By Cathalena E. Burch | Arizona Daily
Star
Fox TV series 'Til
Death' to star Garrett
When "Everybody Loves
Raymond" went off the air
last fall, there was serious
talk of casting Brad Garrett
in a "Raymond" spinoff.
Well, that idea is dead.
But Garrett will return
to the small screen next
fall in a Fox sitcom titled
'Til Death', chronicling the
foibles of a couple married
20 years, "but it feels like
40," Garrett said. The
couple live next door to a
couple who've been married
20 minutes. "It almost has a
contemporary 'Honeymooners'
feel about it, as far as two
couples that are really in
the same place with a very
different perspective,"
Garrett explained.
"It's a very realistic,
dark slant on what life —
marriage — really is. It
doesn't put it down; it
doesn't raise it up. It puts
it in the light where you
can judge it for
yourselves."
The show is from Cathy
Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith,
two of the longtime writers
for CBS' "The King of
Queens."
The show is slated for
the fall lineup.
Meanwhile, Garrett is
wrapping up filming for the
rock-star comeback movie
"Music and Lyrics By," in
which he plays Hugh Grant's
manager. Drew Barrymore is
Grant's love interest.
"I wanted to fall in love
with Drew, but the studio
wouldn't have it," Garrett
said. "They found it creepy,
which hurt. They actually
used the word 'creepy,'
which, you know, at the end
of the day makes me want to
go to a mall and be alone."
Garrett jokes that he has
no movie career, but someday
he hopes to play Fred Gwynne
in a remake of "The Munsters."
"I'd probably lose out to
Will Ferrell. Which everyone
would go, 'How did that
happen?' And he'd be
brilliant, and I'd go . . ."
— and then Garrett affected
a classic Herman Munster
baritone-barreled chuckle.
"I'd be outside the studio
door with security, doing
the laugh, and they'd pull
me out."
"Everybody Loves
Raymond" co-star Brad
Garrett has come full
circle.
Nearly half his lifetime
ago, Garrett, now 45, got
his first big taste of comic
success when he was asked to
sit on the couch by "Tonight
Show" host Johnny Carson. He
was 23 years old, and at
that time, he was one of the
youngest comics to have been
invited to the show.
This was after the
6-foot, 8-inch comedian
snagged the $100,000 top
prize on "Star Search,"
which led to the gig on "The
Tonight Show," which opened
doors to a long stand-up
run.
"I was on the road for
years, working the clubs and
the casinos," the
baritone-voiced comic said
last week from his home in
California. "I was the last
opening act to work with
(Frank) Sinatra and Sammy
Davis (Jr.). I've been at it
a long time."
And he's been away from
it a long time. When Garrett
landed on the CBS sitcom
"Everybody Loves Raymond,"
playing big brother Robert
to Ray Romano's title
character, he left the road
behind.
"I took seven years off
from doing stand-up," said
Garrett, who did his first
comedy club performance when
he was 15. "I really thought
that I was going to put the
stand-up on the shelf. I
thought it was a point in my
life where I had done it —
it was good."
During a hiatus in
filming seven years into the
series' nine-year run,
Romano brought Garrett
onstage with him in Vegas,
and all bets were off.
"That was it for me. I
was bitten again," Garrett
said.
He spent the next two
years writing new material,
honing his timing and
falling back in love with
his first passion. "There is
nothing like stand-up as far
as the highs and the lows,"
the father of two said.
"There's no middle. You
either have a really great
night or you have a so-so
night. But it always
changes."
In an interview from home
last week, Garrett, who'll
perform Saturday at the
University of Arizona's
Centennial Hall, talked
about his comedy, his TV
career and his first taste
of Broadway.
"It literally was the
single most exciting and
terrifying time in my life,
careerwise," Garrett said.
He played Murray the Cop in
"The Odd Couple" for several
months, then slipped in for
four nights to replace star
Nathan Lane in the lead role
as Oscar.
Garrett also talked about
his 6-year-old daughter and
his 7-year-old son, his new
Fox sitcom, " 'Til Death,"
politics and life after
"Raymond."
Last one out shuts off
the light
"It's the kind of job
nobody wants to walk away
from. But to do it at the
right time and to do it
while you're still the
highest-rated comedy — to
leave on top — is rarely
ever done. . . . It was a
sense of loss. Some of us
had abandonment issues. I
think Peter Boyle (the
father in 'Everybody Loves
Raymond') is still showing
up at Stage 13."
Avoid the woods: Dick
Cheney is armed
"I don't care how many
beers you have. I don't care
if you're on your fourth
baboon heart. I really don't
care where you're going. But
how do you mistake a friend
— I don't care how — for a
quail? You know, I've been
called a bear before. I can
see how from a distance if
I'm picking up my lunch from
the ground, maybe I look
like a deer if you close one
eye. But the alibi of
shooting a friend
point-blank because you
thought he was a quail? It
just opens up a plethora of
questions. I would be
someone's girlfriend right
now if that was my alibi.
'Why'd you shoot your friend
in the face?' 'Well, I
thought he was a finch.'"
Is anyone awake in
Washington?
"Even though I'm not a
political guy, even a nitwit
like me is getting political
because unfortunately the
greatest country in the
world is in a very
disastrous place."
Who would have thought
fatherhood would be so
tough?
"I sent my son to his
room for timeout, and I went
to check on him, and he
said: 'You must leave. No
giants allowed!' He said it
with anger: 'No giants in my
room.' My God, that's such
gold."
Lights, camera — could
you please get out of the
shot?
"I don't really have a
film career. I have trouble
getting into home movies in
the house. When the wife is
filming the kids on the
lawn, she'll turn it off if
I walk out there and say
we're going another way."
Nathan Lane's the rock
that never rolled
"I understudied him for
four months (on Broadway's
'The Odd Couple'), and he
never got sick. I tried to
poison Nathan for weeks. The
guy is a rock. I was home
for five days, and the
producers called me: 'Nathan
has laryngitis. We've been
closed for three days. Can
you be here in 10 hours?' I
packed up the family, and we
flew to New York."
There's tall, and then
there's, well, tall
"I'm the tallest Jew in
captivity. . . . I'm a lab
experiment that got out.
That's really how I look at
myself."
