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03-20-2004, 01:12 PM
The Son's Energy Through with Hollywood, former Mama's Family actor Eric Brown campaigns to cut consumer waste; Tom Gliatto Cathy Areu Jones in Takoma Park
People 02-25-2002
Byline: Tom Gliatto Cathy Areu Jones in Takoma Park
Publication: People
Issue: February 25, 2002 Vol. 57 No. 7
Publication Date: 02-25-2002
Page: 97+
Section: Where Are They Now?
Hollywood is about having it all," says Eric Brown. "I don't
need all of that in my life." These days the former actor, who
played Vicki Lawrence's dim-bulb grandson Buzz on NBC's Mama's
Family from 1983 to '85, is a poster boy for inconspicuous
consumption. Living since 1996 in a snug 844-sq.-ft. house in
Takoma Park, Md., he proudly shows off a tiny garden with three
new vines whose grapes may someday be pressed into white wine.
He already bottles his own merlot fermented from juice and
yeast. "I can make it for $1.25 a bottle," says Brown, who likes
to present friends with his vintage. "When they try it, they're
very surprised. They bring me back the bottle and I refill it."
Of course, television recycles too. Brown still gets calls from
friends saying they've caught Mama's Family on TBS, but today
he's communications director for the Center for a New American
Dream. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to educating the
public about reducing the country's high level of consumerism.
Brown, 37, touts such projects as Turn the Tide, which offers
sensible tips on water and electricity conservation. "It's not
like you have to go knit sweaters out of mop heads," he says. He
walks 10 minutes to work, and his wife, Janine, 36, commutes by
subway into Washington, D.C., where she's a manager for Kaplan,
the test-prep company. He conserves personal energy with a
four-day workweek. Says Janine: "He'd like nothing better than to
tend the garden, make wine and take care of Maggie," their
6-year-old daughter.
This wasn't always Brown's pace. "I was in such a hurry as a
child," says the New York City native. He was a pro by age 4,
when his grandmother introduced him to a talent agent. Cast in TV
commercials, he was even more driven after his father, Jerrold
Brown, a data-processing manager for the New York Hilton, died of
lung cancer at 37. Eric, the older of two siblings, was 11. His
mother, Lois, now 67 and a graphic designer, "needed me to be
mature," says Brown, who attended the Professional Children's
School in Manhattan. "I grew up quickly."
He'd already tasted movie stardom by 16 with 1981's Private
Lessons, a modest hit in which he played a teenager seduced by a
French maid. Then two years later, he was cast in Mama's Family,
a Carol Burnett Show spinoff with Vicki Lawrence as a
foul-tempered frump and Burnett as her put-upon daughter.
Brown's maturity impressed his TV kin. "I figured he was like a
20-year-old kid playing 17," says Ken Berry, who played his dad.
"When I was 17, I was as green and naive as I could be. Eric was
none of those things. He fit right in."
He wasn't destined to remain. Mama's Family lived on another five
years in syndication after NBC dropped it in 1985, but Buzz was
written off. When roles didn't materialize, Brown shifted to
production work on cheapo movies like the slasher thriller
Stepfather 2. That's where he met Janine, an apprentice editor
who warmed to his lack of star attitude. "I can never imagine
Eric," she says, "in a situation where he'd be like, 'Yeah,
babe.'" In fact, he was beginning to realize that his brief fling
with fame had shortchanged him: "I hadn't seen the world, hadn't
gone to college, hadn't read books. I wanted perspective."
By 1992, two years after they wed, both were studying at the
University of California's Berkeley campus. Janine majored in
women's studies while Eric studied political science, something
that had intrigued him even as a kid. He knew he'd made the right
choice that year when he became a local frontman for Democratic
candidates, including Bill Clinton. Working with camera crews
"was like making a movie."
Brown took the logical step of going to Capitol Hill in 1997,
after the couple settled in Takoma Park so his wife could pursue
graduate studies. But long hours as press secretary for
Democratic New York Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez kept him away
from his family. The next year he decided to try the more
leisurely environment at the Center for a New American Dream,
which at the time seemed to him "either the best thing in the
world or a bunch of wackos." As he learned about ecology, he
concluded, "it's the best thing. The work I do is necessary, and
I'm happy to do it."
That means happier birthdays. Last January, when Maggie turned
6, he made the cake from scratch, down to the strawberry
frosting. "I couldn't bear," says Brown, "to buy the
store-bought kind."
--Tom Gliatto
--Cathy Areu Jones in Takoma Park
Illustration/Photos:
COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANUTA OTFINOWSKI
"One person can't save the world, but everybody can make it a
little better," says Brown (with Maltman at home in Takoma Park,
Md.).
COLOR PHOTO: MPTV
Mama's Berry (standing) and Lawrence "were always funny," says
Brown (right).
COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANUTA OTFINOWSKI
Her spouse realized that showbiz was "very hollow," says Janine
(with Eric and Maggie).
Keywords: Profile; Television; Eric Brown;
© 2002 Time Inc.
People 02-25-2002
Byline: Tom Gliatto Cathy Areu Jones in Takoma Park
Publication: People
Issue: February 25, 2002 Vol. 57 No. 7
Publication Date: 02-25-2002
Page: 97+
Section: Where Are They Now?
Hollywood is about having it all," says Eric Brown. "I don't
need all of that in my life." These days the former actor, who
played Vicki Lawrence's dim-bulb grandson Buzz on NBC's Mama's
Family from 1983 to '85, is a poster boy for inconspicuous
consumption. Living since 1996 in a snug 844-sq.-ft. house in
Takoma Park, Md., he proudly shows off a tiny garden with three
new vines whose grapes may someday be pressed into white wine.
He already bottles his own merlot fermented from juice and
yeast. "I can make it for $1.25 a bottle," says Brown, who likes
to present friends with his vintage. "When they try it, they're
very surprised. They bring me back the bottle and I refill it."
Of course, television recycles too. Brown still gets calls from
friends saying they've caught Mama's Family on TBS, but today
he's communications director for the Center for a New American
Dream. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to educating the
public about reducing the country's high level of consumerism.
Brown, 37, touts such projects as Turn the Tide, which offers
sensible tips on water and electricity conservation. "It's not
like you have to go knit sweaters out of mop heads," he says. He
walks 10 minutes to work, and his wife, Janine, 36, commutes by
subway into Washington, D.C., where she's a manager for Kaplan,
the test-prep company. He conserves personal energy with a
four-day workweek. Says Janine: "He'd like nothing better than to
tend the garden, make wine and take care of Maggie," their
6-year-old daughter.
This wasn't always Brown's pace. "I was in such a hurry as a
child," says the New York City native. He was a pro by age 4,
when his grandmother introduced him to a talent agent. Cast in TV
commercials, he was even more driven after his father, Jerrold
Brown, a data-processing manager for the New York Hilton, died of
lung cancer at 37. Eric, the older of two siblings, was 11. His
mother, Lois, now 67 and a graphic designer, "needed me to be
mature," says Brown, who attended the Professional Children's
School in Manhattan. "I grew up quickly."
He'd already tasted movie stardom by 16 with 1981's Private
Lessons, a modest hit in which he played a teenager seduced by a
French maid. Then two years later, he was cast in Mama's Family,
a Carol Burnett Show spinoff with Vicki Lawrence as a
foul-tempered frump and Burnett as her put-upon daughter.
Brown's maturity impressed his TV kin. "I figured he was like a
20-year-old kid playing 17," says Ken Berry, who played his dad.
"When I was 17, I was as green and naive as I could be. Eric was
none of those things. He fit right in."
He wasn't destined to remain. Mama's Family lived on another five
years in syndication after NBC dropped it in 1985, but Buzz was
written off. When roles didn't materialize, Brown shifted to
production work on cheapo movies like the slasher thriller
Stepfather 2. That's where he met Janine, an apprentice editor
who warmed to his lack of star attitude. "I can never imagine
Eric," she says, "in a situation where he'd be like, 'Yeah,
babe.'" In fact, he was beginning to realize that his brief fling
with fame had shortchanged him: "I hadn't seen the world, hadn't
gone to college, hadn't read books. I wanted perspective."
By 1992, two years after they wed, both were studying at the
University of California's Berkeley campus. Janine majored in
women's studies while Eric studied political science, something
that had intrigued him even as a kid. He knew he'd made the right
choice that year when he became a local frontman for Democratic
candidates, including Bill Clinton. Working with camera crews
"was like making a movie."
Brown took the logical step of going to Capitol Hill in 1997,
after the couple settled in Takoma Park so his wife could pursue
graduate studies. But long hours as press secretary for
Democratic New York Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez kept him away
from his family. The next year he decided to try the more
leisurely environment at the Center for a New American Dream,
which at the time seemed to him "either the best thing in the
world or a bunch of wackos." As he learned about ecology, he
concluded, "it's the best thing. The work I do is necessary, and
I'm happy to do it."
That means happier birthdays. Last January, when Maggie turned
6, he made the cake from scratch, down to the strawberry
frosting. "I couldn't bear," says Brown, "to buy the
store-bought kind."
--Tom Gliatto
--Cathy Areu Jones in Takoma Park
Illustration/Photos:
COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANUTA OTFINOWSKI
"One person can't save the world, but everybody can make it a
little better," says Brown (with Maltman at home in Takoma Park,
Md.).
COLOR PHOTO: MPTV
Mama's Berry (standing) and Lawrence "were always funny," says
Brown (right).
COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANUTA OTFINOWSKI
Her spouse realized that showbiz was "very hollow," says Janine
(with Eric and Maggie).
Keywords: Profile; Television; Eric Brown;
© 2002 Time Inc.