On Call: Vol. 2, No. 1 - Updating Charts: News of Cast and Crew

From On Call: The Official Newsletter of the St. Elsewhere Appreciation Club, March 1998, volume 2, number 1.

JOHN TINKER is shooting a pilot this month for ABC titled The Game. The one hour drama is set in Philadelphia and has been described as "Jerry McGuire meets L.A. Law". Meanwhile Chicago Hope just keeps getting better and better. This month the Chicago Hope docs were at a medical convention where the marquee welcomed "St. Eligius". Earlier this year, Kate mentions that her mentor was the late Dr. David Domedion. And on that same episode a patient with a golf club lodged in his chest was referred to as Mr. Masius. Speaking of whom...

JOHN MASIUS is producing a pilot for NBC. The one hour drama is titled Providence.

TOM FONTANA is working on a pilot for CBS titled Family Brood about an Irish family of firefighters. Tom is also keeping the St. Elsewhere flame alive. Over a year ago he swore ON CALL to secrecy about his plan to revive a SE character on Homicide. Now he's done it. On March 20 ('Mercy') ALFRE WOODARD re-appeared as Dr. Roxanne Turner. Says Fontana, "Maybe I'll have Ehrlich show up on Oz, having been in prison for ten years." Tom will also appear with friend Dick Wolf (Executive Producer, Law and Order) at the Museum of Television and Radio later this spring.

STEPHEN FURST is still starring in and directing some episodes of Babylon Five, now on TNT. Stephen has also had an action figure made of his Babylon character "VIR". His 30 Day Wonder is still in development, but these days he's focusing on Arthur's Quest, a comedy about King Arthur. He is also preparing to write a book about his life, weight loss, etc... He will be a star attraction at a Sci-Fi convention in High Point, NC this June.

BONNIE BARTLETT DANIELS, as Norman says, is "always working." She recently turned in an Emmy-worthy performance on ER as Anthony Edwards' mom. She also stars in Primary Colors which opens this month. She appears as the wife of the "Paul Tsongas" character in this take-off of the '92 Clinton campaign.

DENZEL WASHINGTON was recently honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Later this year he will star in Martial Law. He will play an FBI agent to co-stars Bruce Willis and Annette Bening. In the mean time, He Got Game is due out in May. In it he plays a prisoner who is paroled only after agreeing that his basketball star son will play for the Governor's alma mater. Spike Lee directs. Denzel was also featured on the February issue of Cigar magazine.\

JENNIFER SAVIDGE is starring in the new FOX sitcom Significant Others which began a six week run this month. Though hard to believe, Savidge plays the mother of two grown kids. Also stars Richard Masur.

ED BEGLEY, JR. will star with young Jonathan Lipnicki in a Fall series on CBS titled Meego.

BRUCE GREENWOOD reprises his role as the arrogant network executive on The Larry Sanders Show.

BRUCE PALTROW is working on a TV pilot, reportedly a police drama. Perhaps the new show is about family values. Daughter Gwyneth appeared earlier this year on Good Morning America to promote Great Expectations, and she confided to Charles Gibson that father Bruce wouldn't attend her premiere because of the nudity. It's nice to know a hardened veteran of Tinsel Town can still be a regular father, Kudos to both Dad and Daughter for "acting" appropriately.

CYNTHIA SIKES, as reported in our last issue, will appear with Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer, originally slated for an earlier release, now opening in May.

NORMAN LLOYD recently appeared in an episode of ABC's The Practice. He is also gearing up for a TV pilot on UPN on Seven Days. It is a Time Tunnel type show with Norman playing the elder of the team that builds the machine. He will be shooting his scenes beginning the last week in March. By the way, upon showing up for his obligatory studio physical, Norman waited in the exam room as a doctor entered, looked at Lloyd, and should enthusiastically, "Dr. Auschlander!", to which Norman replied, "Yes, how can I help you?"

GRANT TINKER, the grandfather of St. Elsewhere, was recently honored by NAPTE with the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. During the ceremony Tinker lashed out at Jerry Springer, telling TV executives that Springer's program "debases us all." Congratulations are in order for the award and for the observation. Both are long overdue.

HOWIE MANDEL will soon give us an alternative to Springer's sleaze. Also Howie is busily readying his syndicated talk show, but took time out to talk with us last month. ON CALL asked if he would consider our suggestion for a St. Elsewhere cast reunion on his new program Howie replied, "I thought it was a good idea. I'm going to try it." Mandel promised to let us know when the big event might be scheduled.

BILL DANIELS recently took time to meet up with Stephen Furst and Tom Fontana for dinner (Bonnie was filming ER and couldn't attend). Now if we can just get the entire cast and crew together for a banquet (but please, no food from the folks who catered Victor's wedding).

ABBY SINGER and BERNIE OSERANSKY gathered in Bernie's office at MTM last month to speak with ON CALL. These two Production Supervising Legends were great fun to interview and full of wonderful stories which we will publish in future issues.

HELEN HUNT deserves our congratulations and best wishes for her Oscar. She becomes the fourth St. Elsewhere alum to get a nod. The others are Dean Jagger (who won as Best Supporting Actor for 12 O'Clock High; Alfre Woodard, nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1983's Cross Creek; and Denzel Washington, whose performance in Glory won him the 1989 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.