Charles H. Bryan gets us started.
Odd question that occurred to me: every Cheers main cast member recorded the "Cheers is filmed before a live studio audience" voiceover that began each episode. Was there any rhyme or reason for why a particular recording was used for a particular episode ("This ep is light on Cliff scenes, let's use John's voiceover")?
To my knowledge they just rotated them. To be honest, I don’t think much consideration went into which disclaimer track they used. Whoever was in charge of post production probably made that call.
We started using them about halfway through the first season when people accused us of laying it on thick vis a vis the laugh machine when in fact the laughs were real from our studio audience.
From WB Jax:
Were the "Frasier" producers particularly wary of too many former "Cheers" characters popping up for "reunions" with Frasier in Seattle (or Boston)?
Absolutely. It was important that FRASIER stood on its own. If a former CHEERS cast member showed up it was usually once a season and seen as an event.
David Isaacs and I wrote four of the Lilith episodes along with the Sam Malone episode. As I recall, most were shown during sweeps.
Kendall Rivers queries:
How did you and the other MASH writers go about writing Father Mulcahy? I have to say he seemed very authentic and respectful to the cloth but still quirky and funny which is hard to balance with any religious figure on a television series\movie.
It was important to make him a real person. Yes, he was a chaplain but he was one of the gang. He played poker, he let out his aggression with a punching bag, he was not above enjoying a dirty joke. He knew the shenanigans that were going on in the camp but was not judgmental. That helped us a lot.
And not enough can be said about the way Bill Christopher played him. Whatever we gave him he delivered big time.
And finally, from Mike Bloodworth:
What is the first script you wrote?. (Either practice or real) And do you still have it filed away somewhere?
It was both practice and real. The first script was a pilot about two unlikely dorm roommates, which at the time was the sum total of our life experiences.
We had no idea what we were doing. We didn’t even know to outline. And with the special effects we required it would have cost WEST SIDE STORY money to produce… in 1973.
In short, the script was a mess. But there were some funny things in it and we enjoyed both the process and working with each other. From there we sought advice and learned how to go about breaking in for real.
Somewhere I must have a copy of that pilot. We originally wrote it longhand and might still have the original notebook. If the Smithsonian asks I’ll try to find it. So far, no calls.
What’s your Friday Question?
from By Ken Levine
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