Colman Domingo On Returning To Comedy In ‘The Four Seasons’ On Netflix
‘The Four Seasons’ is a breath of fresh air for two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo.
Decider.com
Spoiler alert! This story contains minor details about the plot of Netflix’s “The Four Seasons” (now streaming).
Decades before it became a streaming series, “The Four Seasons” was a 1981 movie written, directed by and starring Alan Alda.
Tina Fey, who adapted the film for Netflix with Tracey Wigfield and Lang Fisher, wanted to find a way to pay homage to Alda through the show. So she recruited the “M*A*S*H” veteran for a brief cameo in the second episode, playing the widowed father of Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), who has planned a surprise vow-renewal party for her husband, Nick (Steve Carell).
Alda’s beloved patriarch pops in to offer words of wisdom for Anne’s friends, Kate (Fey) and Danny (Colman Domingo), both of whom are facing marital obstacles.
“Communication. Try not to fuss about the small stuff,” he says. “But my wife did have this one thing. … Every once in a while, we’d wake up and she’d say, ‘Congratulations. Take off your pants, it’s a sex day.’ You might try that with your spouse. They’d be so grateful and surprised.”
For a while, Fey grappled with whom exactly Alda should play. She briefly considered having him return as an older version of his film character, Jack, who is portrayed by Will Forte in the new Netflix series. She notes how she played math teacher Ms. Norbury in both the 2004 and 2024 movie versions of “Mean Girls.”
“To me, that was like, ‘Teachers see it all over and over again,’ which was how I justified it to myself,” Fey jokes. “But he can’t be the same guy – that would break the brain. So we made him Anne’s dad, and it was a thrill to spend a day on set with him. I was lucky enough years ago to work with him a little bit on ’30 Rock.’ He’s really gifted, has great timing and just came in ready to go.”
Alda, 89, is an Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominee, with notable film roles including “The Aviator,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” “Manhattan Murder Mystery” and the apropos “Marriage Story.”
“He’s just such a lovely person,” Fisher says. “We liked the idea of him, at some point, shedding some real wisdom onto our characters and talking about marriage, even a few decades ahead of where they are. It felt very fitting to see him early on, so you could take those pearls with you through the rest of the season.”
Ahead of the series’ debut on Netflix, Alda reunited with Fey at New York’s Paris Theater for a screening of the “Four Seasons” movie. The actor, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015, initially had no plans to speak before or after the film.
“He loves you,” says actress Erika Henningsen, in a recent joint interview with Fey. “He got up, came down, and bestowed love and joy and gratitude on Tina, Tracey and Lang. He’s just an aspirational human being in every way.”
Alda is one of a handful of “30 Rock” alums to work on “The Four Seasons,” including writers Fisher and Wigfield and actor Forte. The Emmy-winning NBC comedy, which signed off in 2013, was known for its biting satire and pop-culture commentary, with outrageous scenarios that feel somehow tame compared to what’s happening now in real life.
“The world is now 40% ’30 Rock’ and 60% Mike Judge’s ‘Idiocracy,’” Fey says with a shrug, pointing to rowdy “Minecraft” audiences and Blue Origin’s all-women space flight. Although her latest project is a dramatic relationship comedy, she still gets the occasional itch to write for her “30 Rock” characters, particularly the dementedly self-absorbed actress Jenna (Jane Krakowski).
“There are definitely times when I’m like, ‘Wow, that would’ve been a great Jenna storyline,” Fey says, smiling. “It’s almost always Jenna.”
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