Long-running TV shows can be both a blessing and a curse. The blessing part is clear enough. If a show has been on the air long enough to exceed the old metric for syndication (100 episodes), it must be popular. (Television networks don’t have a habit of charitably renewing series that don’t have high ratings, either before or after distribution.) Regardless of genre, the longer a show lasts, the more popular it becomes. It should be fairly stable. Consider that shows like “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Grey’s Anatomy” have been on the air for literally over 20 years.
But the longer a show goes on, the more expensive it is to produce (the actors on the show are well aware of how popular they are, so they want to get paid accordingly). I’m thinking). And for guest stars who arrive late in a show’s run, whether they’re in one episode or just a few, you’ll find that the atmosphere is a little closed off to newcomers. It may happen. One such long-running show is the original version of “Frasier,” which aired on NBC from 1993 to 2004. One such late-arriving guest star is the incomparable Jean Smart. But it’s good to know that, at least for Smart, the experience was exactly as fun as fans of the Seattle-based sitcom could hope for.
Smart’s character changed from Lorna to Lana
When she appeared on “Frasier,” Smart was already a well-known figure in the world of television sitcoms thanks to her co-starring roles on “Designing Women” in the late 1980s. Smart back then, much like she is now, was a sparkling leggy blonde and was successfully cast as a grown-up version of the most popular girl from Frasier’s high school days. He had been in love with her since he was a teenager, but he couldn’t give her the slightest chance. As adults, when they met by chance, he as a famous radio personality and she as a talented real estate agent, it initially seemed like love at first sight. Everything goes well on Frasier and Lorna’s (that’s originally her name) first date, and they end up in bed together.
But the next morning, Frasier is surprised to find Lorna as rough as she is beautiful, smoking in bed, screaming at her son on the phone, and far more aggressive than when she first blushed. I did. Eventually, their relationship is strained, but Frasier runs into her again and again and ends up tutoring her ridiculously goofy son, Kirby (Brian Krugman). The character’s name was originally Lorna Lynley, but it was changed after Smart’s first appearance to avoid a fictional character having the same name as a real woman. She then became known as Lana Gardner. Smart made for a very funny fit on the show, as Lana continues to put obstacles in the way for Frasier, who falls in love with one of his friends after his own romance ends.
And luckily, that’s an opinion shared by Smart himself. A few years ago, when I was talking to someone, entertainment weekly On the eve of the new season of FX’s “Fargo,” Smart was asked to speak briefly about his time on “Frasier,” and he spoke well about the experience. “They didn’t disappear into the office after filming ended,” Smart recalled. “They were watching each other’s scenes and laughing,” she later said of how the show’s humor remains memorable because of its intentionally stilted content. Her other comments are a rarity among the long-running ’90s sitcoms.
Frasier’s wise assessment
On a show like the still-hugely popular “Friends,” the bond between the six main actors was so strong that some of the actors who made regular guest appearances seemed like an outsider looking in. He says he felt like it. interview On Conan O’Brien’s old NBC late night show. With Paul Rudd on the eve of the “Friends” finale. The actor, who played Phoebe Buffay’s eventual husband, talks about how awkward the experience was filming the finale. He kept his tongue firmly in his cheek for much of the interview, and this rings true in no small part.
Jean Smart’s career remains somewhat underrated, but her star rose thanks to shows like “The Hux” and “Watchmen,” proving her ability to dive deep into comical and dramatic characters. It’s very reassuring to see that. It’s true that the recurring role on Frasier didn’t push her too hard, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t any less interesting. And whether or not it leans toward a parasocial relationship with the TV show, Smart’s brief time on the show (she appeared in just seven of the show’s 264 episodes overall) was never on camera. It’s somewhat encouraging to know that I wasn’t cold or uncomfortable when I was there. It’s off. I’m glad Smart gave Frasier a friendly vibe, considering the end result is a brilliantly entertaining series that stayed relatively fresh for at least seven or eight of the original’s 11 seasons. It hardly matters that I was surprised. But some great shows were prone to and difficult offsets, so it’s nice to know that there was a series where it was well discussed that the leads avoided rehearsing in order to sound as fresh as possible ( he called When the cameras were rolling, he was generous in welcoming many esteemed guests.
