|
Cupid Provided Piven's First Breakout Role |
|
Friday, 25 August 2006 |
By D. W. O'Dell
 A lot of attention has befallen the HBO series Entourage, now in its third season. While many “inside Hollywood” series and movies have not found favor with the viewing public (Action comes to mind), HBO has a bona fide hit on its hands with this show about an up-and-coming young movie star. But the actor who has most people talking is not the star of the show, Adrian Grenier, but the one playing agent Ari Gold. Roger Ebert recent referred to Jeremy Piven’s performance as Ari Gold being his “breakout” role.
Maybe it is, by some standards. Piven has been nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globes in the Supporting Actor category. But anyone paying attention knows that Piven’s true “breakout” role was that of Trevor Hale in a 1998 ABC series Cupid. The problem was, nobody watched it.
Cupid was about a man (Piven) who was committed to psychiatric care because he claimed to be the god Cupid, banished from Mount Olympus by Zeus until he romantically united 100 couples. His psychiatrist was Dr. Claire Allen, played by Paula Marshall (who was quite, err, memorable in Sin City) who, in one of those coincidences that happens on television programmes, also had a support group and newspaper advice column for singles. Given that there was no evidence that Trevor was, in fact, Cupid (other than the fact that his name was an anagram for “heart lover”), Dr. Allen saw her job as to throw cold water on his insistence that he, well, play Cupid for people he met.
There was also the faintest possibility that she was attracted to the guy. Piven and Marshall had terrific chemistry, working as a mismatched pair where she maintained that romance was about seeking out people with similar needs and interests in a logical and rational manner, while he maintained that love was about something much more primal. However attractive Trevor found Dr. Allen (and who wouldn’t find Paula Marshall attractive? Have you seen her in Sin City?), he believed that if he ever consummated a relationship with a mortal woman he would be cast out of Mount Olympus permanently. Thus there was the requisite sexual tension.
The show also had a great theme song, “Human,” by the Pretenders. The show was, after all, about whether Piven’s character was human or a Greek god. Writers for the series included Rob Thomas, who later created Veronica Mars, and the team of Ron Osborn and Jeff Reno, who worked on Moonlighting (including that show’s best episode, “Atomic Shakespeare”).
Cupid occupied the10 pm time slot on a Saturday night, which made it perfect viewing for people who (like me) weren’t out on a date on Saturday night. It was not highly rated, but ABC said they were committed to the show and they’d give it another place on the schedule; they moved it to Thursdays at 9:00, opposite [u]Cheers[/i], then the number 1 show on television. When the ratings didn’t improve after one week, they pulled the plug.
If Cupid is ever released on DVD, I will be down to my local video store in ten seconds flat. This is the true genius of TV shows on DVD—yeah it’s great to have episodes of The West Wing Season 1 at my fingertips, but if I could get access to the 15 episodes of Cupid I would be in TV heaven. How many units would they have to sell to turn a profit? Probably fewer than was necessary to keep the series on the air.
|
