Interview with Author Joe Keenan: Producer of Frazier, Author of My Lucky Star

Joe Keenan's book My Lucky Star (Little, Brown and Co., January 2005) is a riotous, sardonic look at the illusion that is Hollywood. Keenan, an Emmy-Award winning producer of the television series Frazier, has skillfully crafter a tale of crazy movie stars, insane has-beens and want-to-be screenwriters. A laugh out loud read, Keenan has assured himself the title of "comic genius" in this quick and entertaining book.

Interview with Joe Keenan, author of My Lucky Star.

Q: I laughed out loud while reading "My Lucky Star." Are any of the characters based on real people?

Philip is essentially me, if only because he's the narrator and I'm too lazy by nature to inhabit the mind of someone who either speaks or thinks much differently than I do. The main difference between Philip and me is that, though we were the same age when I created him in 1984 I am now 17 years his senior. And, of course, virtually nothing that happens to Philip has ever happened to me. I just enjoy putting him in absurd or intriguing situations, then letting him react as I imagine I would have at his age. The other characters are either well-known archetypes - the narcissistic movie star, the self-deluded has-been, the arrogant publicist - fleshed out (or so I hope) into slightly more nuanced creations, or people I only wish I had in my own life, like Claire and Monty.

Q: How do you like being called the next P.G. Wodehouse?

I find it very flattering as he was arguably the best comic novelist of the last century. I also find the comparison a useful shorthand to tell people - at least people who know their Wodehouse - what sort of novels I write.

Q: You were a writer and producer on Frasier. Have you left the television world for good?

The mere fact that you're asking the question speaks to how vigorously the good folk at CBS have worked to promote my current series. The show, which I created with my partner Chris Lloyd, is called Out Of Practice and centers on an adult family, all but one of whom is a doctor. It stars Stockard Channing, Henry Winkler, Ty Burrell, Chris Gorham, Paula Marshall and Jennifer Tilly.

Q: What is your favorite television show on currently?

See previous question.

Q: How did you find time to work on your novels and the show at the same time?

I didn't. I was only able to work on the book during my hiatuses between TV seasons so much of the book was written on vacations. By the time Frasier filmed its final episode in March 2004 I'd plotted it all and written the first half. I finished it in a burst before returning to Paramount that summer to start developing Out Of Practice.

Q: I have seen bios that define you as a "gay activist." Do you consider yourself such?

No, and where have you seen these bios? Don't mistake me - it's a label I'd be proud to embrace if I felt I remotely deserved it. I can't think why anyone might have applied it to me, unless they're making far too much of my having some years ago been among the many who spoke out in protest when my studio, Paramount, decided to reward Dr. Laura Schlessinger's homophobic rantings with a talk show. I also dutifully decried her and the studio some months later when it was discovered that the Frasier episode I'd penned lampooning her as "Dr. Nora" had somehow disappeared from the syndication rotation. (Depriving audiences of Christine Baranski's marvelous performance and, more to the point, me of residuals.)

Mocking a shrill bigoted harpy, though both fun and laudable, doesn't exactly make one Larry Kramer. And though I've proudly hosted swanky cocktail parties in my home for both GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign Fund, I fear this doesn't make me a Gay Activist so much as a Gay Arriviste.

Q: In "My Lucky Star" you use the names of real Hollywood celebrities - any fear of retribution?

It would certainly surprise me, since I took pains to make sure that the words and actions of those stars I conscripted for walk-ons were as innocuous as possible. I doubt that Drew Barrymore will object to my having put her in a bad movie. She never complains when her agent does.

Q: Will we see Philip, Claire and Gilbert in subsequent works or is this their final turn?

I certainly hope it's not. I love writing them and I'm kicking around a few notions for a new one.

Q: Would you consider making the book into a film?

I'd love to, though the story presents some formidable obstacles, owing chiefly to the liberties I take with a revered and heavily trademarked Hollywood icon. And good luck finding a name actor to the play Chapter 16.

Q: If you could do anything in the world, what would it be and why?

I would write scores for great Broadway musicals, because I love music and composing is the one gift I don't have that I most wish I did. I'd written the book and lyrics for a show called The Times which went through several readings and two productions at the Long Wharf in New Haven. But just as we were planning a New York production the Frasier job came along and I was too broke to say no to TV money. But I still love musical theater and can never attend a new show without feeling a pang that it's not mine. Maybe that will be my next career.