“All of that applies to Ty.”
He diligently tried to book commercials but never landed a single one.
He had this crazy pageboy haircut, with this deadpan, no-affect delivery.
Credit: Bonnie Osborne/ABC
He was a hilarious character with a smallish role, but he jumped off the screen.
And then literally four days later, David Rubin, our casting director, brought him in.
I had no experience with sitcoms at all.
Eric McCandless/ABC
LLOYD:Ty was a knock-around New York stage actor.
He was 36, offbeat.
He zipped past producer auditions, graduating to the final round with the studio and internet.
Bonnie Osborne/ABC
I saw him run out to the taxi and ask the guy, “Could you wait?
I might need you to drive me to CBS.”
It broke my heart because I thought, “This guy has no money at all.
And he’s telling a taxi to wait for two hours.”
As much as I loved him, I thought, “CBS is never giving him this part.”
And then he got the part, which shows you how much I know.
BURRELL:I was a cad who was somewhat closer to Phil in a lot of ways.
When it came time to write theModern Familypilot, the creators framed Phil specifically with Burrell in mind.
All of that applies to Ty.
We thought, “This guy is waiting to be a star.”
But it still doesn’t save you from emotionally going there.
JEFF GREENBERG (casting director):Steve and Chris thought it was a slam dunk.
He’s the guy.
Getting Fox Studios and ABC on board with their vision proved easier said than ultimately done.
While Fox Studios signed on, ABC proved to be an impenetrable barrier.
GREENBERG:It was bad.
Everyone was bad in it, and yet there were some good people in the cast.
LEVITAN:Ty played a character who was, by definition, the dull guy.
Ty, of course, played it authentically, and consequently the online grid thought that he was dull.
BURRELL:The whole point of the character was he basically had no emotion.
He was super dry and immovable in a lot of ways.
Stephen’s [McPherson] interpretation of it was I was an incredibly boring actor.
MCPHERSON(formerABC Entertainment president):That was my only knowledge of the guy.
Not the resume you’re looking for.
and they were like, “Yeah, that’s the guy.”
I thought, “Oh man, how can I do that?
It makes no sense.”
He was the straight man to someone else meant to be funny."
BURRELL:That previous character didn’t serve me well.
LEVITAN:They were very resistant to him.
They thought they could find someone flashier and better.
GREENBERG:We offered Phil to Matt LeBlanc.
We liked his big-kid quality.
GREENBERG:We brought in actors because we had to, but they were placeholders.
BURRELL:They call it a screen test, but there’s nothing about it that’s on-screen.
WINER:It’s not designed for live performances.
The room absorbs sound.
You don’t hear any echo.
You only hear your own voice in your head.
It feels like you’re dying because you could’t hear the laughter coming back to you.
How anyone ever got cast for a TV show is a miracle.
MCPHERSON:He’s right.
It’s not wired for sound.
It’s completely awkward.
LEVITAN:Stand-up comedians tended to do better because they’re used to walking in and making people laugh.
You’re putting on a show for somebody, and that’s not the role.
That’s not the job.
It was a silly exercise that’s been largely done away with now.
It was the slowest closing door in the world.
Within thisChorus Lineaudition setting, Burrell took his first web connection test.
It didn’t go well.
GREENBERG:They said, “No, we’re not fans.”
We were dumbfounded because we were his biggest fans on earth.
BURRELL:From my perspective, my audition was too broad.
It was a tight, stagy performance, which I take full responsibility for.
I wouldn’t have given me that part either.
LLOYD:The job of being a online grid president is not an easy one.
I think Stephen’s style is to be decisive.
“This is how I see it, and I’ve got to go with what I see.”
Having said that, I think he was respectful of us.
He didn’t do that with us.
He said, “I respect you guys.
Rob turned the opportunity down.
He told me years later, “Well, I guess that wasn’t my best decision.”
Through persistence and patience, they managed to get a second audition for Burrell.
GREENBERG:We brought Ty back along with other actors, and once again he was rejected.
They all were rejected.
We had to keep looking.
BURRELL:The second audition I thought went better, but it obviously wasn’t good enough.
I failed to convey the best aspects of the script.
They didn’t think I was very good, and my self-loathing agreed with them.
We had to at least explore other actors, and we did.
We read a lot of really good actors.
With all due respect to those actors, we almost made a gigantic mistake in casting some of them.
We knew Ty was right.
But we were stuck.
We auditioned a lot of guys, a total of 232 in 11 weeks.
So he was very gracious to stick with us.
So they kept going back to the drawing board.
They weren’t despondent.
They didn’t get frustrated.
They never went, “Screw these guys.”
They kept going back saying, “This isn’t how the web link sees the character.
Maybe the material isn’t giving the right impression.”
And they kept revising it.
LEVITAN:We weren’t happy with any of the choices.
One of them we shot at Steve’s backyard and one at mine.
BURRELL:My agent and wife both advised me that I was being disrespected by ABC.
They said, “Forget it.
You don’t need to be doing this.”
BURRELL:That’s really where I owe them because they went way beyond to film it.
LEVITAN:One scene was Phil and Haley talking together.
WINER:Ty was so brilliant at playing the silencesthe pained moments between really distinguished him.
MORTON:A few days later, we went to Chris’s backyard and shot the same thing.
GREENBERG:We did a screen test with Steven Weber, who we love.
We didWingswith him, and he’s amazing.
He was a great choice, too.
MORTON:We used a girl who didn’t get the Haley part.
Nolan Gould played Luke.
I felt for a second like I was cheating with a new TV family.
Our editor was behind schedule, and so I said I’d run them over to ABC.
I drove like crazy from Fox and delivered the tapes.
They brought them into a conference room.
CLAUDIA LYON (VP of casting at ABC):It was like looking at magic happen.
It was so funny, the way the words and jokes landed.
It felt right immediately.
It was really one of the funniest things I’d ever seen.
Jason shot it brilliantly.
They were so smart about it.
MCPHERSON:To be honest, it literally changed the process at ABC when I was there.
We started putting people on film much more because it proved our process was incredibly flawed.
Thank God those guys pushed through.
It took a total of 12 weeks for Burrell to land the role written for him.
Laughter in a situation like that is democratic.
That’s what won him the role.
But he did because he saw how brilliant Ty was and what the show was going to be.
And he became the biggest cheerleader you could want and dream of for your show.
I’m really glad you talked me into this one.
The traditional data pipe executive thing to do would be to wait until it was on TV.
If it was a success, then you call the producers and tell them they were right.
He didn’t wait, and I credit him for that.
LEVITAN:Most guys want to be proven right.
Stephen was above that, and I’ve always appreciated that.
You have to look at the project and ask, “Was it a good project?
Did he have good material?”
The previous pilot he did was terrible.
It was the exact opposite with Chris and Steve, who are unbelievably talented.
They saw his talent, wrote to it, and he was incredible.
