rps w/hal

[rznbloodrose.livejournal.com]

so I just read an interview for Hal sparks here , that he came out as totally jealous of gale and randy in it and was wondering if there was any rps that deals with him being jealous of the two of them.
thanks!
ETA: this turned into a discussion post, if you have any fic or interview or opinion on the subject feel free to comment ^^

Comments

Re: The Reason

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Honey, the big get WAS Sharon. I know you've watched the S1 extra stuff, and C/L say repeatedly that they wanted Sharon. They were lucky in that she wanted to be Debbie as much as they wanted her to be.

I've seen Carlo Rota in a few things, I swear he was on Burn Notice! lol Or one of those type shows. I was all "VANCE!!!" I really liked him, and thought he was sexy as hell.

Hal was a known face on tv, and they wanted a familiar face. I believe the whole 'building the show around Michael and Debbie' was a continuation of the UK series, where Vince was more up front. Also, Vince and Stuart got together, more or less. The producers saw the unmistakable chemistry between Gale and Randy and ran with it. Since the first 4 episodes mirrored the UK series, I think that by the time they'd filmed the first three they were like, "Okay, RE-WRITE!!!" lol The one thing that C/L did right was see that chemistry and build on it, as opposed to go in a different direction. That would have tanked the series before the first season was done. Brian/Justin were the draw. Period. Everything else revolved around them.

As far as Michael, I saw that you or Gaedhal said that the screen time got less for him. Thing is though, he clearly had a much more coherent and consistent plotline than anyone else. B/J were all over the place at times. Mel/Linds were never given enough time to build that, and Emmett...I really wanted to know more about him other than the tidbits he gave us about growing up. What a storyline that would have been if we'd gotten to see a family member of his show up! But Hal really had no room to complain. He got caught up in the 'Rob Lowe West Wing Syndrome.' I remember Rob being hailed as the star of the show when it was in pre-production, and as soon as Martin Sheen hit the screen, you knew who the star was going to be. Same thing with Gale/Randy.

Yeah, I'm responding to both of your last comments. lol

I know that there was serious outrage with some of the things that Randy said then, and I get it. I do tend to think that, as intelligent as he seems to be, he allowed himself to almost become Simon's sockpuppet. That is a career killer. Simon was basically a stage mother in the vein of Kit Culkin (McCauley's dad), Brooke Shields' mom, Lindsay Lohan's mom and dad...it's bad when that happens.

I know that con is on Youtube somewhere, I think if you do a Randy Harrison in Paris search you'll find it.

I'm glad we got to discuss this. You also made very good points. *g* We love our big queer show, and the actors that brought it to life, don't we?

Re: The Reason

[highd.livejournal.com]

I know that Sharon was a big get but I totally was taken aback by the two roles that Rota had that I liked but didn't connect him to. "Boondock Saints" is one of my favorite movies and I felt so stupid when I realized who Yakavetta was. I even blushed and my husband thought I was being silly for my embarrassment :)

I think Michael was easy to write for because he wasn't as complex as the rest of the characters on the show. It's easy to write for the boring guy. Michael's life on that show wasn't exciting, it wasn't dramatic, he was a character that was lead into life situation by other people.

Making him into the cookie cutter stable guy was easy especially once you got the whole Brian lust off the table. Hell I think that might be the most interesting thing about Michael how he was unable to score with Brian after 14 year :( God that just depressed the hell out of me.

Michael became whoever he was with at the time. He behaved like a dick with Dave, He became more responsible, political and thoughtful because of Ben. The one time he did take action was with Hunter, and lets be honest Michael didn't want Hunter. Hunter was Ben's idea. Also I think that having that one gay man on the show that wanted the whole ball of yarn was good for the show. Michael got what he always wanted a superhero for a partner,some kids, a house and a stable life. Good for him. It wasn't the reason people were watching the show for so it sucks to be Hal Sparks.

Aaron Sorkin said that no one was prepared for how people would respond to Josh and Donna. There was a last minute rewrite in the pilot that had Donna telling Josh he looked hot in a shirt or that the other women in the office thought he looked hot in a shirt and that was enough of a spark to make people want more of them. It was also the end for Rob Lowe in away. Whenever I am depressed about the gov't I have a WW marathon. It does my liberal heart good :)

I found a bunch of Randy stuff in Paris. I am trying to just read the French subtitles because I need to practice my french :)

My love for Brian Kinney know no boundary :)

Re: The Reason

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

I didn't think that Michael was boring, but I know what you mean. He was easy, because they fit him into the hetero-normative mold. And ITA about David and Ben.

Aaron Sorkin is my hero! And Josh and Donna...yes, I am a big fan of WW. We marathon it often. Even the boring episodes are often better than what usually passes for tv these days. What blew me away about WW was in the later seasons, and how they were a mirror to the Obama campaign. It was scary as hell, at times as to how close it was. I read later that Matt Santos was based on then Senator Obama. But that was 2 years before the election, so...dude.