TWICE THE FUN OR.
Twice the Fun-or Double Trouble?
One reporter's harrowing account of a ngày with TV's most được ưa chuộng munchkins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen bởi Les Wiseman
They haunt me, those hours I spent with them. I still wake up screaming. For it was a black ngày in a reporter's notebook when I interviewed the Olsen twins. On the surface everything seemed peachy; spend a ngày with North America's most beloved double-zygote munchkins. Mary Kate and Ashley, who turned 6 in June, have the sixth-highest TVQ (likability rating), slightly behind Cos and Michael Jordan and above Robin Williams, Kevin Costner and Ted Danson. At three-foot-zip, they stand tall in the industry. Their show, Full House (ABC,CTV), is a perennial top-rater beginning its sixth season. And in the summer hiatus they came to vancouver to shoot a giáng sinh TV-movie, "To Grandmother's House We Go." Backing them up: Cheer's Rhea Perlman, Coach's Jerry van Dyke and Northern Exposure's Cynthia Geary. Full House pals Lori Loughlin and Bob Saget made quest appearances. The project was written specifically for the Olsens. The plot concerns a harried single mother (Geary) who in a tizzy whishes out loud that she could have some time to herself, inspiring her twin daughters, to innocently head out on their own to their grandmother´s home. Enterprising little duffers, the kids solve their transportation problem bởi stowing away in a courier truck. As fate would have it, that particular truck is hijacked bởi crooks (Perlman and van Dyke), who learning of the stowaways, exploit their windfall for ransom. To add to that Yuletide feel, the kidnappers scam the kids bởi claiming to be Santa's helpers. Despite their stellar cohorts, there is no doubt that the Olsens are the drawing card here. In North Vancouver's Cleveland Dam Park, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the Olsens were being trundled around bởi their entourage of coach, nanny and mother, Entertainment Tonight was on the set, and snuggled in a big chair, the twins turned on the charm bởi performing a duet of "I'm a little Teapot" for the ET camera. I watched, thinking how easy the electronic media have it; the clipwill charm millions of viewers, but it doesn't translate well to the page -and I figure bạn already know the words.
But it has been a half-hour procedure, and bởi the time the Olsens are shuffled over to me they are getting antsy -6-year-old-antsy. Now bạn should know that the local stringer for ET is a lovely young woman, while when people describe me the adjective devil-like is common. Thus the Olsens have gone from a singsong with someone as amiable as Betty Crocker to an encounter with someone thêm resembling Axl Rose. Introduced to me, their blue eyes widen and their little brows furl with concern. I try to be as reassuring as Mr. Rogers. What follows are highlights from the conversation.
This is a giáng sinh story. What do bạn two do at Christmas?
MK & A: (Silence)
Do bạn get a lot of toys?
MK & A: Yeah!
How do bạn like working together?
A: It's fun.
How do bạn like being TV stars?
MK: It's good.
Do bạn know any other kids who have their own TV show?
MK: (Prolonged silence) No.
(Flailing, perspiring): How do bạn like working with John Stamos on Full House?
MK & A: (Silence)
Is he a good buddy to you?
MK & A: (Eyes downcast) Yeah.
(Losing it): Is he as funny as (Full House costar) Dave Coulier?
A: No (Silence). He's not that funny!
Dave is definitely funnier?
MK & A: Uh-huh.
The twins' coach (taking pity on reporter): What do bạn do with John?
A: He picks us up and throws us in the air and then catches us.
Coach: What else?
MK: He takes us to Disneyland and Magic Mountain. Can we go ride on the ngựa con, ngựa, pony now?
Lori (Loughlin) took bạn to the Vancouver Aquarium. What did bạn see there?
MK & A: (Mystified silence)
Did bạn see whales?
A: Ngh.
Did bạn see belugas?
MK: Aawangh
(frantic): Do bạn watch America's Funniest trang chủ Videos?
MK & A: Sometimes
Bob Saget is a funny guy; is he always joking around on set?
MK & A: Yeah (looking over at the ngựa con, ngựa, pony ring).
Coach: Does he get in trouble? Who yells at him?
MK & A: Joel! (the director)
On the Emmy's last năm bạn came out and đã đưa ý kiến bạn have very high TVQ's. Do bạn know what that means?
MK & A: No
Coach: Bob told them to say that.
That means a lot of people like you. Do a lot of people come up to bạn on the đường phố, street and say hi?
MK & A: Yeah.
What do they usually ask you?
A: To write autographs and if they can take pictures.
Can bạn do an autograph?
A: Yeah, but we say we don't know how to...
Coach: Otherwise they'd be spending their afternoons signing autographs.
What's this movie about?
A: It's about we wanna go to Grandma's to give Mom a vacation.
What's Cynthia Geary like as a mom?
MK & A: Unh.
At this point - before the twins ran for the ponies- we decided to take a break. After a ngựa con, ngựa, pony ride, we recommenced the grilling.
What are bạn going to do for your birthday's?
A: We're going to Magic Mountain.
With John Stamos?
A: No, with Mommy and Daddy.
MK: Can we go on the ponies again now?
Are bạn ready for school?
A: I'm not, becuase I don't like getting shots.
Coach (Explaining): bạn have to get a booster shot for school.
Do bạn want to be các nữ diễn viên when bạn grow up?
MK: I want to be a cowgirl.
A: I want to be a makeup artist. What would happen if I pushed this button? (She grins mischievously and points to my tape recorder)
This interview would be over. Go ahead and push it.
Reporter: 0, Off the meter, scoring heavily on cuteness quotient. Thus, for coherency, I checked in with some adults. Their Mom, Jarnie, declined to be interviewed but was thêm than happy to "chat". She is a petite lady in a blonde hàng đầu, đầu trang knot like her kids. She was "21 when Charlie's thiên thần was on". And she's been married to Dave, a mortgage banker, for 15 years. The Olsens have two other kids: Trent, 8, and Elizabeth, 3. So, I ask why did bạn get the twins into hiển thị biz? College fund? "No," she replies, "I never thought of a college fund. It would just provide us with some play money and it would get me out of the house. I saw a friend of mine's daugther in L.A. Times print ads all the time and thought my kids could do that. I saw an ad for this hiển thị and knew they needed twins." She sent in their các bức ảnh and was called to an audition. And what was it about those 7-month-old aspirants that locked the gig? "They were chosen for their coloring. They matched [already cast] siblings Jodie [Sweetin] and Candace [Cameron]." And a mega-buck empire was born.
Mary-Kate, three phút the younger, immediately took to the camera and became the star, with Ashley on the bench. "When the camera was on her, she seemed to enjoy it, she just smiled and made this face that everybody loved," says Jarnie. Ashley came into her own after a couple of seasons, though, and today is just as sharp as her sister. Curently they pretty much equally share the Full House role of Michelle Tanner. Together of course, they blow the minds of những người hâm mộ who thought Michelle was a single performer and the adorableness factor goes off the meter. Twins titans of prime time, and what renumeration do they realize from their hàng đầu, đầu trang 10 efforts? Two big ones, that is two dollar, payable on Sundays. "If they make their giường three to four times that week," says Jarnie. To be exchanged for what creature comforts? Real estate? T-bills? "Toy store," says Mary-Kate. A chain, hoặc individual shops? No, "stuffed animals" within a toy store. "They don't play with Barbies yet," explains their coach. "They play horsie and kitty and cún yêu, con chó con with their stuffed động vật and put leashes on them and build houses for them." As a veteran entertainment reporter whose story thermometer rises at mentions of drug problems, romantic involvements and rehab stays that make good copy, I scribble these các bình luận down studiously. Jeff Franklin, creator/executive producer of Full House and "To Grandmother's House We Go," discovered the Olsens. "Mary Kate and Ashley were seven months old when I cast them. I brought in 10 sets of twins and played with them, and it was very apparent that these kids were special. They were very open to strangers and had these amazing big blue eyes. They smiled, laughed and didn't throw up on me, so they got the job." No dope, Franklin knew an Olsens giáng sinh movie would slay. "Hanging out on the set of Full House every ngày was so much fun, playing with both of them, seeing them work together, and there was so much going on between them behind the scenes that was so very special. So I wrote this movie for them so that people would be able to see both the children working together instead of just playing one character." But xin chào with these new TV-movie roles, are they expanding their repertoire, their process, their craft, their art? "Absolutely. They're hiển thị thêm range. We've been forcing them to learn thêm dialogue than they ever learned on Full House and to put thêm action together and to really start playing scenes. They've become much better little actresses." C'mon, give me some dirt. "Sure, they get crabby once in a while, like all actors. But they are really little troopers." But what egos, eh? Finally Franklin nods. "These kids are learning. All of a sudden I'm getting các câu hỏi like, 'Why do we have to do this six times? Didn't bạn get it the một giây time?' In the old days I'd say the cameraman missed the shot, but now if I do they'll walk up to the cameraman and say, 'I nailed it! What's your problem, mister?"
Les Wiseman is TV Guide's West Coast conributing editor. He really does tình yêu children.
TV Guide, September 5, 1992
Twice the Fun-or Double Trouble?
One reporter's harrowing account of a ngày with TV's most được ưa chuộng munchkins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen bởi Les Wiseman
They haunt me, those hours I spent with them. I still wake up screaming. For it was a black ngày in a reporter's notebook when I interviewed the Olsen twins. On the surface everything seemed peachy; spend a ngày with North America's most beloved double-zygote munchkins. Mary Kate and Ashley, who turned 6 in June, have the sixth-highest TVQ (likability rating), slightly behind Cos and Michael Jordan and above Robin Williams, Kevin Costner and Ted Danson. At three-foot-zip, they stand tall in the industry. Their show, Full House (ABC,CTV), is a perennial top-rater beginning its sixth season. And in the summer hiatus they came to vancouver to shoot a giáng sinh TV-movie, "To Grandmother's House We Go." Backing them up: Cheer's Rhea Perlman, Coach's Jerry van Dyke and Northern Exposure's Cynthia Geary. Full House pals Lori Loughlin and Bob Saget made quest appearances. The project was written specifically for the Olsens. The plot concerns a harried single mother (Geary) who in a tizzy whishes out loud that she could have some time to herself, inspiring her twin daughters, to innocently head out on their own to their grandmother´s home. Enterprising little duffers, the kids solve their transportation problem bởi stowing away in a courier truck. As fate would have it, that particular truck is hijacked bởi crooks (Perlman and van Dyke), who learning of the stowaways, exploit their windfall for ransom. To add to that Yuletide feel, the kidnappers scam the kids bởi claiming to be Santa's helpers. Despite their stellar cohorts, there is no doubt that the Olsens are the drawing card here. In North Vancouver's Cleveland Dam Park, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the Olsens were being trundled around bởi their entourage of coach, nanny and mother, Entertainment Tonight was on the set, and snuggled in a big chair, the twins turned on the charm bởi performing a duet of "I'm a little Teapot" for the ET camera. I watched, thinking how easy the electronic media have it; the clipwill charm millions of viewers, but it doesn't translate well to the page -and I figure bạn already know the words.
But it has been a half-hour procedure, and bởi the time the Olsens are shuffled over to me they are getting antsy -6-year-old-antsy. Now bạn should know that the local stringer for ET is a lovely young woman, while when people describe me the adjective devil-like is common. Thus the Olsens have gone from a singsong with someone as amiable as Betty Crocker to an encounter with someone thêm resembling Axl Rose. Introduced to me, their blue eyes widen and their little brows furl with concern. I try to be as reassuring as Mr. Rogers. What follows are highlights from the conversation.
This is a giáng sinh story. What do bạn two do at Christmas?
MK & A: (Silence)
Do bạn get a lot of toys?
MK & A: Yeah!
How do bạn like working together?
A: It's fun.
How do bạn like being TV stars?
MK: It's good.
Do bạn know any other kids who have their own TV show?
MK: (Prolonged silence) No.
(Flailing, perspiring): How do bạn like working with John Stamos on Full House?
MK & A: (Silence)
Is he a good buddy to you?
MK & A: (Eyes downcast) Yeah.
(Losing it): Is he as funny as (Full House costar) Dave Coulier?
A: No (Silence). He's not that funny!
Dave is definitely funnier?
MK & A: Uh-huh.
The twins' coach (taking pity on reporter): What do bạn do with John?
A: He picks us up and throws us in the air and then catches us.
Coach: What else?
MK: He takes us to Disneyland and Magic Mountain. Can we go ride on the ngựa con, ngựa, pony now?
Lori (Loughlin) took bạn to the Vancouver Aquarium. What did bạn see there?
MK & A: (Mystified silence)
Did bạn see whales?
A: Ngh.
Did bạn see belugas?
MK: Aawangh
(frantic): Do bạn watch America's Funniest trang chủ Videos?
MK & A: Sometimes
Bob Saget is a funny guy; is he always joking around on set?
MK & A: Yeah (looking over at the ngựa con, ngựa, pony ring).
Coach: Does he get in trouble? Who yells at him?
MK & A: Joel! (the director)
On the Emmy's last năm bạn came out and đã đưa ý kiến bạn have very high TVQ's. Do bạn know what that means?
MK & A: No
Coach: Bob told them to say that.
That means a lot of people like you. Do a lot of people come up to bạn on the đường phố, street and say hi?
MK & A: Yeah.
What do they usually ask you?
A: To write autographs and if they can take pictures.
Can bạn do an autograph?
A: Yeah, but we say we don't know how to...
Coach: Otherwise they'd be spending their afternoons signing autographs.
What's this movie about?
A: It's about we wanna go to Grandma's to give Mom a vacation.
What's Cynthia Geary like as a mom?
MK & A: Unh.
At this point - before the twins ran for the ponies- we decided to take a break. After a ngựa con, ngựa, pony ride, we recommenced the grilling.
What are bạn going to do for your birthday's?
A: We're going to Magic Mountain.
With John Stamos?
A: No, with Mommy and Daddy.
MK: Can we go on the ponies again now?
Are bạn ready for school?
A: I'm not, becuase I don't like getting shots.
Coach (Explaining): bạn have to get a booster shot for school.
Do bạn want to be các nữ diễn viên when bạn grow up?
MK: I want to be a cowgirl.
A: I want to be a makeup artist. What would happen if I pushed this button? (She grins mischievously and points to my tape recorder)
This interview would be over. Go ahead and push it.
Reporter: 0, Off the meter, scoring heavily on cuteness quotient. Thus, for coherency, I checked in with some adults. Their Mom, Jarnie, declined to be interviewed but was thêm than happy to "chat". She is a petite lady in a blonde hàng đầu, đầu trang knot like her kids. She was "21 when Charlie's thiên thần was on". And she's been married to Dave, a mortgage banker, for 15 years. The Olsens have two other kids: Trent, 8, and Elizabeth, 3. So, I ask why did bạn get the twins into hiển thị biz? College fund? "No," she replies, "I never thought of a college fund. It would just provide us with some play money and it would get me out of the house. I saw a friend of mine's daugther in L.A. Times print ads all the time and thought my kids could do that. I saw an ad for this hiển thị and knew they needed twins." She sent in their các bức ảnh and was called to an audition. And what was it about those 7-month-old aspirants that locked the gig? "They were chosen for their coloring. They matched [already cast] siblings Jodie [Sweetin] and Candace [Cameron]." And a mega-buck empire was born.
Mary-Kate, three phút the younger, immediately took to the camera and became the star, with Ashley on the bench. "When the camera was on her, she seemed to enjoy it, she just smiled and made this face that everybody loved," says Jarnie. Ashley came into her own after a couple of seasons, though, and today is just as sharp as her sister. Curently they pretty much equally share the Full House role of Michelle Tanner. Together of course, they blow the minds of những người hâm mộ who thought Michelle was a single performer and the adorableness factor goes off the meter. Twins titans of prime time, and what renumeration do they realize from their hàng đầu, đầu trang 10 efforts? Two big ones, that is two dollar, payable on Sundays. "If they make their giường three to four times that week," says Jarnie. To be exchanged for what creature comforts? Real estate? T-bills? "Toy store," says Mary-Kate. A chain, hoặc individual shops? No, "stuffed animals" within a toy store. "They don't play with Barbies yet," explains their coach. "They play horsie and kitty and cún yêu, con chó con with their stuffed động vật and put leashes on them and build houses for them." As a veteran entertainment reporter whose story thermometer rises at mentions of drug problems, romantic involvements and rehab stays that make good copy, I scribble these các bình luận down studiously. Jeff Franklin, creator/executive producer of Full House and "To Grandmother's House We Go," discovered the Olsens. "Mary Kate and Ashley were seven months old when I cast them. I brought in 10 sets of twins and played with them, and it was very apparent that these kids were special. They were very open to strangers and had these amazing big blue eyes. They smiled, laughed and didn't throw up on me, so they got the job." No dope, Franklin knew an Olsens giáng sinh movie would slay. "Hanging out on the set of Full House every ngày was so much fun, playing with both of them, seeing them work together, and there was so much going on between them behind the scenes that was so very special. So I wrote this movie for them so that people would be able to see both the children working together instead of just playing one character." But xin chào with these new TV-movie roles, are they expanding their repertoire, their process, their craft, their art? "Absolutely. They're hiển thị thêm range. We've been forcing them to learn thêm dialogue than they ever learned on Full House and to put thêm action together and to really start playing scenes. They've become much better little actresses." C'mon, give me some dirt. "Sure, they get crabby once in a while, like all actors. But they are really little troopers." But what egos, eh? Finally Franklin nods. "These kids are learning. All of a sudden I'm getting các câu hỏi like, 'Why do we have to do this six times? Didn't bạn get it the một giây time?' In the old days I'd say the cameraman missed the shot, but now if I do they'll walk up to the cameraman and say, 'I nailed it! What's your problem, mister?"
Les Wiseman is TV Guide's West Coast conributing editor. He really does tình yêu children.
TV Guide, September 5, 1992