that photo of Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari that you published at top leads me to wonder if Peter Scolari ever wonders, "Why him? Why not me? Why does he get all the acclaim and all the awards while I get to be a 'Whatever Became of" question? We both started in the same stupid sitcom, so why him? Why him and not me?"

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  28. @Brian


    "...I think Mash went too far with the Hawkeye's psychological issues (toward the end, after Ken and David left). Ken, would you ever have Hawkeye in a rowboat in a bloody river full of floating body parts?"

    I certainly can't answer for Ken, but I do know Alan Alda himself wrote that scene. By that point in the series history--season 8, I believe--I'm sure Alda had more than enough clout to get that on TV, no matter who the head writers were at the time.

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  29. Question- I often hear Americans say they enjoy British humour and , as a Brit, I am curious as to what you mean by that. What's your definition of British humour as I think British comedy and what makes Brits laugh is rather diverse and I struggle to think of a unifying factor.

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  30. @Andrea: Absurdity. When I think of "British comedy", I think of the way that it seems to feature how absurd so many aspects of daily life are and "takes the mick out of 'em". And I also think "absurd" because sometimes it is just plain silly.

    Cheers, thanks a lot,

    Storm

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  31. Jack Webb seemed to cast his friends in multiple episodes of Dragnet, Adam-12, and Emergency. And I think that's great. Keep your friends working.

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