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Gradually, they figured out how to write for you. You could pitch them something and they’d either say yay or nay. If you came up with an idea, they were open to it - and it’s not always like that. The great thing about it was they gave us a lot of latitude. How much of that was in the character that was originally pitched to you, and how much was you driving it farther into weirdness?įrench Stewart: It was a mix, because it was weird on the page, and I’m weird. That was the beginning of the process of putting together the four of us.įrench, your character defines the outer boundaries of how weird these people are going to be. They changed my entire life in five minutes. They’d gotten a little glimpse of it when I’d hosted SNL and were on the writing staff. It was such an incredible premise, and they had completely tailored it for my particular lunacy. Oh my God, how did I get into this? And then five minutes later, he persuaded me to do this. It fell to Terry to pitch this thing to me, and he said “Well, it’s about these four aliens” - and my heart just sank. I sat down and saw the whole power structure of Carsey-Werner and I suddenly realized, “I’m being pitched.” I just thought, How am I going to say no and get out of this as gracefully as I can? I thought I was just having a chummy breakfast with Bonnie and Terry, my old friends from their SNL writing days. I was sort of ambushed by Bonnie and Terry Turner and Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach at this historic breakfast. JL: This whole Frasier thing, I actually didn’t even remember it being offered to me. What was it about this that Frasier did not get for you? But then they pitched you this, and you said yes. John, you were offered the part of Frasier Crane and did not take it because you did not want to do episodic television. Kristen Johnson: When we shot the final episode. Kathryn VanArendonk: When was the last time you all saw each other?
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Download the episode from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. The panel was also released as an episode of Vulture’s comedy podcast Good One. Watch or read their conversation with our critic Kathryn VanArendonk to discover the joys of table reads with Lithgow, “hostile” April Fools’ pranks with William Shatner, and Gordon-Levitt’s very special interview with Tiger Beat. Mary Albright) on Zoom, and Will Forte (a writer on the show) via prerecorded message, reunited for the first time since the NBC sitcom wrapped in 2001. It was on display at this year’s Vulture Festival, where the foursome, along with surprise guests Wayne Knight (Officer Don Orville), Jane Curtin (Dr. And yet, when you get John Lithgow (Dick Solomon), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tommy), Kristen Johnson (Sally), and French Stewart (Harry) in the same room, the chemistry speaks for itself. You’ve heard it a million times: There’s no reason a show like 3rd Rock From the Sun - which chronicles the hijinks of four aliens masquerading as humans on planet Earth - should’ve survived beyond a discarded pilot.
