There are many reasons why an episode doesn’t work. Writing is certainly one of them. And I will admit there are episodes of ours I don’t love that I look back and think the script is at fault.
In this case I blame the actor. I rarely do that, but I honestly believe had the actor played the character the way we envisioned and wrote him the episode would have played waaaaay better. And the irony is, it wasn’t just any actor.
It was Michael Keaton.
Initially we were thrilled that he signed aboard. A little backstory: This was the fall of 2001. The story had been broken and David Angell was slated to write it. He then perished in one of those doomed flights on 9-11. Peter Casey & David Lee asked me and David to write it, which we felt was a tremendous honor.
The character was supposed to be a charismatic televangelist who Frasier suspected was a fraud. We knew that Keaton could play comedy. We saw this character as somewhat of a throwback to the character he played in NIGHT SHIFT — a freewheeling unpredictable high energy scamp.
If we were going to use Michael Keaton we wanted him to really shine. And I thought we wrote the hell out of that role. But Michael chose to play him very internal and intense. We had a terrific director, Jerry Zaks (who continues to win Tonys on Broadway), and he was just as frustrated. Nothing anyone could say would dissuade him from playing the part as if it were his tortured Bruce Wayne.
My opinion of course, but that show should have played better. I think if we weren’t committed to a movie star, if we just had a guest actor who was refused to budge from this choice we would have fired him and gotten someone else.
That said, I haven’t seen it for years since I don’t like it. Who knows? I might see it now and not dislike it as much. In any event, I do like the residuals I receive from it. So keep wheeling it out.
from By Ken Levine
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