igofast
02-27-2006, 07:52 PM
By BRIDGET BYRNE, For The Associated Press 1 hour, 22 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - Dee Wallace was puzzled when she heard that Fred Goss, creator and star of "Sons & Daughters," was interested in her playing the role of his mother.
Why? Because despite all her years of experience — including one of the screen's most famous moms — the actress wasn't versed in improvisation, and that's what sets ABC's new show apart from prime-time's pack of other sitcoms about dysfunctional families.
But once she began improvising with Goss, it all came, well... rather naturally.
"I had the parameters of what I needed to do. I had who she was and who he was and how I felt about both of us ... and I realized it's all about being in the moment. It brings together all the best ways that I work anyway. It's freedom," says Wallace, who famously played the mother in "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," one of the most popular movies of all time.
Nick Holly, co-creator with Goss, says the actors are presented not with a traditional script, but with "a short story" that "occasionally includes a line or two of dialogue, but is normally just this novelization."
Adds Goss: "We wax poetical in the descriptions because the dialogue is not there, so it's important for everybody to get a real strong feel for what it is we are going for, scene by scene, so when they hit the set they understand the bullet points that they need to hit to propel the story forward."
more (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060227/ap_en_tv/ap_on_tv_sons___daughters;_ylt=Ag6ifJKDIIz5b.BeS8b QzMpxFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--)
LOS ANGELES - Dee Wallace was puzzled when she heard that Fred Goss, creator and star of "Sons & Daughters," was interested in her playing the role of his mother.
Why? Because despite all her years of experience — including one of the screen's most famous moms — the actress wasn't versed in improvisation, and that's what sets ABC's new show apart from prime-time's pack of other sitcoms about dysfunctional families.
But once she began improvising with Goss, it all came, well... rather naturally.
"I had the parameters of what I needed to do. I had who she was and who he was and how I felt about both of us ... and I realized it's all about being in the moment. It brings together all the best ways that I work anyway. It's freedom," says Wallace, who famously played the mother in "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," one of the most popular movies of all time.
Nick Holly, co-creator with Goss, says the actors are presented not with a traditional script, but with "a short story" that "occasionally includes a line or two of dialogue, but is normally just this novelization."
Adds Goss: "We wax poetical in the descriptions because the dialogue is not there, so it's important for everybody to get a real strong feel for what it is we are going for, scene by scene, so when they hit the set they understand the bullet points that they need to hit to propel the story forward."
more (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060227/ap_en_tv/ap_on_tv_sons___daughters;_ylt=Ag6ifJKDIIz5b.BeS8b QzMpxFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--)