ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997 TAG: 9703260005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
Acting success has been a crapshoot for "Just Shoot Me's" George Segal.
``Just Shoot Me'' is a dangerous title for a TV series in a midseason tryout, but the sitcom carries some impressive credentials, including movie names George Segal and Laura San Giacomo.
What's more, the show is the work of writer-producer Steven Levitan, late of ``Frasier'' and ``The Larry Sanders Show,'' and executive producers Brad Grey and Bernie Brillstein, whose credits include ``NewsRadio'' and ``The Larry Sanders Show.''
``Just Shoot Me,'' breaking in on NBC Wednesday nights, bears a somewhat familiar premise: An out-of-work reporter (San Giacomo) seeks work from her estranged father (Segal), the womanizing publisher of a stylish woman's magazine. The new job throws her into a curious mix of staff members.
Segal is no newcomer to series, having starred in ``Murphy's Law,'' ``High Tide'' and ``Take Five,'' none of which went the distance.
``Just Shoot Me'' (rated TV-PG) will end its five-show run tonight, giving it only a brief time to make an impression.
``It's such a crapshoot,'' Segal said. ``You can just hope that what you've done works. I figure if it makes me laugh, it's going to be funny. And it does.
``Laura San Giacomo is a wonderful actress, and she is at the center of this thing. She is such a real person that she keeps everybody real. It's real people saying funny things, rather than cartoon people saying cartoon things.''
Segal was interviewed at the Wilshire Boulevard high-rise apartment he shares with his wife, Sonia. Their story could easily be the basis for a sitcom; they met but didn't date in high school in New York.
``In 1951, after high school, we got together,'' Segal explained. ``It was our first romance. Then, she went off to one school and I went off to another school. Both of us married other people, and we didn't see each other for 45 years.
``Then last June, my wife Linda was really ill and had been since 1992 and was, in fact, dying, but we didn't know it. Our 45th high school reunion was coming up. Sonia couldn't go, and I couldn't go. The class secretary said where Sonia was, and in five minutes we grew back in love again, like in 1951, just from talking to each other on the phone.
``We talked like six hours a night while Linda was dying in Cedars. It was like talking to an old friend who understood everything that was going on as I was weeping on the phone.
``Everybody at the funeral said, `You've got to get out of town.' I went up to northern California, and we fell into each other's arms. She came here, and we were married on the 28th of September.''
Segal, 63, is now associated with comedy, but he didn't start out that way.
``I was a painfully shy kid, painfully,'' he said. ``I think you find that most actors are shy, and many of them are reclusive. What we're doing is the flip side: We are acting out. It's the pain that comes out when we act.''
An appearance on the TV show ``Naked City'' brought him serious roles in 1960s films: ``The Young Doctors,'' ``The New Interns,'' ``King Rat,'' ``Ship of Fools'' and, notably, ``Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,'' which earned him an Oscar nomination in 1966 as supporting actor.
Meanwhile, he was cutting up and playing the banjo on ``The Tonight Show,'' and comedies started coming his way: ``The Owl and the Pussycat'' with Barbra Streisand, ``Where's Poppa,'' ``Blume in Love'' and ``A Touch of Class'' with Glenda Jackson.
When the starring roles dwindled, Segal moved comfortably into character parts, both in films and television.
``It's a total roller coaster ride,'' he noted. ``Free-lance actors are essentially gamblers: You're gambling on yourself, and blindly, because there's nothing to substantiate your feelings. It all comes down to luck.''
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Acting is "a total roller coasterby CNBride," says George Segal. "Free-lance actors are essentially
gamblers: You're gambling on yourself, and blindly, because there's
nothing to substantiate your feelings. It all comes down to luck."
color.