Director’s Cut Returns for a Seventh Season

April 11, 2014 PBS Wisconsin Leave a Comment

Still from “Desperation Boulevard”

Tonight on Director’s Cut I’ll sit down with Greg Glienna, the writer-director of “Desperation Boulevard.” This is a funny movie about aging actress Joan Sweeney, former child star now trying to put herself back in the limelight and willing to do anything to be a star again. Comedian Judy Tenuta (Joan) is surrounded by a nice ensemble cast including Michael Lerner, hilarious as Joan’s agent.

I should add a disclaimer here that Greg is one of my writing partners. We co-wrote MGM’s “A Guy Thing” (Jason Lee, Julia Stiles, Selma Blair) as well as a few other scripts that are sitting on studio shelves collecting dust. Greg also started the “Meet the Parents” franchise. When he was a stand-up comic in Chicago he made “Meet the Parents” on a shoestring budget. After some critical acclaim, Universal Studios saw the film and remade it. Greg’s indie is hilarious and darker than the studio version with Ben Stiller, which Greg also co-wrote.

Greg also wrote and directed “Relative Strangers” with Danny DeVito, Kathy Bates, Ron Livingston and yours truly in a minor role as a meat delivery guy. ‘Strangers’ seems to air every hour on the hour on Comedy Central.

Greg has made a career out of putting characters in extremely awkward and funny situations – much to the delight of audiences. To Glienna, comedy is tragedy that happens to other people and “Desperation Boulevard” certainly has its share of hilarious awkwardness. Oh and by the way, if you look closely you’ll see me throwing Joan Sweeney out of the studio after a painful audition. That was my first actual role – if that counts as a role – after moving to L.A. Greg, if you’re reading this, I still haven’t seen dime in royalties!

Join us Friday night at 10 for Director’s Cut on Wisconsin Public Television for the first episode of our seventh season. Director’s Cut Presents follows at 10:30 with “Desperation Boulevard.” Hope to see you!

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