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The Building aired from August until September 1993 on CBS.
Rapid-fire comedy centering on Bonnie ( Bonnie Hunt), a timid, conservative, struggling actress who had moved back to Chicago and into her old apartment across from Wrigley Field after her fiance had dumped her. Her fellow tenants provided a dubious support group-Holly ( Holly Wortell), her loud, Jewish best friend; Finley ( Michael G. Hagerty), a fireman and a part-time bartender at the local hangout; Big Tony ( Richard Kuhlman), a boisterous man with the vocabulary of a stevedore; Brad ( Don Lake), an unemployed journalist who always showed up in time to get a free meal from Bonnie; and Stan ( Tom Virtue), Brad's roommate and a fellow actor. Bonnie's main gig at the moment was as a TV model-"The Randolph Carpet Girl."
All of the regulars in this series were friends and alumni of Chicago's Second City improvisational comedy theater, where they had worked together. Miss Hunt was the series creator, wrote all of the scripts, and was co-executive producer with her good friend David Letterman.
An Interview with Bonnie Hunt from The LA Times
BONNIE HUNT : Building a Sitcom
Q & A
August 15, 1993|SUSAN KING | TIMES SAFF WRITER
Not only does funny lady Bonnie Hunt star in the new sitcom "The Building," premiering Friday on CBS, she also is the writer and executive producer. And none other than David Letterman is sharing executive-producing chores with her.
"The Building" finds Hunt playing Bonnie, a young actress living in an apartment building across the street from the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field. The inhabitants of "The Building" are all played by Hunt's friends from Chicago's famed Second City theater company.
Born and raised in Chicago, Hunt, who also is a registered nurse, began her career at Second City. Her film credits include "Rain Man," "Beethoven" and "Vice Versa." She also was a regular on NBC's "Grand" and "Davis Rules," which aired on both ABC and CBS.
Hunt discussed "The Building," Doris Day, David Letterman and "Beethoven" with Times Saff Writer Susan King.
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How did "The Building" come about? Were you thinking of doing your own series after "Davis Rules" was canceled last year?
I was having meetings with (CBS President) Jeff Sagansky during my days on "Davis Rules." We formed a relationship--kind of an open-door policy where I could talk with him about what I wanted to do.
I wrote the show in 1989. I thought some day if I was in a position where somebody would listen to me, I would bring the script in. So once I left "Davis Rules" and CBS was interested in me, I told them I was interested in doing this show. They read it. Jeff said it was OK, but it is not very funny joke-wise. I said I don't write jokes. It's more situational. You need to see it on its feet. So he let me do it as a play. We did it one night in the basement of CBS in an empty rehearsal hall. They bought the show about 10 minutes after they saw the presentation.
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Did you have the same cast as you do now?
Exactly. They wanted to recast it after that presentation. But they saw the chemistry was everything. We are old pals. I was lucky enough to get the first big break. It could have been any one of us. We are all equally talented.
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What was your big break?
Barry Levinson saw me on a tape and put me in "Rain Man" as the waitress who dropped the tooth picks. The scene was talked about a lot. Then all of a sudden, I started to get more auditions. I moved out to L.A. with Second City to open their theater out here (in Santa Monica). I did the first show and the producer decided he wanted to sell out. He wanted to do a television series and said, "Why don't we start writing our Second City shows more like TV?" Don Lake (who appears in "The Building") and I both said no. We just pulled out. I got "Grand" about two weeks later.
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Are your scripts for "The Building" more like traditional Second City shows?
I'm writing it more like a story. Each episode is a story about a slice of life. That's how I approach it, just from my heart. I wrote 13 in 1989. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good. The ones that we are using are really great. We're shooting six altogether.
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Do you think if you hadn't been brought up in Chicago you could have written "The Building"?
Definitely not. I think what happens is that some writers, who are so great in television or whatever, once they become successful, they get out of the loop of real life. It's real hard to draw on something to write. I really appreciate the everyday stuff as far as material.
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Did you live in a apartment next to Wrigley Field?
I lived in an apartment \o7 near \f7 Wrigley Field. I was single and I loved everybody in the building. I didn't live across the street, but boy I tried. It's real hard to get in those buildings. It's like a three-year waiting list. That's why, in order to make the pilot believable, I had to be moving back in after my cousin was staying there. They do keep the apartments in the family.
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Is Bonnie a lot like Bonnie Hunt?
A lot of me is in that character, probably when I was younger. I really was so idealistic and wanted everything to be like a musical, because that's what I thought would happen. The character is a big Doris Day fan. I love Doris Day.
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So what's your favorite Doris Day flick?
I love "Pillow Talk." "Teacher's Pet" is way up on my list. When she faints after Clark Gable kisses her, I just die. Those scenes with Gig Young and Clark Gable competing for her affection in that bar--oh my God! I have all of her CDs. In fact, Dave Letterman was on the phone with me today and he said what is that (in the background)? I said Doris Day. I used to try to sing like her.
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Speaking of David Letterman, how did he become involved in the show?
I was on Dave's show. We became friends. I sold the show to CBS and they asked me to get a partner because I had never run a show before, so I called Dave. He had already done his deal with CBS, and I called and said I need someone to be in my corner, to give advice and help me fight my battles. He said sure. He had already known about the show and loved the prospect of it. He loved the pilot before I even edited it. He was given the whole rough cut and we talked back and forth about what to cut out and what to leave in.
A Review from Entertainment Weekly
The Building
Reviewed by Ken Tucker | Aug 20, 1993
EW's GRADE
B+
Details With: Bonnie Hunt
Watching The Building, you immediately notice that its rhythm is different from any other situation comedy around. The show's characters chatter like magpies, barely pausing after delivering a punch line; they interrupt and finish one another's sentences — it's the sitcom version of what director Robert Altman does in movies. And no one talks and interrupts more skillfully than the show's star and chief writer, Bonnie Hunt. Hunt's talents were wasted playing Randy Quaid's sister in the sitcom Davis Rules, but in The Building she breaks loose as a wonderfully gabby, insecure, intelligent actress named Bonnie Kennedy.
In the premiere, Bonnie has moved in-to a dingy Chicago apartment house after a bad romance; the episode has very little plot, just terrific, snappy dialogue between Bonnie, her friend Holly (Holly Wortell), and her neighbors. The show's executive producers are Hunt and the new Mr. CBS himself, David Letterman, a chum of Hunt's; if the rest of this summer tryout's episodes are as fast and funny as this one, they've got a winner. B+
A Review from The Seattle Times
Bonnie Hunt Takes Charge In CBS' `The Building'
By Bob Wisehart
Newhouse News Service
This weekend brings two "summer" series, plus the first of the new fall shows. Logical? As Jackie Gleason used to say, "Har-de-har-har." This is TV. Logic would be asking too much.
It gets worse. Easily the best of the three shows is "The Building," a Friday night comedy that's refreshing and funny. Naturally, CBS wants to change virtually everything about it.
Apparently CBS is worried that the show wasn't dumb enough for network TV.
Bonnie Hunt, who can steal scenes and entire movies without trying, not only stars in "The Building," she wrote and produced it, too.
That's Hunt as the bossy White House tour guide in "Dave," and that's Hunt as the wisecracking Mom in "Beethoven."
In "The Building," that's Hunt as a struggling actress whose wedding has been canceled, which leaves her pacing back and forth in her wedding veil, muttering dark things to her best friend (Holly Wortell).
Recently returned home to Chicago, Hunt's character lives in an apartment building across the street from Wrigley Field, close enough that she's under bombardment from flying baseballs.
The show has the requisite array of wacky neighbors, all very "Seinfeld"-ian in their way, and even a little too much like "Seinfeld" at times.
Hunt is the key
But "The Building" is more than a derivative TV show. The key is Hunt, a strong and unusual presence, plus a supporting cast that includes characters like Big Tony (Richard Kuhlman), a foul-mouthed oaf who speaks in bleeps. Literally.
Also, when Bonnie and Holly talk to each other, they jabber away at the same time. Endlessly.
We've heard overlapping dialogue many times before on television, but always in dramas, never in a comedy. It's a small thing, but it helps give "The Building" a fresh and zesty tone.
Of course, CBS is uneasy. It likes Hunt, but seems to hate her show. According to Hunt, it's afraid that the overlapping dialogue will confuse viewers, and the bleeps will make them wonder if something is wrong with their TV sets. CBS urged Hunt to rewrite the show and turn her character into a divorcee with three kids.
In other words, CBS likes Hunt because she's different, then wanted to take what she does and turn it into the same old shinola.
She resisted. Good for her. It helps that David Letterman is her friend, mentor, and co-producer of the show. At CBS right now, having Letterman as your friend is better than having the keys to the executive washroom.
Letterman or no Letterman, you get the feeling that Hunt is good at resisting. She turned down an offer to replace Delta Burke on "Designing Women," and another to play Tim Allen's wife on "Home Improvement."
She wants to do it her way. If CBS would only leave her alone, her way looks pretty good.
Slow-moving flotsam
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