NOTHING IN COMMON
Television series released 2 April 1987.
Starring Bill Macy, Todd Waring, Wendy Kilbourne, Elizabeth Bennett, Mona Lyden, Bill Applebaum, Patrick Richwood and Billy Wirth.
Directed by Garry Marshall
Executive producer Garry Marshall
Written by Rick Podell and Michael Preminger
PLOT: "He employs a skateboard- riding ex-con (Billy Wirth) as his cameraman." NOTHING IN COMMON
NEWS ARTICLE:
Bill Macy cools down acting style
St. Petersburg Times - 04/30/87LOS ANGELES - Bill Macy, who used to play theloud-mouthed husband on Maude, says he had to cool down his style when he accepted the role as the meddling father in NBC's Nothing in Common, which airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. on WXFL-Channel 8.
``I had to come down a lot,`` he said. ``When I did Maudefor Norman Lear he wanted us to play everything for the second balcony.
Bea Arthur and I were stage actors, so there was no problem.
``For Nothing in Common I found a new ground that letsme do a lot of comedy and still be real. Which I think is why they hired me.`` He laughed and added, ``I do my best acting getting hired.
I auditioned on Thursday, got an OK on Friday and went to work on Tuesday.
``I find that quite natural. I never object to auditioning,although some actors consider it beneath them.``
Macy stars with Todd Waring in the comedy series Nothing inCommon, which is based on the movie starring Jackie Gleasonand Tom Hanks.
Garry Marshall, who had a hand in creating Happy Days,Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy, directed the movie and is executive producer of the limited spring series.
The show made its bow on Thursday, April 2, and thelast of the seven episodes will be broadcast on May 14.
The show's fate will be known on May 13, when NBCannounces its fall schedule.
``They'd be stupid not to pick it up,`` Macy said. Theshow ranked 14th in the A.C. Nielsen Co. ratings for the week of April 13-19.
``When you get older you get a better feeling for the material and the vibes. This show has a great human quality to it, thanks to Garry Marshall. It's not joke, joke, joke. It's not cartoons.``
Waring plays David Basner, a young advertisingexecutive who is on his own until his father shows up. Macy is Max Basner, recently retired and recently divorced and suddenly lonely and inactive. He was too busy to spend time with David when he was growing up and now he wants to atone.
The show also stars Wendy Kilbourne, Elizabeth Bennett, Mona Lyden, Bill Applebaum, Patrick Richwood and Billy Wirth.
``We handle the relationship between the father andson much more lightly than in the picture,`` said Macy. ``I'm not sick like Jackie Gleason was. I think the only similarity is that we're the same age. And Todd Waring isn't doing Tom Hanks. He's doing the role as he sees it. I didn't even see the picture until a few days ago.
``I meddle in his life. I have a lot of time on my hands. Iwas a toy salesman. Jackie was a clothing salesman. I was onthe road. Willie Loman? You're looking at him.``
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Thursday, April 2, 1987 Source: By Clifford Terry, TV/radio critic.
Nothing in Common,`` an NBC series that premieres at 8:30 p.m. Thursday on Channel 5, is based on the 1986 comedy-drama of the same name but in the transitional process tosses out the drama and leaves what is supposed to qualify as comedy.
In the feature film--directed by Garry Marshall (``The Flamingo Kid``) and written by two former stand-up comedians, Rick Podell and Michael Preminger--Tom Hanks starred as David Basner, a young, rising who-says-you- can`t-have-it-all Chicago advertising executive who is forced to deal with his own reality when confronted with the divorce of his aging parents (Jackie Gleason and Eva Marie Saint) and the father`s loss of his garment-sales job as well as his health.
In the half-hour spinoff, swinging-bachelor Basner (Todd Waring) has been reduced to a sitcom Johnny-one-note: the flake by the lake. A ``crazy boy- genius`` who has left the agency to start his own ad firm, he broods about becoming too serious, as his father (the mother apparently has been given the hook) observes, ``You`re still a nut--but you`re the head nut.`` Just in case the viewer misses the point, the son later tells his new, beautiful market researcher (Wendy Kilbourne), ``Welcome to the nut house.``
Hey, just how nutty is this guy? Well, he not only employs a skateboard- riding ex-con (Billy Wirth) as his cameraman, but himself wears a silly hat with ``hands`` that can be made to applaud, and he periodically pounds his desk with a Styrofoam sledge hammer. And, hey, when the stuffed-shirt executive from the client`s company brings up his reputation as ``a certifiable wacko,`` he retorts, ``I haven`t mooned a public official in years.``
In the opener, Basner has just landed his first major commercial--for Double Crunch cereal. ``Knock my socks off, send me to the roof,`` he tells his top copywriters, one a boot-licker (Bill Applebaum), the other a wisecracker (Chicago actress Mona Lyden, best known for playing a certain mayor in ``Byrne, Baby, Byrne``). Enter the boy-genius` father, Max (Bill Macy), now a sometime toy salesman and full-time gambler. Casually walking into the audition, the nonactor eventually lands the role of the grandfather --and the breakfast-food shoot, of course, turns into a disaster.
NEW 2008 Multi Pages of Never Before Seen Photos From Nothing
Updated 4/08 MM