Friday Questions

Who’s ready for some Friday Questions?

msdemos leads off:

In all your experience, have you ever been personally involved in any memorably "shocking" episodes like that one.....or, if not, were you ever a part of any of the "VERY Special Episodes" that seemed to be a fad for a while (for instance, Michael J. Fox's (mostly) one man show Family Ties episode from 1987 entitled, "A, My Name Is Alex", that ran a full hour) ??

I would certainly say the POV episode of MASH qualifies. On CHEERS we killed off Eddie LeBec.  On FRASIER we had the first return visit of Lilith and Sam Malone.  

And on THE TORTELLIS we wrote the classic episode where… um... uh... I can’t recall what it was about at the moment but I know it was memorable.  

From Gary Crant (and yes I saw what you did there):

It's never ceased to amaze me the number of intricate and varied sets that FRASIER used. Of course, most of the show took place in his condo or at the cafe or radio station, but it seems like almost every episode had a novel set location. Not really a question, just an observation.

Ok, it actually is a question. How in the hell did they pull that off? Both in terms of work and budget.

Each episode was budgeted for one additional (i.e. “swing”) set.   And there was room on the stage to accommodate that.  

Occasionally there would be episodes that didn’t require a swing set.  The money allotted to those episodes could be used later.  

So from time to time when you saw elaborate sets or weddings with large numbers of extras, that episode was offset by a “bottle” show where no outside sets were used.   

The apartment, the radio station, and Cafe Nervosa were permanent sets.  Actually, there were two Cafe Nervosas — one smaller to accommodate a large swing set if one was needed.  

Brian asks: 

Any stories about the actor William Hickey (pictured above) who played Carolton Blanchard on Wings? He was the recurring annoying old man that drove the gang crazy. And as if he wasn't enough torture, Gilbert Godfried appears as his nephew and he was even more annoying. Hilarious! I'm working my way through all the episodes on Hulu and enjoying them immensely.

The two things I remember is that Bill Hickey was truly hilarious, and I thought he was going to die at any moment.  He was always so frail and his skin was whiter than paper, but God bless him, he delivered — hitting every line out of the park.  

Those were fun episodes.  I may go back and re-watch them… after I find a copy of THE TORTELLIS.  What was our story about?  

And finally, from  Philly Cinephile:

I've noticed that people often expect those who work together in a movie or on a TV series to become lifelong friends, to the point that they often express outrage if an actor says that they're not in touch with their former costars. I find this odd because I tend to think that TV and film work is probably like any other job -- you have a good working relationship with someone, or you don't, and sometimes the working relationship develops into an outside friendship. Do you think this could be a result of people projecting the on-screen relationships onto the actors themselves, and do you find that people expect you to be in touch with everyone you've ever worked with?

People work together very intensely on TV or movie projects; often long hours in remote locations.  There are a lot of accelerated relationships.  You see that a lot in the theatre.  There will be “showmances” as they’re called, and when the show closes they go their separate ways.  

As for TV series, I liken it to high school.  Everyone is close while experiencing it, and then when you graduate everyone goes their separate ways.  You stay friends with some and others drift out of your life. 

I remain friends with most actors I’ve worked with on series but see them only on occasion.  I’m probably more in touch with writers I’ve worked with on series.  But that’s only natural.  When there was a CHEERS reunion a few years ago, actors sat at tables with each other and writers sat together at other tables.  

What’s your Friday Question?