Carlo Alban's greatest fear while working on Sesame

[D'Snowth]

I'm suddenly reminded of a slightly different tone in someone's attitude about doing such work...

I remember reading an interview with Mandy Pitinkin about doing EIG, saying how much he loved doing the movie, because of the opportunity he got to work with the Muppets, which he very much enjoyed, saying that he would rather work with the Muppets than anyone else.

 

[DTF]

Well, not everybody can be a Jim Varney: here was a man who was also a Shakespearan actor, had a genius IQ, and ended up being pigeon-holed as Ernest... but he really didn't mind, because he knew people, especially kids, really loved Ernest, so that's what made the role worth-while.

It's nice that some actors (though sadly not all) don't mind being identified by that one role that defines their career... like Barbara Eden saying that if she has to be remembered for one character, she's glad that character is Jeannie, though conversely, Elizabeth Montgomery did all she could to get people to stop identifying her as Samantha Stephens.

And this is the whole reason why I insist on seeing every fictional universe as a real universe just like ours except for those characters' existence (and whatever stems from them - to take the Hogan's Heroes analogy, in that universe several people lived who didn't in OTL and ran an espionage unit inside Germany, with incompetent people stuck there and with at least 1 of the Germans probably complicit in the whole thing. To stay on that tangent for a second, on the fanfiction.net HH forum there are a number of people who believe General Burkhalter was a spy mentioned in one episode name Nimrod, for reasons such as his funnelling scientists and others to Stalag 13 and putting up with klink. And, someone wrote a very good story about Gestapo Major Hochsetter being an American agent and Jewish acting teacher in New York City! I forget the name, but you can look it up easily at fanfiction.net - something like "misunderstood Major" is int he title or summary)

Phew, sorry for that long rabbit trail. Anyway, as someone else said, the smoke and mirrors are needed sometimes, with something like ALF. It's fun to fantasize and have fun. That's what's great about Sesame Street. Even though - as I noted in another thread once - it's gone from looking like a place the puppets actually live to a "Muppet Show" style show that the puppets put on, it's still great to see humans and Muppets interact and to just sit back and have fun for a while.

If fans want to dig deeper,t hat's fine - they can dig so deep they come up with stuff like the "Full House" Chronology, which was an excellent and fun project and i think helped at least one group of fans really fget into the spirit of the idea that there's a real fictional world created here, where stuff happens in the 99.75% of the time we don't see and which is totally separate from the performers.

that's what I think I'd recommend to any actor or actress who didn't like their part. Just say to fans, "Look, that is a fictional world, it's a fun world." If someone like Barbar Eden wants to enjoy having played the part, that's great. But, fans need to realize that they're not watching their favorite stars. They're actually watching fictional characters who happen to be performed by their favorite stars. And it's a world where things can usually be explained, given enough time - like the complicity of the Nazis on Hogan's Heroes (granted the russian pilot might still have been too hard to explain) or "FUll Hosue"'s Uncle Jesse's faked graduation as a way to explain the sudden change. (Only he ever mentions his graduation before it's revealed he was a dropout.)

Also, Heralde said, "Well I get that the guy [who played the dad on ALF] was a "Shakespearan actor" (I saw him in Twelth Night at Lincoln Center years ago) and probably felt embarrassed doing a sitcom with a puppet. But seriously, did he actually think the stiff human father was supposed to get more attention than the funny alien puppet? Sometimes the writers do actually know what they're doing, heh. Plus I always found the whole cast to be very funny, so the upstaging wasn't that bad, IMO. But yes I understand how demanding and frustrating it can probably be to work with a perfectionist like the puppeteer seemed to be."

Yes, what was that? Did the fellow's agent call and say, "I've got a role for you to audition for as a dad in a sitcom" and nelgect to mention a puppet or that puppet's role? If so, he should be fired. As I understand it, agents are supposed to fully inform clients about their options.

Not all clients listen, of course, so it's not certaint hat this agent's fault, but the agent - if good - must have said at some point, "Now, I really doubt you'll get top billing, and you might wind up playing the straight man sometimes, so it might not be for you, but I'm putting it out there for you to consider," at least in a conversational tone so if he or she thought the actor knew that they would still make sure of it. That's just professional responsibility.

Some people prefer different types of acting, like theater. Others can pull off both (Patrick Stewart comes to mind right away) I think with theater, you're more used to being inthe limelight. I'm guessing that's more of the problem than any connection to a character there.

But, again, I agree that it all comes down to the decision. If he made it for the money, then as someone else noted, he should have been happy to be working and enjoyed it. If not, he should have fired his agent and turned downt he role after it was offered to him. He would not have been the first actor to do so.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yes, what was that? Did the fellow's agent call and say, "I've got a role for you to audition for as a dad in a sitcom" and nelgect to mention a puppet or that puppet's role? If so, he should be fired. As I understand it, agents are supposed to fully inform clients about their options.

Yeah but agents also want to persuade their clients to make them money.

I think with theater, you're more used to being inthe limelight.

Actually I'm not sure that's the case. Theater is very under appreciated. In order to get real mainstream attention, you often do have to some TV or film work.

 

[D'Snowth]

Did the fellow's agent call and say, "I've got a role for you to audition for as a dad in a sitcom" and nelgect to mention a puppet or that puppet's role? If so, he should be fired. As I understand it, agents are supposed to fully inform clients about their options.

You touched some more on the subject of Hogan, well, here's another little something I heard from an interview with Werner Klemperer (Klink)...

Klemperer said that he was one of those actors that people knew his face, but could never remember his name (sort of like a character actor), and that one day his agent called him and asked him if he wanted to the play the Kommandant of a POW camp, and he said that would be wonderful because he had played those kinds of roles before... but his agent never said it was a comedy. Werner played Kommandants on a serious level, and was expecting this to be serious/dramatic, so he walked into the producers' office, and they gave him a copy of the pilot script, THEN told him it's a comedy, to which he replied, "You're out of your bloody minds!" Of course, he took the job anyway, because after he read the script, he thought it was a clever farce.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Klemperer said that he was one of those actors that people knew his face, but could never remember his name (sort of like a character actor), and that one day his agent called him and asked him if he wanted to the play the Kommandant of a POW camp, and he said that would be wonderful because he had played those kinds of roles before... but his agent never said it was a comedy. Werner played Kommandants on a serious level, and was expecting this to be serious/dramatic, so he walked into the producers' office, and they gave him a copy of the pilot script, THEN told him it's a comedy, to which he replied, "You're out of your bloody minds!" Of course, he took the job anyway, because after he read the script, he thought it was a clever farce.

Lol, exactly, agents want their clients to take the job. And if they think leaving out some vital piece of information will make that happen quicker, they will do it.

 

[DTF]

Lol, exactly, agents want their clients to take the job. And if they think leaving out some vital piece of information will make that happen quicker, they will do it.

Thanks; I never looked at it that way. I guess I'm too used tot he law angle - trying to analyze all the best options for the client and providing details instead of just trying for the most money.

Then again, that is more an aspect of estate planning then even other areas of law. Which is probably one reason I've chosen not to do those.

 

[D'Snowth]

I KNEW I should've bought another one to read. I refuse to let my dirty mitts touch the one he signed.

From pages 107 and 108 of his book...

A few years back, the producers decided to put some rappers on the program. They found a trio of young men to do some scenes with Big Bird. One of the bits was written for them was to rap the alphabet. The lead rapper chanted, "A to the B, to the C, to the D, E, F..." Unfortunately, he had to do the scene three times because he kept leaving out some of the alphabet. On the fourth try he got it right, but then I blew the closing line. When he was told he'd have to do it one more time, he lost his cool. He yelled, "Stupid bird," and then hit Big Bird across the beak so hard he knocked the head right out of my hand. Big Bird's head dangled straight down, as if his beck had been broken. Everyone gasped, and I worried that the punch might have broken the fragile beak. Big Bird survived the blow, but I never saw that rapper on the show again.

 

[dwmckim]

Don't mind me, everyone. Just making a quick observation that after nine days, no moderator has fixed the title of the thread to correct the subject matter's name.

Who does one have to sl...okay, that might not be an appropriate enough question...What does one have to do to get a mod to fix something anymore 'round here? Ya can't get threads stickied, ya can't fix a glaring mistake in a title - but the mement a mod wishes to do something random and unnecesary with a thread on their own, they're all over it!

Eep.

 

[D'Snowth]

Don't mind me, everyone. Just making a quick observation that after nine days, no moderator has fixed the title of the thread to correct the subject matter's name.

Who does one have to sl...okay, that might not be an appropriate enough question...What does one have to do to get a mod to fix something anymore 'round here? Ya can't get threads stickied, ya can't fix a glaring mistake in a title - but the mement a mod wishes to do something random and unnecesary with a thread on their own, they're all over it!

Eep.

It's like I've been asking all along: how come there's periods of time where every single one of my new threads had the titles changed for no reason? It got to the point where it was so annoying that I simply started posting "Title this thread for me" so it didn't matter to me what the new title was... THEN those threads weren't retitled.

 

[CensoredAlso]

It's like I've been asking all along: how come there's periods of time where every single one of my new threads had the titles changed for no reason? It got to the point where it was so annoying that I simply started posting "Title this thread for me" so it didn't matter to me what the new title was... THEN those threads weren't retitled.

Lol, sounds like a Muppet sketch, doesn't it? Lol