USA NETWORK FRIDAY NIGHT 9/8c
By Lena Lamoray
This Friday MONK will host the very welcome return of Sharona played by the lovely BITTY SCHRAM. We have not seen Sharona since 2004 so it will be interesting to see if she plays nice with Natalie (TRAYLOR HOWARD). Monk and Sharona had such an amazing chemistry in the first seasons and were one of the reasons why we watched to the show in the first place. They got the ball rolling and I’m sure they will pick up right where they left off on Friday. It is kind of sad watching MONK and knowing that this is the end. I’ve always been a fan of TONY SHALOUB from his role as the loveable Antonio on WINGS to GALAXY QUEST. I know that his next projects will be fun but his role as Former Detective Adrian Monk will live in our hearts. This season has already had an assortment of guest stars such as JAY MOHR and that guy that was married to that really bad fake accent girl from AMERICAN PIE. Honestly, Friday nights will be missing something special! So, enjoy MONK while you can and I want to thank the entire cast for bringing about eight seasons of delightful detective work. Any chance we can get MONK & HUNTER together? That would be my dream team!!
I took part in a conference call with TONY SHALOUB and BITTY SCHRAM and asked a couple of questions. They were both very courteous and I am looking forward to seeing the return of Sharona on Friday.
Lena Lamoray: What has been your favorite episode so far and why?
BITTY SCHRAM: Oh God, that’s always a tough one. I never know how to answer that. I liked a lot of them, I like the one with John Turturro. I always liked that one, with Tony and his brother.
TONY SHALHOUB: Three pies.
BITTY SCHRAM: I love that one. The three pies, yes. Because I love the dynamic with Tony and John Turturro in that. I love the brother, so that’s my favorite because of that.
TONY SHALHOUB: Yes, that’s one of my favorites, too, I’d have to say. Although I have to – all told, though, I think down the road if you were to ask me this question in a month or two, I’d have to say the last. The finale is going to become my favorite because it’s been such an enormous – as I said, it’s a two-parter and it’s a big, big story and so much is really up there. I think that’s going to be a good one.
Lena Lamoray: Great. Now are you doing a Christmas episode this year?
TONY SHALHOUB: No, because our finale airs December, well the first part airs on Friday after Thanksgiving and then the last part, the second part airs on December 4. So we’ve luckily dodged the Christmas episode for one season. That’s always been a little tricky.
Some additional highlights from the conference call:
Q: What was it like for you and Bitty to work together again?
T. Shalhoub: Well, that was fantastic. It was great. It felt like we just picked up right where we left off and we didn’t miss a beat. And the only difficulty for me was that I look a lot older and Bitty looks exactly the same.
B. Schram: Well I’m not sure about … You’re being too kind.
Q: Was the chemistry that Adrian and Sharona always had easy to revive, Bitty?
B. Schram: Oh, yes, absolutely. It was honestly like I never left. I swear, it’s exactly what he said. It’s a bizarre phenomenon, but it’s true. I mean I heard, I don’t know why that Seinfeld thing on Curb Your Enthusiasm came out and I heard stuff like a remark that Jason Alexander said. Like they never, like riding a bike, and it’s true. It’s like you never leave. I don’t know, it’s like it’s . . .
T. Shalhoub: Bitty and I both looked at each other while we were doing the first scene, which is the scene – the first day was the scene where she returns. And we just looked at each other and laughed because it just felt like no time at all had passed.
B. Schram: It’s very true. I mean honestly it felt like I never left. Even with the crew, with everyone. It was bizarre, but in a good way. You know, I mean it’s good. It never leaves you, never.
Q: Playing the two characters over the years – and especially you, Tony. I know you said you studied the OCD and everything. What did you come away with, what lesson did you come away with about people dealing with mental health issues?
T. Shalhoub: Well, I mean I think the biggest thing is that sometimes this is true I think for people who suffer from OCD but also just for everyone I think in our culture. Sometimes our neuroses or out idiosyncrasies or what we view as our shortcomings or our problems can actually be used as our strengths. And if you can figure out a way to turn your liabilities into assets, with Adrian Monk of course it was his obsessive attention to detail that drove him and others crazy, but also allowed him to be really good at his job. So that’s what I came away with.
Q: When you look at Monk now, what feelings do you have for the character as compared to day one?
T. Shalhoub: Day one, yes. Well day one I was, I had no idea what I was doing and I didn’t really have an understanding of where the writers and where I was going to take this character, how it was going to evolve. But now, of course, having done 124 episodes, I was really, really gratified to see that we made this character really multifaceted and full of contradictions and I think pretty well rounded. So, and as an actor, that’s something that you really always look for.
Q: Is it easier or more difficult going into a season knowing it’s the last?
T. Shalhoub: It’s both. It sort of alternates back and forth. On the one hand, it’s easier because you’re just, you understand that there’s going to be resolution and there’s going to be a finish line, an end point. And then on the other hand, it just becomes such a family, you know, and you know you’re going to miss these people, these relationships and this sort of collective creative energy.
Q: Are you satisfied with the way the series is ending and what’s next for both of you?
B. Schram: I don’t know how the series is ending with the last two, but from my experience, because I don’t know the story lines. But for me being back on the show, I was really happy to do it and I thought it ended really, really well. I couldn’t, I just thought it ended the way it should have and I was very, very pleased with it and very pleased to be working with everyone again on that show, I really was.
T. Shalhoub: Do you want to talk about what you’re going to do next?
B. Schram: Oh, thank you Tony. Next, well I wrote something. I’m in the process of – it’s a long story. I don’t know how to say it. I wrote a pilot myself, and we’re in the middle of getting that off the ground. So it’s like a series type thing.
T. Shalhoub: Well, as far as the finale of the series, I’m very, very happy with how it’s come out and in fact the last, not just the last two episodes, but the last five or six where there’s a lot of things revealed. I just think it’s some of the strongest stuff we’ve done in all this time. So yes, the answer is I’m very, very, very happy. It was incredibly satisfying for me and I know I’m guessing that it will be for the viewers. And as far as my, what’s down the road for me, I guess I’ll be stalking Bitty until she gives me a part in her pilot I guess.
B. Schram: I would be more than . . . Tony, I never thought of it. It’s a good idea.
T. Shalhoub: Well, you’d better start thinking about it.
Q: We all know that Sharona’s coming back, obviously. How will the story lines play out as far as her relationship with Monk and Natalie’s relationship? Like how do you feel that she’s going to kind of come across as?
B. Schram: Well, I think what me and Tony or Sharona and Adrian – I think it is the same dynamic. I just think there’s a little Monk, like with Natalie added in there, I think there’s, I mean I think it just, it may change the dynamic a little, but I think we still have the same relationship. But I’m very competitive with her. Like for vying for – because you know, I’ve always loved him no matter what. And I think that’s the core of making it work. You know what I’m saying? Of all the humor and making the depth that we try to get within the humor. But I think my relationship with Natalie is a competitive one vying for his attention.
T. Shalhoub: Loyalty, really, vying for Monk’s loyalty I think.
B. Schram: Yes, or like who’s more special.
T. Shalhoub: His favorite.
B. Schram: Yes, exactly. Like his favorite. Because I think we both care about him. I think we’re both coming from the same place, just a different approach. And so I think with her, with Natalie thrown into the mix, I think it’s – our relationship is still the same, but I think it’s just an added element to it. I thought it worked well, and I liked when we did fight a little. I liked that, the little cat fight.
T. Shalhoub: Yes. They’re fun to love. That was a nice conflict and where they’ve – but they do come together, the two characters do come together, Natalie and Sharona. Their common ground is that they have enormous affection for him, but they’re also driven crazy by him. That’s another thing that they share. Their approaches to taking care of him are what create the conflict.
B. Scram: And wanting to be special to him.
Q: You had mentioned that you had made a film in Door County. And I was wondering if there’s any news on that, if it’s going to be released or how it’s going?
T. Shalhoub: Well, it’s funny you mention that. I just came from a lab where they had just finished the color correction on the movie. So we’re sending it out to various film festivals. We don’t have distribution yet, but the movie’s in great shape. The mix has been done and the music’s in and it’s all color-timed, so we’re hoping that we’ll get some positive feedback from some of these festivals and find a distributor by going that route. But thank you for asking. It’s called Feed the Fish (the feel good film of the winter).
B. Schram: The title’s Feed the Fish. I like that.
T. Shalhoub: Sure. It’s I guess it’s a comedy and it’s sort of a fish out of water story, sort of a failed children’s book writer lives in Los Angeles has kind of hit bottom, relationship’s gone south and his career’s gone south. He gets talked into going to this place in Wisconsin called Door County, which is near where I grew up. Anyway, he goes there. It’s the dead of winter, he leaves sunny Los Angeles and goes to stay with his friend. His friend is getting ready to, training to do a polar bear plunge. And so he goes there, and he’s just way, way out of his league and it’s a fish out of water thing. It’s freezing, the people are strange, the whole environment is strange, so it’s kind of a really sweet movie. I love it.
Q: Bitty, what were the similarities between you and Sharona and what were the differences?
B. Schram: I guess the similarities would be, well she kind of is feisty, you know. I guess I could get that way. I guess I could get that way and she, I think she could have a tough exterior, but she’s kind of mush inside. And I think that’s more me, I do. I mean I do, like I just think her strength or whatever just comes from survival mechanisms. It’s not really like what she is if she didn’t have to be. You know what I’m saying? And I think the differences – I think I have more culture than her. I’m a lot smarter than she is. She doesn’t go to New York and see plays, you know what I’m saying? She’s just stuck in Jersey, you know. Even though I am from Jersey. Not to put Jersey down, I like Jersey, but I think I’m more cultured. How about that?
Q: What’s your favorite Monk/Sharona moment?
B. Schram: That’s a hard one. Because everything’s a – you do so much and you work so many long hours, it become a blur, right? It’s hard to remember those things.
T. Shalhoub: I think I would have to go back to season two and we did an episode called “Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus.” Was it the circus? Yes. And Bitty, Sharona in that episode revealed that she had a fear of elephants.
B. Schram: I remember that.
T. Shalhoub: And there was this really great runner where Monk, after she’s taken care of him and been sensitive to his problems and his issues and he has no, he’s so out of touch. Monk is so out of touch. He doesn’t really give her any, he just gives her no sympathy at all when he finds out that she’s got this fear of elephants. As if why could you be afraid of anything so ridiculous. I think there was a lot of good back and forth in that episode, in those moments.
B. Schram: And when he squirts the watermelon or something. I thought it was your head or something like that. Or I don’t know . . .
T. Shalhoub: Yes. There was a guy, a guy gets his head … Right.
B. Schram: That was funny.
T. Shalhoub: That was a good one.
B. Schram: Yes, this is hard. I can’t remember. We’ve had a lot of good moments.
T. Shalhoub: Well also I think there’s a – I would just, not to speak for you, Bitty. But also I think that first moment of the pilot, the first couple of beats of the pilot.
B. Schram: With the stove?
T. Shalhoub: With the stove and Sharona’s – so much of the tone of the show and the dynamic of these two characters, the dynamic between these two characters was illustrated in that opening. And her kind of firm and yet really, really supportive . . .
B. Schram: You know what – that whole pilot I liked. That was really good, the pilot, the way Dean did that pilot.
T. Shalhoub: Yes. We had, we felt very, very good about it. We knew that we were onto something good there.
B. Schram: Yes. And we had lots of good moments in that pilot, too. I think so like the way we worked with Dean. I thought that was very special, that whole pilot I thought.
Q: So, aside from Bitty, tell me who was your favorite eighth season guest star?
T. Shalhoub: Aside from Bitty, I can’t think of anybody who even comes close. We had Daniel Stern in the UFO episode, and he was terrific to work with. I had never worked with him before, and he was delightful and really, really helped to ground an episode that could have gone a little too goofy. So he was really important to that show.
B. Schram: He’s a good actor.
Q: When you both saw the script and idea for the show for the first time, did you ever think that eight seasons later this is where it would be and this is how huge it would be?
T. Shalhoub: No. The answer for me is you just never know in TV these days. Sometimes you can do something that you feel is really good and worthwhile and it just for some reason it doesn’t translate or it’s the wrong, it’s ahead of its time or behind its time or whatever and the television landscape is very, very tricky and unstable. So you, when you try to be a realist about it, you just, you have to remain just cautiously optimistic at best.
B.Schram: I would never have thought this. I just thought it was going to be a TV – remember, Tony, a TV movie. It was supposed to just be that.
T. Shalhoub: Exactly. There was talk of, because it was a two-hour pilot there was some talk of it just being a one-off or there was some talk that maybe they would do one of these kinds of TV movies a year or we just, we didn’t really know if it was going to turn into a series.
B. Schram: Yes, we really had no idea.
Q: You’ve won three Emmys, you’ve got a Golden Globe. Is it strange now to turn on the TV and find yourself on Nick at Nite on Wings?
T. Shalhoub: On Wings. Oh my God. It’s funny you say that, because Wings has been showing on USA a little bit, so sometimes if I’m flipping channels and there’s me on Wings and then they’ll do a promo of Monk during the commercials of Wings and I look like my own father or something. It’s awful. It’s really hard. I can’t watch that for very long.
Q: What was one of your favorite experiences working on Monk? And this goes to both of you.
T. Shalhoub: I would have to say last season we had Gena Rowlands on as a guest star, and that was an enormous honor for me to be able to not just work with her but get to know her over the course of that episode. And because when I was a student studying theatre and acting and she was an idol of mine and has remained. So that was, I felt after I did that episode that I could just basically retire.
B. Schram: Oh, she’s great, Tony. She is …
T. Shalhoub: Yes. And she was also nominated for an Emmy for our show. So that was one of the highlights for me. There were many, though there are many highlights, but that was huge for me.
B. Schram: And I guess for me if I was doing that episode that I would have the same answer as Tony with the Gena Rowlands. I wasn’t there, but one of the highlights for me was working with Willie Nelson.
T. Shalhoub: Oh, yes, I forgot about that.
B. Schram: Willie Nelson, because he’s such a legend. He’s just such a legend and that was a highlight for me. Very simple and . . .
T. Shalhoub: Also very gracious, incredibly gracious.
B. Schram: Oh, yes, he’s a true artist. Willie Nelson was just great. Yes, he was gracious and for me, that would be it, too.
Q: Do you have to actively make any effort to be filthier than normal, not to take on … Monk habits subconsciously?
T. Shalhoub: No, I don’t think – to be honest, I don’t think I’ve taken on many more than I already have to begin with. I just, just that my eyes were opened to more of the things that I – I became more aware of the things that I already had.
Q: What would you like to say to everyone who’s a fan and supporter of Sharona?
B. Schram: Oh, I would first of all like to thank them so much for their support and for watching and actually liking – it makes me feel like I do my job, so I thank them for that. And I wouldn’t be here without them, so it’s all about the audience that we’re trying to – it’s all about the audience because without them we’re nothing, right? So I’m just very thankful for their support.
T. Shalhoub: I think they’re going to really like this episode this week. Especially the Sharona fans, the hard core Sharona fans. But I think everybody’s really going to like this one. It’s got a lot of juice.
Q: Bitty, I was just wondering if you could give us some idea of the concept for your pilot, like the underpinning idea for the series.
B. Schram: Let me think. Well, it’s very simply put, it’s a very controversial concept. How can I explain this? It’s like, this is, I don’t how to just explain it without giving it away. And I don’t think I really should give it away right now. It’s very media orientated. It’s kind of – do you remember the film Network? It’s very like the, it’s a modern day Network, if that makes any sense to you. Like a modern day Network.
T. Shalhoub: Have I mentioned that I’m available?
B. Schram: Oh, Tony, it would be up your alley I think. I really do think so.
T. Shalhoub: Just throwing that out there.
B. Schram: It’s actually very, it’s a very manly piece. You wouldn’t think a female wrote – It’s a lot of men in their 50’s and – but there’s women, too. It’s a huge ensemble, but it’s very manly orientated, very much so. It’s a dark satire. It would be – it’s very HBO. It could not go on – honestly, it could not go on major – well, I shouldn’t say that, but it’s a very, it’s a very HBO feel. Let’s put it that way. But it’s a dark satire.
Q: Do you have a sense that you made an impact in the OCD community?
T. Shalhoub: You know, based on mail that we’ve received from people who suffer from this disorder and from various other people like doctors and people in academia, impact is kind of a big word. But I definitely think that it’s, they seem to have embraced this character and maybe in some ways Monk has kind of become a poster boy for those who suffer. But it’s, the feedback has all been so positive. I hope that it’s had some effect in maybe destigmatizing the disorder and allowing people to see it as something not as just a mental, debilitating mental illness. But this character suffers but still can do his job well and still contributes and is sort of a contributing member to society. And I hope that people can see other sufferers in the same way.
Q: What has Monk taught you on a personal level?
T. Shalhoub: I guess it’s made me a little bit more – I tend to take my time with examining certain things or I feel like it’s made me somewhat more observant and less quick to jump to conclusions or to make snap judgments. It’s kind of slowed down my processes in that way, just allowing me to kind of pore over something a little for longer periods. And I think that seems to have been, be of some value.
Q: Is there ever any thought of making the relationships more than friendship and turning them romantic -- with both Sharona and with Natalie?
B. Schram: We came close, Tony. There was some – Tony, remember when we had to kind of try to kiss or something and …
T. Shalhoub: We were posing as a married couple. Yes.
B. Schram: That was funny.
T. Shalhoub: That was good. I don’t want to answer that too directly because some of the upcoming episodes start to speak to that. And I wouldn’t want to reveal anything prematurely.
Q: Tony, what will you miss most about Monk?
T. Shalhoub: I miss the people. It’s always about the people -- the crew and the production team and the directors and of course the cast. It’s just, we’ve just all gotten very close and love spending time together. And that’s kind of what gets you out of bed really early in the morning and putting up with these long, long days. You just do it because of the people and for the people and it’s been a great way to keep all these people working. But I just have one – I do have one question, if I may, before we finish.
Bitty, where do you think that pilot will shoot? I mean where will the show shoot in case that would be a factor as to whether I’d be able to. You know, would it be Canada or would it be . . .
B. Schram: In New York City. Yes, but you know what, though, Tony. Just so you know, I just want to make clear to everyone this is not like signed, sealed and delivered. I’m in a process, right in the middle of a process of making that. So I just want everyone to know like this isn’t like signed, sealed and delivered. I would be humiliated, but we’re in a process right now if that makes sense.
T. Shalhoub: Well, I’m a very patient person.
B. Schram: Just so you know, Tony. I mean, it would be shot in New York City. Just so you know.
T. Shalhoub: Just putting out the feelers. Thank you all for your time today.