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Calendar Events / Announcements '04 I / Re:Blair Brown TV Guide Article
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college, she thought of taking a year off to study acting, a cheap substitute for going to Europe. Her father had a connection at the Canadian Embassy, and it was arranged that she audition for the National Theater School of Canada. "That was very uncharacteristic of him. I realize now that he must have been very worried about me."
Clearly, he was guided by some Higher Power. She was accepted at the Theater School, and almost instantly knew that it was what she wanted to do with her life. The training was classical, and after three years, the graduates fed into regional theater. In 1976, she landed a part in the NBC miniseries Captains and the Kings and came to California, where she met Jordan on the set. "I remember the second I first saw him. He was doing a scene, and he sizzled. He was a tall, incredibly handsome man with a lot of hair swishing around."
The roles in miniseries, TV-movies and feature films followed. In between, she appeared in plays. She worked steadily and well, but there was a crowded field
of actresses her age, and she never quite broke through into stardom. But if any one role was critical in her life, it was the one she played in "Continental Divide" opposite John Belushi. She felt closest to her character, a naturalist who lives in the Rockies. "I liked the fact that she was stubbom and formidable and could dig in. It's not necessarily an admirable quality, but I like that."
And in a way, her life imitated the film. Her character and Belushi's--a Chicago reporter--fall in love. At the end, they marry and agree to live apart in their separate worlds. Now, six years later in real life, she lives in New York with her work and her son, while Hare remains in London with his work and his children. She accepts this without self-pity. Could either abandon their lives and just move? "I know that way madness lies," she says. "It would mean unhappiness for everyone."
But "Continental Divide" also had a practical impact on her career. Its executive producer, Bernie Brillstein, approached her about starring in a series and introduced her to Jay Tarses. The two hit it off, and Tarses produced a pilot about high-school teachers called The Faculty, which ABC found too dark. At about this time, NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff asked Tarses and Brillstein to develop a series about a woman in her mid-30s who lives in the city. Brown was immediately wrapped into the package, and Tarses flew to New York to get to know her well enough to write the character around her. When Tarses came up with Molly Dodd, Brillstein quipped, "If The Mary Tyler Moore Show were made in the '80s, she would be divorced and not so happy and she'd go to a shrink."
This makes Molly a risky, unsettling show. Its loosely wrapped half-hour episodes are hardly typical sitcom. The producers call it a dramatic comedy. "We want slices of life, vignettes," says Tarses. "We want our characters to grow and change slightly as you get to know them." Says Brilistein, "I truly believe the audience is smarter than we credit them for being. And Topeka isn't so different from New York or Los Angeles. Not every show has to have a 40 share." Yet Molly has surprised everyone with ratings in or near the top 10 in its early weeks.
While the producers anxiously await word of renewal from NBC, back in her hotel room the star of the Show takes it all in stride. She likes Molly, and she would like to do more with her in later episodes. The breakfast coffee gets cold and morning ripens into noon. Hare calls again, incredulous that she is still being interviewed. But she is used to making all the jigsaw pieces of her life fit together somehow--her work, her son, his father, her distant boy friend. Hits and failures and things too close to call. Since that morning, she and Hare have ended their relationship. "As you grow older," Brown says, "you realize that you have to absorb losses and contradictory truths. A lot of them are very sad, and that's what living is. Everybody gets it doled out." [end]
TV GUIDE JULY 25, 1987
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college, she thought of taking a year off to study acting, a cheap substitute for going to Europe. Her father had a connection at the Canadian Embassy, and it was arranged that she audition for the National Theater School of Canada. "That was very uncharacteristic of him. I realize now that he must have been very worried about me."
Clearly, he was guided by some Higher Power. She was accepted at the Theater School, and almost instantly knew that it was what she wanted to do with her life. The training was classical, and after three years, the graduates fed into regional theater. In 1976, she landed a part in the NBC miniseries Captains and the Kings and came to California, where she met Jordan on the set. "I remember the second I first saw him. He was doing a scene, and he sizzled. He was a tall, incredibly handsome man with a lot of hair swishing around."
The roles in miniseries, TV-movies and feature films followed. In between, she appeared in plays. She worked steadily and well, but there was a crowded field
of actresses her age, and she never quite broke through into stardom. But if any one role was critical in her life, it was the one she played in "Continental Divide" opposite John Belushi. She felt closest to her character, a naturalist who lives in the Rockies. "I liked the fact that she was stubbom and formidable and could dig in. It's not necessarily an admirable quality, but I like that."
And in a way, her life imitated the film. Her character and Belushi's--a Chicago reporter--fall in love. At the end, they marry and agree to live apart in their separate worlds. Now, six years later in real life, she lives in New York with her work and her son, while Hare remains in London with his work and his children. She accepts this without self-pity. Could either abandon their lives and just move? "I know that way madness lies," she says. "It would mean unhappiness for everyone."
But "Continental Divide" also had a practical impact on her career. Its executive producer, Bernie Brillstein, approached her about starring in a series and introduced her to Jay Tarses. The two hit it off, and Tarses produced a pilot about high-school teachers called The Faculty, which ABC found too dark. At about this time, NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff asked Tarses and Brillstein to develop a series about a woman in her mid-30s who lives in the city. Brown was immediately wrapped into the package, and Tarses flew to New York to get to know her well enough to write the character around her. When Tarses came up with Molly Dodd, Brillstein quipped, "If The Mary Tyler Moore Show were made in the '80s, she would be divorced and not so happy and she'd go to a shrink."
This makes Molly a risky, unsettling show. Its loosely wrapped half-hour episodes are hardly typical sitcom. The producers call it a dramatic comedy. "We want slices of life, vignettes," says Tarses. "We want our characters to grow and change slightly as you get to know them." Says Brilistein, "I truly believe the audience is smarter than we credit them for being. And Topeka isn't so different from New York or Los Angeles. Not every show has to have a 40 share." Yet Molly has surprised everyone with ratings in or near the top 10 in its early weeks.
While the producers anxiously await word of renewal from NBC, back in her hotel room the star of the Show takes it all in stride. She likes Molly, and she would like to do more with her in later episodes. The breakfast coffee gets cold and morning ripens into noon. Hare calls again, incredulous that she is still being interviewed. But she is used to making all the jigsaw pieces of her life fit together somehow--her work, her son, his father, her distant boy friend. Hits and failures and things too close to call. Since that morning, she and Hare have ended their relationship. "As you grow older," Brown says, "you realize that you have to absorb losses and contradictory truths. A lot of them are very sad, and that's what living is. Everybody gets it doled out." [end]
TV GUIDE JULY 25, 1987