Brian Damage
12-27-2011, 12:54 AM
....funny people!
The teaming of two-time Emmy winner Heaton, 53, and former "Saturday Night Live" stalwart Shannon, 47, certainly underscores that point.
"We actually live in the same neighborhood," said Heaton, in her third season as middle-class, middle-aged, Middle American mother Frankie Heck on "The Middle." "We've run into each other a bit over the years, but we never worked together before."
Shortly after producers decided Frankie's sister should be added to the merry "Middle" mix, Heaton and Shannon spotted each other in a parking garage. Shannon loved the idea of playing her sister, so Heaton went back to the producers and told them, "Hey, Molly Shannon would be perfect."
"Molly is superfriendly and superfunny," said Heaton, whose two Emmys are for playing Debra Barone on "Everybody Loves Raymond." "We just talked endlessly. In fact, the filming got in the way of our conversation. We'd be gabbing away and they'd call us to the set."
Shannon confirms Heaton's description of the gabfest: "It was like a nonstop conversation occasionally interrupted by work. We have a lot in common. East Side, West Side, but we're both from Cleveland. We both lost our mothers when we were young. Both grew up Catholic. Both Irish. Both had world-class dads. She feels like a sister to me, honestly."
http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2011/12/patricia_heaton_molly_shannon_yvette_nicole_brown_vanessa_bayer_explain_why_cleveland_has_produced_s.html
The teaming of two-time Emmy winner Heaton, 53, and former "Saturday Night Live" stalwart Shannon, 47, certainly underscores that point.
"We actually live in the same neighborhood," said Heaton, in her third season as middle-class, middle-aged, Middle American mother Frankie Heck on "The Middle." "We've run into each other a bit over the years, but we never worked together before."
Shortly after producers decided Frankie's sister should be added to the merry "Middle" mix, Heaton and Shannon spotted each other in a parking garage. Shannon loved the idea of playing her sister, so Heaton went back to the producers and told them, "Hey, Molly Shannon would be perfect."
"Molly is superfriendly and superfunny," said Heaton, whose two Emmys are for playing Debra Barone on "Everybody Loves Raymond." "We just talked endlessly. In fact, the filming got in the way of our conversation. We'd be gabbing away and they'd call us to the set."
Shannon confirms Heaton's description of the gabfest: "It was like a nonstop conversation occasionally interrupted by work. We have a lot in common. East Side, West Side, but we're both from Cleveland. We both lost our mothers when we were young. Both grew up Catholic. Both Irish. Both had world-class dads. She feels like a sister to me, honestly."
http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2011/12/patricia_heaton_molly_shannon_yvette_nicole_brown_vanessa_bayer_explain_why_cleveland_has_produced_s.html