OnlineHost : PATRICIA RICHARDSON plays Jill Taylor on the ABC hit comedy, Home Improvement. Born in Bethesda, Maryland, Patricia was a self-described Navy Brat whose family was perpetually on the move. Patricia and her husband actor Ray Baker are the proud parents of Henry, age nine, and three-year-old twins, Roxanne and Joseph. She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University.
ABCTVPAL : Welcome everyone to this special edition of ABC Classroom's Careers for Kids! Tonight and every Thursday in April, we will be talking to some of the most successful women in the entertainment industry..those in the limelight and those who work behind the scenes. This is all done in celebration of the third annual Take Our Daughters to Work Day which will take place on April 27!. We're really happy to have Patricia Richardson from Home Improvement with us tonight. Patricia and will be with us a little later. First, we'll be talking to, Shawn Shea the Assistant Director/ Stage Manager on the show. She'll be telling us what it is like to dress the stars of Home Improvement and how she got her start in the business!
ABCTVPAL : Before we get to Shawn, let's ask Laura Deutch, the Director of Take Our Daughters to Work Day. Tell us Laura, what exactly is Take Our Daughters To Work Day?
GIRLZOFHI : It is a day for girls to see their potential for themselves in the workplace by spending one day at work with a parent, grandparent, sibling or friend.
ABCTVPAL :Joining us now is Shawn Shea the Stage Manager and Assistant Director of Home Improvement. Hi Shawn. Let's start the questions..
Question : What exactly do you do?
GIRLZOFHI : I am in charge of everything that goes on stage including all scheduling of all hair and make-up, actors call times, how the day will run, that everything is where it is supposed to be, and basically do anything the director tells me to do. During the taping, the director is in the booth so he is giving me notes to give the actors.
ABCTVPAL : Tiffy7865 wants to know....
Question : What do you like about your job?
GIRLZOFHI : I love working with actors, it is fun to be one of the few women on stage and technically in charge of a mostly male crew. I love that we laugh all day at work. I feel blessed, we have a great time and we get to be creative.
ABCTVPAL : Dishydawg asks...
Question : What is the hardest thing about your job?
GIRLZOFHI : My job is extremely stressful. In juggling so many different people, personalities and schedules. On many other shows for stage managers, we work 16 hour days. Being on my feet is tiring.
ABCTVPAL : Cat24 asks...
Question : Are you working right now?
GIRLZOFHI : I am in the middle of our network run through. My assistant, who is a man, is stage managing one scene while I talk to you.
ABCTVPAL : Spudster wants to know...
Question : How did you get started in the business?
GIRLZOFHI : I started as an actress and after doing small TV and film parts, felt that a combination of my lack of talent and wanting more security as a single woman sent me to the other side of the camera. I studied theater and psych in college. And studied acting full time for two years after that.
ABCTVPAL : Bethyal wants to know...
Question : Shawn...Is stage manager/assistant director a good job for a woman?
GIRLZOFHI : It is a great job for a woman. Especially for a sitcom because we only work for 3 weeks a month and get paid for 4 weeks. We have a great time. Women are better stage managers than men because women have a better way of conveying notes to actors in very sensitive situations.
ABCTVPAL : Thank you Shawn, Stage Manager and Assistant
Director on Home Improvement. Coming up in a few moments will be Patricia Richardson. With us now is Nicole
Gorsuch,...Costume Supervisor on Home Improvement. Hi Nicole.
ABCTVPAL : Sunflower asks..
Question : What do you do as a Costume Supervisor, Nicole?
GIRLZOFHI : Well to start, in the beginning of the week we read the script and go to production meeting and find out what ideas the writers and directors have about the clothes. We talk to the actors to see what their ideas are. And then we try to find a happy medium and start shopping. And then we shop, we show the clothes to the actors. We shop all over, department stores, boutiques, we go to costume houses to rent things as well. And then we do fittings and then by Thursday we have a dress rehearsal and Friday we are shooting.
ABCTVPAL : Coffejz asks a good question....
Question : Do the actors get to keep the clothes that they wear?
GIRLZOFHI : They don't get to keep the clothes. It depends on the producers. Disney inventories everything.
ABCTVPAL : ThePet2 wants to know....
Question : What's it like to work with Tim Allen?
GIRLZOFHI : He is fun. He keeps everyone entertained.
ABCTVPAL : princess q asks...
Question : How long have you been with the show?
GIRLZOFHI : I have been with the show for 4 years. I did everything but the pilot. I have been a costumer for 8 years. I worked on features, I did Rambo 3. That was terrible. I almost quit. It was really hard, it was the winter. I caught on fire trying to get warm by the heater. I cried a couple of days. We had 500 extras, the crew was macho sexist men. Really.
ABCTVPAL : ziggy wants to know...
Question : Did you have a role model growing up?
GIRLZOFHI : For what I am doing now, not really. I worked for the Living History Center, I did period costumes. So I just ended up doing what I liked. It was a hobby for me.
ABCTVPAL : Peeper wants to know
Question : So do you get to decide what the three boys should dress in? Do you consider a certain style?
GIRLZOFHI : It is all slightly suburban. We try to do Jonathan a little hipper. Zack is kind of a jock. Taran is your basic kid.
ABCTVPAL : DCMomster asks...
Question : As a mom, I want to know, if the three boys on the show are as hard on their clothes as my three boys are on theirs!
GIRLZOFHI : Yes. They are. The are really hard on their clothes and I have to watch them closely to make sure they don't ruin clothes while we are shooting. They like to go outside and shoot basketballs while we are shooting.
ABCTVPAL : Flyboy wants to know...
Question : What happens if Tim Allen or Patricia hate the clothes that you picked for them to wear?
GIRLZOFHI : They don't wear them. If they hate them, we don't make them wear them.
Question : Do you sew your own clothes?
GIRLZOFHI : I don't sew anymore. I have someone who sews for me. I did a lot in college and don't have to do it anymore.
ABCTVPAL : Do you recommend this profession for women?
GIRLZOFHI : Yes, I think it is a great job. I have a girls dream job.
ABCTVPAL : Kalya 2 asks..
Question : What education or skills level do I need to be a costumer supervisor?
GIRLZOFHI : I got a Bachelor degree in fashion design. That really helped me. A lot of costumers don't have a college education. But I learned about how clothes are constructed which really helped me deal with fittings and the seamstress.
ABCTVPAL : Thank you Nicole for being with us....Right NOW
everyone Patricia Richardson is in the room with us now!
ABCTVPAL : Thanks for being with us Patricia. So tell us,
we hear you are taping right now?
GIRLZOFHI : Yes, I am right in the middle of dress rehearsal run-through of our 100 th episode. And everyone is frantic.
ABCTVPAL : How did you get started in acting?
GIRLZOFHI : I started dreaming about becoming an actress when I was 12 or 13. It was probably from watching a lot of television and going to the movies, because my parents didn't go to the theater much. But all of my training and experience was in the theater. I started acting in high school plays. I was lucky to find a brilliant teacher who loved theater and was trying to raise a generation of kids who would support the theater, not necessarily go into it as a profession. I then later went to college at SMU in Dallas, which was very lucky for me because I went there during a time when there were a lot of very talented people who became successful and gave me work. Beth Henley, the playwright. Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright, was an actress at SMU. As was Kathy Bates, Powers Boothe, and a lot of other people who became directors and playwrights who are successful but not as well known.
ABCTVPAL : MS21548 wants to know this Patricia....
Question : How many hours a day do you work on the set of Home Improvement?
GIRLZOFHI : Each day varies. Mondays are the easiest days, those are the days we first read the new script. Tim and I give our notes as does the network and Disney. And they usually have to do so much rewriting that we get an easy day, because there is nothing to rehearse. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are a living nightmare! Even in our fourth year, we have very long days. Who ever said that a sitcom was a 9 - 5 job was lying.
ABCTVPAL : Jaina Sol has a good question, Patricia..
Question : Patricia, I really admire your work, and the character you play, too. She's such an everlasting good sport! Do you ever get to the point where you say "Wait a second--Jill can't take
that. I wouldn't take that!"
GIRLZOFHI : I have as much input as I am allowed. They listen to me, to a degree because there are very few female voices on this show and they need any input they can get. We have arguments, I am sometimes not as graceful as I should be about what I have to say about a script or a scene but generally we all come to something we can live with. I have to do my last scene, I will be back soon.
ABCTVPAL : Thanks, Patricia, we will see you in a few minutes..Good luck with the scene! Coming up is Kim Tasurinsky, a co-producer on Home Improvement and she is also a production supervisor. Tonight we are talking with the women of Home Improvement! This is part of our special edition of the ABC Classroom's Careers for Kids! In celebration of the third annual Take Our Daughters to Work Day, ABC Classroom will present a special series of live, Careers for Kids! Auditoriums in April. Every Thursday in April from 8-9 p.m., we will feature women who have achieved success in the entertainment industry. Kim is with us now. Kim we hear it's an exciting day on the set of Home Improvement. What is going on?
GIRLZOFHI : Today is the 100th episode rehearsal. It is a flurry of activity because it is the last show. There will be a lot of press and we have a huge cast this week. It is also the last show of the season so we are wrapping up everything. There are parties, most of which I have planned. That is one of things I do. I do many things on the show, as a production supervisor. On the show this week we have Tim brother, the actor playing Tim Taylor's brother, his wife. The actress playing Pat's sister and the actor playing Al's brothers. It will air sometime in May.
ABCTVPAL : Kim, can you give us a sneak peak of this last storyline?
GIRLZOFHI : I probably can't give away the storyline since it is the 100th episode. You will have to watch Home Improvement Tuesday nights at 9:00 on ABC!
ABCTVPAL : EZBU wants to know...
Question : How did you get to be working on a TV show in a high position?
GIRLZOFHI : I started as a secretary and worked as an assistant and associate producer for many years and pretty much wore every single hat until I found myself in this position.
ABCTVPAL : Oops, Kim had to run back to the set! This is all live folks and very exciting. While we have a minute here....let me tell you that in the ABC Classroom... we have a special Girlz.talk icon to find out more about Take Our Daughters to Work Day on April 27! Check it out! Say hi to Judy Rauh...the Home Improvement Post-Production Coordinator. Hi Judy. Tell us what you do for the show.
GIRLZOFHI : I coordinate all the off line editing, the rough cut editing and I work with sound effects for the show. I work with music clearance. We license music to be used on the show.
ABCTVPAL : PasoTx39 asks...
Question : How did you get started in this line of work, Judy?
GIRLZOFHI : I started in high school doing video production at the local cable company, in Michigan.
ABCTVPAL : PATRICIA RICHARDSON IS BACK, FOLKS!
ABCTVPAL : Hello again, how did the dress rehearsal run-through go?
GIRLZOFHI : We just did the dress rehearsal run through and now after this I have to go to the note session which is when they tell us how bad we were and we tell them how bad the script was and we try to fix what we can before the big day which is tomorrow.
ABCTVPAL : Snicker24 asks...
Question : What do you think of Take Our Daughters to Work..will you take your daughter to the set?
GIRLZOFHI : I think it is a terrific idea. I wish when I was a girl that I had this experience. No one in my family was ever in this business. My mother didn't work and I had no role models. My daughter Roxie, has grown-up on the set. She and her twin brother were born 3 months before I did the pilot and I have been bringing them here for the last 4 years although less now that they are in nursery school. One of the things I want to teach all my children is to find work that they love to do, that feels important to them because look how much of your life you spend at work.
ABCTVPAL : ASLong407 asks...
Question : Do you enjoy working with all of the kids on the show?
GIRLZOFHI : :-) Well, lets see about that, its been fun to watch these boys who are mostly older than my 10 year old son because I get a preview of what I am about to face as a parent in my real life. I have tremendous respect for the way these boys have grown and adapted to the incredible demands that being working kids makes on them. Also, the success of the show and the fame that has descended upon all of us has been, I would think, particularly confusing and difficult for these boys. But you would never know it to watch there behavior on the set which has become increasingly more professional.
ABCTVPAL : SegaWhiz asks you Patricia,
Question : Do you find yourself funny? I do!!!!!!!
GIRLZOFHI : No, comedy does not come easily to me. It doesn't! No, I think comedy is the hardest thing to do and I am very fortunate to be surrounded by people like Tim who have to bear the brunt of the responsibility of making the show funny. I figure that my most important job here is to ground the show in reality which after 13 years of working professionally in the theater in New York, I can do.
ABCTVPAL : Here's another one for your Patricia...
Question : Do you enjoy watching the show and seeing what you did?
GIRLZOFHI : No, I hate to watch my own work. I am overly self-critical which is something that I hope to outgrow some day. I always wish I could do better, look better, etc. but I think it is also a matter of the show as a whole. This is my work so I can't enjoy watching it. It's like going to work.
ABCTVPAL : ShanSimba asks...
Question : Ms. Richerdson, what is your favorite episode?
GIRLZOFHI : I have a few favorite episodes, being a narcissist I tend to like the shows where Jill gets to drive the episode, or where there has been more demanded of me as an actress. They were more fun to do.
ABCTVPAL : Sunny29 asks....
Question : I have students interested in stage work. What qualification, training do they need to succeed in "Hollywood?"
GIRLZOFHI : I spent all of my early career in New York, I think coming to Hollywood in the beginning for most people, is a mistake. It is very difficult to get to work and make mistakes here. The theater scene, which is ultimately the best place to learn your craft is very shaky here in Los Angeles. And I don't just mean earthquakes. I would say GO TO COLLEGE, GO TO COLLEGE! Get training, it is so important.
ABCTVPAL : Thanks for being with us Patricia. We know what a crazy day it was (is) for you.
GIRLZOFHI : Thank you so much. I have got to go get tortured now, in the control room with all those men. Bye! Watch the show!
ABCTVPAL : Thanks everyone and visit us again in next Thursday's Careers for Kids! special Auditorium for the Take Our Daughters to Work Day! Next April 13 at 8 p.m. come visit in the Bowl Auditorium for a discussion with top music and record industry women! Also, check out Girlz.talk area in the ABC Classroom. Thanks everyone and good night.