The Point Radio: Why TV Loves Mary McCormack
Actress Mary McCormack loves TV and has proven it with great performances on shows like MURDER ONE, THE WEST WING, IN PLAIN SIGHT and now the new ABC sitcom, WELCOME TO THE FAMILY. Mary talks about her new role and the fun of being part of an ensemble. Plus the new TV season chalks up it’s first casualty and Marvel brings AGENTS OF SHIELD back into comics, sort of.
New York ComicCon starts in just a few days and we will be back here 24 hours early – on Thursday – with our special preview of the show!
Transcript
The Point Radio Hi Mike, Robin, welcome to The Point, with shows like Murder of One, In Plain Sight, and The West Wing, everybody loves Mary McCormick. And we'll find out exactly why she loves us back on television in a new series called Welcome to the Family. Plus, ABC has the first casualty of the new TV season, and SHIELD covers Marvel Comics, in a way. Let's get to The Point.
This is The Point, The Point Radio, get The Point Radio. Actress Mary McCormick loves TV, and after performances in shows like Murder of One, West Wing, and In Plain Sight, well, the feeling seems to be mutual. Mary's newest project is the series Welcome to the Family, and I ask her to tell me about her role. I play Caroline Yoder, and I'm married to Michael Malley's character, Dan Yoder, and we have one daughter who's 18. And in the first episode, the pilot episode, we're looking forward to her graduating high school.
She's not been a great student and sort of has had a bumpy ride and is a bit of a spacey kid. And so we're just thrilled she's even managed this, and she's off to Arizona State University. And we're looking forward to sort of like, you know, going back to our normal life and having sex and sleeping late and working out and doing all the things that parents might do if kids weren't in the house. And then she comes home and says she's pregnant and moving back in with us with her boyfriend who we've never met. And so, yeah, the show becomes, you know, us having to adjust all of our plans and sort of all of a sudden we have a full house, a really full house.
And then, you know, we have to sort of become one family with this new boyfriend family and all the sort of bumps that come along with that. After well over a decade of hour-long dramas, what brought Mary back to television and to a situation comedy? You know, I really like TV. I've always liked TV. I mean, I did Murder One years ago and then The West Wing and K Street and then In-Plant Site for five years. And I mean, I like doing stage work and I love doing features too, but there's something about television that I really like. I like the taste of it and I like the crew.
You know, we get to know the crew and I like having a softball team and heckling the guys. And I just like the sort of real team quality of it. You know, we really become a family and on television and I like that. And also I have three kids, three little kids of my own. So it's important that I stay in one place now and let them have some normalcy and, you know, stay in one school.
They've been a lot of traveling and been in a lot of schools. And so now I'm really looking to sort of stay, stay put. After being the centerpiece of her last show In-Plant Site, is it different being part of an ensemble? Yeah, I mean, I was, yeah, this is a lighter load. I mean, on In-Plant Site, definitely was an ensemble, but I worked, I was in every scene.
So it's what they call intelligent. They often call it a single lead show. And at the time I thought, oh, how cool. And I saw my face on billboards and, you know, I'm still an actor. I was like, wow, I have my own show and, you know, I was thrilled.
And then, of course, and thrilled throughout, but I didn't really know what the work was going to be. The workload was going to be. And, you know, the days were every, I shot every day for seven months. And I got, I think I got one day off or two days off and I shot for sort of, I mean, I worked on my feet for 16 hours. And, you know, mostly most days was 13 to 16 hour days, sometimes longer and did it pregnant.
You know, I mean, it was a long call. So I loved that part and loved the job. But this is definitely a nice break. This is an actual ensemble and we shoot an episode in five days. And I worked the most three days a week.
And so I really, as a mom of little, little kids, it's the perfect job for me. After you see the show, you'll agree that Mary has great comedy timing. So I asked her, was being funny something she's one to do? I have. I have always liked it. It's funny because I think because I got Murder 1 was one of my TV show that Stephen Boczka did about real serious drama about, you know, defense attorneys.
I think because that was one of my first more high profile jobs, I ended up on a sort of a drama track in a weird way and which I'm grateful for because that's actually hard work, too. And I love and really fulfilling work. But you do you can kind of get slotted into comedy or drama, you know, early in your career. And so, yeah, I'm really I really love making jokes and being funny. And so this has been a ball.
I mean, I did a farce on Broadway about four years ago and had the time of my life. And that was as broad as I mean, that was shameless. We were just over the top silly and you know, and I loved it. So yeah, I really enjoy it. So I'm glad to be getting an opportunity.
I'm lucky to get to do it. So beyond the new show, how about a dream role? Anything she'd really like to try? I would love to do a movie. I did a small part on a Chris Guest movie, but like I'm a huge Chris Guest fan.
So I would love to do that. I would love to have a big fat role in one of his crazy ensembles with that brilliant group of people he works with. That would be a dream. With writing and producing also on her resume.
I asked her if she ever wanted to go back and try that again. Yeah, I would like to do that. I enjoy producing and I think I would like to do more of that. Yeah, I really would. I've got to just find the time.
I'm lucky if I get a shower in. Catch Mary along with Michael O'Malley and the rest of the cast on Welcome to the Family. New episodes on NBC every Thursday. Catch up with clips at NBC.com or see whole episodes at Hulu.com. So back here comes the latest in pop culture.
Some pretty staggering numbers took place in the comic stores when it came to the sales of comics and graphic novels during the month of September. With DC coming out on top with a huge win in market share over Marvel. All due of course to the Villains Month project which didn't necessarily go over well with a lot of retailers due to the allocation of some of the specialty covers.
But nonetheless ended up in a lot of bags and ran through the cash register pretty briskly too as well. DC ended up selling some 4.3 million comics during the month and ended up with well over 40% market share versus about 28.5% for Marvel during the month. We'll check that and some pretty good numbers for graphic novels too coming up in a bit.
Former Heroes creator Tim Kring is back with Teenagers and Superpowers again in the project. Being put in development by the CW. It's called EXP and it's about teenagers who take a designer drug that enhances their abilities. And it's Tim's second project right now at the CW.
He's also involved in the Wizard of Oz themed drama Dorothy Must Die. Top tier comic publisher IDW is expanding into a new market by opening up IDW Games and partnering with board game giant Pandasaurus Games. They'll be launching several new products based on some key IDW properties including Kill Shakespeare and 30 Days of Night and they'll be available in stores with more
information coming in the late spring of next year. IMAX has released a new behind the scenes video for Hunger Games Catching Fire. Among other things it showcases a lot of the technology being used in the Hunger Games follow up which will be in theaters on November 21st. And you can see the video right now at VanDango.com.
USA Networks is granted another season to covert affairs. It's now in the middle of its fourth season and they'll be a fifth to air in 2014. Over the summer and the early fall the show picked up close to 4 million viewers making it one of Cable's top 10 scripted shows over the past couple of months. Call it whatever brand of promotion you want to but Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is
coming from television to comics in a way. In November there will be a run of variant covers on certain Marvel titles that will feature photos of the cast even though it doesn't necessarily tie into the stories inside. Those variant covers will be on all new X-Men 19, Guardians of the Galaxy 9, Iron Man 18,
Nova 10, Superior Spider-Man 22, Uncanny Avengers 1 and Uncanny X-Men 14. Again all those issues will be available in November and they are variants so check with your retailer about availability. And the first casualty of the new TV season is ABC's Lucky 7 pulled after just two episodes and replaced in the prime time lineup with reruns of Scandal starting in just a few days.
In the meantime, NBC's Blacklist has been granted a full season order. The James Spader drama will get an additional nine episodes so far this year. And beyond all that, The Simpsons are picked up again for a record setting 26th season on Fox making it again the longest running scripted television show in TV history. Despite some angry retailers and some unhappy customers, DC's Villains Month turned out
pretty good for them giving them the biggest market share they've had for a long time. In the month of September in comic stores, DC ended up with a 40% piece of the pie compared to Marvel's 28.5% and they managed to sell over 4 million comics during the month as well. Overall sales of comics in stores in September were up over 33% where they were in 2012 which
is even a pretty good jump for September. Here's your top 10 best selling comics for the month. At number 10, Batman number 23.3 part of the Villains Month. At number 9 Avengers 19, Batman 23.4 came in at number 8. At number 7, first issue of Mighty Avengers at number 6, Batman 23.2 and at number 5,
Batman 23.1 the Joker issue. At number 4, first issue of X-Men Battle of the Atom. Infinity number 3 came in at number 3. Infinity number 2 came in at number 2. And almost in line, top selling comic for the month.
First on the list was Forever Evil number 1 from DC. We got some precise picks for you when you head into the comic stores this week and it starts with Dark Horse. There's another Star Wars Wild Space Omnibus. The second volume of this, and if you missed the first one, well this collects all those
unusual little Star Wars stories that have cropped up over the past few years all in one place and pretty cool to reread them again or maybe even for the first time. It's pretty inexpensive too, just under $25. From DC, a new Vertigo title that involves witches, street crime and murder all in something called Coffin Hill.
First issue from Vertigo this week. Also from DC, first issue of Superman Wonder Woman. Take that for what you will. And a second printing of Catwoman number 23 and one of Trillium number 1 as well. IDW gives us the first issue of John Byrne's new miniseries Triple Helix.
But the biggest news is over an image for Walking Dead celebrating the 10th anniversary, believe it or not. There's a Walking Dead number 1 10th anniversary edition. There's a Walking Dead Tyreese one shot special but best of all there's the 115th issue of the Walking Dead title and you're ready for this?
Well, different covers to choose from or you can grab them all. That should give you more than enough to keep you busy until the series premieres in a couple of weeks. For Marvel Infinity Ties this week include Fearless Defenders number 10 and Infinity number 4.
And from Archie, just in time for the Halloween season, the first issue of After Life with Archie. Archie beats zombies. All these and more in comic shops near you. Try the Comic Book Locator service.
Find one one 888 comic book. Check out websites too like ComicMix.com where we've got the information for you or you can also try FindMyComicShop.com. That's a wrap for right now but New York Comic Con begins in just a few days and we're back a day early for a special preview of the big event.
Catch a podcast on Thursday this week. Come to websites like ComicMix.com and MichaelDavisWorld.com and of course the iTunes podcast directory as well. In the meantime also catch the premiere of The Tomorrow People on The CW and then be back on Thursday as we take you backstage to meet the cast and find out just where the
series is headed this year. All that's just a fraction of the pop culture we cover 24-7 at Get The Point Radio. You can listen live at GetThePointRadio.com on your laptop or on your desktop. You can take us on your iPhone or your iPad with a free app available in the iTunes app store under Pop Culture on The Point or on your Android device with the app called TuneIn
or listen to us anywhere from iNedRadio at iNedRadio.com. Big news doesn't wait so keep up with us on social media too on Facebook and Twitter under The Point Radio. See you right back here on Thursday as we get ready for New York Comic Con.
