![]() ![]() So how’s it been being blind for the past few months? ![]() If the show would have been for anyone other than the son of a blind man, I might be worried, as he is there on set to give any hands-on advice, or in the editing room, he will notice if I don’t feel for the doorknob. Once we got filming the pilot, it was like bang bang zoom. No, I got together with Lorri and we watched some videos. on set, who lived this, and my pal Vince who used to work with the blind is also a consultant, and we have people like Lorri Bernson who is blind and works with a guide dog every day on board to help consult to make the show as accurate as possible.ĭid you need to go through any special training? It’s definitely more of a challenge than I have had on a T.V. to his father who just happens to be blind.Īs a blind guy, I have to know what’s it like to play someone who is blind. If I ever was going to play a lead on a network sitcom, now was the time, and what I liked about this script was that it is basically a love letter from D.J. The show is based on D.J.’s real experiences growing up. It sounded like a lot of work to play someone who is blind, but I finally read the script, and once I did I was 90-percent hooked. My agent kept pushing it on me telling me that I had to read it and speak with the creator D.J. So he sends over a script that is the lead for a network sitcom, stars a dog and kids, so it already had three strikes against it. To be perfectly honest, at first I wasn’t really that interested as I had told my agent I wasn’t looking to play a lead in anything as I had wanted to spend more time with my family. The great thing about our cat is it thinks it is a dog, as it comes when you call it, and follows my daughter around everywhere. My daughter was campaigning for a dog but got a cat. Now with all the traveling it’s just cats. She was one of my best friends of all time. In college I had a black Lab named Sadie. Simmons: Yes, as a little kid we had a little French Poodle named Suzette, but I don’t really remember her as we had to get rid of her after she knocked my sister down the stairs. did you have dogs in your life growing up? Ok, so if Growing Up Fisher isn’t my life story but is so close to it, then who would be better than me to interview the show’s stars Jenna Elfman and J.K. What, is this guy stealing my life story? Ends up he isn’t, as D.J.’s father is blind and has a guide dog, and the story of Growing Up Fisher is D.J.’s life story and not mine. benefit at the Hollywood Improv.Īfter researching the show some more, the similarities got even eerier when I learned the creator of NBC’s new show name is D.J. Jenna has hosted my Laugh For Sight benefit and was recently this year’s celebrity host for our L.A. Yes, I am a comedian, and a lot of comedians have landed sitcoms, but my last name is Fischler, not Fisher, although I am willing to change it if it means I get a sitcom.Īfter reading the description of the show, I wasn’t surprised why people thought it was about me, as the main character is blind and has a guide dog, and the show co-stars Jenna Elfman, a friend of mine. Either way, and by whatever name one chooses to use, it’s hard to see “Growing Up Fisher” having much of a future.This was the first I had heard of the show. Thanks to that scheduling, the fate of this sitcom (created by Nash, with a pilot directed by David Schwimmer) will likely hinge pretty heavily on whether NBC can bring an audience to its lead-in. Nor does it help that “Growing Up Fisher” - after the by-now obligatory ad-free push during the Olympics - will be regularly paired with the infinitely more appealing “About a Boy,” which also centers on a man-kid dynamic, albeit in a much more organic and amusing way. (A second episode promises more of the same, with Mel and an associate seeking to get through a client dinner without giving away his secret.) The premise, in other words, lacks heft, which leaves not much more than admiring Simmons - a highly versatile actor - as he does what he can with gags about his character’s insistence on doing things like driving and cutting down trees. While divorce is supposed to be hardest on the kids, in this case, it deals something of a blow to the more genial aspects of the series, and forces the parents to be so friendly toward each other one wonders why they’re splitting, beyond the fact mom suddenly has an interest in wearing tight-fitting skinny jeans just like her teenage daughter (Ava Deluca-Verley). In what doesn’t really seem all that funny, Henry discovers dad and mom (Jenna Elfman, a post-pilot replacement) are getting a divorce when dad brings home a seeing-eye dog, something he had previously avoided because of mom’s allergies. ![]()
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