Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 7, 1994 TAG: 9403070136
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT WILLIAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
``In a weird way, we got him to rewrite the script,'' said Larroquette, who plays John Hemingway, an existential hero-schlemiel-alcoholic-night manager of a St. Louis bus station to which the adjective ``sleazy'' is a high compliment.
You see, both Hemingway and Larroquette collect rare first editions of Pynchon, the reclusive author of ``Vineland,'' ``Gravity's Rainbow,'' ``The Crying of Lot 49'' and ``V.''
Pynchon has a special love for the losers lost on the wayside of the American dream. So co-executive producer Larroquette decided to feature Pynchon in a script and sent the work-in-progress to Pynchon's agent for approval.
``We made up a novel that he hasn't written - and he gave us permission to say that he had written `Pandemonium of the Sun,''' Larroquette said.
The mysterious, never-photographed Pynchon refused, however, to let a ``Larroquette'' extra, in a plaid shirt, be videotaped from the rear and represented as Pynchon. ``He asked us not to pretend he was in the environment at all,'' Larroquette said.
One scene called for Hemingway's antagonist, the lunch counter operator, Dexter (Daryl ``Chill'' Mitchell), to reveal, quite casually, that he's a longtime pal of the much-traveled writer.
``You must have seen him, he was sitting here last night!'' Dexter insists. The script says Pynchon was wearing a T-shirt with the picture of a certain, obscure musician.
``Pynchon, through his agent, wrote back and said, `Would you please make it a picture of Rocky Erickson on the T-shirt?''' Larroquette said.
``I looked up Rocky Erickson. He was a psychedelic rock 'n' roll musician in the '60s who was institutionalized shortly thereafter and spent most of the rest of his life in an insane asylum. Somebody that Pynchon liked, I guess.''
Larroquette owns uncorrected proofs to ``V.`` and ``Gravity's Rainbow'' and even one of two signed copies of ``V.'' - the first British edition.
But Larroquette - like most Pynchon fans - would never presume to initiate a personal correspondence with Pynchon. ``I sent him a copy of the script and signed it, `Thanks for not being here - John.'
Larroquette also has collected more than a thousand volumes of Samuel Beckett's works. And he never wrote the author of ``Waiting for Godot,'' ``Malone'' and ``Krapp's Last Tape,'' either.
``I started writing a letter to Samuel Beckett,'' he said, managing a dry, existential chuckle. ``And I thought, `What for? To tell him, ``I like your work''?' I mean, he needs that? He cares?''
These days Larroquette's literary excursions are circumscribed by his intense desire to make a go of his series, which NBC offers each Tuesday night on the sacrificial altar opposite ABC's monster hit, ``Roseanne.''
He saves a special, icy contempt for the programmers who staked his fledgling show's success against one of ABC's best performers.
``It wasn't brave and daffy, it was stupid,'' he said.
For the next six Tuesdays, NBC will air back-to-back episodes of ``Larroquette.'' Critics, fans and lovers of Thomas Pynchon hope this double-pump strategy will boost the show into a strong second season.
Larroquette wants nothing more than a different time slot or a different night. Anything but head-to-head competition with ``Roseanne''!
``There's no way I can compete with her,'' he said.
``I'm not saying she's not an actress. I'm - and I use the term loosely - an actor, and my whole purpose is to hide my personality.
``Roseanne's LIFE is her act,'' he said. ``That's where she gets her humor from, the things that happen to her. I don't want people to know things that happen to me.
``She's got this great platform that she's very comfortable with, exposing herself,'' he said.
``As I said this morning on the `Today' show, the only way I could compete with her is if I started drinking again and rekindled my affair with Prince.''
by CNB