'Life with Bonnie' Cast Goes with the Flow - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TJ · 03-21-2003, 11:26 PM

http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?30563

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Bonnie Hunt, who hosts a fictional talk show on her ABC sitcom, "Life with Bonnie," briefly considered doing the real thing.

As Rosie O'Donnell was preparing to leave her daytime show, its producers approached Hunt about taking over hosting duties (the job eventually went to Caroline Rhea).

"I knew in my heart that I didn't want to do it," Hunt told an audience Wednesday night (March 12), the final night of the Museum of Television and Radio's William S. Paley Festival. "Then the money got to the point where I thought, 'Well, maybe I could suffer through it.'"

Eventually, she and her partner in comedy, Don Lake, came up with a compromise idea: Hunt would host a talk show within a show. "Life with Bonnie," which ABC recently picked up for a second season, grew from that idea. It also allowed the Second City-trained duo to indulge their love of improvisation.

"The talk show justified it," Hunt says. "On the other shows" -- "The Building" and "The Bonnie Hunt Show," two short-lived CBS sitcoms she produced and starred in -- "we would do it and no one really knew what was happening. With a talk show, the rhythm is different anyway."

Hunt and Lake recruited fellow Second City vets Chris Barnes, who plays intense cue-card guy Marv, and Holly Wortell, the unlucky-in-love makeup artist Holly, to the show. David Alan Grier ("In Living Color") and Mark Derwin ("One Life to Live"), who had also worked with Hunt before, joined the cast as well.

At one point Wednesday night, Grier appeared to grow tired of the allusions to Second City and the collaborative nature of improv.

"I'd just like to point out that I was never part of Second City," he jokes, affecting a blue-blood snob's halting pronunciation. "I went to Yale Drama School, and there it was all about individual achievement."

Hunt doesn't hold that against him, deadpanning moments later, "This is the third thing we've done together ... and we're lovers."

The cast's familiarity with one another allows "Life with Bonnie" to operate somewhat differently from most sitcoms. Hunt and Lake, who write every script, take notes from the network after their first table read of a script, rather than after a full day of rehearsal. They then incorporate any changes into on-stage rehearsals, which typically run only one day before shooting.

Hunt says the shortened rehearsal time has thrown a few guest stars. "We do an hour of rehearsals and then move on, and they're like, 'Okaaayy, um. ... What if I forget my line?' I say, 'That would be great.' "

03-21-2003, 11:26 PM	#1
TJ Site Owner Administrator Forum Star Join Date: Feb 03, 2000 Location: Marietta, GA Posts: 10,651	'Life with Bonnie' Cast Goes with the Flow http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?30563 LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Bonnie Hunt, who hosts a fictional talk show on her ABC sitcom, "Life with Bonnie," briefly considered doing the real thing. As Rosie O'Donnell was preparing to leave her daytime show, its producers approached Hunt about taking over hosting duties (the job eventually went to Caroline Rhea). "I knew in my heart that I didn't want to do it," Hunt told an audience Wednesday night (March 12), the final night of the Museum of Television and Radio's William S. Paley Festival. "Then the money got to the point where I thought, 'Well, maybe I could suffer through it.'" Eventually, she and her partner in comedy, Don Lake, came up with a compromise idea: Hunt would host a talk show within a show. "Life with Bonnie," which ABC recently picked up for a second season, grew from that idea. It also allowed the Second City-trained duo to indulge their love of improvisation. "The talk show justified it," Hunt says. "On the other shows" -- "The Building" and "The Bonnie Hunt Show," two short-lived CBS sitcoms she produced and starred in -- "we would do it and no one really knew what was happening. With a talk show, the rhythm is different anyway." Hunt and Lake recruited fellow Second City vets Chris Barnes, who plays intense cue-card guy Marv, and Holly Wortell, the unlucky-in-love makeup artist Holly, to the show. David Alan Grier ("In Living Color") and Mark Derwin ("One Life to Live"), who had also worked with Hunt before, joined the cast as well. At one point Wednesday night, Grier appeared to grow tired of the allusions to Second City and the collaborative nature of improv. "I'd just like to point out that I was never part of Second City," he jokes, affecting a blue-blood snob's halting pronunciation. "I went to Yale Drama School, and there it was all about individual achievement." Hunt doesn't hold that against him, deadpanning moments later, "This is the third thing we've done together ... and we're lovers." The cast's familiarity with one another allows "Life with Bonnie" to operate somewhat differently from most sitcoms. Hunt and Lake, who write every script, take notes from the network after their first table read of a script, rather than after a full day of rehearsal. They then incorporate any changes into on-stage rehearsals, which typically run only one day before shooting. Hunt says the shortened rehearsal time has thrown a few guest stars. "We do an hour of rehearsals and then move on, and they're like, 'Okaaayy, um. ... What if I forget my line?' I say, 'That would be great.' "