Michelle Pfeiffer to Return to Television
Thursday, April 2, 2015 at 5:45PM True story: I have had this tab open for 6 hours and 14 minutes and this is the first sentence I have typed. I am a bundle of inchoate feelings about this news and may never fully process it. Reports have been coming in since last night that TFE's unofficial goddess (aka Nathaniel's all time favorite Michelle Pfeiffer) is heading to the small screen where she started 36 years ago in "Delta House" (1979), a sorority comedy trying to capitalize on the success of Animal House and "Bad C.A.T.S" (1980) a drama about young undercover cops and car thieves.
Pfeiffer as "The Bombshell" (Delta House) and as "Sunshine Jensen" (B.A.D. Cats)
To date they are her only series regular gigs (she was 21 and 22 years old respectively). Though she made a few more TV appearances after those short-lived efforts, the movies snatched her up almost immediately, which was wise. Her beauty (and talent) would only be growing and by, say, 1983 when Scarface hit, it was clear that she was too supersized for the smaller screen which tends to favor less otherworldly and more approachable girl next-door beauties.
There have been rumors that Pfeiffer was considering a TV series for a few months and I opted not to write about them because Pfeiffer is notorious for considering things (usually movies) but not actually doing them, preferring to stay at home with her gaziillions (her husband David E Kelley was just as bankable and successful in her field as she was in hers). Her career choices since marriage and motherhood in the mid 90s have been peculiar and obviously distracted to say the least, despite the occasional wondrous outing that put her back in peak form (What Lies Beneath, White Oleander, Chéri to name a few) so with both of her kids heading off to college it looks like she may finally be a full time actress again.
Pfeiffer's most recent film premiere was THE FAMILY (2013), her only leading role this decade thus far
I just didn't quite expect it to be a TV series. Yes, yes, I know movie stars are doing that more regularly. It's not about that. It's that she's notoriously skittish about committing to projects and TV series are a much bigger commitment than movies.
THE NEWS
Sorry it's taking so long to get there. It's Pfeiffer so my mind wanders since she means so much to me. According to Variety she (iconic movie star) and Katie Couric (uber famous TV personality) and Diane English (Murphy Brown mastermind) are, as a power trio, shopping around a comedy about a morning news show host (La Pfeiff) which will supposedly NOT be about Katie Couric's time on the Today show, but everyone seems to think that will be exactly what it will be about. They're shopping the show (untitled) to the various power players (HBO, Showtime, Netflix, AMC) rather than the traditional networks. Shopping a pitch is much different than actually doing a series of course. And the ratio of shows that are pitched or even made into pilots to shows that are actually made is staggeringly imbalanced so who knows. (Remember that brief time when Julianne Moore was supposedly going to star in a 1950s era detective / drug series?)
But with three big names like that, who wouldn't take a meeting?
I will of course be thrilled to see my beloved again in whatever way she decides to present herself. I'm even thrilled in those rare moments when we get a photo like this one shot by a fan at the current hot ticket Off Broadway show "Hamilton"...
Photo via Facebook
But the reason I resist my favorite movie stars going to TV is that unlike a movie -- I will literally sit through anything for a couple of hours to watch a favorite actor no matter how bad the movie is -- I can't really watch a TV series each week, no matter who stars in it, if I don't like the actual show. It's just too much of a time commitment as How To Get Away With Murder so recently proved once again. I worship Viola but no, I... I just can't with that show. It's just too trashy/bad.
Whether or not this series, if it happens, is any good or not will depend on a wide number of things including co-stars, writers, and whatnot but Pfeiffer will obviously be great in it. That said, one of her biggest career missteps was playing a newswoman (Up Close and Personal) so I should knock on wood as I publish this post.
Reader Comments (17)
Disappointing, but inevitable. I think she'll be great in a comedy but I wish it was a drama.
I pray to God that IF this show *does* gets picked up, it's HBO or Netflix that does it. I can't deal with AMC and its endless commercials anymore, and Showtime just doesn't seem to have the mojo anymore to nurture a show this seemingly delicate. That said, I do wonder if HBO, which has a recent history of commissioning, then passing on, an incredible roster of top-tier talent-led shows (Tilda with Diane Keaton; The Corrections with Ewan McGreggor, Maggie Gyllehaal, and Diane Wiest; A Miraculous Year from none other than Kathryn Bigelow), would be a less-than-sure move. Anyway, Netflix it is!
The Goddess will not be committing to a twenty-plus episodes, you can be secure in that. Also, working on television / online streaming means Globe and SAG nominations where she'll mingle with relevant film power players who'll have parts to throw her way because she has surfaced again. You're too negative about TV when Film is the actual abusive husband to us all.
Pfeiffer would be perfect for a limited series: 6-10 episodes on HBO or Netflix a la "Top of the Lake" but that's it. Why not something for the Sundance Channel like "The Honourable Woman?"
The problem with an ongoing series is that they get evaluated differently. They're assessed in terms of viewers and ratings. I'd much prefer a Michelle Pfeiffer Event on television than some show that's beholden to the whims of viewers and timeslot challengers. So many compromises and creative sacrifices have to happen to make regular TV series viable.
You need to be Julia Louis-Dreyfus to rise above that game in a standard series. Michelle Pfeiffer is Michelle Pfeiffer but she is not Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
I had hoped this news was an April Fool!
I feel like this is good news, I mean it's not like she's doing much of anything else...
I think it will all come down to the quality of the writing and the chemistry she has with her ensemble.
An Olive Kitteridge/Spoils of Babylon kind of mini-series would fit her more.
MP is a supernova movie legend in my eyes. I imagine I can sit through 22 hours (with commercials) of her reading the phone book
9 comments shows what people think of this news. Nobody cares!
Didn't this happen 20 yrs ago with UCAP.
Almost any show on air right now is better than Malavita. I love stories about newsrooms but this whole project it's a déjà vu.
Yeah, I don't know. She's just too much for TV, ya know? Too glamorous, too charismatic...TV is too low-rent for her. Having said that, I was surprised by how well Viola works in her show but, like Nat, I haven't been able to stick with that show despite her brilliance.
Plus, I think the difference with Pfeiffer and other movie stars that moved to TV (Close, Davis, Sedgwick, etc.) is that, as beautiful as those women are, they're not Capital G Glamour Goddesses the way Pfeiffer is. And although Pfeiffer has always had the talent to transcend her beauty, I still think there'd be something kinda sad about Pfeiffer on TV. (But maybe I'm wrong and it'd be awesome to see her on a weekly basis?)
It has done wonders for LANGE,she's become a cult figure now and people are checking out her old stuff hopefully like Country and Men Don't Leave.
i can see her in a show where she can be a complex villain type. i'm thinking madeline stowe in the first season of revenge. such a great performance. stowe still kills it in revenge but the show's quality has dwindled. i can also see pfeiffer in a comedy, she has proven to be great in the genre. i'm thinking married to the mob/ one fine day.
I would be thrilled to see Pfeiffer return in anything worth her talents! But this premise sounds tired. WTF cares about Katie Couric's time on a morning news show? Is that the only way they can conceptualize Michelle Pfeiffer? Dianne Keaton tried newscaster and it tanked. And cable does not lead to movie parts. She seems to be fumbling in movies just like Jessica Lange and other actresses like Kidman, who did a shitty airline commercial for anti-women airlines.