Disaboom JimTroesh Blog

"TROPIC THUNDER" I liked it...

JimTroesh — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:07:00 GMT

Okay, disability rights advocates, get ready to take aim ... at me! As usual, I'm on the opposite side of an issue that sticks in the craw of the majority of disability advocates, many of whom are personal friends of mine. I generally keep my views to myself, but since the kind people in charge of this fine website community asked me to blog on a regular basis, I guess they want my opinions as well as my insight into Hollywood.

Yes, TROPIC THUNDER, the new Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. comedy is over the top, raunchy, and overly fertilized with the F word, it is also a farce. Not a word of it is meant to be taken seriously. I did find that the so-called "controversial" scenes in it where Ben Stiller plays a stereotypical clueless actor playing a person with a mental disability made me a little uncomfortable, I still laughed, and I laughed hard. I laughed because I know that many times in private I've poked fun at my friends and family by calling them retarded. and I know most people have, and the ones who swear they never have are lying.

I would've thought that the African American community would have been more up in arms about Robert Downey Jr. playing an actor playing a black man. But, since the movie was previewed for representatives of the black community and was given their approval because Robert Downey's performance was so obviously satirical, I can only wonder if the loudest of the disgruntled voices in the disabled community were upset because they weren't afforded the same opportunity. (sorry, I digress into pure speculation.)

Part of my problem with the protests are the way people with disabilities are portrayed in the news media. Looking from the inside, I see what news footage I would choose to capture the eye of the TV viewing audience. Quite often we are made to look whiney, people with a chip on our shoulder. Unfortunately, those of us who are well spoken, who have a clear grasp of the issues and can explain them intelligently are lost on the cutting room floor. Sadly, if I was the news director I might make the same choices because the goal is to get an audience, more than it is to tell the real news. That is the truly sad state and of our times.

I'm thrilled that there are groups of us who are organized and can protest blatantly discriminatory depictions. The fact that movie and TV producers know that probably keeps them more honest. (iI know the reason I was called in as creative consultant on "Special Unit," a pilot for Comedy Central centered around a team of detectives with disabilities, was the catalyst the producers did not want to offend viewers with disabilities. Similarly, when I wrote, produced and starred in "The Hollywood Quad," thehollywoodquad.com, it was always in the back of my mind about how far to go before I was going too far.

INSIDER NOTE: Plans are in the works for a panel discussion at the Writers Guild of America tentatively titled "How Far is Too Far With Disability Humor?" The goal is to enlightened writers and producers of about our community and the way we think about ourselves and now we are perceived at that

Lastly, I'm glad we're being mentioned in movies at all. There was a time in the not too distant past when we were shoved in a closet and not spoken of, drowned at birth, shipped off into institutes for useless people or left behind our nomadic families to be eaten by wolves. Is there a time for a huge protest of our depiction in the movies? Absolutely! But, now isn't the time, we need to choose our battles more wisely.

Disagree? Bring it on, my friends, bring it on!

Overnight success is a myth!

JimTroesh — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:34:00 GMT

When I started in show business I thought I would have made it by now. I envisioned myself on any number of TV shows, I really didn't figure my disability into the equation. I started rehearsals for my first play "Caine Mutiny Court Martials," way back in 1980. I had only been taking acting classes about a year. I was such a babe in the woods! I knew nothing about the inner workings of Hollywood. Nothing about the percentage of disabled roles in the media, had never heard the expression performers with disabilities, and basically didn't know squat about the business I would still be in twenty-eight years later. Thinking back, it's probably a good thing I was so naive. I might have given up if I realized how much of a long shot being successful was even if I wasn't disabled.

I was still pretty naive when Highway to Heaven came along. I had been taking acting classes and auditioning here and there for about three and half years. Getting a guest starring role on a popular TV series figured right into my planse. After my second year on Highway to Heaven I considered myself to be a success. I was working fairly regularly, I always knew what my next job was going to be. I was sure that being the star of my own TV series was right around the corner. I was recognized all over the world, I rarely had to audition for parts, industry people knew who I was, I was getting to be a name. Then, Highway to Heaven ended and jobs stopped coming. No matter what I did, I wasn't getting higher hired. People were quickly forgetting who I was. My fame went away in a flash. What else could it be? It must have been because I was a quadriplegic.

It was a great theory, an even better excuse. The problem was, it wasn't true. The exact same thing had happened to several of my actor friends, good-looking, able-bodied guys. One actor, Terence Knox, was the star of Tour of Duty, one of my favorite shows. He told me that while the series was on the air he bought a house in the Hollywood Hills, drove a cool car, and had a hot girlfriend. When the series ended he lost the house, the car and the girlfriend. He told me straight out to stop blaming it on my disability, "It's Hollywood."

It's only in the last few years that I consider myself knowledgeable about the inner workings of Hollywood. I have several projects including "The Hollywood Quad" that I am actively shopping around town. Shopping means that I call up networks and production companies, tell them about whichever project of mine I think is right for what they do, and try and convince them to read it or watch it. Then if they pass on it, I make sure the door is open for me to bring other projects to them. For example, a few people have passed on the "The Hollywood Quad", but they all told me that I'm welcome to bring other projects to them. That is huge!

What is success to me? I think I've talked about it in earlier blogs, but to bring you up to speed, success in the mind of Jim Troesh will arrive when I can afford to live on my own without the aid of government assistance. Thank God I live in a country that provides opportunities for disabled people. I have friends from third World countries where the disabled, if they can't fend for themselves, live extremely short lives. I know that is, depending on the state you live in, assistance for the disabled falls far short of where it needs to be. I have been blessed to have had badly needed help come to my rescue and save me from being put in a nursing home. (a story you can all read about in my autobiography "Don't Make Me Get Out Of This Chair" that I'm writing.)

That is it for now, my friends. I will make sure my next blog goes up in a much more timely manner. I'm aiming for less than a week before my next entry.

UPDATE ON "THE HOLLYWOOD QUAD"

JimTroesh — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:14:00 GMT

Promoting myself and my projects, I sometimes feel like I'm a vacuum cleaner salesman and I'm also the vacuum. As almost everyone knows, the best way to sell something is to believe in it one hundred percent, and and pretty much be in love with your product. When you are your product, the line between egomania and reality start to blur.

I spent all day Saturday at a convention in Beverly Hills pitching myself and my sitcom "The Hollywood Quad" to prospective agents and managers. Some of them I liked, some of them I wouldn't want to work with. The bottom-line though, was that at the end of the day, I had to detox, to go through decompression and let go of this wonderful product I was selling (me) otherwise there would be no living with me.

Yesterday, I went over to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences where I am a member and thereby honored to vote in the Emmys. (I will talk more about this at another time). One of the perks of being a member is that I get to see current movies in an awesome, state of the art theater, one of the top four or five movie theaters in the world as far as sound and picture quality. I saw Get Smart! I went in expecting to hate it because I was a huge fan of the TV series. Was I ever wrong!? I loved it! I also loved Wall-e, the movie I saw last weekend, a well told outer space love story.

Today, I am developing a list of the top sitcom executive producers, or showrunners as they are more often referred to as in the industry. People like James Brooks, Larry David, people at the top of their game who might be interested in working with me on "The Hollywood Quad". Making cold phone calls is not my forte, but is a proven process that often works. Wish me luck ...

Oh, yeah, I promised in my last entry that I would talk about flying in a private jet with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ok, so here's what happened. This was several years back right after I did an episode of Highway to Heaven where I adopted a special needs kid who wanted to be in the Special Olympics. We were going to South Bend, Indiana on a fourteen seat private jet. I took along two friends who helped me get into my seat and put my wheelchair in the back. Moments later who should step on the plane but Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, and Caroline Kennedy. It was a 4 - 5 hour flight.

Maria, who was very nice and much more attractive than she appears on TV, served breakfast to me. It didn't take long for me to relax and see them as real people. I had worked with Michael Landon and lots of other celebrities so I was not so starstruck. One of my favorite memories of that flight was watching Arnold and Maria who were engaged at that time, playing around together. They made out for a while as couples do, then Maria grabbed a bag of peanuts, went to the front of the plane and tossed them halfway across the plane into Arnold's mouth. It was fun to see them as regular people. My main memory of Caroline was that my luggage got separated and went to her room so at a function that night where I was supposed to wear a tuxedo, I had to wear a special Olympics shirt. It was embarrassing but it makes for great story. Thanks for listening ...

That's it for now ...

Stories about Michael Landon and other celebrities ...

JimTroesh — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:06:00 GMT

One of the most difficult things to deal with in this town is the fact that everything is hurry up and wait. I hurry to meet deadlines, to deliver my screenplays to the people who are asking for them, I hurry to get every place early and then I wait for people to make decisions. (rightly or wrongly, as one of the only quadriplegic actor/writers in Hollywood, I feel I owe it to all of those disabled writers and performers who come after me to give 110% so that everyone I work with will have a positive image of us.) As many of you know, I am currently in the process of contacting producers who might be interested in "The Hollywood Quad" (http:// thehollywoodquad.com) because they are producing something vaguely similar. I send them a copy of the show and then wait to hear from them. Not that I'm complaining, as I've said before I love this business. I'm mostly telling you why I haven't written a blog in a while. I have been contacting people and waiting.

Then, I realized I don't always have to talk about current stuff, I've been in this business more than twenty years and met a bunch of Celebrities. I thought people might want to know some inside information. Michael Landon, rest his soul, gave me my start in show business. Second only to my dad, Michael was one of the kindest, funniest, most generous people I've ever known. He constantly went around making sure that everyone on the set, sometimes up to sixty people, were taken care of and had heard his latest joke. The hours can be very long and energy levels tend to drop on a lot of sets I've worked on, not so with his company. For more about Michael including one of the last jokes he ever told me, click the link below ...

It's funny that I write about how slow things are sometimes slow because in the middle of writing this I've was contacted by the web radio show WithTV.com to do an interview. So, while I was on the air for an hour I got to be Mr. Celebrity, now I'm back to being just another actor/writer trying to make it in this town. That's kind of how is for everyone. Acting, writing and being a celebrity are just part of the job you go to every day. When you come home you have bills to pay, dinner to make, and an apartment to keep clean. It does have its glamorous side, but those instances are rare. Next time, I'll talk about flying on a private jet with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. It was really glamorous as well as being very touching.

That's all for now ...

Continuing on the road to success!

JimTroesh — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:51:00 GMT

A minuscule number of people have the good fortune to stumble into Hollywood and audition for a series or a movie and become the next Megastar. The vast number of actors and writers here who have gained any amount of success worked their asses off to do it! It takes an extraordinary amount of drive in the face of incredible competition and almost constant rejection. There are more than one hundred twenty thousand actors in SAG, (actors' union) and over twelve thousand writers in the WGA (writers' union) Everybody in town is an actor and is carrying a screenplay under their arm. Acting has often been called a suffering profession ...

That said, I absolutely love being here doing what I'm doing and following my dream. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? I often wonder why I chose this path rather than the more traditional lifestyle, one with a more steady income. I really don't know any answer except the obvious one; that I have some kind of over the top ego that longs to be fed. There must be something weird about me that makes me purposely live in a world where I am often in the depths of despair and the height of elation in the very same day, sometimes the very same hour. For example, I recently had the honor of receiving the Michael Landon Award from the Media Access Office for my work promoting the awareness of performers with disabilities. It was an amazing evening at a star-studded event at Universal Studios where I met tons of celebrities and was treated to an impromptu concert by Stevie Wonder! That night when I came home, I had to deal with catheter problems and a caregiver who called off work at the last minute.

It is the nature of the game for a quadriplegic actor/writer. The positive side to that is the fact that I am one of a very few quadriplegic actor/writers in town. If I am attending a Hollywood party or other social event, I am almost always the only guy in a wheelchair there. So, the next day when I contact someone I met there I always say, "if you don't remember my name, I'm the guy in a wheelchair."

Next time, I'll tell a few stories about Michael Landon and the other celebrities I've been fortunate to meet, and I'll talk about how things are progress and with my TV pilot "The Hollywood Quad".

I would love to get your feedback on this blog. If you have any questions about being an actor/writer in Hollywood, or advice on becoming one, let me know. That is the reason that I began this processed ...

That's it today from T-town!

A little about Highway to Heaven and more ...

JimTroesh — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:04:00 GMT

Starring on Highway To Heaven granted me tons of fantastic opportunities, I worked on several other television shows, I flew all over the country, often on private jet, and interacted with dozens of top celebrities. (In future blogs I will be writing lots of stories about Michael Landon and the cool things that happened on the set)

Unfortunately though, my wonderful ride came to an end shortly after the series ended in 1989. My acting jobs became few and far between. At first I blamed my slowdown on my hesitancy to promote myself. That slowly gave way to me blaming it on my disability. Eventually, after I spoke with several good looking, able-bodied actors who had starred on series and now were out of work, I realized that my hit and miss industry experience was the nature of the business combined with a nervousness on the part of industry executives to use performers with disabilities. (I will address this issue of industry execs and their hesitancy in hiring us in great detail in future blogs) I only worked in the business off and on a few times after that, and finally left the business to work in the private sector for a few years.

I came back to the business full time about seven years ago, this time focusing more on writing than on acting. I saw that there were very few disabled performers getting work, even those with terrific credits. I came to realize that as a writer, my playing field was much more even. At first, I put a role for myself in everything I wrote. I realize now that was a mistake, and when I started writing stories in other genres, I began have more success. For example, one of my most recent credits was for writing "Color of the Cross", a theatrical feature about a black Jesus.

That being said, last year, I came to the conclusion that writing about my own world, that of being a quadriplegic actor/writer, might be a marketable effort. Much thought and several conversations evolved into my six-part podcast series "The Hollywood Quad thehollywoodquad.com.

That evolved into the TV sitcom "The Hollywood Quad" I am currently shopping around Hollywood. In fact, I spent all weekend at a seminar about selling a TV pilot with regard to the new media. With the cost of producing shows dropping exponentially since the advent of digital video and the iminant merger of television and the Internet, there are more opportunities for independent producers than ever before.

That's it today from T-town!

A Hollywood Quadriplegic's Perspective

JimTroesh — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:15:00 GMT

Hello, I'm Jim Troesh, welcome to my first blog on Disaboom! I am a quadriplegic actor/writer who's been in the entertainment industry for more than twenty years. I am best known for my three year recurring role as the quadriplegic attorney on Highway to Heaven starring Michael Landon. I also wrote for the show. My most recent writing success is a movie called "Color of the Cross," about a black Jesus. It was out in theaters in late 2006 and is currently available on DVD.

My current project is "The Hollywood Quad," a half-hour TV sitcom pilot I wrote, produced and starred in. It's a broad comedy based my day-to-day experiences as one of the only quadriplegic actor/writers in Tinseltown. The show guest stars Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Malcolm in the Middle) and I'm shopping it around to Networks and executive producers all over Hollywood. You can see some hilarious clips of "The Hollywood Quad" as well as a laugh out loud interview with Bryan Cranston and I on http://www.thehollywoodquad.com.

I invite you to join me as I journal here weekly or sometimes more often about my life as one of the few writer/performers with a disability in Hollywood. I envision that my verbal meanderings here will focus mainly on my current projects and the current landscape for performers with disabilities on TV and in the movies. I also plan to sprinkle in lot's of Hollywood Insider stories about the celebrities I've met and the good times I've been blessed to have. I won't leave out the rough times though, especially if anybody can benefit from my experience.

That's it today from T-town!