Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 21, 1990 TAG: 9004210487
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE HOLLOWAY COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Oh, God," he groans as he wakes up one morning. "I'm still in high school."
Such is the tone and comic sensibility of "The Marshall Chronicles" on ABC Wednesdays (at 9:30 p.m. on Channel 13 in the Roanoke viewing area).
Think of Marshall as an adolescent Woody Allen, and you've got the picture.
Created and produced by Richard Rosenstock, the show stars Joshua Rifkind, a 24-year-old novice with only college acting experience to his credit. Any concern the network may have had with this young man's ability to carry a series should be long gone by now. Rifkind is relaxed, charming and very funny.
Throughout the program, Marshall "breaks the wall" and addresses the audience directly, opining on the moral and ethical dilemmas of life in the big city and life in the big-city high school he attends.
"This series is an accumulation of every horror I ever thought about in high school," Rosenstock said. "You go through high school feeling that you can't wait to get out because all of the things you learn and all the values you have don't work in a place of tremendous peer pressure . . . but this is not me. This is really an exaggeration of any self-aware, insecure kid going through high school in an urban environment."
Rosenstock said Marshall's ethnicity is based on his own background, but he said the series will not focus on the character's Jewishness. He insisted "The Marshall Chronicles" will not be a junior version of Jackie Mason's ill-fated "Chicken Soup."
"He's got it (Jewishness), but that's not what this show is about," the producer said. "This is not designed to be a show about a Jewish kid . . . but, you know, the name is Rosenstock. I was born in New York and raised in Yonkers."
Rosenstock also insisted the character was not created to remind viewers of Woody Allen.
"I can see it, but it's not conscious," he said. "There's a certain level of middle-class New York, upper-Westside sensibility that I think overlaps. I'd be incredibly flattered to be compared to Woody, though. He's a genius."
Unlike the character he plays, Rifkind grew up in Los Angeles and went to Beverly Hills High. His father is an attorney, and his mother is singer Gogi Grant. Needless to say, he did not ride subways to school. His own high-school experience would seem to be radically different from that of the character he plays.
"Marshall didn't have a swim-gym with a basketball court that opened over a pool, which I did," Rifkind said. "But the issue is that high school kids in Beverly Hills, high school kids in New York and high school kids in the Midwest all have problems that are intrinsic to high-school kids everywhere."
In spite of their apparent differences, Rifkind said playing Marshall is easy.
"I went through a lot of the same things Marshall is going through," he said. "Marshall feels very out of place in high school. He's hyper-aware of the malaise of youth, and I was also very aware of that malaise. I always felt a little out of place. My friends teased me about growing up too fast and seeming older than I was supposed to be when I was in high school."
Rifkind was working as a waiter in a dim-sum cafe in Los Angeles when he auditioned for the role last spring. Because the actor had no television or movie experience, his agent had a difficult time but finally got him into the audition. Rifkind read for Paramount Studios' casting director, then he read for the director and finally for ABC executives. The process took three days.
"The Marshall Chronicles" appears to be the perfect companion to the highly successful "Doogie Howser, M.D.," which means it probably has a better chance to succeed than other midseason series. Like "Doogie," "Marshall" focuses on a teen-ager but is likely to appeal to a much broader audience.
"It might be a little sophisticated for a real young audience, but I think people in the 13-40 range should identify with it to some degree," Rosenstock said.
by CNB