AOL Interviews Scott Bakula On TNT's "Men of a Certain Age"

[JamesG]

The following is an excerpt from his AOL interview only relating to Men of a Certain Age:



I watched the pilot and I was surprised by the somewhat dark tone of the show. Not something you'd expect from a show by Ray Romano.

Yeah, I think that's going to be the surprise. Actually, the original pilot we shot was darker in tone. And the network had kind of insisted that we lighten it up a little bit. [laughs]

My character had a much darker story line in the original pilot. They said, 'Let's make Terry a little lighter so that not all three guys are going through such big challenges.' So we reshot a bunch of scenes and that's what we came up with.




Anything you can tell us about what was changed from the original?

Well, actually, in the original ... my relationship with Annie (Carla Gallo) was in mid-relationship and was leading into a kind of a rough possible breakup. There was a very funny scene where I meet her parents on her birthday, which I've of course, forgotten ... but her parents are one year older than me. So it's very funny, but it's also kind of sad. [laughs]

So that was really the big thing. That they took that relationship and instead of making it mid-stream and potentially going downhill, we made it new and just getting to know each other. So that was probably the biggest change.




You have a pretty incredible cast.
Was that part of your decision to return to series television?

Yeah, I mean the cast was so great, and I think Ray's writing and Michael Royce who wrote it with him, is so unique and quirky and really, right out of Ray's mind, which is a little scary. But funny.

Ray is such a funny guy. And I just love this character. These kinds of roles don't come along very often, and this kind of good writing on television doesn't come along that often.

TNT was a big carrot. To be able to work for them and have the ... shackles of network television kind of tossed aside.




Lots of the actors I've spoken to about moving to cable have said what a relief it is to work that way.

Can you talk about the differences in working this way?

We were creating this for HBO and then there was a change in the regime and the show got cut and fell between the cracks and got moved out, but originally they were writing it for HBO. So there's just a freedom that comes into it ... stand-ups aren't used to censoring themselves.

For Ray, having been on CBS for nine years and having a hugely successful show, but dealing with Standards and Practices with every script, you say, 'Where can I write what I want to write?' What it does for me, it makes the show feel more real. It's about what guys really say and how they talk and what they do ... and that was the tone of the show ... really a slice of life and kind of like an indie film.

That was the way they shot it, the way they wanted it to look and I think it's successful that way. And we can only do that on cable.


Men of a Certain Age airs Mondays at 10 p.m. EST on TNT.

Full Interview Here - http://insidetv.aol.com/2009/12/28/s...tv-and-sci-fi/