A conversation with Jennifer Finnigan
NBC’s mid-season comedy series “Committed” debuted this week. The show stars Tom Poston (“Newhart”) as a clown who lives in an apartment clothes closet; Josh Cooke (“Century City”) as Nate, a walking collection of phobias; and three-time Emmy winner Jennifer Finnigan (“Crossing Jordan,” “The Bold and The Beautiful”) as Marni Fliss, an eternal optimist. Nothing fazes her, not even the fact that it’s her closet that the clown has homesteaded. The show is the creation of Eileen Heisler and DeAnne Heline, whose producing credits include “Roseanne,” “Murphy Brown” and “Ellen.” The focus is on Nate and Marni — two people who would appear to be absolutely wrong for each other. But appearances can be misleading.
In the new NBC series “Committed,” a young man named Nate (played by Josh Cooke) lives his life strictly (and in his view, safely) within the constraints of his phobias. But then he meets a free spirit named Marni Fliss (played by Emmy winner Jennifer Finnigan), who believes life is an unbounded journey full of limitless opportunities, and it’s worth traveling even if you have to get around some obstacles that may be placed in your path. And in spite of their differences, they are attracted to each other.
“I love this show,” Finnigan says. “You know, I didn’t really want to do a sitcom right now. But then I read the script. The writing was brilliant. The characters are wonderful. I knew this (series) would be special.”
The word from the Peacock’s aerie is that casting the role of Marni Fliss was a lengthy process in which the show’s producers met with a long line of both relative unknowns as well as some major stars. None, however, appeared to have that certain “something” they were looking for.
True?
“That’s what I was told,” Jennifer Finnigan said. “They wanted someone they felt would best fit a very specific concept (of Marni) that they had in mind. And from what I hear, they were determined to keep searching until they found her.”
Finnigan sees Marni as more than the eccentric opposite to the more conventional Nate.
“She’s really quite a complex person,” Finnigan says. “Yes, she’ll take chances where others — like Nate — might hang back. But she’s also loving and caring, and for all her boldness she’s also vulnerable in many ways. Most of all, I’d say she’s grounded in goodness.”
In Focus
Montel Williams started his daytime talk show in 1991. No one really expected it to last beyond the first season. But that didn’t surprise Williams. “Much of what I’ve done in my life — according to a lot of people — I couldn’t have done. I wanted to be a United States Marine officer. And even in our more enlightened times, there were those who said that that would be a tough goal for a black man to achieve. But I did. Later, they found an eye problem, and I was told that I would have no career in the Corps. Well, I wasn’t going to leave the service, so I switched over to the Navy.” (Where he became a highly decorated Naval intelligence officer.)
When Williams revealed he had multiple sclerosis, “a lot of people thought that was going to be the end of my television career. Even I thought so for a while. But it wasn’t.”
Williams admits that soon after he was diagnosed with MS, he went through the “why me?” phase. “But then I realized that that doesn”t get you anywhere. You need to accept that you’re living with MS, and you do what you have to do — and you go on.”
Asked if he ever regretted revealing that he has MS, Williams says, “Never. It’s allowed me to reach out to others who have it and tell them that they’re not alone; that I know what they’re going through, and together, we must campaign to support the research that will one day find the cure.”
NOTE to Joyce H.: Are all those reality shows really unscripted, you ask? Well, that’s what the producers would have us believe. What do you think?