Danny Jacobson class!!! - Mad About You stories
Buchmans
I recently took a TV screenwriting class taught by Mad About You co-creator
Danny Jacobson. The first thing I can say is that he is very quick on his feet
and very funny - its easy to see why he is suited to writing for a weekly
series. He told us some great stories including how he named Jamie Buchman
after a girl he went to school with - Amy Buchman. And that he and Paul had
originally seen Jamie as a brunette since their wives are both brunettes, even
though Amy had been a blonde. He also said that Paul suggest Helen Hunt for
Jamie and that it came down to Helen and Teri Hatcher at the final audition for
the network. He said the network thought she was a good actress but they
weren't sure she could be funny. Danny said when they first walked in the
studio guys quietly said "Definitely Teri" but Helen did such an incredible
impression of Paul (the scene from the first episode) that even Paul was
surprised. Can you imagine Teri Hatcher as Jamie!!!! I mean we could have
never been given the chance to see the beautiful and talented Ms. Hunt in our
favorite show.
Danny also said his favorite opening segment was when Jamie walks out with the
toilet paper roll and shows Paul how to replace it -- "Voila" I also asked
him what happened to Selby. He said the actor who played Selby was good early
but his performances trailed off after a few episodes and that's when Danny
basically said to him, "You have three episodes to improve or we won't pick you
up for the second half of the season" Tommy Hinkley (Selby) and his agent
basically said, "You can't do that" and threatened to sue and as Danny said,
"It came down to Sony vs. Selby" - Guess who won?
Danny also admitted that when he and Paul created the series - their original
vision was the show would be about this newlywed couple going through those
awkward early stages of marriage and that when you heard that baby cry at its
birth, the show would be over since that phase of their lives would be over.
Danny also told some great stories about working on Roseanne and some other
shows. He also told us he gets called to improve or add to some movie scripts.
His best example was writing the opening scene to Bad Boys (where Martin
Lawrence and Will Smith are car jacked) at the director's request -- after he
had shot most of the movie.
It was great class, my compliments to Mr. Jacobson and I hope you all enjoyed
this true insider insight into our favorite show.
Tan Hui Ping
> It was great class, my compliments to Mr. Jacobson and I hope you all enjoyed
How big a part does Mr Danny play in Mad now? Just curious.
Loved your stories. Any more where those came from?
Mark L. Levinson
Can you imagine Teri Hatcher as Jamie!!!! I mean we could have
never been given the chance to see the beautiful and talented
Ms. Hunt in our favorite show.
** On the other hand, seeing HH as Lois Lane would
have been some compensation ...
Mark L.
Wendy Grossman
In article <199806040110...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
buch...@aol.com (Buchmans) wrote:
> I recently took a TV screenwriting class taught by Mad About You co-crea
> tor
> Danny Jacobson. The first thing I can say is that he is very quick on h
> is feet
> and very funny - its easy to see why he is suited to writing for a weekl
> y
> series. He told us some great stories including how he named Jamie Buch
> man
> after a girl he went to school with - Amy Buchman. And that he and Paul
> had
> originally seen Jamie as a brunette since their wives are both brunettes
> , even
> though Amy had been a blonde. He also said that Paul suggest Helen Hunt
> for
> Jamie and that it came down to Helen and Teri Hatcher at the final audit
> ion for
> the network. He said the network thought she was a good actress but the
> y
> weren't sure she could be funny. Danny said when they first walked in t
> he
> studio guys quietly said "Definitely Teri" but Helen did such an incred
> ible
> impression of Paul (the scene from the first episode) that even Paul was
> surprised. Can you imagine Teri Hatcher as Jamie!!!! I mean we could ha
> ve
> never been given the chance to see the beautiful and talented Ms. Hunt i
> n our
> favorite show.
>
The truly amazing part of that story is trying to imagine Teri Hatcher
being remotely funny. I can't imagine having had the same feeling for the
show with her in it.
wg
jEePiEE
Wendy Grossman wrote:
> > Can you imagine Teri Hatcher as Jamie!!!! I mean we could have
>
>
> The truly amazing part of that story is trying to imagine Teri Hatcher
> being remotely funny. I can't imagine having had the same feeling for the
> show with her in it.
I have to agree, I could never imagine MAY being as warm and funny and
realistic with Teri Hatcher. Thank goodness we got Helen and Teri stuck
to Superman :)
kIwI
--
Whenever I say, "I'll never do that again", I'm probably lying to
myself!
Edward S. Chen
In article <EuBHs...@cix.compulink.co.uk>,
Wendy Grossman <wen...@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <199806040110...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
>buch...@aol.com (Buchmans) wrote:
>>
>> ve
>> never been given the chance to see the beautiful and talented Ms. Hunt i
>> n our
>> favorite show.
>>
>
>The truly amazing part of that story is trying to imagine Teri Hatcher
>being remotely funny. I can't imagine having had the same feeling for the
>show with her in it.
Ironic since the two ladies' shows were caught against each other
in a network time-slot death grip for awhile. Besides, the harder thing to
imagine is Helen Hunt as Lois Lane ;-)
<ESC>
--
"Life's a counterfeit, when you look at it."
-- Art Garfunkel (avoiding Eric Idle's Curse), 1997
---------------:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::----------------