Wednesday, January 12, 2011
NO, THEY WERE NOT GOING AFTER SHIA LABOEUF: The original casting breakdown for Modern Family suggests that while they'd written two of the parts for the performers who wound up playing them, the show could have been dramatically different (and likely not as good) with the wishlist, in particular in the Mitchell-Cameron pairing, where the wishlist is made up of a pair of performers who are both very funny, but who would not have worked in those parts (heck, flip-flopping the originally proposed Mitchell-Cameron pairing might have worked better).
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Nothing at all wrong with Andy Richter and Tony Hale. Both have played more broadly in other roles than Ferguson and Stonestreet in these, but they've also both done straight, or at least straighter, work. Different actors doesn't mean that the creators envisioned different charactors.
ReplyDeleteI find it pretty easy to picture Craig T. Nelson as Jay without any real changes. Kudrow as Claire would probably be unlikeable, but I find Claire unlikeable.
And by "straight," of course, I meant "non-comedic." Just realized that that had a possible meaning here that I didn't intend at all.
ReplyDeleteand wtf with "charactors"? guh.
ReplyDeleteDid the guy who plays Mitchell say that he's leaving the show?
ReplyDeleteHe posted a tweet right after the Season 3 pickup announcement that "this year will be my last" with the hashtags #farewellseason and #emmy. I immediately realized that it was a joke, and he subsequently clarified that it was, in fact, a joke directed at Emmybait departures (we're looking at you, The Office).
ReplyDeleteIs this a wish list or just a demonstration of character types? I can't really see the photos that well, but it looks like Sara-Gilbert-as-Darlene shown for Alex, and Macaulay Culkin at age 10 or so for Luke.
ReplyDeleteRichter and Hale could have been very interesting. Sure, it's never the same show with different actors, but who's to say it's worse?
Stephen Falk who posted this orginally on his blog is a Weeds writer and former TWoP recapper back in the good old days of TWoP (he is Stee.) He's on twitter (@stephenfalk) and is pretty darn entertaining there in various hashtag memes and snarkery. He's one of my (many) twitter crushes.
ReplyDeleteKudrow as Claire I think would've come off way too shrill. Claire is mostly unlikable but Julie Bowen gives her a warmth that is very necessary to keep Claire from seeming like a total shrew - her work in last week's episode with the fast driver shows this - she's being completely ridiculous but it's somehow still adorable.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a combination of both -- since Ty Burrell is Phil and obviously teenage Sara Gilbert couldn't possibly have been hired to play Alex (unless of course there is a teenage Sara Gilbert clone in a lab somewhere in Hollywood. I wouldn't put it past Roseanne to have cloned Gilbert after having to replace Becky...)
ReplyDeleteI think it shows how well cast the show is that replacing most of the actual cast with some of these ideas would change the show significantly, although not necessarily for the worst. A show with Andy Richter and Tony Hale as a couple might be hilarious.
I find the description of Jay - as trying to be younger to keep up with his wife - interesting. I don't see Ed O'Neil's Jay that way at all. If anything, he's a confident older man, trying to bring Gloria up to his level. But I can see that Craig T. Nelson might have played it that way.
ReplyDeletePFOR: The reason for your pseudonym is no longer obvious, though it was in another thread. Or perhaps you have a new reason for pseudonymity. Do you moonlight as an NBA referee and therefore don't want to admit that you can't see the photos that well? Perhaps you are applying for work as a Fox executive and for political reasons should not compliment Richter or Hale?
ReplyDeleteDidn't realize I'd posted under the wrong name until there was already a response, so I didn't want to delete. No other way to edit. I shall attempt to be myself going forward.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you've never posted under the wrong name here, so this error understandably confuses you.
Update: Falk just shared this casting breakdown for HIMYM. I love him.
ReplyDeleteLook, it's very simple. My name is Isaac Spaceman. It was Itzhak Spacemensch before I left the old country, but a functionary at Ellis Island fixed that. I also have a partially resorbed twin named Spacewoman who occasionally posts. Though I consider us separate people and she usually agrees, there are occasions when she fantasizes that we are really parts of the same person, and she therefore clarifies her posts accordingly.
ReplyDeleteAaaaaand you've now convinced me to follow him. Brilliant.
ReplyDelete