Ray Romano on Men of a Certain Age

For a drama about three college buddies who are approaching age 50 to work, it's gotta be filled with genuine stories, believable chemistry, and stellar acting. Guess what? TNT's Men of a Certain Age has all three... and plenty to spare for the rest of basic cable.

With Season 1 out on DVD today and Season 2 premiering on December 6, series star Ray Romano held a conference call with reporters to talk about the show's past, present, and future.

Did you shoot the pilot and then shop it around to the networks, or was it always going to be on TNT?

We shopped the script around to different networks. Mike (Royce) and I wrote the script and it was originally being developed for HBO, and then that kind of fell through. So we just took the script and shopped it around, but it was TNT who bought it and filmed the pilot. And then, it was a year before they had it on their schedule, you know, could fit it into their schedule, but TNT had it all along.

Men of a Certain Age is a show about three middle-aged guys. Was it hard to sell to networks?

Well, at some networks it just wasn't enough, you know? We took it to some networks and they were like, "Well, it's just not loud enough for us. We need something bigger." And then TNT just saw it for what it was. [We] had to find the right network for it, the right place where it fit. It wouldn't fit on FX, you know, it wouldn't fit on Spike, but it fit on TNT.

Did you have actors in mind when you were crafting the characters? Did you always have yourself in mind to play Joe?

I always had myself in mind, I just didn't know if I could get myself on the phone. I wanted to work again in front of the camera, so this was for me.

As far as the other guys, we didn't have anyone in mind for Terry; we just knew what type he was going to be. But we did have someone in mind for Owen, for Andre Braugher's role, and that was an actor named Wendell Pierce who was on the The Wire.

He was the guy, the kind of put-upon guy, who's got a little bit of the weight of supporting his family and being under his father, and he's a little bit overweight, shall we say. And we met with Wendell Pierce and he loved it, but the other show came along, Treme, which is on HBO, and he went with that.

And then someone pitched Andre Braugher, and we didn't think he was the type that we were picturing, but then we met with him and he was really game to play this type of character. And we knew how great an actor he was, so we took a shot with him and it's paid off.

The show seems very human. Was that something you set out to do? To make these characters feel very organic?

Well, we wanted to make these characters real. They are flawed. Joe is a good guy—I think even the bookie is a good guy. You know, they do different things, they have different sets of morals or whatever, but underneath it all I think they're good guys. We didn't want to make them heroes and we didn't want to make them villains. If you're going to try to find a villain, Owen's father maybe would be it. [But] he's only doing what he thinks is right. There are bad people and good people and these happen to be three guys who are flawed, but just trying to make their way the best they can.

How do you like working with your fellow cast members?

Andre [Braugher] is a Juilliard-trained actor, so he intimidates me. And Scott [Bakula] is probably the nicest guy in show business, so he intimidates me. [laughs] No, but they're both great guys.

Andre has never really done comedy, so he was open to learn about it, he would ask about it, and he's been great at it. He seems to be natural at it, but it was fun to hear him ask questions about it.

And Scott's done everything. It's funny, I always thought I was [the guy who] liked to please everybody and be a good guy, but he seems to be the nicest guy in the business. And not only that, he's 55 years old and he's in better shape than I ever was, so that kind of pisses me off, but otherwise we get along great.

If you come across somebody at a store and they're looking at the Season 1 DVD but they haven't seen the show, how would you close the sale?

I would say the money's all going to charity. I don't know. I mean, look: People identify with it. You don't even have to be of that age or of that sex, that's what I'm finding out. We write what we know and what we live and that's what worked with Everybody Loves Raymond. Plus, I'd tell them there's a coupon for soup in it; that usually helps.

You're an avid golfer, and you've written that into your character. Was it always your plan to have Joe try out for the senior tour, or is it just a clever excuse to squeeze a few holes in while working?

We thought of that story line in the very beginning. We thought it would be something that is always there, and whether or not he achieves it or not, it's something that he could always just try for at any time or as approaches 50. My character is 49. Every TV character I play is three years younger than me and about 15 strokes better than me in golf.

But we always had that initially as part of the storyline for Joe, that eventually he'll try out for the Senior Tour. It's fun [to hit out there], but it's a little bit more pressure than the real acting because now I have to act like I'm a scratch golfer and I'm not, and I want it to look real. So, there's pressure. Normally what we do is I'll swing a club without any ball there, and we just CGI the ball.

What can you tell us about Season 2? Are you going to write the country's current economic woes into the show?

Andre's character, who's now trying to run the dealership, has to deal with the state of the economy. [He's] trying to find his way as the boss in a horrible economic climate. So yeah, we try to incorporate what's going on as much as we can in the stories.

The Season 1 DVD of Men of Certain Age is available now. Season 2 premieres December 6 at 10pm on TNT.