A conversation with Mel Harris
On Saturday, April 2, the Hallmark Channel will air “Out of the Woods,” starring seven-time Emmy Award-winner Edward Asner as Jack Green, a sophisticated, spiritually oriented world traveler whose disdain for his small-minded, self-centered family prompts him to leave the world they live in and make his home in the woods. Jason London (“Jason and the Argonauts”) plays his uptight lawyer grandson, Matt Fleming, who, to his surprise, learns something about life, and about himself, from the grandfather he saw as a silly old man frittering his wealth away. Mel Harris (“thirtysomething”) plays Beth Fleming, Matt’s mother and Jack’s daughter, who is more concerned about taking control of her aging father’s money than she is about him.
he first thing I thought of when I got the script for ‘Out of the Woods,’” Mel Harris says, “was that this woman, Beth, believes her father has his priorities wrong. She feels that he should be more concerned with protecting the legacy for his family than spending it on some unrealistic scheme. But, to my mind, it was she who had the priorities wrong.
“She saw him the way too many people see the elderly — as irrelevant and a nuisance, someone who can be difficult and foolish and no longer able to make the right decisions.”
Harris continues: “Some people see Beth as greedy and uncaring, and it would be hard to disagree with that. Still, she may feel she’s in the right to preserve the family’s wealth from someone who, she believes, obviously doesn’t care enough about them to protect their legacy. But I see something rather pathetic in her: She thinks about the money, and has no idea of the living treasure she has in her father.”
Mel Harris spoke about her own parents, who died more than 20 years ago.
“I miss them all the time,” she says. “Especially when wonderful things happen in my life that I would have wanted to share with them, but can’t. I’m sure, as I see with some of my friends’ parents, that older people can sometimes be difficult. They have their own way of doing things — and why not? Or they may have physical problems. But the fact that they are still in your life — that you can talk to them, share things with them — makes up for everything else. Beth doesn’t see that she already has so much just by having her father alive and there, for whenever she decides to reach out to him.”
When Beth’s son, Matt, comes to understand who his grandfather is, and what he plans to do to create a living legacy, he realizes that his (Matt’s) legacy is not the money Jack might have left to him, but rather Jack himself.
“Matt learns to see Jack as he should be seen,” Mel Harris says. “It’s a lesson that Beth should learn as well, if she can.”
IN FOCUS: “A hit, a very palpable hit,” says the character Osric when Hamlet scores a point with his sword during his duel with Laertes.
The same might be said for NBC’s new mid-season series “Committed,” starring Jennifer Finnegan (“Crossing Jordan”) and Josh Cooke (“Century City”). The show became a hit on its first airing in February.
Cooke, who is a classically trained actor (hence the quote from “Hamlet”), says he was a little surprised at the almost instant success of the series.
“I knew it was good. The writing is sharp, the humor is wonderful, and so are the actors. I love working with Jennifer and, of course, we have the great Tom Poston. But you always expect that a new show will need time to build an audience. So that’s where the surprise comes in, the fact that it happened so quickly.”
Nate is neurotic — much in the mold of Woody Allen’s characters.
“He plays it safe,” Cooke says. “He takes no risks. But then he meets Marni (Finnigan), the woman who makes him want to change, become more daring, be less predictable and more impulsive, and learn to enjoy what life can offer if he reaches for it.”
Some critics have said “Committed” is NBC’s attempt to fill the comedy gap left when “Friends” went off the air. However, while he appreciates the comparison, Cooke feels “Committed” brings its own identity to the audience.
Finally, like Woody Allen’s neurotic characters who always attract beautiful women, Nate, too, has won the heart of the lovely Marni. So, does being a bit of a nerd or “nebbish” act like a psychological aphrodisiac?
“I would say that women are attracted to the challenge they find in men like Nate — men whom they feel they can change for the better,” says Josh Cooke. “And I don’t think there’s a woman alive who doesn’t believe she can do it.”
DIAL TONE: Oscar and Grammy-winning soul and R&B musician Isaac Hayes (“Shaft” and “South Park”) guests on “The Bernie Mac Show” (Fox) on Friday, April 1. He’ll turn up in Bernie’s confessional and offer advice on how to nurture Vanessa’s (Camille Winbush) newly discovered musical talent.