I am, what, 16 minutes into his new TV series, Charlie Lawrence. I’m off to the bathroom right now, to turn the water on and open my wrists.
So, you’re saying it isn’t good, then?
Remember that series a few years ago where he played a washed-up opera singer? That was The Simpsons compared to this. Why does such a talented actor keep getting into such pig-swill excuses for sitcoms?
Possibly because television creators are willing to pay him obscene amounts of money to appear in pig-swill sitcoms.
Mr. Lane has never impressed me as a man dedicated to the purity of his art; he is there to do a workmanlike job for his paycheck. Remember Mousehunt?
When does Lane do the remake of “Guys and Dolls” that I’ve been waiting for, or is that something that will never happen?
Oh lord, Eve, you’re trying to tell me “this isn’t high school” isn’t comic genius? When the Walter dropped the tray and even Laurie Metcalf joined in the applause. I laughed till I cried.
Nathan Lane was good in MouseHunt, but he was Great in
The Birdcage!
It was rather disappointing, wasn’t it? Nathan Lane is a good actor, Laurie Metcalf ain’t bad, the concept seems interesting, but the writing is just so incredibly unfunny. Not even painfully unfunny, just mind-numblingly bland and obvious.
He should stick to Broadway. I actually believed he was a “ladies man” in the Producers.
I always had a soft spot for One of the Boys, a short-lived sitcom he did with Dana Carvey and Mickey Rooney about 20 years ago. Pretty funny.
Perhaps it’s just as well I had forgotten this was going to be on tonight. My wife is a BIG Nathan Lane fan (We were seriously considering flying to New York just to see him in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and I think if I hadn’t gotten tickets for “The Producers” when it was in Chicago she’d have killed me) and even she couldn’t bear to watch Encore! Encore! (his previous series).
Governor Quinn, Nathan Lane had played Nathan Detroit in “Guys and Dolls” on Broadway in 1992; I never heard of any plans for a movie remake (although I’d love to see him in the part).
I’ve never been a big fan, but as I recall during the last Oscars, he’s replacing Chevy Chase in Three Amigos II, so it looks like I’ll have to learn to like him. (Not that I was ever a fan of Chase, but he’s had his moments…)
Nathan Lane also had a great cameo in Austin Powers 3: Goldmember.
i read the synopsis of this show in the paper - An Actor turned Politician - Fred “Gopher” Grandy - anyone.
I knew there was no hope when, in the first episode, when Nathon Lane’s character is making his first speech before the House, and even thought he was bombing when he made a few jokes, the laugh track still hit on the punch lines. Okay, so the joke was that he was bombing, but the laugh track made it appear that the “live” audience found the (painfully) bad jokes he was telling funny.
Both episodes gave me a few chuckles, and I’ll watch it for Lane and those few laughs, but the show is doomed.
[Timon] She’s gonna eat me! [/Timon]
If you all missed Nathan and Jean Smart in PBS’ Stage to Screen production of ‘The Man who Came To Dinner’ you missed alot.
I love Nathan but I hate network TV. Thanks for the warning.
FWIW, I believe this show is already dead. Several articles I read (People? EW?) said CBS diddled around with the show for so long (with good reason, from what you and the reviews I’ve seen are saying) that Lane’s already on to other projects, and it’d be hard to reassemble everyone to do shoot additional episodes. I think a total of 8 were made, and CBS is dumping them in the summer months for lack of anything better to do with them.
Apparently there’s something seriously wrong with me. I love Nathan Lane, I hated Encore! Encore!, I find it profoundly depressing when talented stage actors are squeezed into little sit-coms and surrounded by the usual cast of stereotypes and set-up characters, but… well… I’ve seen both episodes of Charlie Lawrence and I intend to keep watching until it gets ripped off the air mid-episode or ceases to make me laugh, whichever comes first.
I expected it to be terrible. I expected to hate it and change the channel after the first two minutes. I didn’t expect to watch it two weeks in a row, and I really didn’t expect to find myself being entertained.
Just for the record, I am not an idiot. I’m not easily amused. I don’t eat paste or wear my shoes on the wrong feet. But I liked this TV show. I have no explanation.