Post by Tibby on Mar 11, 2006 13:47:30 GMT -5
Look what I found!
Living large in Hollywood
Pregnancies tax TV producers' creativity
May 13, 1997
From correspondent Jill Brooke
HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- Sometimes television producers wish they could be magicians and make things disappear.
Pregnant stars are one recurring example of something Hollywood types wish they could do away with. What's a producer to do when an actress announces her joyous news in the middle of the season, but the script has no room for a pregnant star?
Instead of magic, producers rely on a bag of well-worn tricks. Chief among them is to obscure the offending actress with objects like cash registers, window displays, or the old standby, the handbag.
It's known as the art of the cover-up, and this season is full of them. Teri Hatcher just announced she's pregnant, and Superman isn't the father. "Seinfeld," "Profiler" and "Walker, Texas Ranger" are just a few of the shows with pregnant stars giving writers and producers headaches.
In the case of "Seinfeld," producers needed to keep Julia Louis-Dreyfus' condition hidden.
"She's had to wear certain clothing and we've had to hide her behind pieces of furniture and that sort of thing," says co-star Michael Richards. "It's too bad you have to do that, but the character of Elaine is not pregnant so we have to."
On "Walker, Texas Ranger" a revealed pregnancy would have caused too much turmoil.
"I play a single district attorney who has a romance with Walker. This would have put our romance on warp-speed and they didn't want to do that," explains actress Sheree Wilson.
For Gillian Anderson, "The X-Files" producers chose to hide her condition with a plot twist; they concocted a convenient alien abduction.
Aside from the old cover-up ploy, and the creative writing approach, there is always the option of incorporating the pregnancy into the show's daily story line. Series ranging from "I Love Lucy" to "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman" have gone this route.
"I'm in an incredible position because I'm the star of a family show and basically, we're saying we're endorsing families," explains "Dr. Quinn" star Jane Seymour. "If I was a sex siren on 'Melrose Place,' it would have been different."
But the pregnancy problem doesn't necessarily disappear when an actress plays a married character. In "Everybody Loves Raymond" there were already too many kids. So producers relied on the old cover-ups using tables, napkins and even a laundry basket to hide their pregnant female star.
This is why producers say pregnancies can cause both belly laughs and bellyaches.
;D
Living large in Hollywood
Pregnancies tax TV producers' creativity
May 13, 1997
From correspondent Jill Brooke
HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- Sometimes television producers wish they could be magicians and make things disappear.
Pregnant stars are one recurring example of something Hollywood types wish they could do away with. What's a producer to do when an actress announces her joyous news in the middle of the season, but the script has no room for a pregnant star?
Instead of magic, producers rely on a bag of well-worn tricks. Chief among them is to obscure the offending actress with objects like cash registers, window displays, or the old standby, the handbag.
It's known as the art of the cover-up, and this season is full of them. Teri Hatcher just announced she's pregnant, and Superman isn't the father. "Seinfeld," "Profiler" and "Walker, Texas Ranger" are just a few of the shows with pregnant stars giving writers and producers headaches.
In the case of "Seinfeld," producers needed to keep Julia Louis-Dreyfus' condition hidden.
"She's had to wear certain clothing and we've had to hide her behind pieces of furniture and that sort of thing," says co-star Michael Richards. "It's too bad you have to do that, but the character of Elaine is not pregnant so we have to."
On "Walker, Texas Ranger" a revealed pregnancy would have caused too much turmoil.
"I play a single district attorney who has a romance with Walker. This would have put our romance on warp-speed and they didn't want to do that," explains actress Sheree Wilson.
For Gillian Anderson, "The X-Files" producers chose to hide her condition with a plot twist; they concocted a convenient alien abduction.
Aside from the old cover-up ploy, and the creative writing approach, there is always the option of incorporating the pregnancy into the show's daily story line. Series ranging from "I Love Lucy" to "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman" have gone this route.
"I'm in an incredible position because I'm the star of a family show and basically, we're saying we're endorsing families," explains "Dr. Quinn" star Jane Seymour. "If I was a sex siren on 'Melrose Place,' it would have been different."
But the pregnancy problem doesn't necessarily disappear when an actress plays a married character. In "Everybody Loves Raymond" there were already too many kids. So producers relied on the old cover-ups using tables, napkins and even a laundry basket to hide their pregnant female star.
This is why producers say pregnancies can cause both belly laughs and bellyaches.
;D