Sicilian Culture: The News & Views: 'Best Friends' CBS Comedy

Sicilian Culture

The People, The History, The Culture

The News & Views
(February 28, 2001)
'Best Friends' Stereotypes Move into CBS Comedy
"Some of my Best Friends" was inspired by the movie "Kiss me Guido".
Excerpts, are followed by complete review, and a hyperlink.
..."Danny Nucci as macho Frankie, a sweet but dumb palooka (I.Q. roughly about 50) and aspiring heterosexual actor from the Bronx who doesn't suspect that Warren is one a'dem, y'know, "homos." Frankie doesn't pick up on the obvious signs..."
Familiar stereotypes have always earned easy howls, from minstrel shows and old-time burlesque to political cartoons that deploy exaggeration as parody. The especially obnoxious ones ultimately fail when the multitudes realize their humor is not only hollow but at times twisted and even dangerous.
"You could always get a laugh with a bug-eyed African American who was afraid of his own shadow, until enlightenment intervened. You could always get a laugh with a funny drunk, until the epiphany that alcoholism wasn't a joke. And when saner minds don't prevail, you can still please some knee-slappers by putting on the screen.... cheap stereotypes (that) usually evoke cheap laughs."
"However, 'Some of My Best Friends' doesn't get even many of those from its assembly line of cliches and stock characters, who include Frankie's equally dense Italian American parents."

Wednesday, February 28, 2001
'BEST FRIENDS': STEREOTYPES MOVE IN TO CBS COMEDY
By Howard Rosenberg,Times Television Critic
First "Will & Grace," now Will & Guido. Just about, anyway.
NBC has a big hit in "Will & Grace," the comedy about a straight woman and gay man who are best friends and neighbors, with Will's platonic gay friend, Jack, swishing in and out of their lives.
Traveling a fast lane that ABC's "Ellen" cleared, "Will & Grace" is now the envy of other networks. So send in the clones, with tonight bringing "Some of My Best Friends," a lowbrow new CBS comedy inspired by the movie "Kiss Me, Guido."
Jason Bateman is Warren, who needs a roommate to help pay the rent on his Greenwich Village apartment now that his boyfriend has split. Answering his ad is Danny Nucci as macho Frankie, a sweet but dumb palooka (I.Q. roughly about 50) and aspiring heterosexual actor from the Bronx who doesn't suspect that Warren is one a'dem, y'know, "homos." Frankie doesn't pick up on the obvious signs: Despite appearing to be a regular sort of guy, Warren is also sensitive, adores Bette Midler and has posters of movie musicals on his walls.
Oh, boy, though, does Frankie get the message when in minces Warren's platonic little buddy, the flaming Vern (Alec Mapa), who makes Jack of "Will & Grace" look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Frankie's own best friend from home, meanwhile, is even more of a log than him, a seeming impossibility. But this is television.
Broadly speaking, the roots of "Some of My Best Friends" go deeper than "Kiss Me, Guido." Familiar stereotypes have always earned easy howls, from minstrel shows and old-time burlesque to political cartoons that deploy exaggeration as parody. The especially obnoxious ones ultimately fail when the multitudes realize their humor is not only hollow but at times twisted and even dangerous.
You could always get a laugh with a bug-eyed African American who was afraid of his own shadow, until enlightenment intervened. You could always get a laugh with a funny drunk, until the epiphany that alcoholism wasn't a joke. And when saner minds don't prevail, you can still please some knee-slappers by putting on the screen a wristy little fellow who talks and acts like a sissy, one like Vern who isn't meant to be accepted for who he is but instead is targeted by gag writers as a freak. Do these folks exist? Of course. But not to the extent that they eclipse the greater mass of less overt gay males.
Cheap stereotypes usually evoke cheap laughs. However, "Some of My Best Friends" doesn't get even many of those from its assembly line of cliches and stock characters, who include Frankie's equally dense Italian American parents.
"Some of My Best Friends" is the lead-in for Bette Midler's relocated comedy, the struggling "Bette," somewhat of an irony in that the Divine One got her start singing in gay bathhouses.
Tonight finds Warren trying to keep Frankie in the fold, and Frankie gamely trying to make the best of this odd coupling when no immediate escape seems possible. Bateman has the skills to give Warren some nuance amid this heavy drooling, but that is not where this series appears to be heading, based on an early sampling. Even lamer is the second episode, when Frankie is desperate to hide his new roommate's sexual orientation after some quasi-humans from "d'neighborhood" drop by for a night of TV boxing and brewskies. And would you believe?
Not so divine.
* "Some of My Best Friends" premieres tonight at 8 on CBS. The network has rated it TV-PG-DL (may be unsuitable for young children, with special advisories for suggestive dialogue and coarse language).
'Best Friends': Stereotypes Move In to CBS Comedy
www.latimes.com/print/calendar/20010228/t000017684.html

Just for Your Information. Hopefully, 'Best Friends" will have a short life, and Mr. Nucci can be cast in a more noble artistic effort.

Mr. Nucci has had a cosmopolitan upbringing. The son of an Italian businessman, he was born in Austria, grew up outside Venice, Italy, and, at age 7, moved to Queens, N.Y., as his father pursued opportunities.
Three years later, Mr. Nucci´s family moved to California´s San Fernando Valley; four years after that, he made his professional debut with a single day´s work on "General Hospital." He has appeared in "The Big Squeeze" "Eraser," "The Rock", "Crimson Tide", "Snoops", and "Titanic," in which Mr. Nucci played Leonardo DiCaprio´s buddy, Fabrizio. He is the divorced dad of a 4year old girl.

NUCCI TAKES 'BEST" TV ROLE
By Lynn Elber
Washington Post, Associated Press
February 27, 2001
LOS ANGELES -- Danny Nucci has just settled into a corner booth at a discreetly hip midtown restaurant when he spots something interesting off the menu.
"Hey, I haven´t seen this yet," the actor says, reaching for a folder stuffed with publicity materials for "Some of My Best Friends," a new CBS sitcom starring Mr. Nucci and Jason Bateman.
He quickly shuffles through studio photographs, focusing on one in which he´s leaning stiffly on a table, a bland smile in place.
"This is my Sears´ catalog pose," says a playful Mr. Nucci, holding the shot of himself as character Frankie Zito up for inspection.
That would be a catalog circa 1970s, the decade in which Frankie — with his well-oiled pompadour and polyester threads — seems to be stuck. When he answers a roommate-wanted ad specifying "GWM," he decodes that as "Guy With Money," not "Gay White Male."
Big heart, narrow perspective. The confusion ends up putting friendly Frankie in an odd-couple pairing with gay writer Warren Fairbanks (Mr. Bateman) — and putting Mr. Nucci in a role he didn´t expect to play: sitcom actor.
"I did the show because it´s funny. I love it because it´s funny. I can´t stop laughing," says Mr. Nucci, 32, whose resume leaned toward films and TV dramas before "Some of My Best Friends" (debuting at 8 p.m. tomorrow on WUSA , Channel 9)
A working actor since age 14, Mr. Nucci´s been a familiar face in good, small roles in a range of movies including independents such as "The Big Squeeze" and studio releases "Eraser," "The Rock" and "Crimson Tide."
In 1999, he had the historic privilege of appearing in "Snoops," a rare TV flop from megaproducer David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal," "The Practice," "Boston Public.")
"I prefer the word 'miss´ " Mr. Nucci chides. "The show didn´t know what it was at first, and when it did it took so long to get there nobody cared anymore."
Then there´s his biggest credit: "Titanic," in which Mr. Nucci played Leonardo DiCaprio´s buddy, Fabrizio. Much of Mr. Nucci´s role hit an iceberg, however, and sank from audience view on the cutting-room floor.
"What an experience to be in a film that was so honored and accepted; in that sense, it´s great. But the role that I did is not in the film. It´s hard not to go 'What if, what if.'
"It didn´t hurt the film at all, so in that sense it was the right decision. But when I´m thinking about how it affects me, then it was somewhat disappointing."
After "Titanic," Mr. Nucci was able to deflect the public´s where-have-I-seen-you-before questions with a one-movie reply.
But if films aren´t always the breakthrough opportunity they seem to be, TV series work has turned out to be more than Mr. Nucci expected.
"When I do a film I´ve got a two-hour script — 'Titanic,' 3 and 1/2 — and I look and I see what my character does, how he serves the piece. . . For television, I build this character.
"I don´t know what the writers are writing, I don´t know what I´m doing to have to play. . . In that sense, it´s really exciting, because you never know what´s coming down the pike," Mr. Nucci says.
He was steered into the Paramount TV series by Executive Producer Jonathan Axelrod and Mr. Axelrod´s actress-wife, Ileana Douglas, with whom Mr. Nucci worked on the mountain plane-crash drama "Alive" (1992).
"Some of My Best Friends," which co-stars Alec Mapa, Michael DeLuise and Jessica Lundy, is based on the film "Kiss Me Guido" that showed at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Nucci says the naive character of Frankie Zito is very real to him.
"I´ve got a buddy from the Bronx, Joey. Through the years I´ve watched him grow from looking at the world this way" — Mr. Nucci holds his palms close together — "to this," he says, stretching his hands apart. "So he´s a great template."
Mr. Nucci had a more cosmopolitan upbringing. The son of an Italian businessman, he was born in Austria, grew up outside Venice, Italy, and, at age 7, moved to Queens, N.Y., as his father pursued opportunities.
Three years later, Mr. Nucci´s family moved to California´s San Fernando Valley; four years after that, he made his professional debut with a single day´s work on "General Hospital."
It was the 1982 film "Frances," featuring a stellar performance by Jessica Lange as the troubled actress Frances Farmer, that inspired Mr. Nucci. The career he´d like to emulate, he says, is that of Al Pacino in the ´70s: "To go from 'The Godfather´ to 'Serpico´ to 'Dog Day Afternoon´ to 'Bobby Deerfield,´" Mr. Nucci says, offering a respectful litany.
For now, Mr. Nucci is content with a lively comedy and the chance to spend time with his 4-year-old daughter (he´s a divorced dad). "For somebody who´s done mostly film, there can be a little bit of 'Oh, it´s a sitcom.´ But I love going to work."
Nucci takes 'Best' TV role -- The Washington Times
www.washtimes.com/entertainment/default-200122722199.htm

HOME