B Alton leads off.
Just how are parents, especially of series leads, cast? What does the casting director "work with" in determining the look (and attitudes) of the parents so that they are believable (as parents) to the viewing audience? Thanks.
Usually it’s stunt casting. Hiring actors to play the parents of show leads gives you a chance to hire “names” that might bring in a higher rating. So producers try to get Carol Burnett or someone of that ilk. On ALMOST PERFECT we used Bonnie Franklin (ONE DAY AT A TIME) in that role.
On CHEERS we got Glynis Johns to play Diane’s mom. (She’s now 97, God bless her.) And Shelley Long played a mom in MODERN FAMILY.
Danny Thomas got a whole new family in THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW back in the early '60s.
I directed shows where Brenda Vaccaro, Linda Lavin, and Dixie Carter played mom’s.
But for my money, the best of all-time was Nancy Walker as Rhoda’s mom on RHODA.
Brian Phillips asks:
Did you and David Isaacs ever write a Room 222 spec script?
No. It was before our time, first of all. And secondly, that wasn’t the kind of show we wanted to write. We were more about hard comedy, preferably multi-camera at the time.
We wrote a spec MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, a spec RHODA, and two pilot specs before we broke in. And when we did break in, we were in the middle of plotting our next spec — HAPPY DAYS.
YEKIMI wonders:
I noticed this mostly on All In The Family but seems like a lot of early 70s shows seem to have done this....a close of of say, Archie or Edith's and the rest of the actor's faces, I mean to the point were you could count Archie's nose hairs, where the face filled the whole damn screen. I found it disconcerting at best. Any reason why they would have done it this way or was it a "Norman Lear" thing?
It’s a stylistic choice I hate. It’s almost as if an extreme close up invades your personal space.
Trust me, the actors feel uncomfortable having the camera push in so close. God forbid they have a pimple.
I also believe extreme close ups kill comedy.
When I direct or run a show my close ups featured full faces and and went down past the shoulders. That’s pretty much the standard.
And finally, from John G:
The show Mom went through a pretty drastic evolution from season one to where the show ended. In fact, only one member of the original cast finished the run. Can you think of other successful shows that changed to such a degree?
BEWITCHED got by with a new Darren (although not as good). Charles on MASH, Woody and Rebecca on CHEERS. THE GOOD WIFE made some wholesale changes towards the end. It was risky but the new cast pulled it off. I’m sure there are many other examples. You might even perchance have one yourself.
How many DR. WHO’s have there been?
And finally, when a whole new cast is hired around one lead character you can pretty much call that a Spin-off.
Stay cool out there wherever you may be. And get VACCINATED!
from By Ken Levine
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