These statements of yours to Ionesco demand of her EXACTLY what I have been demanding of you regarding your assertion that Pamela Anderson is a moron:
"You've presented nothing factual in that regard about Anderson.
If it's just an opinion, say so.
If you have some evidence, show it."
Do you see?
The creator of Stacked, who also created Just Shoot Me and who we could probably agree falls somewhat above your moron category, thinks Pamela Anderson is intelligent. And please note that she is first and foremost a mother, who only considered doing Stacked because she could squeeze it in while her children are at school. Does that seem to be the thought process of a moron to you?
tv.zap2it.com
Comedy Is 'Stacked' Against Anderson
(Sunday, April 10 12:02 AM)
By John Crook
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - You probably weren't too shocked to hear that Pamela Anderson's new FOX sitcom is called "Stacked."
It may surprise you, though, to learn that the title refers to the charming, family-owned bookstore-cafe where the series takes place.
Crafted by "Just Shoot Me" creator Steve Levitan, "Stacked" -- which premieres Wednesday, April 13, for a six-week test run -- gets a lot of its comic juice from both playing with and exploding Anderson's blond bubblehead persona.
The former "Baywatch" star plays Skyler Dayton, a gorgeous but self-deprecating bombshell who appears in the title bookstore in search of a self-help book on relationships, having tired of dating losers.
One of the bookstore owners, Stuart DeWitt (Brian Scolaro, "Three Sisters"), is struck dumb by Skyler's beauty, but his uptight sibling, Gavin (Elon Gold, "The In-Laws"), dismisses Skyler as the kind of vapid airhead lining up to buy Britney Spears' new best seller, "Oops, I Wrote It Again."
Gavin, it seems, has some major relationship issues of his own, primarily not being able to acknowledge that his marriage to icy wife Charlotte (Paget Brewster) is, in fact, over. And he's appalled when Stuart offers Skyler a job in the store, an offer she happily accepts as a first step on her road to a more stable life.
She doesn't realize her new gig will find her working alongside cynical Katrina (Marissa Jaret Winokur, "Fever Pitch"), whose own life is no bed of roses, and waiting on eccentric customers including regular patron Howard March (Christopher Lloyd), a retired rocket scientist.
Anderson says candidly that a new TV series was the last thing on her mind when her agent called and begged her to take a breakfast meeting with Levitan.
"I think he gets my self-deprecating sense of humor," Anderson says. "But Steve also understands that priority No. 1 for me is my children, and the only way I could commit to a TV show is if I could work while they are at school so it didn't conflict with my time with them.
"My children go to the same school, and my life has become very structured. I've had a really great couple of years of just being with them. I feel like I now have a foundation where I can work, whereas a few years ago everything was just too scattered and I was having to deal with a lot of 'stuff,' and it just became too overwhelming."
For Levitan's part, he says he wants to surprise audiences with a side of Anderson they don't know from her previous body of work, so to speak.
"The one thing that intrigued me the most about working with her was a chance to redefine her and surprise people," he says. "If people watch the show and just go, 'Oh, yeah, it's just another silly show and she's running around in small outfits,' I would have no interest in doing it. My whole goal and desire has been that people watch this and say, 'Wow. She can really act, and she's funny, and that was really smart.'"
Levitan says he was struck by the woman behind the bombshell image at that first breakfast meeting.
"First and foremost, Pamela is very smart and very savvy," Levitan says. "She has a tremendous sense of self-awareness. She's always the first person to make fun of herself, of the Pamela Anderson persona. When I sat down and talked with her, I immediately was struck by that, that someone who has the brains to be so self-aware could bring that sensibility, that savviness to a comedy.
"She displayed a sense of humor in 'VIP' and some other things, but those things were campy and had a big wink at the camera that said, 'We're not being serious, folks, we're just having a good time.' What I said to her was, 'You've done that and you've made a really nice career out of winking at the camera. Now it's time to stop winking and really start acting.' I think that intrigued her a lot."
Anderson, who had a small supporting role in the early seasons of "Home Improvement," says she was somewhat mystified and intrigued by the formal rehearsal process that goes into getting a sitcom ready for performance, but she did banish one tradition: the fake rehearsal laugh.
"During rehearsals on a lot of sitcom sets, the writers will be there, and they have this really awful fake laugh" -- she does a desperate, manic little bark -- "and it throws you off, because you think, 'You know, that really wasn't all that funny.' I told Steve, 'I'd rather go through the week not being sure where the laughs are than listen to that really creepy laugh, so let's just not do that.' He said OK."
When audience night came, Levitan says, the playing length of the script stretched by about five minutes just from the laughter the actors received. Anderson admits she wasn't prepared for that.
"When Christopher Lloyd came in for his entrance, the audience practically gave him a standing ovation, because I think some of them hadn't seen him on TV since 'Taxi,' " Anderson recalls. "But it really threw me, all the screaming and hollering when I came out. I thought, 'Wow, this is fun.' The audience was getting more jokes than I even knew were in the script."
Levitan acknowledges that launching a new comedy series these days is no laughing matter, but he thinks "Stacked" has a major drawing card in its popular star.
"At a time when we're all struggling to give comedies some kind of excitement, something that can draw an audience, here is someone who just by her very nature brings in her audience and a real sense of excitement," he says.
"Who knows in this business, but I'm guessing that we'll get a lot of curiosity tune-in, people who go, 'Hey, I gotta see this.' And my hope is that the next day those same people go, 'Hey, did you see that? It was actually funny and smart.'"
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