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From
December, 2000
The
Holidays bring good news for Gil. During Thanksgiving
week, the WB network showed a prime time rerun of the
episode of Sabrina, The Teenage Witch featuring
Gil. "The Band Episode" originally ran on ABC, and had
guest stars The Back Street Boys (as well as John Volstad
who played Daryl of Larry Daryl and Daryl on Newhart),
but we suspect it was Gil's great performance of Customer
#1 that prompted the network to rerun it.
Starz
Movie Channel is running Mystery Men, with Gil's
seminal performance as Suit #2. The episode of 3rd
Rock from the Sun ("Dick V. Strudwick") featuring
Gil can still be seen in syndication around the country,
as well as Gil's Providence episode, "Paradise
Inn" on Lifetime television.
Picture by Raul Reformina |
The
good news for everybody in Hollywood is that the commercial
actors strike has been settled. SAG/AFTRA got a fair
offer from the commercial producers, and the union
membership has voted to accept and ratify the contract
proposal, so we can all get to work again. |
Gil
worked hard on the lines and behind the scenes during
the strike. As strike captain he walked the line or leafleted
or manned the phones on average of 3 times a week. It
was not only worth it to get a good contract after the
longest strike in all of show business. Gil felt especially
honored to have been a part of history, and at the victory
celebration in Hollywood, was proud to hear his name announced
in the speech thanking strike captains and staff.
On
the writing front, Esther's Follies, the satirical political
review in Austin, Texas is featuring two song parodies
for the holiday season written by Gil. See his scripts
for these and the American Comedy Network sketch "How
the Grinch Stole Hanukkah" on the Scripts
of the Month page.
The
Millennium Year 2000 has been a good one for Gil, and
he and everybody here at the Gil Christner Web Site hope
that 2001 is prosperous for you and yours and wish a Happy
Holidays to all.
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From
September 2000
Gil can be seen all over the television
this fall. The episode of Providence in which Gil appears
during Sydney's hallucination is re-running on Sept. 8.
And Gil will be on the October 6th episode of Norm where
he plays the slightly crazy Mr. Leesam, one of the clients
in Norm's Social Services office. This was a particularly
fun episode to film, as it also features guest starts Nikki
Cox, Faith Ford and Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire Rick
Rockwell.
Gil's
National Discount Brokers commercial is in heavy rotation
on CNBC cable channel, and Mystery Men will be showing
on HBO sometime in October.
Now
for the bad news: The Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA are
still on strike against the commercial producers. The
strike, which started May 1st, has now become the longest
strike that SAG has been involved in. There is a great
deal of frustration on the part of the actors, mainly
because the Media has done very little to get the news
of this strike out to the American Public. In fact, most
people don't even know there is a strike going on!
Do not believe what you read in the papers about this
conflict. For some strange reason, the Media is presenting
only one side, the side of the Producers. In reality,
the Producers have made an offer for the new contract
that would, in effect, create a drastic pay cut for commercial
actors. The Producers are offering a LOW flat fee for
unlimited use of a commercial, as opposed to the current
contract which calls for payment, or RESIDUAL, every time
a commercial is shown on network television. According
to this new proposal, any actor in a commercial that runs
more than 22 times in a 13 week period would get less
money than the old contract allows, up to 40%, 50%, even
60% less.
For
more information, please go to www.sag.org.
And keep your fingers crossed for a quick and fair resolution
to this labor action.
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From
April, 2000
Attention,
all lovers of the NBC show Providence! Gil just filmed
an episode of that show, which will be seen May 19, during
the big sweeps period! This episode finds Sydney Hansen,
played by series star Melina Kanakaredes, in a coma, and
follows her hallucinations as her dead mother Lynda (played
by the marvelous actress Concetta Tomei) takes her to
Limbo, to await word on whether she lives or dies (gee,
the star of the series, lives or dies, who can guess?)
Gil plays another hospital patient in a coma who wishes
Sydney good luck and "Have a Great Transition" as she
and Lynda float down the hallway to the Bright Light of
Limbo.
(Actually,
this makes the second time Gil appears in the delusions
of the comatose star of a series…two years ago he appeared
in Adam Arkin's hallucinations when Adam's character fell
comatose after arguing with Gil about a chicken sandwich.
Is this type casting?)
And,
Gil has also scored two major commercials, which you will
hopefully be seeing on your television sets soon! In one,
for National Discount Brokerage, Gil plays an innocent
bystander watching the Police Swat team negotiate with
robbers, when suddenly the Police hand him the megaphone
and tell him to take over, so everybody splits, leaving
poor Gil, who is obviously in way over his head, alone
to face the bad guys!
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In
the second spot, for Kellogg's, Gil plays a supermarket
manager who has to deal with two new Kellogg's characters,
Eet and Ern, a giant horse and giant pig, who tear the
store apart to get at all the great Kellogg's cereals.
These
spots come just in a nick of time, as the Screen Actors
Guild is currently in negotiations with the Producers
for a new commercial contract, and if one is not successfully
agreed on by both sides, it looks like a Strike will happen.
(Yikes!) So keep your fingers crossed, because we don't
want unprofessionals selling you corn flakes and dot com
brokerages, now do we?
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From
January, 2000
The new Century is looking good
for Gil's Voice Over career! Gil did a total of 4 holiday
radio spots for the Eckerd Drug Store company, where he
starred as Todd, the beleaguered husband of Darlene, as
they solved their holiday needs by going to Eckerd Drug
Store. The spots were very well received, and you will
be hearing more Todd And Darlene (starring Gil!) for Eckerd
drugs in the near future!
Sound clips from the Eckard spots are on the way, so watch
this site! They'll be posted here soon.
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