The woman crowned Miss America always seems prettier once they put the tiara on her head. The same dynamic occurs every season in television. The sitcom anointed to air between Seinfeld and ER has a tendency to seem a little bit better once its time period is announced.
Thus it’s a dicey exercise assessing Veronica’s Closet, which has been blessed with NBC’s most hallowed ground this season. At first look, it certainly seems to be one of the season’s bright spots. The pedigree is blueblood. Its creators are the Friends/Dream On collaboration of Marta Kauffman and David Crane, and a wonderfully gifted cast is headed by the delightful Kirstie Alley.
But would Veronica’s Closet seem so promising if it were scheduled at 9:30 Thursday on, say UPN, or even ABC? In this case, the answer is an emphatic yes. Kauffman and Crane not only write funny lines, they create full-fledged “characters.”
Alley is Veronica Chase, a former model who capitalized on her celebrity to create her own fabulously successful line of lingerie, which is much like that from the woman with the secrets.
Lingerie led to books and tapes on how to spice up your love life. Veronica’s sales pitch is that every marriage can be a fairy tale. Alas, that’s what hers is, in the worst sense. Her lecherous husband, Bryce, is bedding everyone in town but her. The only reason she hasn’t ditched the creep is the public relations nightmare it would entail. Nevertheless, she is just about out of patience.
Like top-of-the-line lingerie, Veronica Chase was custom-designed to accentuate Alley’s assets. “I think my strongest suit is to be vulnerable and overly dramatic,” she said. “So I wanted to play somebody who was a dichotomy, someone who appears to be something she isn’t.”
That she is also playing a woman in circumstances similar to her real life is purely coincidental. Veronica was being crafted well before Alley announced that she is divorcing Parker Stevenson, the spouse she thanked one Emmy night for giving her “the big one.” The ebullient Alley joked that it is method acting. “You see what happened. When they wrote that [Veronica) was divorced, I had to get one.”
Veronica’s closest aide and friend, Olive, constantly badgers her to deep-six Bryce. At the very least, she should retaliate in kind and cheat, Olive urges. The solid Kathy Najimy is the ideal complement to Alley as Olive.
Veronica’s assistant, Josh, has his own crises of the heart. He says he has girlfriends although none at the moment. Everyone in the office snickers because they all think he’s gay. Josh protests vociferously that he’s not, but co-workers humor him.
“This is the character we feel we have never seen on television before,” Crane said. “He says he’s not. Everybody else thinks he is.” Wallace Langham, who will continue to moonlight on The Larry Sanders Show, makes the neat twist on recent trends work.
Dan Cortese, seen last season on Must See Thursday in The Single Guy, rebounds quickly as Veronica’s head of public relations, Perry. A former thong model, Perry has less upstairs than he used to carry in his wardrobe bag.
As if Veronica isn’t feeling bad enough, her marketing specialist, Leo, suggests that she contemporize their next ad campaign by superimposing Veronica’s well-known face on the body of a much younger, less gravity-challenged model. The audition process is a hoot. So is Daryl “Chill” Mitchell as Leo.
Alley says she can relate to this situation as well. “Women go through this. I’ve gone through it since I was born. ‘Oh, I’m not a cheerleader. I don’t have long blond hair. My breasts aren’t big enough. My legs are too fat. My legs are too skinny.’ It’s continual. So I think if I were a model and someone told me they were going to stick my head on somebody else’s body, I would think it’s the thing to do. You should do that because you don’t have a 20-year-old body. I like those problems. The more problems like that that my character has, the funnier the show will be.”
Alley has exactly the opposite philosophy about life. The last thing she wants is a hassle of any kind. She says she is returning to TV for a simple reason. A sitcom is fun, especially when you are the star and have a voice in the show. “The real thing that is important to me is that I’m having a good time in my life. That comes first. These guys,” she said, indicating her colleagues, “have the same philosophy of life. I know they do, because I can spot the people who want to have a good time.”
If she could see through the screen, she’d spot millions in the audience for Veronica’s Closet.
