Lena Dunham pays tribute to her Girls dad Peter Scolari - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 10-23-2021, 02:49 AM

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVV1PRHv-7Z/

"The shyest extrovert, the most dramatic comedian, the most humble icon," she wrote on Instagram of Scolari, who won an Emmy for playing Tad Horvath on Girls. "You had lived enough life to know that a TV show was just a TV show, but also to appreciate just what it meant to be allowed to play pretend for a living- and you never let us forget that this job was a privilege. I remember when you came back from doing a production of the Music Man somewhere- the theater had basically been a barn, there had been no WiFi and you had no understudy- and you were as grateful and delighted as you were when you were nominated for an Emmy. You bragged nonstop about your kids, you had the best stories- like when you did Circus of the Stars and 'that’s when I learned to walk a tightrope, there’s not much to it'- and when we told you that you would be coming out of the closet on the show you said “thank you, you can trust me with this.” Becky Ann and I loved every second of playing your family and I couldn’t have been raised up by a better TV 'papa.' Thank you, Scolari, for every chat between set ups, every hug onscreen and off and every 'Oh, Jeez.' We will miss you so much."

Peter Scolari's Emmy-winning Girls performance was a key to the show's success: "As Tad, Hannah Horvath’s father, Scolari brought rare sensitivity and care to a tricky character who evolved radically through the show’s run," says Daniel D'Addario. "It took a great actor to pull off some of the shifts in Tad Horvath over the seasons of Girls, but those shifts always felt, in Scolari’s telling, like the evolution of a person coming into contact with himself. Girls depicted a funny parallel journey among the members of the Horvath family: As millennial Hannah (Lena Dunham) grew gradually disillusioned with life among the sexually liberated creative class of Brooklyn, her boomer parents (Scolari and Becky Ann Baker) began to try living on their own terms for the first time. They met less in the middle than in a sort of upside-down reality where, by the show’s end, Hannah was parenting her elders. This element of the show could, in the writing of the series, strain credulity — Hannah’s parents, both academics, seemed at first oddly cosseted. And later in the show’s run, they became libertine at times that suggested the show was seeking a source of spectacle and oddity. But Scolari, especially, leaned hard on the shared reality of the Horvath family, no matter how far from its origins the show got."

Cbalducc · 10-24-2021, 04:41 PM

It is ironic that Peter, best known for his roles on light-hearted sitcoms, would be cast in this controversial series and win an Emmy for his performance.

PracTz · 10-26-2021, 09:50 AM

That's like the first positive thing Miss Dunham has said about. .. anyone in a long time!

10-23-2021, 02:49 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,621	Lena Dunham pays tribute to her Girls dad Peter Scolari https://www.instagram.com/p/CVV1PRHv-7Z/ "The shyest extrovert, the most dramatic comedian, the most humble icon," she wrote on Instagram of Scolari, who won an Emmy for playing Tad Horvath on Girls. "You had lived enough life to know that a TV show was just a TV show, but also to appreciate just what it meant to be allowed to play pretend for a living- and you never let us forget that this job was a privilege. I remember when you came back from doing a production of the Music Man somewhere- the theater had basically been a barn, there had been no WiFi and you had no understudy- and you were as grateful and delighted as you were when you were nominated for an Emmy. You bragged nonstop about your kids, you had the best stories- like when you did Circus of the Stars and 'that’s when I learned to walk a tightrope, there’s not much to it'- and when we told you that you would be coming out of the closet on the show you said “thank you, you can trust me with this.” Becky Ann and I loved every second of playing your family and I couldn’t have been raised up by a better TV 'papa.' Thank you, Scolari, for every chat between set ups, every hug onscreen and off and every 'Oh, Jeez.' We will miss you so much." Peter Scolari's Emmy-winning Girls performance was a key to the show's success: "As Tad, Hannah Horvath’s father, Scolari brought rare sensitivity and care to a tricky character who evolved radically through the show’s run," says Daniel D'Addario. "It took a great actor to pull off some of the shifts in Tad Horvath over the seasons of Girls, but those shifts always felt, in Scolari’s telling, like the evolution of a person coming into contact with himself. Girls depicted a funny parallel journey among the members of the Horvath family: As millennial Hannah (Lena Dunham) grew gradually disillusioned with life among the sexually liberated creative class of Brooklyn, her boomer parents (Scolari and Becky Ann Baker) began to try living on their own terms for the first time. They met less in the middle than in a sort of upside-down reality where, by the show’s end, Hannah was parenting her elders. This element of the show could, in the writing of the series, strain credulity — Hannah’s parents, both academics, seemed at first oddly cosseted. And later in the show’s run, they became libertine at times that suggested the show was seeking a source of spectacle and oddity. But Scolari, especially, leaned hard on the shared reality of the Horvath family, no matter how far from its origins the show got."

10-24-2021, 04:41 PM	#2
Cbalducc Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Oct 09, 2020 Location: Mississippi Posts: 139	It is ironic that Peter, best known for his roles on light-hearted sitcoms, would be cast in this controversial series and win an Emmy for his performance.

10-26-2021, 09:50 AM	#3
PracTz Member Senior Member Join Date: Jul 14, 2002 Location: United States of America [Happily Living in the 20th Century] Posts: 2,711	That's like the first positive thing Miss Dunham has said about. .. anyone in a long time!