Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 27, 1994 TAG: 9408310018
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Small chance of such hackneyed dialogue. Armstrong is a series veteran who has learned how to stand her ground. Besides, the executive producers of "My So-Called Life" are Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the lads who gave us an adult view of that in-between age "thirtysomething."
"My So-Called Life" is designed to shine new light on two other age groups: teen-agers and their 40ish parents. Bess Armstrong and Tom Irwin are the parents, Claire Danes is their mixed-up 15-year-old, Lisa Wilhoit is her younger sister.
The Thursday night series (at 8 on WSET-Channel 13), created by Winnie Holzman, has had a long history. The pilot was shot in the spring of 1993, Armstrong reported, "when Claire and Lisa were two dress sizes smaller." For reasons never divulged, ABC executives had cold feet about scheduling it last fall. Still, it was widely admired.
"It was called `The Greatest Pilot Never Sold,' " Armstrong said with a rueful smile. "I don't know how the tapes got around. But I had people come up to me in restaurants and say, `Gee, what a great show that is!' That had never happened to me before."
"My So-Called Life" seems to have a different feel from "Father Knows Best" and all the family shows that followed.
Maybe that's because of how Armstrong's role was written. As Patty Chase, she has had to take over the family business from her ill father. Her husband happens to be employed by the firm. Hence his wife is his boss.
"I like the fact that this woman is sort of unapologetically the disciplinarian, and somewhat rigid at times," the actress remarked. "I think that's very, very real. She's out there on a limb, without much backup from her husband, having to go to work and raise a family.
"She's doing whatever she can, but like a lot of parents out there, she's flying by the seat of her pants."
Though Bess Armstrong is also a working mother, her situation is far different. She has two sons, 6 and 3. When she is working at the studio in West Los Angeles, the boys often visit her from their nursery school nearby. Their father, producer John Fiedler, has his office at the rear of the family home in West Hollywood, so he is available when the boys are at home with the housekeeper.
Baltimore-born, Bess Armstrong spent 14 years at the Bryn Mawr School for Girls, where her mother was a teacher. Her father taught at a school across the street, and both parents were involved with plays. Armstrong fell in love with the backstage atmosphere and pursued it at Brown University.
"By the time I got out of Brown, I had been involved in 100 productions in high school, summer stock and college," she recalled. "I decided I was going to give it a try."
She had expected to spend years playing minor roles and being rejected for others. After a season of regional theater and some off-off-Broadway Shakespeare, she was astonished to find herself star of a prime-time series at age 23. Not only that, she was offered two others.
Armstrong has made three previous series: "On Our Own" with Dixie Carter, which lasted a year; "All is Forgiven," which was much praised but lasted nine chapters; "Married People" with Jay Thomas, one season.
Her films: "Nothing in Common" with Tom Hanks; "The High Road to China," with Tom Selleck; "Jaws 3-D," and "Dream Lover" with James Spader.
"My So-Called Life" portrays Armstrong as 40, which she is. It's not an easy age, especially for actresses, she observed.
"For the most part, women my age get fairly short shrift from the industry," she said. "We are very disposable, far too easily dumped into the general category of `over 30.' As soon as Mary Hart [on `Entertainment Tonight'] announces that you're over 30, your career goes into a tailspin.
"I wish we all had a definite handle on how old she and John Tesh are, so when we go on talk shows, we could say, `By the way, Mary Hart is - ' and John Tesh is - '."
Note: Mary Hart is 44 and John Tesh is 42.
by CNB