Lex Medlin – Happy Days

Q.  What can you tell us about the premise for the show and about your character?

A.  The premise, thirty-somethings hanging out and trying to figure out relationships.  Not always the most politically correct, my character is Larry.  I start drinking at four in the afternoon, which I think is just great.  It’s kind of hard to explain, it’s such a well concept show.  These six incredibly eclectic characters and you just have to watch it and see if you like them.  So far; most people have.  I think people will because they are six totally different characters.  Henry is kind of the straight arrow literally from Ohio and Beth Lacke is just amazing.  Beth plays this Amanda character that I think, everywhere we’ve gone where people have seen it, all the women just flock to her and talk to her.  I think she represents all of the women in America and what a lot of women are feeling.  I guess I represent the drunks and that’s fine!  I remember my grandfather and it would be noon and he would have a whiskey in his hand.  I call Larry the enlightened drunk because he certainly has opinions on everything.  Some of them are pretty good and some of them are a little suspect but they’re all pretty damn funny.

Q.  Critics haven’t been giving “Happy Hour” such wonderful reviews.  Do you think that once the show starts airing it can turn them around?

A.  They have been almost kind of glib, but even the reviews have been one or two lines.  I just think that because of the fact that we’re not a bunch of named actors, and it’s not a high concept show, it’s just six very eclectic personalities hanging out.  It’s funny and at the end of the day, that’s what we always go back to.  All we really care about is if it is funny and we think it is and they tested it and all the testing groups gave it great numbers.  They thought it was hilarious so we’re not trying to do anything high concept, we’re not going back in time or doing anything crazy.  We’re just sitting around being funny and a lot of TV critics don’t care for the multiple character sitcom.  Especially one that isn’t high concept, we’ll have to see what middle America thinks, that’s what I’m more concerned with.

Q.  The show hasn’t even come out yet and to give it poor reviews can put the viewers off.

A.  I went back through it and saw reviews for “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and “Mad About You” and they were horrible.  I thought, what were these people thinking, because they were all shows that I absolutely loved.  So, people just have to watch it and make up their own minds, that I totally respect even more. 

Q.  Those are shows that were seven seasons later still going strong.

A.  Exactly, and I think we have a step ahead of the game.  I’ve been in this business for quite a long time and I’ve done enough shows.  Usually a pilot episode, a very first episode, you get one or two characters that are kind of flushed out.  Then through the course of the first thirteen episodes, or even the first year, most shows get the characters more defined and get people sucked in.  I think from the pilot episode, all six of us, we had it down character-wise.  We were all laughing out loud while we were rehearsing and I think we were a step ahead of the game in that regard.  So, I’m excited to see where we are going to go from here.  We just finished our fourth episode and it is getting funnier and funnier and it’s just great.

Q.  Has there been anything for you that’s been challenging about the role?

A.  Not really, I say that but I’ve been doing this so long.  It was one of those when I picked up the sides to go into the audition it was like eighteen pages of sides.  That’s unheard of because it’s usually too much for an audition.  I picked them up and I thought this is going to take me forever to get down.  In an hour I just had it, my wife actually read the lines with me and she was like, “You’ve got it!  It’s you.”  I went, “Yeah, it kind of is.”  Every so often you get one of those but it never happens where they end up casting you in that.  So, I went into the audition and was myself and they loved it.  Next thing you know, three months later, I was shooting it.  So, it’s just been one of those great things where the character is very similar to me.  There are some differences, but he’s very similar to me, so I can just say these great lines that the writers come up with and take the credit.  I’ll do that! 

Q.  Do you have a really memorable moment from working on the show?

A.  We’ll basically going to be on the air for a month and then baseball will pre-empt us for a month and then we’ll be back.  That’s a really good stretch to watch those first episodes and I think people will get a real kick out of it.  We just did the Halloween episode last week and I was bloated Waikiki pain killing Elvis.  My gut was hanging out of this thing and it was funny.  Just seeing me half naked is really humorous.  I can’t tell you how many people said to me, “Is that really your chest hair?”  That’s not really something you want to hear because it was!  It wasn’t makeup, I was just a little patchy.

Q.  Do you have a latest obsession?  Are you into any particular music group, activity, sport or book?

A.  More than anything, it’s not very exciting, but I’m a sports fanatic.  I’ve been a Denver Bronco fan for about thirty years and I am a huge Dodger fan since 1989 and I’m a huge Laker fan since the early 90s.  I have what the whole cast calls The Man Tent and it’s basically this white trash gazebo that I bought.  I put it up myself, I even laid the concrete and everything.  Then I put a little mini fridge in here and a TV and strung up some lights.  I am out in the Man Tent right now and I basically live out here and watch sports and drink beer. 

Q.  What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?

A.  Just check out the show, it’s a love fest.  If you’re in LA come to a taping.  Watch the show for months and  make up your own mind.  I think people are going to absolutely dig it.