‘All My Children’ and ‘One Life to Live’ Canceled

Posted on April 17, 2011 at 8:00 am

ABC has announced that it is canceling two soap operas, “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.” These daytime dramas go back decades — “All My Children” premiered in January 0f 1970 and “One Life to Live” in July of 1968. Both were created by the legendary Agnes Nixon, who began her career with Irna Phillips, the original creator of the idea of the soap opera, back in the radio era. They had all of the core elements that Phillips pioneered: intertwined, open-ended stories of marriage and family, filled with romance, tragedy, betrayal, suffering, secrets, and lies, but always with a sense of hope and resilience. They give their devoted fans a chance to see characters get older in real time over generations.

When they began, “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” were cutting edge. “All My Children” was designed to focus on the younger characters, a reflection of the 60’s era baby boomers who were coming of age and having an enormous impact on politics and popular culture. Some of its main characters were teenagers, including Erica Kane (future legend Susan Lucci), who became pregnant and had television’s first legal abortion, when she was married to her first husband, Jeff Martin. Erica would go on to get married somewhere around ten more times, though not all of the marriages were valid. How many of her husbands can you name? “One Life to Live” was created to reflect the heightened interest in racial and social conflicts. Nixon said she was “tired of the restraints imposed by the WASPy, noncontroversial nature of daytime drama.” The two shows exist in the same fictional world and characters have appeared in both.

At one time, the daytime schedules were filled with soap operas (the name comes from their sponsors –makers of laundry detergent and other household cleaners — and the epic nature of their plot lines). But they are expensive to produce, requiring writers, actors, sets (mansions, hospitals, courtrooms), and lots of make-up and hair artists. They are being replaced by a couple of talk shows — “The Chew” (really) will be a “View”-style show about food. And, just to balance it out, “The Revolution,” a weight-loss and fitness show. They’ll never last as long or earn the dedication as “All My Children?”‘ and “One Life to Live.”

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Interview: Candace Cameron Bure of ‘Truth Be Told’

Posted on April 13, 2011 at 8:00 am

“Family Movie Night,” sponsored by Proctor & Gamble and Walmart, has produced another fine film for all ages. Candace Cameron Bure (“Full House,” “Make It or Break It”) stars in “Truth Be Told,” the story of a marriage counselor who is not married. When she has a job opportunity that requires a husband, she tells a lie, and enlists an old friend and his children to pretend to be her family.

I spoke to Candace about the role and about her work and her ministry, speaking about her faith and giving back to the community.

Tell me about “Truth Be Told.”

I couldn’t have been more excited when I was sent this script. I had seen some of the Family Movie Night shows and said to myself, “I want to do one of those!” When I read the script, it was absolutely perfect. I fell in love with Annie Morgan, the character I play. She’s a family and marriage counselor. It was something I can totally relate to, and family and marriage are so important to me. I do a lot of speaking at conferences and churches about family and marriage, so it was a topic I am passionate about. The premise is that one little lie snowballs into this huge mess and honesty is always the best policy.

That’s what I love about this series. These are not kids’ films that adults can tolerate or movies directed at adults without offensive content but true family movies with characters and situations that everyone in the family can understand and will want to talk about later.

I appreciate it as a mom. I have 12, 11, and 9 year-olds. I loved the fact that Proctor & Gamble and Walmart teamed up to give us this time on a Friday night when we can sit down with our families and watch a movie that we don’t have to worry about. It gives us things to think about and to open up some conversations with the family. “What happens if you tell a lie?” Depending on the age of your kids it can be a very simple conversation but you can turn it to a situation you and your family have recently experienced. I can open the door for something else your child has been struggling with. You use it as a platform for whatever dialogue needs to be exposed in your family at this time.

What happens in the film?

My character is offered a job at a radio station and because she is a marriage counselor, they assume she is married. And family is very important to the man who owns the company. She is probably not going to get the job unless she has a husband. She runs into an old college friend who is a widower and convinces him and his children to pretend to be her family for the weekend. The relationship develops — it is definitely a romantic comedy.

What is your experience like as you speak to groups about your faith?

I’ve been speaking and sharing my Christian faith for seven or eight years, and now I am speaking to the bigger groups like Extraordinary Women and Women of Joy. I actually just got back from a conference with Extraordinary Women. Sometimes there’s anywhere from 1500-15,000 ladies I will speak to. It is an amazing opportunity for me to share my faith and what is important to me and ultimately the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think I am as encouraged or maybe even more to see that God allows me to be used in that sense. These ladies will tell me they are encouraged by hearing my story and yet I am in awe that I am just a person getting this opportunity so I feel very privileged. It’s a very different thing from being on television. Most people would think that you would automatically be comfortable if you’re an actress to go up on stage to speak but it is actually very different. It’s not the number of people that scares me. The more there are, the easier it is for me. But it is a very different thing to open your heart and share your heart and be exposed in that way, not reading a memorized script or acting a different character. I get much more nervous speaking live at an event. You throw a camera on me and I am comfortable!

You have written about your faith as a way to manage food issues.

I had an emotional attachment to food. I ran to food for comfort, to fill a void instead of realizing I had to run to God for those things. I learned to honor my body by eating healthily and exercising but really by putting my faith into the forefront of my relationship with food by honoring my body as a temple God gave me and learning to run to Him for those needs and not to turn to food for it. I don’t enjoy getting up at 5 am some mornings but I see it as a necessity to take care of my body. To eat healthy, that’s all about the choices I make whether in a restaurant or the grocery story. The food’s not making it for me. There are so many tools out there to get us on the right track and help us make better choices. We don’t value those choices as much as we should. One choice a day, one choice an hour. If you look at it this way, it’s not so overwhelming.

Do you have a favorite Bible passage?

I don’t like that question because there are so many good ones! But the one that’s been on my computer desktop recently is Philippians 1, Verse 6. I just go, “God’s good work is in all of us and He will carry that on.” I don’t need to worry about it, I don’t need to stress over it. I know God has a plan set before me and I need to obediently just follow the footsteps that he’s laid out and keep my eyes focused on Him and He will carry out that good work to completion. And whatever that is, it might not be my own expectation but He knows what that is.

It’s everything. We read the Bible together and we talk about verses that can help us focus for that day. If we have a need or a worry for that day we find verses where it talks about it. We go to church. My kids are involved in Awana and youth group. My daughter has started leading worship and singing at her chapel. They go to a Christian school. So it is in every aspect of our lives but most important, my husband and I try to be that example, to show them that it is not just words but by our own actions and what we do.

Truth Be Told

Upstairs, Downstairs — Old and New

Posted on April 10, 2011 at 12:58 pm

I loved the old PBS series “Upstairs, Downstairs,” which ran from 1971-75 on the BBC. It was revolutionary because it gave almost-equal time to the stories of the servants (downstairs) and the wealthy Edwardian-era family they worked for (upstairs). Jean Marsh, who played a housemaid, was the series co-creator with her friend Eileen Atkins. A new 40th anniversary DVD set has been released by Acorn Media with more than 25 hours of new bonus material.

Marsh returns for three new episodes, this time with Atkins, as the sequel to “Upstairs, Downstairs” begins tonight on PBS.

When the master of 165 Eaton Place, Sir Hallam Holland, carries his wife across the threshold of their new home, Lady Agnes exclaims with pleasure, “What a ghastly old mausoleum!” Neglect has strewn cobwebs everywhere and furred the surfaces with dust. But with a sumptuous renovation and the help of the indomitable housekeeper Rose Buck (Jean Marsh), the iconic address so beloved in the original series Upstairs Downstairs is soon restored to its former glory.

It’s 1936, a tumultuous time in Britain, and within the walls of 165 Eaton Place, characters from an orphanage, a damp Welsh castle, the heart of the British Raj and elsewhere together will face a changing world, not just upstairs and downstairs, but side by side.

Upstairs Downstairs

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Triangle: Remembering the Fire

Posted on March 26, 2011 at 10:41 pm

One hundred years ago this week, 146 people were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a tragedy compounded because it was the result of preventable neglect and safety violations. An excellent new documentary, Triangle: Remembering the Fire, is showing this month on HBO. The film includes interviews with family members of those who were injured or killed in what was the deadliest industrial tragedy in New York history as well as the descendants of the factory owners, who were there with their children the day of the fire but were able to escape. Some members of their extended family were also working there and were killed. Most of the people who died were immigrant women who were trapped when the fire started, in some cases because the doors were locked to keep them inside. Many were killed not by the fire but by leaping out of the windows in a desperate attempt to escape after the flimsy fire escape collapsed. Six of the victims were not identified until February of this year, 100 years later.

The film documents not just the terrible events of March 25, 1911 but also the reform efforts they inspired. The company’s managers failed to make even the most rudimentary efforts at safety for the workers. While those injured and the families of those killed were not entitled to any benefits, the managers were reimbursed by insurance and were not responsible for any fines or compensation for the losses. This led to the first recognition that the industrial era required the involvement of organized labor and government to ensure that basic protections were in place, a crucial turning point in the history of public policy and politics. The film was inspired when a previous film from the same producers about the garment industry began with a short mention of the Triangle factory fire and ended with a similar recent story about a fire at a factory in Bangladesh. Its lessons are as important today as they were a century ago.

Triangle: Remembering the Fire

For more information, see: The lesson guide for teachers and students on the HBO website, American Experience: Triangle Fire, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, and The Triangle Fire: A Brief History with Documents

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Interview: Tim Griffin of ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Bourne,’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

Posted on March 15, 2011 at 3:58 pm

Tim Griffin is the ultimate utility infielder, a top-notch actor who can handle drama, comedy, and action, and a favorite of directors like George Clooney, J.J. Abrams, and Doug Liman. You’ve seen him a dozen times — perhaps on television in “Cold Case,” “Lie to Me,” “Bones,” “C.S.I. Miami” or as George’s brother in “Grey’s Anatomy.” And he’s appeared on screen with George Clooney (“Leatherheads”), Matt Damon (“The Bourne Supremacy”), and Robert Downey, Jr. (“Iron Man”). He will play one of the leads in the upcoming cop series, “Prime Suspect,” with Maria Bello in a role adapted from the UK series starring Helen Mirren.

We are both Chicago natives, and I had a blast talking with him about going on auditions, working on both big-budget blockbusters and tiny independent films, a lucky car breakdown, and getting punched by Matt Damon.

Tim Griffin HD Demo Reel (2010) from Tim Griffin on Vimeo.

You must be an amazing auditioner to get such an array of roles. What’s your secret?

I call it a meeting instead of an audition – maybe it just sounds better that way in my head.

Auditioning is an underrated art. I’ve had a lot of practice! It depends on the project, but no matter how big the meeting, it is better if you are relaxed. The more desperate you are to impress them, the more it creates the opposite impression. Just let it go.

I’ll illustrate it with a story about my latest addition for Prime Suspect, a television series. I was there with Peter Berg, the director, and the casting directors. I knew them – they put me in Gray’s Anatomy, but I had never met Peter. I had 2 1/2 pages of sides , a straight, boiler-plate detective, talking to Maria Bello’s character, and we’re the old boys network types, dismissive, giving her the run-around. I like to have it memorized before I go in. I have a semi-eidetic memory, so that’s one thing I do.

So I read the lines and Peter Berg, who’s just so incredible, he did the movie and the pilot for “Friday Night Lights,” he said, “You’re just a phenomenal actor. You could be any one of these guys.” He wanted me to read for one of the leads, Augie Blando. But I had never even looked at the Blando pages. In the audition process you sometimes don’t want to know too much; you don’t want to know more than your character does. So I had no idea who Augie was.

They asked me to read the Augie sides. I said, “Why don’t you let the next guy in, so I can go out and look these over?” It was six pages, all my character, a totally different character than the one I prepared for, a lot of monologue. I look around the waiting area and there’s a room full of brilliant actors. Luckily, one of my fellow “Leatherheads,” Robert Baker, was there. All the Leatherheads are like brothers now. He said, “Would you like me to read those with you?” By having him read with me, I was able to go back in with the sides totally memorized. They acted like I was Rain Man! There was no way I could have prepared for that; you have to be in the moment. The next thing I knew, I had a contact for a test deal and then just a contract, no test, I had the job.

You appeared in one of my favorite scenes last year, opposite David Andrews as Scooter Libby in “Fair Game.” That was quite a confrontation!

The read-through for that movie was incredible. Every actor there, even those with just one line, had stepped out of a Broadway show or had been handling that level of performance quality. David Andrews really had to fight for that role because the producers said, “If we can get another name….” When we did the read-through, neither one of us had the role. I was still being considered for two roles. Sean Penn set the scene early . He was immediately confrontational — his intensity ratcheted everyone else up. Everyone had to bring his A game to the table read. David Andrews never took his eyes off me in our scene. He delivered his lines with such razor-like animosity, I said to myself, “I’m going to give it everything I have.”

We got instant offers. And he kept his distance throughout the filming so we could keep that tension between us. I didn’t know he was Southern until after the shoot!

What was it like to get beat up by Matt Damon in “The Bourne Supremacy?”

He deviated my septum! If you look carefully and slow down the scene, you can see it. Watch my eyes. But it was worth every ounce of pain because we got it in the movie. There’s nothing worse than suffering a terrible injury and it wasn’t on camera!

How did you get started?

I come from a non-acting household in Chicago. I started with local theater and a local movie, then went off and did a huge miniseries, a real awakening for me. I wanted something as isolated from that as I could find, so I went to college at the University of Vermont. It turns out they have a phenomenal theater department with the Champlain Shakespeare Festival and more. I ended up acting while I was an English and political philosophy major.

Then I was driving home and my car broke down outside of New York City my sophomore year. My agent said, “As long as you’re stuck there, we might as well have you look for work.” Nothing was going on because of the writer’s strike, so she sent me out for “Taking a Stand,” an afterschool special, the only show that was filming. Because everything else was shut down, it had an incredible cast. As soon as I got to Chicago, they flew me back — I got the part.

I loved working. I was supposed to do a year abroad in school but instead went to LA for a year, worked all year, and then went back and got my degree.

What do you aspire to?

My whole MO is that the variety of all these roles is what makes me most proud, in the tradition of actors like Gene Hackman, who did comedy, drama, and action. Stephen Root, who has become a friend, is always getting to do great projects. He has a wonderful body of work. It’s sometimes considered a dirty word to call yourself a character actor, but that’s what you should aspire to be.

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