But they had a chance to stay on air if and only if Ellen Wheeler and Co. wrote better storylines and improved the show instead of trying to create this pyseudo-reality show.
It was really sad to see all of these tremendous gifted actors just sob at the mere mention that is the finale.
Posts: 5425 | Location: "Stay Classy San Diego!" | Registered: June 15, 2006
it's so sad that i won't see most of these actors again. and even w/all of the bad stuff that has gone on, i am definitely going to look at this wk. w/o being mad, but mourn and celebrate a part of tv history.
Posts: 5344 | Location: New York/California | Registered: September 30, 2006
GL's demise, in my opinion, was the new production model. Some hated it. Some loved it. However, it was something they were told they HAD to do as a way of cutting their already cut budget. No choice on that one, as far as I can tell. And, we don't know ALL the behind the scences, in the CBS office stuff that goes on. Like Zimmer said in an insterview, GL was the used as a guinea pig for the new model, but other intentions may have been behind that new production attempt. We only know what we are told and sometimes we are told only what is allowed to be revealed. Keeping all else unspoken. It may soon come into the light (no pun intended).
Originally posted by leecappella: GL's demise, in my opinion, was the new production model. Some hated it. Some loved it. However, it was something they were told they HAD to do as a way of cutting their already cut budget. No choice on that one, as far as I can tell. And, we don't know ALL the behind the scences, in the CBS office stuff that goes on. Like Zimmer said in an insterview, GL was the used as a guinea pig for the new model, but other intentions may have been behind that new production attempt. We only know what we are told and sometimes we are told only what is allowed to be revealed. Keeping all else unspoken. It may soon come into the light (no pun intended).
I think there's a lot of reading between the lines, because a good amount is b.s.
I think ABC, CBS, and NBC are biding time but wanting out of the soaps biz (and that it's been the case for some time). If the industry were to revivify, then the death of the daytime dramas are exaggerated.
I don't assign Guiding Light's cancellation on, say, exec producer Ellen Wheeler nor the writers. I think it's a cumulative thing. Procter & Gamble seem to have been indifferent to its three serials (As the World Turns and Another World are the other two) for years.
Originally posted by leecappella: GL's demise, in my opinion, was the new production model. Some hated it. Some loved it. However, it was something they were told they HAD to do as a way of cutting their already cut budget. No choice on that one, as far as I can tell. And, we don't know ALL the behind the scences, in the CBS office stuff that goes on. Like Zimmer said in an insterview, GL was the used as a guinea pig for the new model, but other intentions may have been behind that new production attempt. We only know what we are told and sometimes we are told only what is allowed to be revealed. Keeping all else unspoken. It may soon come into the light (no pun intended).
I think there's a lot of reading between the lines, because a good amount is b.s.
I think ABC, CBS, and NBC are biding time but wanting out of the soaps biz (and that it's been the case for some time). If the industry were to revivify, then the death of the daytime dramas are exaggerated.
I don't assign Guiding Light's cancellation on, say, exec producer Ellen Wheeler nor the writers. I think it's a cumulative thing. Procter & Gamble seem to have been indifferent to its three serials (As the World Turns and Another World are the other two) for years.
Originally posted by YoungRestlessOne: We will mourn the passing of "The Guiding Light" this week. And then we will buckle up and prepare to mourn "As the World Turns" next year.
Might be adding "Days of Our Lives" to the list too.
I didn't want to start a new thread; but I just came across an interview with Lisa Brown, who played Nola Reardon on Guiding Light. One of the best characters of the 1980s—a rival to Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead), and a movielover constantly starring in daydreaming remakes of the likes of Now, Voyager—Brown was never Emmy-nominated for the part. But she did go on to work with that era's head scribe, Doug Marland, on As the World Turns, where he created Lily's biological momma Iva specifically for Brown—and, for her effort, she copped two supporting-actress Emmy nominations.
Here is TV Guide's Michael Logan's interview with Lisa Brown.…
By Michael Logan TVGuideMagazine.com | Sept. 14, 2009
Not only is Lisa Brown one of the greatest stars in Guiding Light history, she was also muse to the show’s greatest head writer, the late Douglas Marland. The duo’s first magnificent teaming came in 1980 when Brown joined GL as social-climbing, movie-mad Nola Reardon who’d go on to make supercouple magic with the dashing Quint (Michael Tylo). When Marland moved to As the World Turns five years later, he brought along Brown to play the long-lost Iva Snyder, whose secret past would electrify Oakdale. I spoke with Brown when she returned to GL for the September 14-15 wedding of Billy and Vanessa. Don’t get too worked up, Nola fans! The cameo GL gave Brown is the equivalent of chump change. Still, it’s good to have her back under any circumstances. And, boy, does she have a thing or two to say about the "new" Springfield!
GL was never better than during the famous Marland-Brown years. We do represent a time that doesn’t exist anymore, a time where we had a freedom to create, and the work was all-important. It was a time when we really had fun, and that came across to the audience. There was a great sense of innovation on the set. The directors, the set people, the costume people, everyone felt it.
What do you think when you watch GL today? It just seems so… thin. One of the great shocks is that there’s no more rehearsal, and it shows. I understand the need to save money, but you can save it in many other ways—it shouldn’t be by cutting out rehearsal. Soaps need to find that time again. It needn’t cost anything. The actors can set time aside to work on their scenes with each other. Maybe they can get some time with the director. Do something! Even if it’s short shrift compared to the preparation we used to have, it would still give the material something of a soul. Michael Tylo and I stay I touch and we talk about how the soul is missing these days.
It would have been nice to see Nola return with Quint. Certainly what they gave me to do was unfulfilling. I do know that Michael wanted to be there and was not asked. He and I are still recognized to this day when we go places. How is that possible?
Because you guys mattered. You touched people deeply. My point exactly. What we did affected people. The wonderful Bill Roerick [the late actor who played GL’s Henry] used to say to me: “We are in people’s living rooms five days a week and that is a very different relationship than when you’re a movie star. It’s an intimate relationship that is incomparable and must be cherished.” And that’s why familiar faces have always been so important in daytime.
Imagine if Doug Marland was still around and working in the soap business today. How would he handle all this insanity? By staying on top of what audiences want! Doug had young nieces and nephews and he constantly asked them what they thought about Kelly and Morgan and Nola. He wanted to know what young people cared about. He got great ideas from them. Doug knew soaps were important and influential because they mirrored society. When he did the gay storyline at ATWT he was so ahead of his time. People don’t really acknowledge that anymore, but it’s true.
And he was able to tell that story because he trusted the audience could handle it, unlike the current folks who’ve tippy-toed their way around "Nuke" and "Otalia." Doug built the audience’s trust, and he did that by telling his stories carefully, with the proper time and depth. It’s not brain surgery. It’s common sense. I mean, look at the breast cancer story they did on ATWT a while back with Liz Hubbard [Lucinda]. It had such potential, and they gave it so little time.
I can’t help but think that GL’s cancellation would have been avoided—or at least postponed—had Mickey Dwyer-Dobbin still been P&G’s programming chief. Say what you will about her, she always fought the good fight. She would have been on CBS’s ass big time. And nobody’s fighting that fight anymore! Everybody’s afraid. And that’s too bad. I still believe there’s a market for soaps. I still believe they can make money. GL [in the 1980s] was up against General Hospital and still getting a 34 share, and those people are still out there. They didn’t all die. They’re the ones who still recognize me in the grocery store. What happened to all those former viewers? Just bringing back some of that audience could have meant something. It might have saved the show, or at least bought it more time. [Long period of silence, followed by a deep sigh.] Nobody should be shocked at the current state of soaps, but they are shocked. They’ve had their heads in the sand.
Talk about your time on GL as an acting coach. [After ATWT] I came back to GL for a brief period of time while Michael Laibson was executive producer. Then Paul Rauch took over and fired me—then he hired me as a coach for the young ones. I coached Tammy Blanchard [who played Drew Jacobs] and what a great talent she was! Crazy as can be, but brilliant. Quite honestly, she was hair-pulling to work with. I stayed up with her many nights just talking and talking about the scenes, but it was worth every minute.
Each generation learns from the next. When I started on GL I couldn’t take my eyes off of Rita Lloyd who played Lucille Wexler. I learned so much from that woman! Robert Newman [Josh] says he learned from me. And I’m sure so many of today’s young ones learned from Robert. And we all learned our stuff from Charita Bauer [Bert]. Now it’s all so thin. Thin, very thin. And I’m not talking about the quality of the writers, I’m talking about what the writers are writing about. What happened to the human stories? Who in Springfield or Oakdale is losing their jobs because of the economy? Is anybody becoming homeless? Where are soaps mirroring people’s real lives and their problems anymore? That’s where they’re missing the mark today. Soaps have become too separated from recognizable life.
You showed up at the wedding looking old-time movie-star glam—like Lana Turner in a 1950s Douglas Sirk picture. They make you bring your own clothes now. They called and told me the wedding was not glamorous but I ignored it.
That’s our Nola! And I couldn’t help but notice that you were the only one in the cast who would hunt down the makeup people to recheck your lipstick between scenes. Or you’d go find the costumer and have him re-adjust your hat. Everybody else had long ago given up on that stuff. It was, like, “Oh, screw it, nobody cares what we look like.” But you still cared. [Laughs] Well, some things never die, I guess! That great actress Kathleen Widdoes [ATWT’s Emma] always used to say to me: “You want to act good, Lisa, but you always want to look pretty, too.” It’s all about escape. When the actors escape, so does the audience. Our attitude, our passion, our love for what we did—it’s all gone. I want to kick somebody I get so mad thinking about it. I was not sad when I came back to shoot my scenes for the final week of GL. I was angry. I don’t want these shows to go away.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: DS0816,
Today's episode was a nice set up for the final wk. Tina Sloan was heartbreaking.
And this maybe unpopular opinion, but I think GL's directing team is extremely underatted. Sure those babies didn't know what they were doing when this production model premiered, but now they have my respect.
Posts: 5344 | Location: New York/California | Registered: September 30, 2006
& the postmortum's begin: sunday 09/13 cbs sunday morning did a 10-ish minute segment. that night 60 minutes did a 15-ish minute segment. i'm sure both pieces can be found @ cbs.com (or cbsnews.com?). both touched on GL's history & had brief talks with the cast but were more about soaps in general & how they're a dying breed. & mon 09/14 on npr's all things considered they were supposed to do a GL segment. (i was in a meeting) www.npr.org
Posts: 345 | Location: boston, ma | Registered: October 12, 2001
By Michael Logan TVGuideMagazine.com | Sept. 15, 2009
Guiding Light’s Justin Deas is one of only three stars in soaps to have won six Daytime Emmys. General Hospital’s Tony Geary and One Life to Live’s Erika Slezak are also in this exclusive club, but in a way the Deas wins are even more extraordinary because they were earned via three different roles. His first trophy came playing Tom Hughes on As the World Turns (1984), he won two more as Keith Timmons on Santa Barbara (1988, 1989), and three as Buzz Cooper on GL (1994, 1995, 1997). Through it all, Deas—who is married to actress Margaret Colin and the father of two teen boys—has stayed ultra-reclusive, rarely speaking to the press, avoiding Emmy ceremonies like crazy and basically coming off like a cantankerous s.o.b. But I know for a fact that it’s all an act. Beneath that crusty exterior lies a sweet, warm, extremely mushy guy (who will probably hunt me down and kill me for revealing that). I spoke with Deas on the GL set during filming of the show’s final week.
OK, Mister Curmudgeon, can you relate in any way to how people feel about the cancellation of Guiding Light? First of all, I have to thank you again for doing me a really solid turn. You once wrote this article about what an a-----e I am, but it was really well written and it was so true that it made my dying mother laugh and she had a really good day, a really good weekend, because of that. So I’ve always been, "Whatever Michael Logan wants to do, I’ll do."
And I have always appreciated that, Justin. You are the rare actor in soaps who has maintained his mystique. So let’s ruin that right now! Give me your thoughts on the end of GL. I don’t watch soaps but I can see why people do. My wife, Margaret, watches them. People like them because they’re comforting, they like having these characters come into their homes. Me, I don’t want any of that. But I can certainly understand the appeal. If the soaps all go off the air, some smart person is going to figure out the right way to do it and bring ’em back. But they’ll have to rethink the form and make it bolder. I mean, we in America still haven’t gotten over our sex hang-ups! The lesbians on our show can’t kiss? What’s wrong with us? There’s a greater chance that GL would have brought in a donkey for Buzz to have sex with. Come to think of it, maybe it would have saved my career.
For some in the cast, GL is their entire life, their reason for being. For you it’s just another gig? I don’t let the cancellation get to me. It’s just a job. Granted, a f---ing $9,000-year job, but just a job. Actors get fired. That’s what we do. But the friends I’ve made here are very good people, and there is a sense of heritage around here. People’s hearts are in this show. Still, you wouldn’t believe the drama and the crying on the set! I don’t get it. We’re actors, we are by nature unappreciated. What acting school did these people go to that told them they’d put in 20 or 30 years on a job? Keeping an acting job this long isn’t even natural. I used to get ****ed off at the ones who got fired after two years. They’d be like “My life is over! Can you believe this?” I’m like “Whaaat?“ Of course, just look at the headlines today. Everybody’s in the same boat with the rotten economy and the job loss. It’s like everybody is an actor, man, living the life of insecurity. All the paradigms are wildly shifting.
Well, aren’t you a bundle of joy, today! Oh, the whole world’s going to s--t. You pick up the New York Times nowadays and find articles that are so poorly written, they sound like something my kids would say on the way home from school. It’s not good reading. It’s not intelligent. It’s not succinct. It’s not good English. It’s not a million things! It’s just jabber. Before I knew you, I spent 20 years doing plays by dead playwrights in strange cities, and I remember being a kid in school and sitting down and talking with the great Tyrone Guthrie. He said: “You’re out of your mind if you think about acting as mass entertainment. The whole world is not going to stand up and cheer. Only a very, very small percentage of people will ever see what you do. That’s not what’s important. What’s important is the pride you take in your work.”
Back in your younger days, you were the most daring actor in soaps—the guy who always acted from the ledge. You were our Pacino, our De Niro of daytime. Then a funny thing happened. Pacino and DeNiro got old and sold out, turning into unwatchable, over-the-top hams, but you settled down and got much more subtle, much more real. Why didn’t you have that same mid-life freak-out? My attitude was entirely different when you knew me back in my Santa Barbara days, or even my early years on GL. I was always looking to shake it up. Now, I don’t do that anymore.
Because? Because I’d rather get along. I have also found that there’s a real challenge in being truthful. I’m so lacking in so many areas of my chosen profession, that I could spend the rest of my life trying to explore being honest. It’s hard to do. Maybe in one out of 80 scenes do I accomplish it. Hey, who’s that crazy gay guy soap writer with the very Irish name? He’s really brilliant.
Um, Patrick Mulcahey? Right, Patrick Mulcahey! A f---ing genius! Mulcahey…yeah…now, why did I bring that up? Jesus. I can’t remember where I was going with this. Help me out.
Being truthful in your acting. Patrick Mulcahey. F---ing genius. Oh, yeah, so Mulcahey comes to GL and writes my character as this wild and crazy patriarch leading the show and I said, “You have to make me a boring type. That’s my meat and potatoes—getting something boring to do and trying to do something interesting with it.” Because if your character is all-crazy-all-the-time, how do you pull it back? I kept trying to explore the arch-villain kind of thing for a while, but I don’t think it worked.
Yet somehow through all this you won three Emmys. Go figure. I remember a time I was doing a scene with a really lovely actor and our director, Bruce Barry, said to me, “Pull it back 10 percent.” And I got so ****ed off that I didn’t give a real performance for two years after that. I just came in and would say the lines right off the page. I went through about two or three years of serious sulking—at 50 goddamn something years of age, I’m sulking! Now, I look back on that and think, aww Jesus.
So what’s next for you? My hip hurts today but, if I can get my body working again, I want to do a few plays before I drop dead. And of course we’ve got the kids—when you’re a parent it’s all about the kids. I’m not sure how this dad thing happened. When I got together with Margaret, I said, “All I want to do is have sex and act.” What happened? I didn’t have a plan for fatherhood. But now I’m 61, that time in life when you start to realize you don’t get another life.
Were you surprised to end your GL run by getting married? I think [executive producer] Ellen Wheeler is out of her f---ing mind to give Buzz another wedding. But I adore working with Tina Sloan [Buzz’s new wife Lillian]. That lady is connected! Just name anybody, a famous anything, pick a NASA astronaut, and she just had dinner with him. You talk to her about a great book you’re reading? She’ll say, “Would you like to meet the author?” You’re going to Sweden? She knows the king! I just mentioned to her that I might get a hip replacement—I think the hip will probably be arriving on the set here sometime this afternoon.
So you’re marrying the right woman! I think Margaret would think so, too. Yep, Buzz gets married. It’s so stupid having a character named Buzz. How can you ever take that seriously? We do a plot: Buzz is dying! Who gives a s--t? Who calls themselves Buzz? I’d love to know how Buzz Aldrin got around that stuff. How does he have serious moments in his life?
Speaking of serious moments, did you ever take any of your Emmys seriously? No.
Some people don’t have any at all. Right, and they’re probably much better actors than I’ll ever be. Please tell ’em that! It kills me that actors go nuts to win Emmys and Tonys and Oscars. Who gets nominated and who doesn’t becomes such a big deal in this business. I go watch a lot of small, independent films at the Claridge Theatre in Montclair [New Jersey] and there is so much fantastic work done that’s never going to be seen by people.
Where do you keep your Emmys? I don’t know. In the attic someplace? I wish I had the balls, like Kim Zimmer [Reva], to say, “Here I am with my Emmys. Look at me, I’m great!” But I wouldn’t have the courage. And winning doesn’t get you any more money. I think my agent tried that. And sometimes you even lose your job. It’s like “Take your Emmy and go!”
But you made your mama proud. Yeah, I did but, more important, you made my mama laugh. I was 45 and she was still asking me when I was going to get a good job. She thought I should become a professional golfer and get on the PGA Tour.
And if you’d taken her advice? I’d now be a caddy, making more money than I am on Guiding Light. I’d be a really big deal in Hollywood… carrying De Niro’s bag!
I didn't want to start a new thread; but I just came across an interview with Lisa Brown, who played Nola Reardon on Guiding Light. One of the best characters of the 1980s—a rival to Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead), and a movielover constantly starring in daydreaming remakes of the likes of Now, Voyager—Brown was never Emmy-nominated for the part. But she did go on to work with that era's head scribe, Doug Marland, on As the World Turns, where he created Lily's biological momma Iva specifically for Brown—and, for her effort, she copped two supporting-actress Emmy nominations.
Here is TV Guide's Michael Logan's interview with Lisa Brown.…
By Michael Logan TVGuideMagazine.com | Sept. 14, 2009
Not only is Lisa Brown one of the greatest stars in Guiding Light history, she was also muse to the show’s greatest head writer, the late Douglas Marland. The duo’s first magnificent teaming came in 1980 when Brown joined GL as social-climbing, movie-mad Nola Reardon who’d go on to make supercouple magic with the dashing Quint (Michael Tylo). When Marland moved to As the World Turns five years later, he brought along Brown to play the long-lost Iva Snyder, whose secret past would electrify Oakdale. I spoke with Brown when she returned to GL for the September 14-15 wedding of Billy and Vanessa. Don’t get too worked up, Nola fans! The cameo GL gave Brown is the equivalent of chump change. Still, it’s good to have her back under any circumstances. And, boy, does she have a thing or two to say about the "new" Springfield!
GL was never better than during the famous Marland-Brown years. We do represent a time that doesn’t exist anymore, a time where we had a freedom to create, and the work was all-important. It was a time when we really had fun, and that came across to the audience. There was a great sense of innovation on the set. The directors, the set people, the costume people, everyone felt it.
What do you think when you watch GL today? It just seems so… thin. One of the great shocks is that there’s no more rehearsal, and it shows. I understand the need to save money, but you can save it in many other ways—it shouldn’t be by cutting out rehearsal. Soaps need to find that time again. It needn’t cost anything. The actors can set time aside to work on their scenes with each other. Maybe they can get some time with the director. Do something! Even if it’s short shrift compared to the preparation we used to have, it would still give the material something of a soul. Michael Tylo and I stay I touch and we talk about how the soul is missing these days.
It would have been nice to see Nola return with Quint. Certainly what they gave me to do was unfulfilling. I do know that Michael wanted to be there and was not asked. He and I are still recognized to this day when we go places. How is that possible?
Because you guys mattered. You touched people deeply. My point exactly. What we did affected people. The wonderful Bill Roerick [the late actor who played GL’s Henry] used to say to me: “We are in people’s living rooms five days a week and that is a very different relationship than when you’re a movie star. It’s an intimate relationship that is incomparable and must be cherished.” And that’s why familiar faces have always been so important in daytime.
Imagine if Doug Marland was still around and working in the soap business today. How would he handle all this insanity? By staying on top of what audiences want! Doug had young nieces and nephews and he constantly asked them what they thought about Kelly and Morgan and Nola. He wanted to know what young people cared about. He got great ideas from them. Doug knew soaps were important and influential because they mirrored society. When he did the gay storyline at ATWT he was so ahead of his time. People don’t really acknowledge that anymore, but it’s true.
And he was able to tell that story because he trusted the audience could handle it, unlike the current folks who’ve tippy-toed their way around "Nuke" and "Otalia." Doug built the audience’s trust, and he did that by telling his stories carefully, with the proper time and depth. It’s not brain surgery. It’s common sense. I mean, look at the breast cancer story they did on ATWT a while back with Liz Hubbard [Lucinda]. It had such potential, and they gave it so little time.
I can’t help but think that GL’s cancellation would have been avoided—or at least postponed—had Mickey Dwyer-Dobbin still been P&G’s programming chief. Say what you will about her, she always fought the good fight. She would have been on CBS’s ass big time. And nobody’s fighting that fight anymore! Everybody’s afraid. And that’s too bad. I still believe there’s a market for soaps. I still believe they can make money. GL [in the 1980s] was up against General Hospital and still getting a 34 share, and those people are still out there. They didn’t all die. They’re the ones who still recognize me in the grocery store. What happened to all those former viewers? Just bringing back some of that audience could have meant something. It might have saved the show, or at least bought it more time. [Long period of silence, followed by a deep sigh.] Nobody should be shocked at the current state of soaps, but they are shocked. They’ve had their heads in the sand.
Talk about your time on GL as an acting coach. [After ATWT] I came back to GL for a brief period of time while Michael Laibson was executive producer. Then Paul Rauch took over and fired me—then he hired me as a coach for the young ones. I coached Tammy Blanchard [who played Drew Jacobs] and what a great talent she was! Crazy as can be, but brilliant. Quite honestly, she was hair-pulling to work with. I stayed up with her many nights just talking and talking about the scenes, but it was worth every minute.
Each generation learns from the next. When I started on GL I couldn’t take my eyes off of Rita Lloyd who played Lucille Wexler. I learned so much from that woman! Robert Newman [Josh] says he learned from me. And I’m sure so many of today’s young ones learned from Robert. And we all learned our stuff from Charita Bauer [Bert]. Now it’s all so thin. Thin, very thin. And I’m not talking about the quality of the writers, I’m talking about what the writers are writing about. What happened to the human stories? Who in Springfield or Oakdale is losing their jobs because of the economy? Is anybody becoming homeless? Where are soaps mirroring people’s real lives and their problems anymore? That’s where they’re missing the mark today. Soaps have become too separated from recognizable life.
You showed up at the wedding looking old-time movie-star glam—like Lana Turner in a 1950s Douglas Sirk picture. They make you bring your own clothes now. They called and told me the wedding was not glamorous but I ignored it.
That’s our Nola! And I couldn’t help but notice that you were the only one in the cast who would hunt down the makeup people to recheck your lipstick between scenes. Or you’d go find the costumer and have him re-adjust your hat. Everybody else had long ago given up on that stuff. It was, like, “Oh, screw it, nobody cares what we look like.” But you still cared. [Laughs] Well, some things never die, I guess! That great actress Kathleen Widdoes [ATWT’s Emma] always used to say to me: “You want to act good, Lisa, but you always want to look pretty, too.” It’s all about escape. When the actors escape, so does the audience. Our attitude, our passion, our love for what we did—it’s all gone. I want to kick somebody I get so mad thinking about it. I was not sad when I came back to shoot my scenes for the final week of GL. I was angry. I don’t want these shows to go away.
Wow. I've admired Justin Deas's work on GL, but I've never seen or read an interview with him until now. I can't claim to know the man, but he really comes off as kind of a jerk.
"A movie is not good because it arrives at conclusions you share, or bad because it does not. A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it: about the way it considers its subject matter, and about how its real subject may be quite different from the one it seems to provide." - Roger Ebert, from the introduction to "Awake in the Dark" (2006)
I think he comes off as one of the most knowledgeable and unique curmudgeon's I've had the pleasure of meeting. I respect the man more than my own mother...he's truly fantastic!
Posts: 1337 | Location: New York | Registered: April 29, 2003
Still, he seemed to be taking some weird and unnecessary potshots. Making fun of the name of the character that's been his livelihood for years, dismissing the sentimental feelings of his costars. It even seemed like he was dissing Kim Zimmer for showing off her Emmys. There's an air of above-it-all superiority about it.
I'm all for honesty, but this interview makes him seem like the kind of disaffected actor who is cranky when he doesn't seem to have much reason to be cranky. One of my favorite quotes is from Bertrand Russell: "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."
"A movie is not good because it arrives at conclusions you share, or bad because it does not. A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it: about the way it considers its subject matter, and about how its real subject may be quite different from the one it seems to provide." - Roger Ebert, from the introduction to "Awake in the Dark" (2006)
Grant Aleksander, Robert Newman, and esp. Ron Raines brought it.
We will all forever say why did it take cancellation for this show to become watchable television. All I hope is that GL will teach the others a lesson, but I doubt it.
Posts: 5344 | Location: New York/California | Registered: September 30, 2006
) 