Cleese encounter
How sitcom ‘Speechless’ snared a comedy icon
BRITISH comedy legend John Cleese rarely appears on American television, let alone a network sitcom. So it took two years — and a little help from “Speechless” co-star Minnie Driver — for series creator/executive Scott Silveri, a self-professed “obsessive” Cleese fan, to snare the 78-yearold “Monty Python”/“Fawlty Towers” icon for a guest-starring role in the two-part Season 3 opener (premiering Friday at 8:30 p.m.)
The episodes finds the DiMeo family — kicked out of their dilapidated LA home in the Season 2 finale — flying to London to (hopefully) borrow money from British-born Maya’s (Minnie Driver) curmudgeonly father, Martin (Cleese) — from whom she’s been estranged for 20 years. “We didn’t want to go to London and hand the show over to London or to the guest stars there,” Silveri says. “We wanted to go to the land of Maya/Minnie and find things to illuminate her character and her backstory and broaden her world.
“We wanted [Cleese] last season when we started talking about a dad story for Maya,” he says. “There was some interest [on his part]; he’d heard of the show and was open to it, but it never became real. Then this year we went back and said, ‘Hey, remember us?’ ”
It helped that Cleese and Driver played father/daughter Lestor and Lorraine Finster on the original run of “Will & Grace” in 2004. “They liked each other a lot and that helped open the door for us a bit,” Silveri says. “Minnie vouched for us. It was like a friend setting you up with somebody. I reached out and wrote him a note and said, ‘ Regards from Minnie’ and reminded him of the good times they had.
“He also happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Silveri says. “So much could’ve gone wrong in terms of scheduling. He does a lot of touring but was in London the days we were shooting there. We got very lucky. He does a lot of comedy you would want and expect from him, but there’s also a very vulnerable and sweet side.”
John Ross Bowie, aka goofball dad Jimmy DiMeo is, like Silveri, a lifelong Cleese fanatic. “His quiet [on-screen] exasperation has been something I’ve been stealing for the length of my career,” says Bowie (who also recurs as “The Big Bang Theory” nemesis Barry Kripke). “To see that up close was a helluva thing. He was a good sport and fun to work with and clearly enjoyed the work. I made him laugh a couple of times, which is one my all-time five top feelings — I’m gonna put it up there with the birth of my children in terms of exhilarating moments.”
Bowie is asked if he noticed any differences between the British and American actors who appear in the episodes.
“The tone of our sitcom is unique among America sitcoms,” he says, alluding to lead character JJ DiMeo (played by Micah Fowler, who has cerebral palsy). “We have to thread a rather fine needle between sensitivity and edginess ... It’s a unique show and I think you kind of get it or you don’t — and everyone we worked with in the UK got it.”