12 In Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director (416 pgs., BearManor Media, 2022, $32), the now semi-retired Joel Thurm shares how he became an accomplished casting director. The publisher, BearManor Media, is a small imprint that pushed for Thurm to give an interview to VideoAge, but it ultimately did not take place. Getting a personalized inside view of pilot season would have been a perfect addition to this L.A. Screenings Issue. A quick glance at his storied career shows a promising start at CBS in the mid-1970s, head of Talent at the production company Spelling-Goldberg, VP of TV Talent & Casting at Paramount TV, and then VP of of Talent and Casting at NBC. Across the decades, his credits included casting The Bob Newhart Show, Starsky & Hutch, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, Taxi, Grease, Airplane!, Cheers, Miami Vice, and so much more. Essentially, he had a hand in shaping some of the biggest TV series and movies from the last 50 years. Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season tells the story of Thurm’s career in Hollywood and portrays him as an adventurous, funny, ears-to-theground professional whose connections in the industry were constant and far-reaching. But before his success in casting, he was a humble New York City kid. You could say that he had the most bucolic childhood you could have while growing up in the Big Apple. Born on September 16, 1942, he remembers being raised on his grandfather’s dairy farm in East New York, at a time when the Brooklyn neighborhood could accommodate farms. While his father served in World War II, the very young Thurm and his mother spent time in a red-brick barn with “fifty-six smelly, bony Holstein cows in neck shackles.” As a schoolboy, Thurm might best be described as a high-functioning under-achiever — slacking off in class while scoring high on tests. He took to the arts from a young age. He enjoyed listening to the radio to keep up with musical theater, and he loved television. He watched the sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, family comedy Father Knows Best, and the adventure series Bomba, the Jungle Boy, and learned to distinguish star talent by watching standouts such as Kirby Grant in adventure Sky King and Peter Graves in family Western Fury — quite an introduction to his casting education. Thurm reluctantly pursued higher education, enrolling at Hunter College’s Bronx campus, before accidentally dropping out by flunking chemistry and taking a trip to Rome. His first big break in the industry came early in his young adulthood. In 1967, after stints in New York’s theater community, he landed a job at David Merrick Productions, led by none other than the acclaimed theater producer David Merrick. Thurm worked as an assistant to general manager Jack Schlissel and even had the opportunity to serve as company manager on a production. As Thurm puts it, “By day I was Jack’s office slave; by night I became company manager of arguably the biggest smash on Broadway: Hello, Dolly!, then in its fourth season and staring the incomparable black singer Pearl Bailey.” Thurm’s professional relationship with Bailey took him out to Los Angeles, where he worked on the variety show The Pearl Bailey Show. Bailey is one of the many figures who helped to shepherd Thurm in his career. Another notable favorite mentioned in the book is Ethel Winant, who, when Thurm met her, led the CBS Casting Department and was “network TV’s first female vice president in a creative, non-business area.” The book includes memorable anecdotes with Bailey and Winant, and plenty of A-list talent and top-level executives like Brandon Tartikoff. Among the former category, there are amusing tales about the casting of David Hasselhoff in the soap opera The Young and the Restless, the crime-drama Knight Rider, and the action-drama Baywatch. Another favorite includes casting Susan Sarandon in the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The book also includes a delightful chapter titled “NBC Series Notes”, in which he lists every pilot that became a series on NBC during his tenure from 1980 to 1990. His sense of humor — droll with a sarcastic edge — continues to shine through even in his notes and commentary on each show. Regarding the one and only season of The David Letterman Show, Thurm comments, “Thank God for the cancellation, because who knows if Letterman’s late-night show would ever have happened otherwise.” Regarding the fourepisode flop known as Fathers and Sons starring Merlin Olsen, Thurm jokes, “I honestly remember nothing about this show; nor do I know why we were so intent on finding vehicles for the very uncharismatic Mr. Olsen.” Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season is every bit as flashy and thrilling as its title suggests. The sparkling memoir offers a guide into Hollywood from an insider’s perspective with wit and panache. Thurm is charming, honest, and knows when to dish out an equal dose of gossip and industry advice. The veteran insider shares his insight and accomplishments from over three decades of having an eye for talent The Life and Times of a Hollywood Casting Director: Joel Thurm’s Entertaining Tidbits May 2023 Book Review By Luis Polanco Regarding the op known as Fathers and Sons starring Merlin Olsen, “I honestly remember nothing about this show; nor do I know why we were so intent on nding vehicles for the very uncharismatic Mr. Olsen.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI4OTA5