PASADENA, Calif. _ They say that dying is easy, comedy hard. You couldn't prove that by the sitcoms that manage to plumb laughter week after week. With hits like "Modern Family," "black-ish," "The Big Bang Theory" and "The Real O'Neals," the humor just keeps coming.
How and why do they do manage that? For Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory," it's a matter of writing out the lines first. "I literally need to be able to see it in my head," he says.
"And when I get stuck, nine times out of 10, I can tell you the word begins with a D-A something. It's a little computeresque. It's not funny until it's IN you. So you can come out and play everything under it that's there from the lines. But it can be an arduous process to get there. It's rewarding. I enjoy the work, so I'm lucky that it's not painful for me. I like it, but a lot of head-banging goes on to get there."
Many actors credit the writers for constructing the springboard from which they can dive deep into comedy. Many of the zany situations come from real life.
"We're basically continually hoping for catastrophe in our writers' lives," says Ty Burrell, who plays Phil on "Modern Family." "We hope things continue to go really poorly at home ... As the show got more successful, it relieved some guilt from me about the writers.
"They are in a real grind ... It's three A-stories, essentially, are getting written every week for the show, and we (the actors) were going home at 3 or 4 every day. So with the press (responsibilities) and stuff _ in a weird way _ it kind of makes us feel like we're pulling our weight. It's kind of, like, equal now."
"The great thing about our writers is they are so, so much smarter than us, and we're just like these pawns," says Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell on "Modern Family."
"They know. They're five steps ahead of us. They already have, like, five (alternatives) for their lines they already know that may not work. We're never put in the position where we might have to yuck it up. I've been in those shows, and that's not fun to do."
Lucas Neff, who played Jimmy for four years on "Raising Hope" and is shooting a pilot for ABC Studios, says it's a matter of quality. "People talk about this sort of being the 'golden age' for television, and cable suddenly being this realm of real exploration. And you're 'Mad Men's and 'Sopranos' are on for so many years, and stuff like that. Would anybody be talking about that if the writing wasn't there? I mean, at some point, as much as this isn't a meritocracy, it's important for things to be GOOD. Like, if it's funny, people will laugh. If it's dramatically truthful, people will pay attention."
"At the heart of it, the silliness of this character, is the reason I ever got into acting in the first place," says Burrell. "I ended up doing a lot of drama early on. Most of my parts were very dramatic parts. It's not that I didn't enjoy them, but since I started comedy, I've just felt more at home. I will continue to enjoy doing dramatic stuff, but I get so much joy out of this work that doesn't need to be over thought. It's like playing baseball or gardening, or whatever you do naturally."
Tracee Ellis Ross, of "black-ish" says her character, Rainbow Johnson, reflects her own life. "As a mixed girl, you're constantly (questioning), 'Are you black?' 'Are you white?'
"I'm, like, why do I have to be either? And so this idea of what is race, what is black, and what is this conversation? And I think it's a conversation that everyone is already having. And, yes, we are telling it specifically from this point of view, but it is a universal conversation, especially in this day and age in the world that we live in today."
Jason Segel, who played Marshall for nine years on "How I Met Your Mother," thinks that successful sitcoms can become part of our lives.
"We were told comedy was dead. We didn't stand a chance. Sitcoms aren't going to make it. And slowly people got tired of it, and they wanted to sit and laugh ... I think about the 8 o'clock slot a lot, or the 8:30 slot, what's going on during that period? People aren't sitting there like they're watching a movie, attuned to every joke. You're helping your kids with their homework, and you're making dinner, and you're puttering about your house. And there's something nice about having something that's just making you laugh in a very easy, calm way that, I think, people started to miss."
For Martha Plimpton, the comedy in "The Real O'Neals" gives her the chance to diversify. "Working in the theater and working in New York and being able to do the things that I get to do out there means I have a taste for good writing, I have a hankering and a yearning for it," she says. "The honest truth is, if I want to have that experience, the place to do it is either in New York in the theater or on television right now. For a character actress TV is a goldmine. It's not happening in films at all ..."
'THE FORCE' ARRIVES SEPT. 10
The Force will definitely be with you on Sept. 10 when Starz presents the TV premiere of "Star Wars: the Force Awakens." The seventh installment in the "The Star Wars" franchise will premiere on all six Starz channels at 9 and 11:20 p.m. and can be downloaded via the Starz app. This is the project that reunited Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill, all from the original movie. Hamill says he's always had an ambivalent attitude about acting. He worked briefly as a copy boy for the Associated Press, as an ice-cream vendor, a janitor, a dialect tutor, and a waiter at Jack-in-the-Box. None of those jobs really prepared him for acting, which he considers leaving every day. The best part is when you're on the stage and "have the audience in the palm of your hand," he says. The worst part is that you're never quite where you want to be. "You can't relax and go, 'Ah, now I'm there. This is what I've always wanted.'"
IT'S TEAMWORK FOR MARRIED STARS
Husband and wife Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have worked together on several projects including "Lemon Sky," the film on which they met. They love the joint effort and will have the chance again with Lifetime's "Story of a Girl," which Sedgwick will direct and in which Bacon will star. It's the tale of how a young girl's life is upended when a sex video of her hits the Internet. Production begins next month in Vancouver for a 2017 release.
Married for 28 years, Sedgwick recalls how Bacon proposed. "He put a ring in the toe of a stocking and Christmas Eve we opened our stockings, and it was there at the bottom. And then he got down on his knees and he was shaking and said, 'Will you marry me?' I thought, 'What took you so long?' We'd been going out for 10 months already ... He says it took a long time for me to say yes, but I'm sure it wasn't more than 20 seconds."
GARRY MARSHALL'S SECRET WEAPON
It was so sad to hear that Garry Marshall is no longer with us. He died on July 13 at 81. He started as an actor, but developed into a fine comic director with films like "The Princess Diaries," "Dear God," "Pretty Woman." He also produced the super smash "Laverne & Shirley" and "Mork & Mindy" for television and was ALWAYS funny and modest as a person.
He once told me his secret to keeping peace on the set was to hire an actor that had a calming effect on the others. That actor was often Hector Elizondo ("Pretty Woman"). "Usually I hire Hector because there's a decorum, he's professional," said Marshall.
"So the way Hector acts, other people don't get crazy or temperamental. Ron Howard was the adult on 'Happy Days.' Conrad Janis was hired just for that purpose (on "Mork & Mindy") 'cause they're all people running around bumping into each other. 'Laverne & Shirley' was a tough group, so I had to bring in Phil Foster from New York who could actually beat them up if it came to that. I used in the picture, 'Oh, God,' Roscoe Lee Browne, a very professional gentleman 'cause we had all these kids running around in the picture, different personalities. Some actors can form a bond saying, 'Let's do a good job.'"
