Kellie Martin is experiencing a normal life these days–or as normal a life anyone can have while working in television. But “it was not easy” adjusting, she says. “One of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”
It has been quite a transition for the one-time star of ABC’s “Life Goes On” and CBS’ “Christy,” who currently is an art history major at Yale. Martin first had to get used to taking care of herself, “as opposed to being on the set, where everyone takes care of you.
“I had my time budgeted for me always,” says the 21-year-old sophomore. “I mean, the assistant director would say, `Okay, go here, do this, do that.’ And now I’ve got to figure out what to do by myself. It’s exciting now, actually, because it’s my time, and I haven’t had that before.”
Martin initially was overwhelmed when she found herself immersed in the college mindset. Going from class to class, experiencing different teachers, and even simple things like taking notes was foreign for someone who received her education on a TV set.
“A lot of kids who go to Yale are from prep schools, (and) Yale is easy to them, because they’ve had such unbelievable education,” says Martin. “My classes were limited because I had one teacher for high school.”
There were times when Martin was so spent from acting out an emotional scene as angst-ridden teen dream Becca Thatcher on “Life,” that she didn’t have any energy left to concentrate on lessons. “My teacher would say, `Okay, we’re not going to do the test today because you obviously can’t concentrate on it.’
“But at Yale, even if I had a tough day, (if) I just got back from a job or whatever, (if) I just had to do all this press . . . they don’t care if you take the test,” Martin laughs.
At Yale, Martin is interacting with people from all walks of life for the first time, most of whom aren’t the least bit impressed with someone who does television for a living.
“I’ve roomed with a violinist who’s just amazing. And I’m rooming with an opera singer who’s really great. They all have something that is special and that’s their own. So I’m not anything exciting on campus . . .
“Acting seems a lot less noble when you’re at Yale to study to be pre-med to find a cure for AIDS,” adds Martin, who attends the university with fellow TV brats Sara Gilbert from “Roseanne” and Josh “Paul Pfeiffer” Saviano of “The Wonder Years.”
Martin follows in the Yale footsteps of Jodie Foster, who inspired her to attend the university (“I went, oh, an actress can be an actress and go to college”), and Jennifer Beals of “Flashdance.”
But now she’s getting in the swing of college life. One of the benefits is that she can take time off if she has an acting assignment. She had finished a semester when offered the script for “Crisis Center,” a new NBC limited series premiering at 9 p.m. Friday on WMAQ-Ch. 5.
Martin skipped a semester and spent the summer working on six episodes of the series about workers in a San Francisco-based agency that helps community residents in jeopardy.
“It’s kind of good that I get to lengthen it out and take my time with (school),” Martin says, “because it makes me appreciate it.
“It’s all or nothing. I mean, you either miss a semester and work, or you go to school and you don’t work. If I had to go back and forth on a monthly basis or something, I couldn’t do it.”
Martin, who gets A’s and B’s at Yale, has something in common with her “Crisis Center” character, psychology student Kathy Goodman, in that both are college students.
“Except she’s good at psychology,” Martin sighs, “and I’m absolutely terrible at psychology.”
– Dueling “Guns”: Henry Winkler beat Robert Altman to the draw. The producer-actor and former pop icon character Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli is executive producer of “Dead Man’s Gun,” a Showtime movie trilogy premiering at 7 p.m. Sunday.
“Dead Man’s Gun” is about a weapon that passes from one hand to the next, with sometimes terrifying results. Altman (“Nashville”) is directing “Gun” for ABC. It, too, is a midseason series about a pistol that passes from one hand to the next, also with frightening repercussions.
ABC’s “Gun,” which doesn’t have an air date, is set in the present and spiked with reality; “Dead Man’s Gun” is set in the Wild West of 1875, and the results are more along the ironic lines of “The Twilight Zone.”
“You can’t be deterred” by a competing project, says Winkler, 51. “Our material is good, the whole concept is good, it was good before we heard there was a modern version, and we have great stories. And that’s all you can do.”
Winkler adds his project was about a year into development before he heard about Altman’s, but he admits both his movie (a pilot for a possible Showtime series) and ABC’s “Gun” probably will convey the same, timeless message:
“No matter who handles a gun, no matter how you handle the gun, it changes your life forever,” he says. “No matter what time.”
