Writer's Block: My name's Forrest, Forrest Gump

[athelind]

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What’s your favorite Tom Hanks movie or character, and why?

That poor guy. His career's been all downhill since he played Kip Wilson.

You know, I was joking when I started this post, but watching the opening credits reminded me just how much I liked that show, and what a great cast they had. And yes, a big part of its consistently-entertaining quality was the guy who would go on to become one of the big stars of the next three decade. His good humor, his improv chemistry with Scolari, and his ability, shared with Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant, to maintain some level of gravitas in the most humbling, embarrassing situations all served him well both in this series and in his later career.

And I never thought of myself as a big Tom Hanks fan. I just enjoy his stuff -- but I enjoy it, I realize, pretty darned consistently, and have since the days when he and Peter Scholari answered every knock on the door with that distinctive falsetto "Who is it?"

Comments

[fengi.livejournal.com]

Looking at those opening credits I'm reminded of how Hanks and Scolari pulled that show above the premise, but it was also producer intent as well. The juggling, the throwing and catching things and the comedy duo schtick shots (like them sunbathing in a parking spot) emphasized the buddy comedy and reading up on the history I discovered they made changes to move beyond the drag in the second season.

In a way the show is as much a precursor to How I Met Your Mother as Friends or Seinfeld.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

I noticed years ago that in the split-screen shot of them in and out of drag, the drag side of the window is at night while the rest is daylit. I thought this was a gaffe, but just now I thought it might have been an intentional way of subtly underlining the duality.

And when they de-emphasized the drag as fengi says, they concentrated on their new business as independent TV producers - pretty meta for a sitcom.