Netflix Tales of the City cast set: Paul Gross Returns, Murray Bartlett as Michael "Mouse" Tolliver

Great news. Love that we get to see many original cast members - Barbara Garrick!

Yeah, for some reason I was very surprised to see her listed R1, but also very happy!

Had been hoping against hope for Marcus D-Amico, but it was a long shot. Can Bartlett be nelly enough?

We heard

Another fuckin' REMAKE? Sheesh...H'wood is so devoid of new ideas.

You idiot deplorable. It’s not a remake. It’s a later book in the series, I believe.

An FF, if I had one to give, to r4.

Ah...R5 has said what he said, so I don't have to. Oh, I'll let it fly anyway.

I like Murray Bartlett as Michael. Thank God they didn't rehire that Marcus D'imwit.

I DID do a search, R3, that turned up nothing, my conscience is clear...

It's described as a REVIVAL, i.e. a remake.

It's a new show set in the present featuring some characters and plot from the latter six books not adapted for tv. But, it also includes brand new characters created just for this series.

Though, I'm not sure how they're explaining 54 year old Laura Linney playing Mary Ann Singleton in 2018 since Mary Ann was about 25 in the first book (set in 75/76) so she would actually be about 68 if alive now....

And, Murray Bartlett isn't even 50 yet.

[quote]Murray Bartlett isn't even 50 yet.

Can you imagine the bitching you cunts would put them through if they had cast actors in their 60s and 70s?

GREAT. Can't wait to NOT watch this!

Don’t scoff but I have always pictured Steve Gutenberg as Michael.

First look.

Will Mouse and some of the others continue the show's tradition of full-frontal nudity?

[quote]I DID do a search, [R3], that turned up nothing, my conscience is clear...

Pity about your skin then.

Eek, sorry for bumping the duplicate thread! How the hell that other thread didn't show up on Google is beyond me.

No Billy Campbell? It's been awhile since I read the books or saw the series, did he die?

It's great to see so many of the original cast members returning.

[quote]No Billy Campbell? It's been awhile since I read the books or saw the series, did he die?

His character dies in one of the later books. Not sure if that has happened yet in one of the various tv adaptations.

Billy Campbell = Jon = first media death from AIDS.

In the later books, when Barbury Lane is sold to techs, I also wondered what happened to Jon's ashes, which were buried in the yard.

It sounds as if they are cramming together the last three books.

Also, in the books, Jake is a F2T and not Hispanic.

D’Amico was fine as Mouse, not great but better than his recast (had to look him up: Paul Hopkins, whoever he is) who pretty much embodied “this show was filmed in Canada, please look at this Canadian”

I was amazed they said they hired him based on his reading of Mouse’s letter where he comes out to his parents as he is so incredibly average in that scene. Anyway he was one of the reasons the later seasons were a dud along with the stories going off the rails albeit that’s right out of the books (cannibal cult and Jonestown references for example).

To be fair to Hopkins, I will give him credit for having more life in his performance than Nina Siemaszko did as the recast Mona. Truly awful.

Who were the ones who did full frontal?

Hopkins certainly did, also Thomas Gibson (mostly if you freeze frame) and I think one other guy at least.

Thomas Gibson from Dharma and Greg showed dick?

Ugh, the Mamet spawn is in this, that’s a letdown.

WHo? Shoshanana?

I hope our LGB kids find things to like in this new series. I found the first book at 20 and it opened a whole new and happy world.

Why did you drop the T when the main character in this is a Tranny?

I like Paul Hopkins in Tales of the City. That dirty grin when some straight guy didn't get the meaning of his shirt's logo was a great introduction in the second season.

Because of Murray Bartlett, Ellen Page, Laura Linney, and Olympia Dukakis I am exited about the new series. Though I don't know if I will really enjoy watching Mary Ann Singleton being a conservative, stone cold bitch (as she is in the later books).

Lightning struck once with the original cast and original production, not so much with the two follow-ups.

Now that there's a dead Mona, a dead Jon, a and a dead Connie, that doesn't bode well.

[quote]Because of Murray Bartlett, Ellen Page, Laura Linney, and Olympia Dukakis I am exited about the new series.

No, don't leave.

[quote]Though I don't know if I will really enjoy watching Mary Ann Singleton being a conservative, stone cold bitch (as she is in the later books).

She chilled out again once she moved back to San Francisco. When she first appeared in Michael Tolliver Lives, she was cold and distant, but halfway through her talk with Michael, she breaks and starts calling him Mouse again. And tells him that she left because after having watched Jon die, she couldn't bear to go through it again with him.

On the plus side, at least they cast an actual gay to play Michael.

Marcus D'Amico looked nothing like the Michael Tolliver I'd pictured in books all those years. Julian Morris would have been perfect (unfortunately, he was only 10 when TOTC came out).

True, r37 , but I bet he was cast for his on-screen sweetness and chemistry with the other actors, especially Chloe Webb.

What touched me most in the first (1993) film was the sparkling clean SF of the 70s.

It's sort of like watching Party Girl and wishing New York was still like that.

I wish they would do Tales From the Crypt instead.

I'm pretty sure hunky Billy Campbell showed peen.

[quote]Murray Bartlett as Michael "Mouse" Tolliver

Isn't he a bit too attractive?

If they update to present-day SF, they’ll have to change it to "Tales of the Shitty".

when I saw the first one yrs ago, if anyone had told me laura vanilla boring as fuk linney would be a star, ide have spat at em…

HOW????? is she on???

Paul Gross today

Well of course they are doing this now. They can shove the trans agenda down everyone’s throat along with “diversity”

[quote]If they update to present-day SF, they’ll have to change it to "Tales of the Shitty".

Isn't that what it was always called?

[quote] They can shove the trans agenda down everyone’s throat along with “diversity”

Shame on you for using the same bigot rhetoric that was used against gays for decades.

Must they include the ever boring and turgid miss Linney????

R49 body mutilation, especially that of children, and hormone therapy have nothing to do with two adults of the same sex getting together consensually for the purpose of achieving orgasms.

I'm glad that they're doing this now, while Olympia Dukakis is still able to play Mrs. Madrigal. (She must be somewhere around 90, so how knows how long she'll still be acting, let alone still around?) I wouldn't want to see anyone else playing that character.

Are the T going to protest Olympia Dukakis' continued portrayal of Mrs. M?

Yes, let's please focus this tread on trans people.

It's not exactly unrelated, r54.

No, but it's one actor out of the ensemble.

And Mrs. Madrigal has been around for almost fifty years.

Like, feel about trans issues what you will, but if a trans person was in a crowd scene, we'd get fifty posts about it.

[quote]if a trans person was in a crowd scene, we'd get fifty posts about it.

No, we wouldn't. And it's "were," not "was."

I love Laura Linney.

No, r57 , I think it's "was".

[quote] when supposing about something that might be true (often in sentences with 'if' and 'could'), use the verb "was."

The trailer is out. This looks excruciatingly, painfully, unforgivably bad. It looks like one of those shows designed to ladle on the treacly sentiment and cheap "inspiration".

I'll pass.

Needs more tech bros.

They certainly learned from the blowback LOOKING received over the dearth of Asians.

This will be LOOKING and POSE mashed up with a dollop of frau on top, but I have to admit that the trailer elicited a tear when Olympia Dukakis appeared followed by the pride march. Manipulative, but glad it will happen at all 30+ years later (with original sets?).

[quote]This looks excruciatingly, painfully, unforgivably bad

To you, maybe. I think it looks like it might be good. But go ahead and pass based on a one-minute teaser. No one will miss you.

R63, yes, it is designed to elicit a tear. The swelling music! The inspiring words! The heartfelt message! Tearful embraces!

Manipulative middlebrow schlock.

I love the trailer with Mrs. Madrigal's entrance like a royal queen. Can't wait for the show.

The original TOTC was wonderful - witty and funny and for the stuffy AIDS era, quite subversive. The new one looks to be falling into the same trap as the Will & Grace reboot: forsaking the wit and humor and cynicism for an endless succession of Very Special Moments, beating viewers over the head with a well-intentioned but heavy-handed Uplifting, Magical, Inspiring Message of Inclusion for all. You will shed a tear and be uplift, damnit!

I just fuckin' hate being pandered to.

I prefer feel good entertainment over drama that would drive me to slit my wrists.

But that is a false duality. There is good entertainment that is neither wrist-slitting nor feel-good schlock.

Unfortunately, no matter what it produces, Netflix has a weakness for laying it on with a trowel. Subtlety has never been their strong suit.

R65 exactly.

R60 that trailer looks and feels nothing like Tales of the City.

[quote]This will be LOOKING and POSE mashed up

puke

[quote]with a dollop of frau on top

More like a dump truck bucket load of it.

I prefer Paul gross nude

Just re-watched the trailer. I think it's that fucking music that pushes it over the edge and into the abyss.

No Parker Posey? WTF?

Armistead Maupin killed her character. He has an annoying habit of killing off characters that he doesn't know what to do with. So Mona's dead, too.

[quote]The original TOTC was wonderful - witty and funny and for the stuffy AIDS era, quite subversive.

The original [italic]Tales of the City[/italic] was prose, published in the [italic]San Francisco Chronicle[/italic] once a week starting in 1976 before it was compiled in novel form in 1978. It had no idea "the stuffy AIDS era" was coming. I don't think "the stuffy AIDS era" appeared before [italic]Babycakes[/italic] (or was it in [italic]Further Tales[/italic] )?

Zosia Mamet? [shudder]

Isn't that a type of grass?

The book were nothing more than good quality trash. Let's hope Netflix keeps it that way.

[quote]The book were nothing more than good quality trash.

Same as your subject-verb agreements. Except for the part about "good quality."

I do hope Parker Posey makes a surprise cameo saying something trendy. Or is she too busy with Lost In Space?

Who will be joining me in the line at the Castro for SFFS Opening NIght showing?

It's only a two-hour movie?

Netflix should buy the original PBS series if they're not going to remake it.

I was going to make a comment about not finding it believable that Murray Bartlett and Laura Linney are contemporaries, but he's 48 and she's 55, so I retract it.

What I liked about D'Amico was his boy next door quality. Hopkins, with his leering grin, was wrong. Bartlett exudes that former "dream boy" quality. That's not how I see Mouse either. D'Amico has aged into a chunky monkey like Maupin himself. It's a shame they evidently haven't patched things up.

D'Amico looked nothing like the "Mouse" I had in my mind all those years.

R80

[quote]I do hope Parker Posey makes a surprise cameo saying something trendy.

Guys, I already told ya - Connie Bradshaw is dead. Armistead killed her off.

Is Barbara Garrick making a cameo? I thought I saw a split-second shot of DeeDee in the trailer.

[quote]It's only a two-hour movie?

It's a ten-episode series.

[quote] Guys, I already told ya - Connie Bradshaw is dead. Armistead killed her off.

—R74

UNfantabulous

Yay!

When is the premiere for this?

June 7th. This is what they're giving us for Pride.

Um.........thanks?

Hated 'Michael Tolliver Lives', too much of the awful trans character Jake. But, looking back, I suppose that is what has happened in real life as well, trans have taken over everything

Am looking forward to having Norman Neal Williams back

[quote]Am looking forward to having Norman Neal Williams back

......from the dead?

If they're doing "back from the dead" scenarios, I'd rather have Mona and Connie.

[quote] trans have taken over everything

Yeah, because there were NO trans-persons in TotC before that...

[quote] Armistead Maupin killed her character. He has an annoying habit of killing off characters that he doesn't know what to do with. So Mona's dead, too.

More proof that Tales is a soap.

A very contemporary, bold, progressive soap, but a soap all the same. Especially so during the era when the text was written as a weekly column.

R95 Well, someone hasn't read the books

R97 Anna Madrigal was transsexual, she knew she was not a woman in reality. The clue was in the anagram that she used to make her name, 'A Man And A Girl'. She bares zero comparison to the modern trans miss things

R99, tune up your sarcasm detector.

R100 Oh.......kisses. Wonder how they will treat the backstory of NNW that is covered in MTL, it is perfectly awful

R101 I must have skipped over that part. I didn't even remember that.

R102 Involved the whole child raping stuff, well, more the girl was into it. Tonally was really off for Maupain

You’re right, r42, and we also got a quick full frontal from the Maytag repair man Colin Ferguson aka amnesiac May Ann fucker Burke Andrew. Boy, that man can wear a sweater.

R60, the trailer’s packaging alarms me, too. I hope they resort to the old music in the series.

I can complain about the treacly ad and the recastings and how it won't be quite what it was or what I expect it to be.

And I can also acknowledge right now that the minute I see Mary Ann and Anna in a scene together, I will be sitting on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably at how touching it is to see those characters again.

I know.....

[quote]And I can also acknowledge right now that the minute I see Mary Ann and Anna in a scene together, I will be sitting on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably at how touching it is to see those characters again.

Olympia's voice sounds very aged, but she looks great.

Laura is just luminous. That's the best I've seen her look for a long time.

Well R106 , you can take heart in the fact you won't be the only one sobbing on the floor.

New trailer.

I would love it if they brought back Thomas Gibson as Beauchamp. He was so nasty, but all his scenes were fun. They need a good villain like him. (Did they kill him off?)

Yes . Maupin also killed off Beauchamp.

For being such a beloved author, that motherfucker has a lousy track record when it comes to keeping his characters alive.

[quote]New trailer.

Reports that I got a tear in my eye watching that are exaggerated.

I read the books when I was younger and loved them, and I’m only now reading Michael Tolliver Lives and the more recent books. They’re definitely not as interesting as when they were all at Barbary Lane.

In that trailer, it's like they turned 28 Barbary Lane into a Carnival Cruise. They drained it of its original charm.

Does anyone REALLY miss Beauchamp from the book?

The cast seems very ethnic

So is it now mostly about hispanic transmen?

R115 - Yes. I do. And Mona.

I can hardly wait.

r110. They did kill him off (car crash).

[quote]So is it now mostly about hispanic transmen?

Blatinx Husbears.

Juan Castino is also in What / If.

Juan Castano is handsome.

[quote][R115] - Yes. I do. And Mona.

I actually kind of liked the way they dealt with Mona. Michael just mentioned offhandedly that she had died, and that he was glad her big, warm, hippie heart hadn't lived to see George W Bush's America, because he didn't think she'd be able to stand it.

R123 he looks like he has a touch of the Downs.

R124 that's the problem; with the exception of Jon, characters get killed off because he no longer knows how to deal with them, or no longer has anything for them to do.

So, *poof* they die offscreen, then some half-assed attempt at explaining why that's maybe not so bad is given.

At the end of the first series of books (1989) Mary Ann was keeping Shawna away from Mrs. Madrigal, and Mrs. M had pretty much washed her hands of her.

So they way Maupin reintroduced Mary Ann into the story -- with her calling Mrs. M after the Loma Prieta earthquake, seemed very false. If she called anyone, it would have been Dee Dee, and that she did later, when Mary Ann got cancer.

Also, by the time of the new series of books (starting with Michael Tolliver Lives) Mrs Madrigal had left Barbary Lane for an apartment nearby. So bringing back the house is sort of strange.

I've only watched a little as I'm getting ready for work. I don't know (or really care) if it's good, whatever that means. It is, however, utterly charming.

The 'Mona' in Babycakes was like another character entirely, anyway.

One episode in and two random thoughts ...

- Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney are very good, as is Ellen Page (the perfect part for her). And I know you TOTC would not dare cast a non-trans person in a trans part, but couldn't they find one who could act? The guy who plays Jake wouldn't pass a community theater audition.

- The green screen work is about the worst I've ever seen in a movie or miniseries. Maybe they're shooting for a dreamy look, but the Barbary Lane house looks completely computer-generated. The scene with Page and Linney on the roof looks phonier than the rooftop scene in "The Room."

R131 they're shooting the show in NYC, to accomodate Olympia who can't travel at 87. That's why the show feels so off; real SF has such unique light and texture

Did the other Tales of the City thread get killed?

Ok, can someone refresh my memory... what became of the character Mona Ramsey? Beyond the first three novels I am blanking and I forget even some of them too.

Moved to the UK in a lavender marriage and died of breast cancer in the 90s.

Thank you.

No r133

I'm confused, who is the biological mother of Ellen Page, is it Parker Posey????