Dustin Hoffman introducing 'The Devil's Arithmetic' (Showtime) told 'The Washington Post' in 1999, "When I started out as an actor, if you really wanted to be a good actor, you did theater and then you did film. If you did television, you sold out. What has happened now (in 1999) is an inversion, 30 years later (since the 1960s). Movies have sold out in a sense.
"The expense of making them, the idea that you must open, the cynical approach to it, in terms of the demographics - this will get the kids this weekend, you can have the first performance on a Friday and then equate what it's going to do domestically - everything is geared to that by the studios. The most interesting stuff, you know, is being done on this little tube that used to be 'Ozzie and Harriet' (1952)."
Susan Sarandon of 'Earthly Possessions' (HBO) added, "Television's very powerful. People that are in this business are telling people, telling young kids what it means to be a man, what it means to be heroic, what's funny, what's not, what women want - all these things, and you have to take responsibility for them and I don't think everybody's taking responsibility for what they put on TV."
On TV in the 1995-96 season the series, 'Central Park West', about people living in New York, premiered. The New York magazine, Communique, Darren Star told 'The New Yorker' provided "a wonderful backdrop to human relationships."
Darren Star outlined, "It's more impressionistic than realistic. It's not about people struggling to define themselves or at the beginning of their careers. It's not going to be as campy. There's going to be more of a reality context."
After watching the series, Karen Heller of 'Knight-Ridder Newspapers' observed, "Star's reality context happens to be that of Jacqueline Onassis, whose life seems the basis for Lauren Hutton's character." Lauren Hutton conceded, "I never watched any of these shows. I've never understood people who were addicted - but now I'm getting addicted just from seeing the scripts." Karen Beller continued, "First husband a prominent politician, now dead; second husband rich; son an improbably handsome assistant district attorney; and daughter named, well, not Caroline but Carrie."
Marc Friedland expressed, "Darren's very involved with his own growth. He understands from an artistic standpoint that an artist needs to be in control of his paints and his canvas to create the finished product."
Darren Star maintained, "People throw up this big distinction between movies and television. It's all the same thing. It's all film, when you're doing hour dramas. I really don't watch TV to the point where I don't think most people would really believe it. Probably what affects the way I write for television is I never really had the patience to watch anything on TV."
Of 'CPW', costume designer Jeffrey Kurland insisted, "We want America to understand what New York is about." As reported, "Despite 'Central Park's' poor showing in the United States, it is a big hit in overseas markets such as Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain." Rainer Siek of CBS reminded, "Remember M*A*S*H? It didn’t work at all until it started in the summer. I was just in Australia (before June 1996) and they said, 'Can we (the Australian network) do something with 'CPW' if you don’t pick it up in the fall (1996-97 season)?' I said, 'Guys, why don't you sit still. Let's see what happens over the (North American) summer.'"
When the first 9 episodes of 'CPW' could not attract the 18-49 age group as desired, Darren Star decided to link the old 'Central Park West' show to the new 'CPW' one in a "radically changed form". Raquel Welch used to live in a New York apartment on Central Park West was signed to play Diana Brock to bring older viewers to 'CPW'. "I don't think you put Raquel Welch in a show to have her dress like a schoolmarm," Les Moonves argued. "She's sexy. You don't hire her to be in 'Little House on the Prairie' with Angela Lansbury."
In the fashion world, Diana Vreeland was a household name. Alexander Vreeland remarked, "My grandmother is no longer a person. She's an adjective." Kenneth Jay Lane mentioned, "I remember her son Tim once told me, 'Mom had no sense of right or wrong — to her things were either interesting or uninteresting.'" Leo Lerman pointed out, "Every great fantasist has to be a realist at bottom." By 1955, a friend of Andy Warhol told 'Vanity Fair', "She became the queen of New York society. There was such competition to go to her house for dinner." Inside Diana's apartment at 550 Park Avenue, she once declared, "I want this place to look like a garden, but a garden in hell."
Of the last 8 episodes of 'CPW', Darren Star told the press, "There really isn't anything to say at this point. I think the show has to perform, and I am certainly under no illusions that this show is not going to come back if it doesn't do well. Every network is looking for a viable nighttime soap. So if it does well, I think certainly there is a good possibility we will be back."
At a press conference held in January 1996, Les Moonves described CBS after the first half of the 1995-96 season, "It seems to be like the biggest change at CBS since Bobby Ewing ('Dallas') came out of the shower. You're essentially saying forget what happened, the season just didn't count and we're going back to the old way of doing things.
"I think the marketing strategy was wrong. The concept of getting younger demos was right. How it was done was wrong. Our research was telling us that people hated it. The launching of 11 new shows and putting 8 existing shows in new time periods, 19 changes, was ridiculous. I think our promotional campaign was as much to blame (for bad ratings). Not the quality of the campaigning, which I thought was very good. We basically said to our core audience: 'Not only is 'Central Park West' not for you, but no longer is CBS. If you're 35 or older, get lost.' That was the wrong message to put out there."
Gerry Becker of 'Death Defying Acts' (off-Broadway show) played Dr. West spoke to the 'Chicago Tribune' in 1995, "From the age of 6 on (from 1957), I wanted to be an actor and I wanted to be a priest. I ended up doing much more sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll than poverty, chastity and obedience. When I left the Jesuits, I decided I was going to study theater." In 1979, Gerry Becker moved to Chicago, "I started drinking at about 13 or 14, (around 1964, 1965) laid off for a couple of years, then started again as a junior in high school. Those first two years or so in Chicago were pretty much doing dinner theater and not being very employable. Then I got sober, and my acting just sort of took off.
"When I came out of drinking I found I didn't know how to feel. Rage and depression - that was my range. I walked into Kyle's studio (acting teacher and director Kyle Donnelley) and said, 'I've been sober for a year and a half. I've worked for 10 years and I think I've reached my level of mediocrity. I don't know how to feel a damn thing, and I want you to help me. If after a year of studying with you I'm no good, I'll leave the business. If I am any good, I'll think about it.' She said, 'You're in the right place. Come on in, pal.' So I studied with all those 18-year-olds for 3 years. I would have continued on, but I started to work so much, and by then I had a family."
In New York, Gerry Becker had worked for 3 months on 'All My Children'. The 'Chicago Tribune' continued, "He'd return to his family in Chicago when he ran out of money, and come back to New York when a residual check came in." Gerry Becker elaborated, "I was willing for it to go either way. I had done the best I could do for two years. If I went back to Chicago, I didn't really care. Then this apartment came through, and then the next day I got cast in a guest-star role on 'Cosby', which made enough money for me to move, and then we all moved to New York."
"I remembered somebody saying to me in Chicago, 'When in doubt, just be loud and stupid; they'll mistake it for being committed.' That's what I did. I miss doing it with Chicago people. I know I could go do this show at Remains (company) and make as many mistakes and be as stupid as I wanted and they would give it back to me. For New York actors, the stakes are different. They're out there doing this thing for themselves. Part of the problem is that, if somebody sees you here, it can just skyrocket your career. So you get in this mentality of, you're doing it for yourself.
"One thing that was so cool for me working with Steppenwolf and Remains was that phrase at both places, 'Do what impassions you.' So if this role scares you, do that. Don't take the safe choice. Whatever it is that does impassion you, go for it. It gave you an environment to work in that was very supportive. The downside of Chicago is that it's hard to make a living there. I eventually need to go to L.A.
"I love L.A. There may be something morally wrong with me. L.A. is such a gamble. You could go out there and sit for 5 years and nothing happens, but most of the people in my category leave and go to L.A. and do television. They're out there doing episodic, where you can make a lot more dough, and pick up some films. All that's in New York is theater, which is fun, but doesn't pay any money. Broadway, you can kind of live on that, but you can't put your kids through school."
"I could do whatever I wanted in Chicago. I could fail as much as I wanted, and it really wouldn't cost me a dime. They didn't have the stakes there. If I take anything from this experience, aside from working with people like Woody (Allen) and Elaine (May), it's that sense that everybody's afraid. Once that clicked in for me it was really kind of exhilarating. Yeah, I am afraid. There's a lot at stake. That's why I moved here."
