MovieChat Forums > It's Garry Shandling's Show. (1986) Discussion > What Happened to 'Lewis'?

What Happened to 'Lewis'?

posted 11 years ago by LittleBrother55
2 replies | jump to latest

Re: Geoffrey Blake ... Lewis (6 episodes, 1986)
___________________

After getting "The Larry Sanders Show" DVD set, I saw the "It's Garry Shandling's Show" series on sale and decided it was worth a shot.

I've only watched the first 14 eps so far, but I'm wondering what happened to Garry's friend/neighbor {?} "Lewis"; Geoffrey Blake got second billing when the series premiered.

FWIW, he was a totally flat character who didn't have much to offer; they seemed to be setting him up as Garry's "other best friend"-- the Kramer to Michael Tucci/Pete Schumaker's George.

But he disappeared without a trace after six episodes.

Does anyone know why? Did the producers/writers decided his character was a dead end, or is there a back story?

This series is OK, but for all of its innovative elements at the time, so far it comes off as essentially a "sketchcom" with the ensemble being written as two-dimensional characters.

[–] Romalotti6 11 years ago

I haven't heard anything official about why they got rid of Lewis. I'm pretty sure that it was just because they realized that he didn't add anything to the show. I wish they would have killed him off or made some reference to his leaving in the show. Considering that the show was so meta, it would have been a nice touch. But then, maybe they didn't want to disrespect the actor.

[–] LittleBrother55 11 years ago

FWIW, after posting the above I learned a couple of relevant tidbits on the DVD commentary.

First of all, apparently Showtime signed off on a six-episode deal after the pilot was made. So Lewis seems to have been "disappeared" during the re-tooling period after the first six episodes were completed.

Also, somewhere in the commentary, one of the writers (can't remember who) mentions that at the beginning of the series, Garry hired an actor friend as a regular cast member. However, Garry was dissatisfied with his friend's work in the show, and before long the friend was fired.

The writers don't mention this actor friend by name, but I assume it was Geoffrey Blake. I have no idea if he and Garry were/are friends, but he's the only member of the original ensemble who abruptly vanished without a trace.