TMC
09-21-2018, 06:37 PM
https://www.indiewire.com/2018/09/the-good-cop-tony-danza-netflix-interview-1202005694/
However the character of Big Tony got his name, Danza is used to playing characters named Tony, going all the way back to the classic 1978-1983 sitcom “Taxi.” “The part was written for an Irish heavyweight named Phil Ryan. And I went and read for the part, and I got the part and they made it Phil Banta, an Italian middleweight,” he said.
“And then they changed it to Tony Banta. And of course I made up a joke which has now become legend: When the producer came down, put his arm around me and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna change the name of the character from Phil Banta to Tony Banta,’ and I was so naïve, I was like ‘Wow, they’re doing that for me,’ and then I realized it was a reflection on my acting ability. They were afraid I wouldn’t answer to Phil. That’s become sort of an urban legend. It’s weird, it was just a stupid joke that I made up.”
Following “Taxi,” though, Danza noted that when “Who’s the Boss?” creators Marty Cohan and Blake Hunter wrote the show for him, “they used the name Tony and it stayed Tony… Writers, they just write and then it can change. But, I don’t know, ya know? You know what I say? I always say, we tried Dennis, it didn’t work.”
For Danza, what really mattered wasn’t the character name, but the writing itself. “It’s always about the writing. And this was such a good script,” he said of “The Good Cop.” “I have this little stupid idiosyncratic [thing] — I read to the first joke. If it makes me laugh. then I’m really excited about reading for the rest of it. We laughed, so that’s basically … It’s a no-brainer.”
However the character of Big Tony got his name, Danza is used to playing characters named Tony, going all the way back to the classic 1978-1983 sitcom “Taxi.” “The part was written for an Irish heavyweight named Phil Ryan. And I went and read for the part, and I got the part and they made it Phil Banta, an Italian middleweight,” he said.
“And then they changed it to Tony Banta. And of course I made up a joke which has now become legend: When the producer came down, put his arm around me and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna change the name of the character from Phil Banta to Tony Banta,’ and I was so naïve, I was like ‘Wow, they’re doing that for me,’ and then I realized it was a reflection on my acting ability. They were afraid I wouldn’t answer to Phil. That’s become sort of an urban legend. It’s weird, it was just a stupid joke that I made up.”
Following “Taxi,” though, Danza noted that when “Who’s the Boss?” creators Marty Cohan and Blake Hunter wrote the show for him, “they used the name Tony and it stayed Tony… Writers, they just write and then it can change. But, I don’t know, ya know? You know what I say? I always say, we tried Dennis, it didn’t work.”
For Danza, what really mattered wasn’t the character name, but the writing itself. “It’s always about the writing. And this was such a good script,” he said of “The Good Cop.” “I have this little stupid idiosyncratic [thing] — I read to the first joke. If it makes me laugh. then I’m really excited about reading for the rest of it. We laughed, so that’s basically … It’s a no-brainer.”