Fred Willard Talks "Back to You", Sports, and Running-Mates

[Janice]

http://www.thedeadbolt.com/news/1041..._interview.php

Fred Willard Talks "Back to You", Sports, and Running-Mates


With a career that spans four decades, Fred Willard is one of the most familiar comedic actors in TV and film. Hell, to some degree he's his own unique comedy genre. The funny thing is: he seems to turn up in the most unexpected and unlikely projects. Over the years Willard has appeared in such shows as the original Get Smart Laverne & Shirley, The Love Boat, My Secret Identity, Murder She Wrote, The Golden Girls, Married with Children, Friends, and most popular shows of the last forty years.

Also, Fred Willard has an equally varied career in film after taking on roles in the 1976 Richard Pryor - Gene Wilder film Silver Streak, Fun with Dick and Jane, This is Spinal Tap and more recently A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Anchorman, Epic Movie and the upcoming Pixar/Disney project WALL-E.

In 2008 Fred Willard returned to TV with a regular role on Fox's new comedy Back to You (airing February 26 and 27 at 9:30pm) starring alongside Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton as clueless sports anchor Marsh McGinley. As the writer’s strike came to a close, we had the good fortunate to talk to the legendary Fred Willard on a recent conference call to get the goods on not only his character in Back to You but also his love of sports and who he'd pick as a running mate if he were running for President.


Fred Willard on his character's many sign-off lines:

"People keep talking about that. I think it’s on an episode I have no memory of having done... ‘Well, I’m rounding third and heading for home,' is always a good one and ‘Open the door Nelly, I’m coming home’. And of course the popular, ‘We are outta here.’ It sounds like a funny episode... I do have to think of some, because someone told me at a party you gotta come up with some catch phrases. I sure do."


Willard on what happened when he took photos of a dead body on the show:

"That was one of the funniest [bits]. I mean that was right out of an old slapstick. Gary (Ty Burrell), the station manager, he’s young and I keep telling him the name of the worker who passed away, and he says, ‘I don’t know who that is.' And I’m describing him and he says, ‘Oh, it’s a man with gray hair and he always wore a bowtie?’ So I said, yes. Just then a man with gray hair and a bowtie walks by and he says, ‘Now I don’t know who the hell he is’ and I said, 'Give me your cell phone and I’ll go down and snap a picture of him.' So I kind of open the coffin lid and I just snap a picture and the minister comes by and goes, ‘Marsh, we’re ready to go.’ And I drop the coffin lid and I go back and sit down and Gary says, ‘Where’s my camera?’ and I said, ‘It’s gone to a better place.' It’s very slapstick, but very funny."



Willard on Back to You airing immediately after American Idol:

"I guess it’s going to be great. You know, I’m always puzzled when they say it’s your time slot; they put you on after American Idol. I could understand in 1960 when you had to get up to change the station and there were three stations. Today we flip on, but they say it really helps. American Idol comes on and hopefully some of those 24 million people say, ‘Hey, let’s watch Back to You.' So I think it’s a great. Hopefully [it'll be] a great boom to the show to get people to watch it. There are so many shows these days that come on and so many of them are really terrific, but I still haven’t watched all of the new shows this year. I try to make an effort to watch a few minutes of them. Sometimes I’ll watch four minutes and say, ‘This thing stinks,’ and I’ll turn it off. The next day I’ll open the page and it came in number five or something, so I would not want to be a judge of what’s becoming #1 and #70. I think it can only help, to make a long story short. I hope it’s one of those shows people will search out because it is awfully funny and very good writing. I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’ve never been on a show where the writing was this consistently sharp."


On where the show was before the writer’s strike:

"I actually thought that we were up to speed right out of the chute because with Kelsey [Grammer] and Patricia Heaton - I don’t know if you’re familiar with Jim Burrows' reputation out here. He’s our director, whose done Frasier and every show just about in the last fifteen years. Plus the creators, Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, so right out of the chute it wasn’t like, ‘Where do we go next week?’ We were having so much fun with each script and I’d like to say yes, we were really gaining momentum and now we have to drop back. But I think we were going at full speed right from the beginning. Now two of the unaired episodes bring in another aspect, there’s a rival broadcaster from another network who kind of starts flirting with Patty Heaton’s character. Of course that makes Kelsey Grammer very jealous, it actually upsets all of us. So it’s the first time we brought in an element like that. There was one episode where Bill Macey - the TV actor - came in and just scored great as a character actor. This old guy that came to work for the station and we just fell in love with Bill. Maybe he’ll come back for another episode?"


Willard on looking at sports anchors as a model for his character, Marsh McGinley:

"No, I haven’t. Although the night we did the pilot I met a man who is actually the sports guy for a Pittsburg network, or an ex-sports guy, and he did lend a lot of his advice to the writers. And he was telling me stories about a very colorful, politically incorrect sportscaster, and he told me some of the things he would say, which I don’t think I could get away with saying now, even in a comedy. But no, I haven’t modeled it after anyone in particular. I’m just fascinated with the sportscasters, particularly the ones who are the ex-athletes. They’re now talking about the game with that pencil in their hand and I just admire them and love listening to them. I’d rather actually watch the event than hear them tell me what’s going to happen, what did happen - don’t tell me what’s going to happen."


On whether Marsh McGinley was written for specifically him:

"It was written for me by Steve Levitan and I also assume Christopher Lloyd. So I was very pleased when my agent called and said they’ve created this role for you. And when you find out that those people created a role for you, you say 'sure' before even knowing what it is. So when they said it’s a sportscaster, I was falling all over myself. I said, ‘I love sports, and they said, ‘He’s a little bit clueless, [and] probably got hit in the head with a few too many balls.’ And I said, ‘That’s right down my alley.' I love that kind of character and I am a sports fan in reality."


Fred Willard on which celebrity he would choose as a running-mate for President of the United States:

"Oh boy, as a running mate? Let’s see, that’s a good one. Who would I use as a running mate? I think I’d go for an old friend of mine, Norm MacDonald. He has a funny sense of humor, he seems to see through a lot of nonsense, and that’s my first thought. Now he may choose not to run. Also my old friend - maybe Martin Mull, he could play the guitar. He’s into art he could decorate the White House great with his paintings."