The cast and creators of Fox’s sure-bet comedy The Grinder — starring Fred Savage and Rob Lowe as sparring brothers, the former an attorney and the latter who just played one on TV — took questions from reporters yesterday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. The session was heavy on light-hearted quips about Lowe’s looks — including a bonus moment when the former teen heartthrob was asked if he and network mate John Stamos ever got together to “talk about their handsomeness.”
Watching the proceedings unseen from the back of the room, Stamos called out, “Rob! Tell the truth — we’ve been dating for years!”
At the center of the half-hour laugher is Lowe’s Dean Sanderson, a pretty-boy actor who found fame playing a lawyer on a series called, yes, The Grinder and now thinks he’s fit to join his brother and dad at the family firm.
Lowe, who also co-executive produces The Grinder, says he packed Dean with affectations he’s observed over his long Hollywood career. “I’ve been waiting for years to wear a knit hat in the summer,” he mused. “The chain that leads to nowhere,… I showed this to an actor friend of mine who shall remain nameless and she wasn’t really laughing. I asked why and she said, ‘I just realized I’m ON The Grinder.’”
Then Lowe named names: “Martin Sheen used to play ‘Hail to the Chief’ when he drove to the set. I think there was a moment where he seriously considered running on the Green Party ticket.”
But, Lowe stressed, this isn’t a show about a fish who thinks the whole wide world is his water — it’s a show about sibling rivalry. Savage’s Stewart is married Dean’s former girl, Debbie ( It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Mary Elizabeth Ellis) and has two great kids and an actual legal career, but none of his brother’s flash. Dean has the flash — and the awe of the public, Stewart’s family and the brothers’ dad Dean, Sr. (William Devane) — but he wants his set-acquired legal know-how to be considered legit. And who needs law school to pass the bar? A little Boise-based stability wouldn’t hurt, either.
Meanwhile, Savage’s notecard-toting Stewart is much more comfortable with the desk jockey version of lawyering — contracts, trusts, depositions. “He’s a good attorney. He’s good at what he does,” Savage said. “It’s just that he doesn’t do what Rob does on the show.”
Savage added that his return to acting was not calculated and acknowledged that he would be putting his thriving directing and producing career on hold. “Yes, I’m going to be missing directing jobs,” he said, “but I wanted to do this. I really enjoyed it and I found my sea legs and realized that maybe I did want to get back into it.”
Asked if he and Rob bonded over stories of coming of age in Hollywood, Savage cracked, “I like to keep our bonding process private if that’s all right.”
Devane jokingly described his character as “the perfect dad — I raised these boys by myself and look at how successful they are!” Then he moved on to Senior Dean’s flaw: “I’m a celebrity freak — Rob shows up and all of a sudden Fred disappears. I don’t think — along with Rob — that he really does need to go to law school.”
Of whether he was specifically looking to do a comedic role, the former 24 star joked, “I’m looking to do anything where they say ‘Where’s Bill? Get Bill here as soon as you can.’”
And this comedy, he added, comes with an unexpected perk.
“In the whole time I did 24 I don’t think I’ve ever hugged anyone,” Devane said. “Here, I’ve been hugged to death.”
The Grinder premieres Tuesday, Sept. 29 on Fox.