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BRITISH INVASION  HUGH LAURIE, star of Fox's "HOUSE," represents the latest invasion of British acting stars into American television. |
Brits in American TV shows: It goes on and on
of TheColumnists.com
I blame it all
on that remarkable actor Hugh
Laurie. The latest British TV invasion,
I mean. Laurie’s success on "House" sparked a
run on British actors that seemed to turn last fall’s U.S.
TV season into a salute to thespians with plumy accents.
Well, I’m here to report the invasion is over. It receded
just as quickly as you can say “Nielsen ratings”.
And I find I’m not even tuning in to "House" as
much as I used to a few seasons back. It happens with every TV
show I watch regularly. I eventually figure out the concept and
then it becomes ho-hum time for this constant viewer.
On "House." Laurie was outrageous as the ever-so-nasty
physician with the limp who treated patients and fellow physicians
with the same icy contempt. He was only tolerated because of
his sheer brilliance: He was the only one to figure out what
exotic medical condition threatened the life of the patient of
the week. After a few years of this I continued to like Laurie’s
turn but found it was becoming more than a little predictable
and so I began clicking out earlier every week.
I had other Laurie performances to watch: One Canadian channel
sports pure gold reruns of "Jeeves and Wooster" with
Laurie the silliest ass one ever saw in a Wooster (David Niven’s
movie turns as Wooster by contrast are positively sophisticated.).
On another channel there’s a very young Laurie in "Blackadder"
Now I’m watching Laurie in the British series (all of four
episodes) "Fortysomething" (2004) just out on DVD.
Laurie was always a much appreciated actor but stardom in a U.S.
series hit has made him red hot.
And Hollywood producers ever ready to imitate hastily called
over every British actor who yearned to be a U.S. TV star. But
few of them are left after a season of so-so ratings.
There was Michelle Ryan in the pretty terrible remake of "The Bionic
Woman." For five years I’d watched her on the BBC serial
"East Enders." She had tried but failed to replace
Billie Piper on "Dr. Who" but "Bionic Woman"
didn’t even last the year. I wonder where she’ll next
pop up, don’t you?
Also on Bionic Woman: London’s Mark Sheppard, already known
for roles on "Battlestar Galactica" and "24."
Ed Westwick had far better luck. He jumped from British TV and
films into the juicy part of nasty teen Chuck in the New York-made
soap opera "Gossip Girl" and he’ll be back for
a second season.
Kevin McKidd shot to fame in North America in "Rome."
But I remember him from the Brit flick "Trainspotting."
I had an odd feeling watching him in the pilot of "Journeyman."
Physically he was well cast as Dan Vassar but the show was one
of the bigger stinkers of last season. Also from "Rome"
was voluptuous Polly Walker who had sensational nude scenes in old Rome but on
CBS’s "Cane" seemed lost as Jimmy Smits’
sultry wife. It lasted 13 episodes.
Then there was Lloyd Owen in "Viva Laughlin." It was the first singing
and dancing U.S. series I can remember since the musical turns
of cops in "Cop Rock." This one was very hard to sit
through and no wonder CBS cancelled it after mere weeks of existence.
Damian Lewis was one of the bigger name imports. After all he’d
excelled in Masterpiece Theatre’s "The Forsyte Saga."
He also played an American in TV’s "Band Of Brothers."
On NBC’s "Life," he initially seemed terrific
as a former L.A. cop wrongly imprisoned for over a decade, now
back on the force. The initial episode was exciting, well acted,
but a certain similarity soon crept into scripts.
On CBS’s "Moonlight" there was an exciting pilot
which the public never got to view. CBS saw fit to junk most
of the first cast and what emerged was a far more inferior series.
Co-starring were Brit import Sophia
Miles and Australian Alex O’Loughlin,
both very beautiful and completely miscast.
Better luck was experienced by Anna
Friel ("Pushing Daisies"). I
confess I never caught Lena
Hedey in "The Sarah Connor Chronicles."
And I almost forgot the oddly named Brit actress Jaime Murray
who stepped from a British TV series ("Hustle") right
into the thick of the second season of Showtime's "Dexter"
as his sexy, malicious rehab adviser.
Some of the Brit newcomers played it safe
and joined already running series: Marienne Jean-Baptiste on "Without
A Trace," Saffron
Burrows on "Boston Legal," Matthew Rhys
on "Brothers & Sisters."
I could mention all the Brits on reality series: . They include
Gordon Ramsay. Simon Cowell, Twiggy. But I try not to watch these
kind of series, so there.
But it seems enough of these Brit actors
flopped that the whole invasion is off.
What’s next? I’m betting on another wave of Aussies
and Kiwis.
Of course I speak as a Canadian, a nation whose actor exports
to L.A. have been continuing for the past 40 years. Let’s
see, there was Raymond Burr as U.S. attorney "Perry Mason"
(1957-1966), Lorne Greene as the patriarch of the range on long
running "Bonanza" (1959-73), Bill Shatner on "Star
Trek" (1966-1969), and even Jason Priestley on "Beverly
Hills 90210" (1990-1997). But we think we don’t have
funny accents aside from the odd “aboot”.
All played archetypical American heroes
but there was nothing new in all that.
Raymond Massey, the most famous Abraham Lincoln of actors (second
place was another Torontonian, Walter Huston) told me his trepidation
when tackling the role in the movie "Abe Lincoln In Illinois"
(1940):
“In the famous debating scene I wondered out loud should
a Canadian be doing this? Then I looked at our Stephen Douglas
who was Gene Lockhart from London, Ontario, with the judge Douglass
Dumbrille from Hamilton and the time keeper John Qualen from
Ottawa. We Canadians had taken over a key scene in U.S. history.”
When I talked on the phone with Diana Rigg last year (she was
promoting her film appearance in "The Painted Veil")
she gently reminded me she’d participated in a previous
British invasion with the 1974 sitcom bomb "Diana."
And the great John Mills had a dud with his bizarre appearance
in the 1967 western series "Dundee and The Culhane"
(1967). The superb London theater actor Alfred Molina had two
stunted CBS sitcoms in recent years: "Ladies Man" (1999-2000)
and "Bram and Alice" (2002). But he seems busier than
ever.
The difference this time is most of the Brits appeared with varying
accents as American characters. The reason Laurie succeeded in
"House" was because he was so damned good, aided by
challenging scripts. The reason some of the others won’t
be coming back is simply they got stuck in weak material. The
worst of the batch surely was "Bionic Woman," although
nothing will induce me to ever re-watch "Moonlight."
But don’t worry about these fallen actors--they can charge
higher rates back in new U.K. product, based on their increased
visibility. It seems even a flop in a U.S. series can become
a valued credit.
©2008 by Jim Bawden. The photo of Hugh Laurie is courtesy of the Fox network. This column first posted Aug. 11, 2008.
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