Description
The show follows the staff at the fictional fashion magazine Blush. The show originally centers on Maya Gallo, played by Laura San Giacomo, a feminist writer, who reluctantly takes a job at the glamour magazine, owned by her father, the Donald Trump-like Jack Gallo played by George Segal (who in the story has a rivalry with Donald Trump). The cast includes womanizing (and usually over-sensitive) photographer Elliot DiMauro (Enrico Colantoni), and the heavy drinking and sexually promiscuous ex-model Nina Van Horn (Wendie Malick).
After the show's original pilot for NBC, David Spade was added to the cast as smart-mouthed assistant Dennis Finch. While the show had been designed as something of a vehicle for San Giacomo, it developed into more of an ensemble format. The show has also been credited as bringing a surge of renewed popularity for Segal and Malick, who had been out of the public eye for some time up until Just Shoot Me!. Every episode of the 148-episode, seven-season run features all five regular cast members.
The first season also includes Chris Hogan as Maya's roommate, Wally, who was dropped when the show quickly solidified as a workplace sitcom, making the Mary-Rhoda dynamic obsolete. Hogan did not appear in all six episodes of the first season and was only included in a few minutes of some episodes. Brian Posehn appears as mail clerk Kevin Liotta (Ray Liotta's cousin) through much of the last four seasons. Rena Sofer, the only regular added during the run of the show, plays young fashion savant Vicki Costa during the final season. Also in the final season, Simon Templeman plays the recurring role of British rock star Simon Leeds, who has a relationship with Nina.
Notable actors appearing in a recurring or guest star capacity include Rebecca Romijn (as supermodel Adrienne Barker, Spade's TV wife), Brian Dennehy (as Dennis' father who gets engaged to Nina in an episode), David Cross (as Elliot's younger brother who pretends to be mentally disabled), Rhoda Gemignani, Brooke Shields as Nina's younger sister, Stephen Root, Steve Carell, Tom Kenny, Dana Carvey, Ana Gasteyer, Jim Wise, Tiffani Thiessen, Andy Dick, Gina Gershon, Dave Foley, Ali Larter, Penn Jillette, Kevin Sorbo, Kathy Lee Gifford, Mark Hamill, Valerie Perrine, George Lucas, Amy Sedaris, Kadeem Hardison, Willie Garson, Melissa Rivers, French Stewart, Carmen Electra, Ray Liotta, Snoop Dogg, Judy Greer, Cheri Oteri, and Paul Parducci as Deke "The Dekester" Williams. Models who make guest appearances on the show include Tyra Banks, Stephanie Romanov, Amber Smith, Paige Brooks, Daphne Duplaix, Cassidy Rae, Cheryl Tiegs, and Rebecca Chaney.
The show is rooted in Levitan's earlier career as a writer for The Larry Sanders Show. He had once conceived of a story about Janeane Garofalo's character having to sit and talk with a vapid model with whom she had nothing in common. The idea went unproduced, but Levitan liked the dynamic and later used the idea to develop a pitch for NBC. Garofalo's persona would become a template for Maya Gallo.
Read more about this topic: Just Shoot Me!
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