Murray Bartlett IS Michael Tolliver and other cast announced in Tales of the City revival

[quote]Murray Bartlett (Looking) has been cast as the lovable Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver

That's a good choice.

THIS IS SO EXCITING!!! I love the books and am glad Netflix is continuing the series.

Why does it have to be limited though? This is the kind of gay show that attract a wide straight audience too. The original series was the highest rated thing that had ever shown on PBS. They couldn't do a sequel due to pressure for the religious right. I remember it was the first time I'd seen two men kiss on tv. Loved the disco era nostalgia too.

Murray Bartlett is a good choice. Glad to see Paul Gross back

I used to know Murray when he was in his early 20s. He was a skinny blond with a sweet face and no muscles at all.

Bob the Drag Queen is in it also.

And of note, the entire writing room is queer, god knows if that has ever happened before. (cue the DL idiots who freak out over that word).

Murray Bartlett is 47. How can he playing someone who was in his twenties in the 1970s? The original Tales characters are in their sixties in Maupin’s recent books. (Mrs Madrigal is in her 90s.) For that matter, Laura Linney is also ten years too young to be playing Mary Ann in the present day. Are they setting the show in the year 2000 or something?

Jesus Christ they are basing it on the later books with older version of the characters, you freaking dumbass.

R3 Not gay anymore, all about the trans and queer kids now

I was a bit surprised about Murray's casting initially but I think it will work. He's a bit younger than Laura Linney but not ridiculously so, and I think in looks and in spirit, he has what it takes to play Mouse.

They need to get on with the filming, though. Miss Olympia is not getting any younger.

What's the story on Murray? I know he's family but is he married? Sometimes he has a ring on his ring finger and sometimes he doesn't.

He had a longtime partner and wore a ring to signify that, but I believe they broke up because it seemed he stopped wearing it.

I met Murray about ten years ago. One of the sexiest men I have ever seen. He shook my hand and held it for a minute, and I thought I was going to pass out.

[quote]He shook my hand and held it for a minute, and I thought I was going to pass out.

MARY!

Very good casting.

R14 I don't blame you. I would MARY! myself over that comment.

But he was walking sex.

Are these based on novels or are they new stories?

I'm can't wait for this....I was in my teens when the first series came out. Can't wait to see Olympia tear up the screen as Mrs Madrigal

R17 That is the question. As they never filmed 'Babycakes', 'Significant Others' or 'Sure of You' will the events of those books be included or referred to or not? Shawna is in it, (Puppy!) so it must be picking up with 'Michael Tolliver Lives', but not sure if that bitch Mary-Ann is in that book.

Could be good, or a cluster fuck. And why no Dor'othea? Or Norman Neal Williams?

Will there be nudity?

I can't believe after all her fuss that Kim Cattrall has agreed to do this!

I believe that the new series takes on the last three books - not the middle three where they stopped.

R22 Oh fuck, that is stupid.

R23 I somewhat kinda mostly agree, but I can see the other side too - for adaptation purposes that they want the drama of Mary Ann coming back into everyone's lives.

R24 But, they will endless flashbacks to show us, well, how Shawn'aa came into their lives, dumping Brian and Puppy, her treatment of Mouse, etc, the last 3 books, in fact, so we have context

I should add to R5 that he was terribly innocent.

We exchanged looks across the bar. Later on he blushed through and through as he kept me waiting as he was fumbling with an ATM.

He was so slender. His wrists were thin but his smile dazzling as his straw-blond hair fell across his forehead.

So you knew him in Australia, R26?

Good for Murray! Good actor, glad he got the job.

R27 Yes. It was 1991 when he was 20.

[quote]Jesus Christ they are basing it on the later books with older version of the characters, you freaking dumbass.

Yeah — and my point is Bartlett and even Linney are too YOUNG to be playing the characters as they are in the later books, where the characters in their sixties.

True R30 but we can be glad that both are above 40, because in this CW-drenched age they'd cast a 30 year old as a 60ish Mouse or Mary Ann.

R31 what is 'CW'?

I always thought Babycakes was a huge roadblock to continuing, as it's so terrible and basically unworkable: a miserable Mouse separated off in a bizarrely-rendered UK with an unrecognisable Mona, with everyone else back in SF.

R32 In case you don't get it in Cooter Holler or wherever you are, CW is a television network.

They cast 28 year olds as high schoolers and 35 year olds as their parents.

Murray Bartlett can GET IT!

It's been 20 years since I read the first 6 books. It sounds like they're skipping books 4 and 5 altogether, and combining a small amount of book 6 with the two that followed many years later. Possibly ending just before Michael Tolliver Lives.

Anybody know?

R36 again. Btw, it sounds like that's the best way to go considering the number of years that have passed since Showtime filmed book 3. The actors' ages are approximate now to what they would be near the end of book 6. Otherwise, they would have had to recast all the originals.

R7 so it’s a room full of straight, jewish writers. How novel.

Victor Garber added

Murray, you should say hello to Victor. I enjoyed my time with him immensely.

And speaking of immense.....

Why are all the original actors back except for Michael Tolliver? Why do they have to recast him?

Did you really want that Marcus douche to come back?

R42 Who was that Marcus douche?

He was cute but I only ever saw him on English TV shows.

Wiki says—

D'Amico did not reprise the role of Michael "Mouse" Tolliver in the 1998 sequel, More Tales of the City, and the role was recast with Paul Hopkins (who also appeared in the third installment, Further Tales of the City in 2001). According to the series' author, Armistead Maupin:

"Despite the rumors, it is not true that Marcus D'Amico wasn't invited back because of issues surrounding his sexuality. The production team met Marcus and he expressed 'ambivalence' about returning to the role of Mouse. The director felt it was important to find someone who would enthusiastically embrace the role."[3]

But despite that Wiki claim, Maupin did totally fire Marcus because he didn't want actors to go on talk shows and basically spend the entire time saying "But I'm straight!" Which apparently is what he did.

IOW, a douchebag.

So r5/r26, you met him when he looked like this?

^ Yes that's right. I met him after a NIDA production and at a gay bar and an ATM on Oxford St Sydney.

Youtube is inconsistent but occasionally you'll find a clip from a 1994 episode of the teenage soap called 'Home and Away' with a very thin blond Murray Bartlett romancing a teen-age girl named Toni Pearen lost in the bush.

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar.....when I met Murray.

49 posts and not one pic of who this Andy Murray is?

iirc wasn’t Jake (the TiF) “gay” (ie interested in boys—a Mormon one in particular). I don’t remember a long term GF. Maybe I’ve forgotten. But if I am indeed correct why would they change this..to make the trans thing more palatable..less batshit?

Boycott this shit! Mrs Madrigal should be played by an actual trans woman!!!!!!!!! 😮

This is going to be more disastrous than an irate passenger in China missing her buss stop.

Is Murray Bartlett a nice guy? He’s aged well and they say u get the face you deserve...is he a typical gay A-list cunt or an actual good guy?

I used to see him in the neighborhood all the time. Always smiling, so handsome, and oozed sensuality.

Any stories on Charlie Barnett?

When does it happen?

r57 This summer. No specific date yet.

you just know they'll shit all over this legacy with trans, SJW and "queer" Bullshit. Cunts.

It's already been done, r59. It's in the books.

Why hasn’t Barbara Garrick had a bigger career?

From the article and the trailer, the new TOTC sounds absolutely dire - leaden and heavy-handed, with none of the charm of the original series.

R61 People are very against cuban gay refugees

When is the premier date?

r64 June 7th. There's more discussion in the linked thread.

Fuck you, r59

[quote]But despite that Wiki claim, Maupin did totally fire Marcus because he didn't want actors to go on talk shows and basically spend the entire time saying "But I'm straight!" Which apparently is what he did.

I know he panicked about getting typecast after the first series started getting buzz, but I didn't know he flat-out lied and claimed to be straight—I thought he was just evasive and coy about his personal life. In that case, I can see why AM got pissed.

I was looking forward to this back in the day, but it got such terrible reviews I never did watch.