Chris Thomson is up first.
I am probably wrong, but you never seem to put Boston Legal in your examples of excellent series writing.
Just wondered if there was history there or whether you just didn't rate the writing or acting?
Or you just didn't watch it.
I watched it and liked it. So no disrespect intended. A couple of my friends even wrote on it (when David E. Kelley let them). It was entertaining, but there are better shows. I didn’t even think it was David Kelley’s best series. There were a few years of THE PRACTICE that were way more compelling in my opinion.
From Marty Fufkin:
If the proposed Frasier reboot does a Lou Grant and become a drama (which I think is a great idea) would you still be interested?
No. The big attraction for going back and writing for that character would be having the chance to once again write smart sophisticated TV comedy.
LOU GRANT was an excellent show but the character Ed Asner played in that show was not “Lou Grant.” He was someone else just taking Lou Grant’s name.
Christopher Lowery wonders:
Watched an episode recently with Colonel Flagg (Edward Winter-"Rally 'Round the Flagg, Boys'"-Feb 14, 1979) with the new ensemble/tone.
Was the style of writing/timing/anything different bringing a character from the more "zany" early few years of the the show?
What were your impressions of the final outcome compared to the character's early days of the show?
I think we did a pretty good job of keeping the spirit, tone, and humor of the Flagg character. We modeled our “Flagg” after the one Larry Gelbart established.
And I thought it worked. Flagg was such a fun character to write, but we were well aware that a little went a long way because he was so broad. So in the four years that I was with the show we only used him once.
And finally, from jcs:
In the first season of FRIENDS there is a wooden support beam close to the flat's door, in the left corner of Monica's kitchen. This beam later magically disappears as it probably blocked valuable camera angles.
Did sets on your shows ever lose certain features without explanation?
We had a very limited budget on the ALMOST PERFECT pilot. So for Nancy Travis’ house we just used Helen’s house from WINGS and re-dressed it. When AP got picked up to series we had to construct a whole new house. We kept the basic structure – where the front door was, etc. but suddenly her house went from Cape Cod to Craftsman.
Same with her workspace. It completely changed after the pilot.
We wanted to reshoot the pilot to make the sets consistent and Paramount just laughed. Looking back, we never got complaints from viewers.
What’s your Friday Question?
from By Ken Levine
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