I loved working for Jeff. He had three women in his office: Emily, Sheila, and me, and we became something of a family. It was also a celebratory time around the CHEERS set. They had filmed their 200th episode with all the attending revelry: parties, cigars all around, gifts. Also CHEERS was about to end for good. A huge party was thrown in an airplane hangar. The Charles brothers were there, as was James Burrows, and of course the entire cast and crew. Hundreds of serving stations had been set up with anything you could want or think of. The Charles brothers came back to write the final episode of CHEERS which was both brilliantly funny and a tear-jerker. Shelley Long came back to reprise her role as Diane. It was an emotional and exhilarating time. It was a time of black tuxedos, golden Emmys, and dinners at L’Orangerie.
We immediately set out to cast CHEERS’ spin off FRASIER and I learned more about casting from Jeff Greenberg than I did from any other casting director.. First of all Jeff actually had me in the room while we read with actors—something my prior employers didn’t—and Jeff worked fast, astutely, and got the best reading out of the actor. His notes were simple and precise and made all the difference in an actor’s performance. Jeff was also the most organized person I ever worked for. I was used to going in and straightening out my bosses’ desks after they’d left for the evening, only to have them come in the next morning and restore the ruin by nine. Jeff made my job very easy. I also got to know a lot more actors just by being in the room with them. Jeff also saw every play, waiver play, Broadway play, off off Broadway show, and regional theatre production and liked to bring in fresh actors who hadn’t done every sitcom.
FRASIER had come with a mostly assembled cast: Kelsey, of course, was Frasier, David Hyde Pierce had been offered the role of his brother Niles, John Mahoney had been cast as the dad, so the only roles left to cast were Daphne and Roz. Jane Leeves went on to play the role of Daphne and we hired an off-beat Lisa Kudrow as Roz. during run-through it became clear that Lisa Kudrow didn’t have all the qualities Roz needed, though she was a brilliant comic actor. Mid-week, we replaced Lisa with the more acerbic Peri Gilpin. Lisa went on to be cast as Phoebe in FRIENDS so it wasn’t a major loss for her.
One of the only problems I had reading with actors was that sometimes the scripts were so funny I couldn’t get through them. I’d be laughing too hard to feed the actors their lines. Much to the actors’ chagrin I would imagine. During the casting of one episode of Frasier the dialogue was so funny I had tears streaming down my cheeks from laughing so hard while facing a bewildered actor. I finally collected myself, but it wasn’t easy. Jeff went on to cast MY SO-CALLED LIFE and myriad other hit shows. He recently cast MODERN FAMILY and you can see his skill and inventiveness in the casting of the series regulars for that show. I was sober for the entire time I worked with Jeff and that’s a big portion of why I have such good memories of that time. That and working on some of the best shows on television.
I left Jeff’s office to take a more executive position within Paramount and it was a decision I would come to regret. It was during that time, a time in which I was unhappy, that my opiate use began to creep up, from filling the occasional script to needing them every day. I also slipped on alcohol and cocaine two substances I hadn’t used in years—and right before the Casting Society’s Artios Awards Ceremony where I’d only be seen by every agent and casting director in town. We addicts always pick the exact time to slip to guarantee maximum damage.
The addiction began with a series of root canals and migraines. I didn’t like opiates when I first was prescribed them for a root canal, but one day I woke up a full-blown opiate addict. And that’s what it felt like: I noticed one day I was addicted. There was a day when I got sick when I ran out of pills and I was off to the races. I didn’t know I was heading that way, I didn’t make a conscious decision like I would with, let’s say, picking up a drink or doing a line of coke. I didn’t know the addiction was sneaking up on me which made the drug all the more insidious. And as I’ve mentioned before, my addiction coincided with hitting my stride in my career. Opiates were being prescribed up, down, and sideways, during this time: the mid-to-late nineties. It was actually hard not to get addicted. Storm clouds were gathering.
So these are the stories (of Cheers and Frasier etc.) that help propel your story - and, all you had to lose. "We addicts always pick the exact time to slip to guarantee maximum damage. " Love it. Keep writing.