May 21, 2001

7:05 PM

Tick, tock ... tick, tockI generally hate TV, but I'm counting down the minutes until this new series premieres on FOX. Yeah, it'll probably suck, but I'm a big fan of Patrick Warburton. In fact I just saw "The Dish" over the weekend and didn't even realize, until halfway through the flick, that the superintelligence NASA scientist was, in fact, played by none other than good ol' dumb guy David Puddy. Who's your favorite underappreciated actor?
posted by Shadowkeeper (13 comments total)

My two fears:

It will suck.

It won't suck but FOX will cancel it after two episodes anyway in favor of 'Temptation Island II'.
posted by dr. zoidberg at 7:47 PM on May 21, 2001

I don't like how they changed the name of one character to "Captain Liberty" from "American Maid". Bleah...

dr zoidberg (also another good fox show which is often pushed aside for football): It will be your second fear come true. And how do we know? "Family Guy".

Although I have heard rumors that Family Guy might come back next year on Fox, so that would be awesome.
posted by benjh at 8:02 PM on May 21, 2001

Family Guy started off real weak, and got a little better. Sor did The Lone Gunman, I hear. So, hope that the Tick has a strong start.
posted by Doug at 8:15 PM on May 21, 2001

Family Guy started off weak but still really funny and offensive, and got really good but REALLY offensive. I like that.

And it was renewed for next season. Somebody else can put up the link.
posted by GriffX at 8:22 PM on May 21, 2001

And - not to get the alt.simpsons.anal.nitpicker.fan crowd started, but speaking of Dr. Zoidberg, does anyone else have any thoughts on the "M. Groening has ditched Simpsons for Futurama" thread? Is this true? I've seen it on the internet, so it must be true dude...
posted by GriffX at 8:24 PM on May 21, 2001

I have *got* to get my tv fixed. I love Patrick Wharburton. As for other underappreciated actors, I could go on for a while. William Fichtner. Martin Donovan. Gary Cole. And probably about a hundred b-actors that aren't even that good, I just love them anyway, like Tony Todd or Jason Carter.

Ahem. Sorry...hobby of mine. Excuse me while I go update my Paul Mercurio site...
posted by frykitty at 9:25 PM on May 21, 2001

Wallace Shawn: "Inconceivable!" and, "I don't like confrontations"
posted by owillis at 9:59 PM on May 21, 2001

according to Comics2Film, FOX is putting the Tick on at 8:30's Thursday, after Family Guy. Between Survivor and Friends, these shows will be hard pressed to get good ratings. It may be that FOX is putting them there as an excuse to kill them, or that they'll be allowed to live on the grounds that nothing else would do any better in their slots.

At any rate, the American Maid -> Captain Liberty and Die Fladermouse -> Batmanuel changes are apparently because those characters were originally developed for the cartoon, so they don't have the rights to them. From what I've heard, Batmanuel's the bigger departure - instead of sounding like Adam West, he's now a latin lover with some degree of success with the women and the cowardice might be getting downplayed.

I can take or leave Puddy, but I'm afraid he won't have the child like enthusiasm the role requires.

"The Whopper says....Spoon!"
posted by GersonK at 10:40 PM on May 21, 2001

I dunno, check out his work in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove - he's hilarious as earnest doofus Kronk...
posted by owillis at 12:06 AM on May 22, 2001

I saw some RealVideo many months back of the first 5 minutes of the pilot episode, featuring The Tick defending a middle-of-nowhere bus station from non-existent evil and finally being asked to leave after destroying the coffee machine ("Java devil... you are now my bitch!"). From those few minutes, it looked like Warburton really had captured the essence of the character.

One heated discussion that came up when the first pictures were released (here's a damn good one) centered on the fact that you could see Warburton's whole face. Comic/cartoon purists were outraged. Me? I like it. There's no way you could have even a partial mask in live action and have it be as expressive and fluid as it was in the cartoon.

As far as underappreciated actors go, Warburton pretty much tops my list. Jason Lee is on there too, though he has a lot of 'indie cred', and is gaining mass acceptance as well. And I share a birthday with him!
posted by toddshot at 4:06 AM on May 22, 2001

I think my current favorite "underappreciated character actor" must be Philip Seymour Hoffman -- this guy's range is just incredible. I came to this realization about a year and a half ago when I saw both "The Talented Mr. Ripley' and "Magnolia" in the same weekend. One of the characters in Ripley was Freddie Miles, a brash, arrogant American asshole; one of the characters in Magnolia was Phil Parma, a shy, sensitive nurse. Both characters were exceptionally well portrayed, and both were played by Hoffman.

You may remember him best as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous. Love that guy.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 7:08 AM on May 22, 2001

I still think it's funny that the Wallace Shawn was Rex the Dinosaur in Toy Story 2, Mr. Fleming in the Cosby Show and er, Wallace Shawn in My Dinner with Andre. That's range, I guess.
posted by Big Fat Tycoon at 7:24 AM on May 22, 2001

Oh, I love this, from the linked article:

"The original 'Tick' cartoon, which followed the exploits of a 400-lb. hero and his pal Arthur, who dressed as a moth, was a part of Fox's Saturday morning lineup from 1995 to 1998. It has continued to enjoy success in comic book form and via internet fan clubs, Variety said."

Boy Howdy, ya mean there's a comic book now??

*grrrrrr*
posted by webmutant at 11:58 AM on May 22, 2001