Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993 TAG: 9305040053
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Now a few more words: delightful; smart; refreshing; funny.
And, finally, a bad word: notonTVnearlyenough.
Melanie Mayron. Red hair. Big toothy grin. Funky clothes. Charming as Melissa on "thirtysomething" long after all the other characters had driven viewers up the wall.
So can anybody explain why she isn't back on TV each week, EVERY week, where, as before, you can adore her on a regular basis?
And while we're at it: Why isn't this gifted writer-director who embodies the sort of good-hearted values that viewers say TV should give much more attention to ... why isn't this triple-threat humanist handed a series on which to share with viewers her shrewd but tender take on life?
Before getting apoplectic, we hasten to remind you that Mayron stars in and directs her own script for this week's installment of "Tribeca." The episode, "Stepping Back," airs tonight.
The warmly comic story has Mayron as Maggie Miller, a Manhattan architect full of trepidation at the prospect of marrying her longtime boyfriend (Richard Lewis). She is afraid to give over to him her apartment and her life. She has no idea that her high-spirited grandmother is about to move in and take over both.
It's a lovely hour, the seventh and (for now) final episode in the "Tribeca" anthology, which has treated weekly TV not as sausage extrusions but as a diverse artistic showcase.
Clearly grateful for the opportunity "Tribeca" afforded, Mayron calls her film, which she shot on location in seven frenzied days last September, "the biggest break of my career so far."
The seed was planted for that career when, at age 13, she was enchanted by a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Not long afterward, on a visit to Israel with her parents, she left a note at the Wailing Wall that said: "God, you put in my head the idea that I could be an actor, and that's what I'm gonna do with my life. So you better make good on it. Love, Melanie."
Four years later, she headed to New York City from her native Philadelphia, and snagged a supporting role as the hitchhiker in the 1974 film "Harry and Tonto."
She made several more movies, including "Carwash," "Girlfriends," "Missing" and, in 1988, a comic caper she co-wrote, co-produced and starred in, "Sticky Fingers."
Since "thirtysomething" ended two years ago, Mayron has written a movie script, developed a film project about a real-life homicide detective who happens to be a black woman, and pitched to the networks several ideas for series.
"I just want to put stories out with people that I can relate to," says Mayron over coffee in an Upper West Side restaurant near her apartment. "For instance, in `Stepping Back,' Maggie learns from her grandmother that, as the years pass, we don't have to look toward getting old and being dead - that instead we can look toward life continually surprising us. That's what I "Tribeca" airs tonight at 9 on WJPR (Channels 21/27). learned from MY grandmother.
"I never saw myself represented in entertainment," she says. "I wish I could turn on the television and see what's gonna happen to somebody like me."
Flash! There are lots of people out there like Melanie Mayron, and they're looking for something to like on TV. So why aren't the networks courting our favorite funny valentine with flowers and production deals?
After two decades in the business, Melanie Mayron is poised for stardom. But she can't do it alone.
Maybe someone in charge should think back to another 40-year-old redhead whose slightly quirky new comedy series defied the network's doubts and caught on pretty big.
Three words: "I Love Lucy."
by CNB