It will be Lights! Cameras! "Action News" when Patricia Heaton makes
her return to series TV this fall on the new FOX comedy about two
co-anchors who just can't get along.
Heaton tells ET's Kevin Frazier that she was in New York appearing in a
play with "Monk" star Tony Shalhoub's when she got a call from
her agent telling her to read the script, because Kelsey Grammer was interested in
the male role.
"I read it and said, 'That is funny. Sure.' I never thought they could
pull it all together," the former "Everybody Loves Raymond" star admits.
"Next thing I knew, my agent called and said, 'You have 13 [episodes] on
the air.' I said, 'Wait. Let me read the script again.'"
Heaton realizes that a show like "Everybody Loves Raymond" doesn't come
along every season, and she appreciates what that opportunity afforded
her.
"How does a girl get so lucky?" she asks.
Heaton has been researching her role as a TV news anchor by looking at
videos of local anchors from around the U.S. on YouTube.com.
"There is a certain way they read off the teleprompter," she says. "I
started having nightmares about it last night. I thought, 'I may have to
start focusing on this stuff.'"
Heaton does come from a news background. Both her father and brother are
journalists -- and, back in her college days, she worked at an ABC
affiliate editing news films.
Her new TV series aside, acting isn't Heaton's only passion these days.
She has a production company with husband David Hunt named Four Boys
(after their four sons), so she is also involved in the
behind-the-scenes side of the entertainment industry.
Through Four Boys, the couple has producer credits on 'Amazing Grace,' a
film which was released in February and is the story of William
Wilberforce, a real-life member of the English Parliament in the 18th
century, who made it his goal to end slavery in the empire.
"[David and I] would like to have a legacy of movies and TV shows that
reflect some of how we would like to see the world for our boys," she
says. "To hand that to our boys, so they can look at that and say, 'That
is what mom and dad were about.'"
