Dusty starts us off.
I'm watching How I Met Your Mother and there's a clear point where Alyson Hannigan is pregnant. Every scene she's sitting behind a table or holding a prop in front of her belly. They also did a bit where she was so offended by a joke that she refuses to hang out with the gang and isn't on for a few episodes. What are your favorite ways you've seen or used to cover an actress being pregnant and then going on maternity leave?
When Shelley Long was pregnant on season 3 of CHEERS, very early on (before she was showing) we had her go on a European trip with Frasier. We would film one scene from the trip each week after the audience had left. I think this went on for four or five weeks. We then banked those episodes.
Once Shelley started showing a little we did all the tricks — hiding her with trays, etc.
My favorite was the episode where she somehow got trapped underneath the floor and we just saw her head.
When we couldn’t hide the baby bump anymore she toddled off to Europe.
Chakkuri queries:
I noticed that the song “Isn’t It Romantic” occasionally was played, sung and hummed in “Cheers”, “Frasier” and “Wings.” Was this a favorite tune of the producers?
No. They were free. Paramount owned the rights to those songs so any Paramount show could use them without paying a license fee. You also heard “Moonlight in Vermont” a lot.
From MellaBlue:
I've been watching old episodes of WKRP -- a show I've always loved but always forget how much until I watch it. Anyway, I've noticed that a lot of writers and crew people show up throughout the show as various bit characters. My question is do those writers/crew members need to be unionized? Do they get paid scale? Or is this just a handy way to save some money on a show that was constantly under the threat of being canceled?
You can act in an episode once under the Taft-Hartley Law without having to join SAG. More than that you do have to join the union.
However, from what I understand, if a writer is “producer” level or higher, the show has to pay a substantial penalty fee if the writer is in an episode. This is to dissuade producers from just hiring themselves and making a little extra cash.
This rule was not in play when I was a show runner. I never put myself into a show though because I didn’t want to take a job away from a real actor.
Finally, from Chuck:
Should the National League keep the Designated Hitter, or get rid of it?
They should get rid of it, but they won’t. Having the pitcher bat adds a whole level of strategy that makes the game more fun.
The National League resisted for years but had to cave this past ridiculous season. And now the genie is out of the bottle.
Why won’t it be back? The Players Union. The Designated Hitter allows for each team to have one more high salaried ballplayer on their books. Older players who can still hit but no longer field can still command big bucks as a DH.
Baseball keeps changing the rules and it’s never to improve the quality of the game. It’s to generate more money.
What’s your Friday Question?
from By Ken Levine
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