The tail end of 2013 and especially the first few months of 2014…were a particularly dark and difficult time for me. It's safe to say if not for three women in my life with whom I will always have a special connection, I might not be tapping away at these keys in an altogether too warm apartment tonight. It may be nice to be a good boyfriend, but it’s even better to be a good EX-boyfriend.
Since that mid-March intervention, I've been in a slowly but surely rebuilding mode. In addition to selling off a vast number of my geeky treasures, I've also returned temporarily to my old company/job. And even if my run there is about to come to a close once again, it's been a much needed tonic. Sure, getting three months of work was helpful in giving me a slight boost out of a disheartening abyss of debt, but it's been great to have renewed focus on a day-to-day job that I actually enjoy.
However, I can’t talk about my on-going plight without addressing another elephant in the room. And no, I’m not referring to myself this time. A little more than a year ago, I posted a blog that was the internet equivalent of climbing to the top of the highest skyscraper (I’m a city boy, so no mountains for me) and trumpeting the news that the Cronenweth brothers had been signed to direct the feature film based on my script DO NOT DISTURB. Not understanding the business QUITE as well as I thought I did back then, I believed I was months away from sitting on a set watching actors speak my words.
But...the movie business is all about hurrying up to wait, and when one of the brothers left for nearly six months to shoot David Fincher’s GONE GIRL, I worried that it slowed our momentum. Rationally, having one of our guys working on such a hotly anticipated film can only help our little movie. Still, I was the one disillusioned dork connected to the project, the only guy who had “gone broke waiting for this to happen.”
Thankfully, my friend/producer helped keep my spirits up, and as of now, the movie is still on track to happen. It's just gonna take patience and time, and right now it's all about financing and investors. In a few weeks, I'm going to be devoting whatever free time I have to a major rewrite that has been discussed and simmering since last fall. Hopefully, as I've said in the past, all these months of teary-eyed handwringing will just be an extended anecdote on a future DVD commentary.
Now, for the REAL reason why I sat down to write this babbling blog.
Almost six months ago…I had put out a few list-blogs (or is it blog-list -- ah, no one cares) covering the characters I felt were the most memorable in the history of television. For any who may have missed them, you can check them out in all their awesomeness here:
Top 25 Most Memorable Dramatic Supporting Players
Top 25 Most Memorable Comedic Supporting Players
Top 50 Most Memorable Dramatic Leads
As you can see, I never got around to the Comedic Leads List. As my preamble ramble indicated, for some time, I wasn't of the mindset to cobble together a list based on sitcoms. It just wasn't gonna happen, much to the disappointment of dozens of people looking for something to read on their iPads during a bathroom break.
However, I’ve spent the last two months co-hosting a new podcast with Mother Nature’s adopted son Dan: THE SERIOUS TV DRAMA PODCAST with SCOT and DAN — the first seven episodes of what we've nicknamed "the STVD podcast" have been MAD MEN centric, so if you’re a fan, check ‘em out here: http://stvdpodcast.podbean.com
Doing that podcast has reenergized me a bit, at least enough for me to make good on my winter-given word and get that last list done. Now, I’ve decided to scale it down to the original concept of TWENTY-FIVE. I have no idea what possessed me to do FIFTY for the Dramatic Leads List other than my overall love of the category and medium. Which also explains the podcast — big time duh.
Now, I haven't done the actual list yet. I may even split it into two blogs; 25 through 11, and then the Top Ten. But FOR NOW...I thought it would be fun to share something beforehand: A list of those who were considered but ultimately DIDN’T make the list.
I’ll be upfront and say that while I love some of the characters below...a handful of these laugh-inducing leads were never going to make the list because — I just don't like them. Most lists like this would have Lucy Ricardo near the top, but I’d sooner have Lucy Van Pelt or Ricardo Montalban up there. You see, I never did love Lucy.
So Close...and Yet So Far: the Also-Rans Who Didn't Make the Top Twenty-Five
AL BUNDY (MARRIED…WITH CHILDREN)
CHRIS PETERSON (GET A LIFE)
CLIFF HUXTABLE (THE COSBY SHOW)
RAY BARONE (EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND)
ROSS GELLER (FRIENDS)
WILLIAM “WILL” SMITH (THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR)
ALEX P. KEATON (FAMILY TIES)
ANDY MILLMAN (EXTRAS)
BARNEY MILLER (BARNEY MILLER)
MR. BELVEDERE (MR. BELVEDERE)
JACK BENNY (THE JACK BENNY SHOW)
BENSON DUBOIS (BENSON)
SGT. BILKO (THE PHIL SILVERS)
DEREK NOAKES (DEREK)
DOROTHY PETRILO-ZBORNAK (THE GOLDEN GIRLS)
DREW CAREY (THE DREW CAREY SHOW)
EARL HICKEY (MY NAME IS EARL)
FRANK DREBBIN (POLICE SQUAD!)
GABE KOTTER (WELCOME BACK, KOTTER)
GARRY SHANDLING (IT'S GARRY SHANDLING'S SHOW)
GEORGE JEFFERSON (THE JEFFERSONS)
GILLIGAN (GILLIGAN'S ISLAND)
HERMAN MUNSTER (THE MUNSTERS)
JACKIE PEYTON (NURSE JACKIE)
JEFF WINGER (COMMUNITY)
LESLIE KNOPE (PARKS AND RECREATION)
LIZ LEMON (30 ROCK)
LOUIE CK (LOUIE)
LUCY RICARDO (I LOVE LUCY)
MATT LE BLANC (EPISODES)
MORTICIA & GOMEZ ADDAMS (THE ADDAMS FAMILY)
SELINA MEYER (VEEP)
SHELDON COOPER (THE BIG BANG THEORY)
Yeah...that's about right.
It's great to see you blogging again, Scot. I hope that things will only get better and better for you, from here on out. :)
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