I had a strange experience yesterday. I saw someone I know on TV.
Now, when you work in television, of course you see people you know, particularly if you watch the show you work on. But this wasn’t a show I’ve ever worked for.
What was strange is that I knew this guy before I saw him on TV.
The general public knows actors through their characters, or their public persona. Once you start a career in the business, your view of them will change when you meet them in person. They start to be a real human being.
But that’s not what happened yesterday. Yesterday, the process was reversed. I met this actor, then I saw him on our show, and finally, I watched him play a completely different character on a different show.
It was disconcerting. When you read the script, and see the lights and cameras and everything, the artifice is clear. But take that familiar face and put it in an unfamiliar setting, doing unfamiliar things, it’s like… seeing your teacher during summer vacation.
Strange.
2 Responses
You are so right about Calvin and Hobbes — and the baffling “Get Fuzzy.”
Maybe it’s a generational thing — post-modern humor could be beyond the grasp of my 20th Century analog brain — but I periodically take another look at “Get Fuzzy” without the slightest hint of a laugh.
Not even a wry smile or sense of “yeah, that’s happened to me.”
“Get Fuzzy” seems to be four panels of nothing adding up to… nothing.
Hey, I love to laugh, but maybe the joke is on me after all.