Alan Ruck on Persons Unknown, the Death of Multicam Comedies, and Missing John Hughes

You filmed in Mexico. What was interesting about filming there?

We were right at about 10,000 feet when we were in that town. It was hard in the beginning when we were all supposed to be running around. There was some altitude sickness and a lot of light-headedness. We all adjusted fairly quickly.

You're known for self-deprecating comic characters, but you've played plenty of serious types in dramatic serials over the years. Do you prefer one style to the other?

No, I always get it wrong. When I'm doing a drama, I wish I was doing something funny. When I'm doing something funny, I wish I was doing something more serious. I think it's just human nature. I did comedy for a long time. I really enjoyed multicamera comedy. You film in front of a live audience and it's kind of the best of both worlds. It's like doing a one-act play every week, but if you screw your lines up, you get to do it over. Spin City was a really wonderful time for me. I made friends for life on that show. I made friends with Richard Kind, Michael Boatman, Barry Bostwick, Sandy Chaplin. We're all close. It was a really wonderful time.

Spin City is one of the last great multicamera sitcoms of the past decade or so. Do you miss that format?

I think multicamera comedy is a much-maligned American artform. Right now, they aren't popular. A pilot was shot [recently] with a very good cast: Laurie Metcalf and Jere Burns. It was written by the guys who did Will & Grace, Kohan and Mutchnick. It started out as a multicamera comedy, and then something happened in the middle of it, and the studio or somebody decided to make it into a single-camera comedy. And then it didn't get picked up. It's strange.

I think the networks have just decided that a new generation of television watchers doesn't care for that format anymore. A decision has been made at an executive level that that type of comedy doesn't work anymore. My feeling is if it's funny, it'll work. Maybe it needs characters and situations that younger people relate to. They've gone to the single-camera comedy, and some of them are wonderful. When we made Spin City, there were so many multicamera comedies. It seemed like that was all there was. The American model of, there's a gas station on these two corners so let's build a third on another corner. Now they're doing a lot of these single-camera comedies and I just don't feel that all of them are that funny. For that to really work, and there are brilliant writers in this town, but in order for it to work, they all have to be This is Spinal Tap. You know?

A lot of them have this mockumentary feel, the "We're breaking the fourth wall a little bit." We have characters looking at the camera like it's another person. In order to do that well, it has to be great. You can't just do that "pretty well." I'm trying to remember what they call it. "Post-modern cynicism"? Something like that. Everybody's like, "Uh, yeah, seen it, done it, bought the t-shirt." Everything is completely flat and dry. When it's done well, it's great. But there's just a lot of it.

On to our Ferris Bueller segment: Can you even visit Chicago landmarks anymore? I'm not a starstruck person, but if I saw you at a Ferris Bueller locale like the Art Institute, I might have to approach you and say something.

That's funny. I haven't been back to the Art Institute since we made that movie. It's not called the Sears Tower anymore, what do they call it? I mean, there would be really no reason for me to really go to the Sears Tower except to look out at that same place and be like, "Oh, yeah, I was here 25 years ago. OK. Let's go now." But the Art Institute! That's a place I might go. I was in Chicago briefly two weeks ago. I've not been to Wrigley Field since they put the fence in -- wait, I take that back! I was there in June of 2001, I got to throw out a first pitch. But that was the last time.

When I watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I still can't believe how much it feels like you can live inside that movie. It's so funny, familiar and warm -- does it feel like we've veered far away from that kind of teen movie?

Well, I think a lot of that was John Hughes. I mean, and God bless all these movies, but since John's movies -- I'm just trying to think of some teen movies, like American Pie -- they're filled with talented people, but what they lost was an element of dignity. Teen comedies were always about kids being preoccupied with sex and the comedy of self-involvement. They were so hung up on themselves, and it led to, you know, hilarious results. John's point of view about young people was they were fully realized human beings. They have hopes and dreams and frivolous problems and very serious problems. He treated them just like you would treat like any other person, like any adult. John said, "Let's treat them with dignity." That's what I think is missing.

You might laugh now at the wacky sex comedies, the teen comedies, or they might gross you out -- whatever they might be -- but you don't latch onto the characters. They don't let you get under the skin of who these people are. They don't investigate any of that. They don't look at a kid like Judd Nelson and try to explain why he is what he is. People who are watching, it doesn't resonate with them. I guarantee there are people who watched -- I think his name was Bender [from The Breakfast Club]? -- and felt exactly like him. There were a lot of people that felt like Molly Ringwald's characters, and a lot of people who felt like Cameron. They were people who felt like Jennifer Grey, who felt like Jeanie. There was a resonance that happened because he allowed these characters to be real instead of just comic cardboard cutouts. I think it was all John. Since then, there's not really been anything else.

Pages: 1 2