Behind every woman there’s a good, loopy man. In the case of NBC’s “Hope & Gloria,” there are three of them.
The comedy, which airs at 8 p.m. Saturdays on WMAQ-Ch. 5, is about two friends who live in the same Pittsburgh apartment building. Buttoned-down Hope Davidson (Cynthia Stevenson) is an associate producer of a local television talk show. Brassy Gloria Utz (Jessica Lundy) is a hairdresser raising her young son.
It’s the men in these women’s lives that give them fits. For Hope, there’s Dennis Dupree (Alan Thicke), the egotistical host of the show she works for, and Gwillem Blatt (Taylor Negron), a high-strung network program executive. Gloria, meanwhile, has to deal with her lovable loser of an ex-husband, Louis (Enrico Colantoni), whom she has married–and divorced–twice.
The opposites-attract relationship between Hope and Gloria is what sold the series, but the men orbiting these two women is what gives “Hope & Gloria” its twist.
“On this show, we just like to cause them pain, cause them grief,” laughs Colantoni. “Like any man would to any woman in any relationship.
“The Dennis character does it in a stupid way; the Gwillem character does it in an aggressive, you-can’t-get-away-with-anything way; and Louis does it in a `Hey, I still love you, why are you doing this to me?’ way.”
Adds Thicke, “When you are the central figure, as our two women are, there’s a likability quality and a believability and an intelligence and all those kinds of real human qualities.
“Whereas with roles like Dennis Dupree, and certainly with Taylor’s role as Gwillem, we don’t have to be as dimensional, but you can make us a little more outrageous. And frankly, it’s a lot of fun to play that.”
Negron is able to take that dynamic of the men hovering around the two central figures one step farther, as only he can.
“I think that generally in the American culture, men are having a different experience at the workplace, because women have more power since the women’s revolution in the last 25 years,” says Negron, a standup comic who has been in such movies as “Angels in the Outfield” and “The Last Boy Scout.”
“It’s a totally different arena. And women are kind of having equal control now. So men have to kind of reinvent their roles. And I think that on `Hope & Gloria,’ this truly is what the men of `Hope & Gloria’ are about.”
Negron, 37, notes that this situation works perfectly for the show. Because the men are secondary, “we don’t have to carry the point of view. We can just be clowns. The roles are reversed, but the energy is the same. And for me, I always thought I was a New Age man. I’m as comfortable on a football field as I am in a gown.”
Just as the relationship between the men and women on “Hope & Gloria” is important to the chemistry of the show, so is the relationship between the men themselves.
“Louis adores (Dennis),” says Colantoni, 33. “He’s the only celebrity Louis knows, and Dennis can do no wrong. It is so sad.”
But there is a really odd situation happening between Louis and Gwillem, according to Colantoni, who is working on his first sitcom after appearing on “Law & Order,” “NYPD Blue” and “New York Undercover.”
“Taylor and I have a joke that in every scene that Louis and Gwillem have been in together, they have yet to say hello to each other. I mean, we’re in the same room, but we never interact. They never have us acknowledging each other. I’m there, he’s there, and we just kind of talk around each other. So we have, like, zero relationship. It’s fascinating.”
“Hope & Gloria” had a cushy spot on NBC’s schedule when it premiered in March of last year, nestled comfortably at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays between “Friends” and “Seinfeld.” It thrived there until the network moved it at the beginning of this season, first to Sundays at 7:30, then to its current 8 p.m. time. The move has had an effect on a few cast members.
“For me, I don’t believe in time. So I think we’re up against `Lucy,’ ” says Negron. “It doesn’t matter what time you’re on. I mean, this is not 1979, this is 1996. There are 55 channels, and apparently 44 (more) are coming this month.”
Thicke, 49, is familiar with all this–he saw his previous show, “Growing Pains,” moved several times on ABC during the course of its seven years on the air.
“The truth is, the fans you do have, have to follow from night to night, and the ones that don’t watch TV on Saturday night aren’t going to stay home for you. So it’s tough moving around,” he says.
“It’s kind of like Russian roulette. I don’t know how many nights you can move to without one of the chambers being loaded. So I hope they’ll stop!”
