Fred Willard
Suzanne Martin, creator of “Maybe It’s Me,” once told me she intentionally wrote scripts a minute or two short, knowing that Fred Willard’s impromptu brilliance at rehearsal would add something special to each episode.
Even with Willard’s wit, the WB unjustly pulled a quick plug on “Me” because it shared Friday night with popular “Reba” and couldnât generate similar numbers. Too bad. “Me” was a smart family comedy, bringing a non-preachy moral message through the wonderfully dysfunctional Stage family.
Pretty young Reagan Dale Neis brilliantly nailed normal, self-conscious teenager Molly Stage and her daily horrors surrounded by an oddball family â a scam-artist brother, another bro aspiring to be a Christian rock star, evil baby twin sisters (think mild-mannered Stewie from “Family Guy”), a penny pinching mom and soccer-obsessed optometrist dad played by Willard. – David K. Li