Remember my Amish nick-name? I wasn’t kidding. Let’s just correspond on the blog and forget about the email. Its too much technology. Thanks to everyone for your kind words and support.
UPDATE on the Email vs. Blog thing
Cynthia Stevenson
Remember my Amish nick-name? I wasn’t kidding. Let’s just correspond on the blog and forget about the email. Its too much technology. Thanks to everyone for your kind words and support.
Hi,
I’ve been a fan since My Talk Show….you once told a funny story, on the Tonight Show, regarding your interview of Robert Goulet on MTS, and how that didn’t go so well. If you ever need blogging subject ideas, I think you could relate some of your My Talk Show experiences, the show itself was fantastic. How much of the show was improv and how much was scripted. My favorite MTS shows included Jim Belushi and Adam Ant….
You do a great job on Surviving Suburbia!
Also, as a fan of Renee Zellweger, I’m looking forward to a long overdue release of Case 39 with hopefully some good scenes between the two of you. I’d even be happy to see it as a direct to DVD release, if they would just get it out to the people, already!
Best of luck, thanks for making me laugh!
Karen
I love hearing from people that were a fan of My Talk Show. It was a show ahead of its time. The show was 100% scripted, but the schedule was so tight that it actually gave us the freedom to improv during the process. It was a lot to memorize for one week’s work – six shows each week – where a normal sit com schedule is one show a week. Because of that, my memories of the show are a blur. But I’m glad you remember !!! I am so late in writing to you, that Surviving Suburbia is already gone, but thank you for your compliment. I have no idea where Case 39 is or what happened to it, but Renee was lovely to work with so I hope it shows up somewhere soon. All my best to you.
Hey Cynthia,
Congrats on all of your success…I was thinking of you after a conversation I had with my daughter, and found this website. This is a new thing for me, I have never blogged before, I have only emailed (and It took me long enough to get the hang of that!).
Anyway, love the old pics of you (well not that old) you have not changed a bit, you look the same as I remember you. I have enjoyed watching you on the tube over the years, take care, and keep up the great work!
Trish, is this you from high school ???? If so, write back and let me know, otherwise I am going to say a lot of really embarrassing stuff to THIS Trish. If you are not the Trish I went to school with, I’m right there with you on the technology thing, which says to me generationally that you might be the Trish I went to school with. Thank you for your generous words and seriously, if this is Trish from high school write back and hopefully I can respond by 2011.
I love the new show, Surviving Suburbia. Please tell me it is not going to be canceled, I have heard that it is going to be. It is a very refreshing show and I am sooo sick of the Reality TV crap I could puke. We need more shows like Surviving Suburbia! You and Saget are fantastic, keep up the great work!
Look how late I am in responding to you. Well by now you know, your worst fears (AND MINE) came true. It’s cancelled. Bob was great to work with, I loved the cast and crew. Joyful jobs are hard to come by and that really was one of them. I too feel a little saturated with “reality crap” and pray for more substantial shows for all of us in the future.
Hi, Cynthia,
I haven’t had a TV for quite a few years, but I do see some things online, and the other day I ran across the whole two seasons of Dead Like Me on Hulu.com. I just wanted to tell you that I enjoyed it thoroughly. I had some time on my hands, and I found myself watching one episode after another. It was quite addicting, really.
One of the big reasons I don’t bother with a TV is that the average series is pretty dumbed down, and it’s just not worth the bother. Dead Like Me, on the other hand, was based on a very charming conceit, and I thought it had something of an allegorical quality as well.
The basic premise obviously does not stand up to any serious scrutiny, even as an idle conjecture about the actual nature of the world, but it was a pretty good vehicle for poking at some questions and issues that normally require a rather tough-minded outlook. For example, I once worked in a nursing home, and I managed to be comfortable about watching patients that I liked dying from one day to the next, but I realize that many people could not do that. Dead Like Me put just enough emotional sugar on such things that the audience could take a close look, yet remain detached enough to think a bit as well.
I saw a clip on YouTube that was from an interview with Ellen Muth, and she commented that there were a few things she would rather the writers had done differently; I tended to agree with her points. At it’s best the writing was very good, but there were also some items, especially in the second season that could have come from a pretty conventional sit-com. Ms. Muth’s prime example was Georgia’s pre-occupation with her viginity, etc. She thought the whole theme was out of character, and, while I think it could have been worked in plausibly, I agree that Georgia was, by that point, anything but a nervous schoolgirl, much less one who would be furious about the lack of a phone call afterwards. After all, a few episodes later she was calmly sneering at a serial killer. It’s a bit hard to reconcile.
Anyway, the glitches in the writing notwithstanding, the acting was uniformly very, very good. I could say very nice things about everyone in the regular ensemble, and even the bit players were well above average.
As for your own performance, I thought you were spot on with your character. I am a divorced parent, as it happens, and I could easily identify both with the urge to issue razor-sharp retorts to an irritating ex-spouse and with the frustrated affection all parents feel from time to time toward their children. Your work with the character never struck even a single false note in the whole 29 episodes. Very nicely done, indeed.
Finally, I would mention that I have spent the bulk of my life near the Canadian border, having been born in Detroit, MI, and having spent the last 25 years in New Hampshire. As a result, I’m perhaps more aware than the average U.S. citizen that Canada has some distinctive cultural assets, and certainly some distinctive ideas about humor. I enjoyed very much the slant that the Canadian cast members brought to the mix, and I routinely keep my eyes open for developments in the world of Canadian film and (to a lesser degree) television. I know that many of the best Canadian actors find a lot of their work in the U.S., but I also trust that I can look forward to seeing more of your work in Canadian productions as well.
Again, congratulations on the very skilled work.
Dave Johnson
Manchester, NH
P.S. If you happen to cross paths with any of the other cast members, and happen to remember this note, please do feel free to pass on my best regards. Everyone was very good, and the ensemble as a whole was better yet.
Thank you so much for your very insightful review of the show. You were absolutely right on every single point, too bad you weren’t our publicist ! It sounds like you could have really helped us. It was a very challenging and fulfilling role for me. It did cause more than a couple of fights with my husband as I would drag that character home with me from time to time. She was not really a happy camper. I did feel that the show had such an interesting tone and a lot of truth. I wish it were still on ! Thank you so much for your kind words about my performance. All my best to you.
Amish? And no updates since May 3? I think even the Amish may be more technologically inclined.
I remember you from “Cheers,” but it may be from reruns rather than noticing you first time around. I do know that I noticed you in “The Player” – Altman was my favorite director – and “Bob” because I loved Bob Newhart, in all his series (serieses?).
I think you’re a talented, lovely young actor, and have enjoyed your performances in numerous shows. I wish much more, well deserved success.
Lovely and “young”? OK, you are my new best friend. Thank you for busting me on my blog tardiness. There is probably a technological phrase for that, but I don’t know what it is. It’s funny, all the projects you mentioned were my favorites, thank you for your warm wishes.
Hey Cynthia,
I’m a 19-year-old Finnish girl who’s just thrilled to have found this site. There haven’t really been many websites where one could find information about you and your work before. Besides, I was amazed to realize that you update it by yourself. I mean, how many actresses do that?? This makes me admire you even more.
But, I have a couple of questions and I’d be very happy if you could answer them.
1) I absolutely loved the series Men in Trees and especially your character in it. I also loved the landscape, which made wonder where the series was shot. Was it really in Alaska or was it Canada? I’ve never been anywhere near Canada but the scenery there seemed to resemble the one here in Finland. And that leads to my next question…
2) …have you ever been to Finland or any other Scandinavian country? I think you would like it here.
3) I assume the love and support from fans means a lot to an actor, so do you get a lot of fanmail? Like real hand-written letters and stuff? I actually once sent a letter to you (to an address which I found on the net) and asked if you could maybe send me your autograph but I never got anything back. But hey, I’d probably just sent it to the wrong address.
Wishing you all the best for your future and hoping that we’ll see more of you in the Finnish tv too!
Ps. I think you are really pretty and I’d be thrilled if I’d look even half as good as you when I’m a bit older.
What a sweet sweet letter. I never received your request and I know that because I would have been thrilled to receive mail from Finland. No I haven’t been to Finland or any other Scandinavian country, I’ve always heard how beautiful it is. MEN IN TREES was shot in Vancouver, BC, so you are right in your guess about shot in Canada. It was so much fun to do I am glad you liked it. Does anybody write hand written letters anymore? I wonder if anybody actually can. Don’t be to quick to admire me about updating the site, I fell behind during the summer but am glad to be back and able to read your note ! Thanks for writing, all my best to you.