Brian Damage
10-06-2007, 10:43 AM
Attempting to handicap a new fall television season is about as reliable as betting on baby turtles crossing the beach in a storm, but certainly two of the bigger network wagers are on Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton in Back To You (8 o'clock Wednesday night on Fox) and Donald Sutherland and Peter Krause in Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, 10 p.m. Wednesday).
Miles apart in conception--the Grammar vehicle is an old-school , "three-camera" (in practice, four--meaning, in effect, your father's uncinematic sitcom) show, and the Sutherland entry is a tough drama (Creator Chuck Wright was schooled at Six Feet Under and Lost) based on a spookily dysfunctional family who are, stop me if you guessed this, dirty, sexy and moneyed.
There was probably never a chance that the comedy, with its ample bosom (and ample-bosom) jokes and the drama, with its transsexuals, creepy priest and implied drug abuse and incest, would go head-to-head in a time slot.
And that's good news to friends-since-kindergarten Josh Gad and Seth Gabel, because although each is eager to keep their acting career on the upward arc, it would kill them to do it at the expense of the other guy.
Cut back to that day in kindergarten in the University School in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, when Gabel, now 25, turned to Gad, now 26, and wondered what the hell was going on on stage as some older kids heaved about performing A Chorus Line. "Are you stupid?", Gad replied, "It's--Broadway!"
Flash forward to senior year, as the buddies, having advanced to the finals of a national acting competition, are on stage (in suits, per the rules), doing their two-man show--as Monica Lewinsky (the darkly handsome Gabel) and Linda Tripp (Gad, who appealingly fills the screen in more ways than one). When Gad `goes up' and forgets his last line (the key phrase was `Special Agent'), he blurts, "Secret Agent Man!". The duo cracks up, but not before wheeling 180 degrees to sputter at the curtain.
They won the competition, and now Gabel;'s credits include a much-praised arc as recurring character Adrien Moore on Nip/Tuck and a part in Da Vinci Code--(directed by father-in-law Ron Howard; Gabel and Bryce Dallas Howard have a seven-month-old son, Theo). He'll play the male half of twins (Samaire Armstorng is the female), who can't get his life together--a juicily dissolute role. Gad, who'll appear next year as opposite Rainn Wilson in the music-biz comedy The Rocker, plays the ever-flustered, neurotic Ryan Church, too young and too clutched to be running a newscast. (Thrown in overnight to replace another actor who couldn't cut it, Gad knew almost nothing of working in the format--"I'd never done a sitcom in my life"-- and avows, "That sweat you see on him is about half Ryan and half Josh." )
Gabel is flabbergasted to be treading the boards where pop-in-law Ron shot some Happy Days episodes, and took a key bit of advice from him--"No matter how steady the routine seems, never fall into phoning it in". His character Jeremy Darling "Has a desperate need for his father's love and attention." And, as early observers imply, a need for certain controlled substances? "I don't think I'll ever confirm or deny that." Spoken like a veteran.
Gad meanwhile, says "We're still pinching ourselves. First to have any success, then get auditions for these parts, alongside these unbelievable stars, then see the pilots get picked up, and then to have them considered two of the hotter shows of the year--in the same season on the same night? What are the chances of that?"
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/the-hollywood-deal/2007/09/25/one-pilot-season-one-crazy-coincidence
Miles apart in conception--the Grammar vehicle is an old-school , "three-camera" (in practice, four--meaning, in effect, your father's uncinematic sitcom) show, and the Sutherland entry is a tough drama (Creator Chuck Wright was schooled at Six Feet Under and Lost) based on a spookily dysfunctional family who are, stop me if you guessed this, dirty, sexy and moneyed.
There was probably never a chance that the comedy, with its ample bosom (and ample-bosom) jokes and the drama, with its transsexuals, creepy priest and implied drug abuse and incest, would go head-to-head in a time slot.
And that's good news to friends-since-kindergarten Josh Gad and Seth Gabel, because although each is eager to keep their acting career on the upward arc, it would kill them to do it at the expense of the other guy.
Cut back to that day in kindergarten in the University School in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, when Gabel, now 25, turned to Gad, now 26, and wondered what the hell was going on on stage as some older kids heaved about performing A Chorus Line. "Are you stupid?", Gad replied, "It's--Broadway!"
Flash forward to senior year, as the buddies, having advanced to the finals of a national acting competition, are on stage (in suits, per the rules), doing their two-man show--as Monica Lewinsky (the darkly handsome Gabel) and Linda Tripp (Gad, who appealingly fills the screen in more ways than one). When Gad `goes up' and forgets his last line (the key phrase was `Special Agent'), he blurts, "Secret Agent Man!". The duo cracks up, but not before wheeling 180 degrees to sputter at the curtain.
They won the competition, and now Gabel;'s credits include a much-praised arc as recurring character Adrien Moore on Nip/Tuck and a part in Da Vinci Code--(directed by father-in-law Ron Howard; Gabel and Bryce Dallas Howard have a seven-month-old son, Theo). He'll play the male half of twins (Samaire Armstorng is the female), who can't get his life together--a juicily dissolute role. Gad, who'll appear next year as opposite Rainn Wilson in the music-biz comedy The Rocker, plays the ever-flustered, neurotic Ryan Church, too young and too clutched to be running a newscast. (Thrown in overnight to replace another actor who couldn't cut it, Gad knew almost nothing of working in the format--"I'd never done a sitcom in my life"-- and avows, "That sweat you see on him is about half Ryan and half Josh." )
Gabel is flabbergasted to be treading the boards where pop-in-law Ron shot some Happy Days episodes, and took a key bit of advice from him--"No matter how steady the routine seems, never fall into phoning it in". His character Jeremy Darling "Has a desperate need for his father's love and attention." And, as early observers imply, a need for certain controlled substances? "I don't think I'll ever confirm or deny that." Spoken like a veteran.
Gad meanwhile, says "We're still pinching ourselves. First to have any success, then get auditions for these parts, alongside these unbelievable stars, then see the pilots get picked up, and then to have them considered two of the hotter shows of the year--in the same season on the same night? What are the chances of that?"
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/the-hollywood-deal/2007/09/25/one-pilot-season-one-crazy-coincidence