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Etc.įlags may seem to wave in Guillaume's eyes when he talks about the American dream, but don't imagine they obscure his Bensonite vision. I don't like to talk about things like that because you overstate the case." I think the extent to which young people like the character, maybe that could be said, but I would caution against putting too much stock in phrases like role models. "I think academicians and sociologists and teachers would like to think of it that way," he said about the label of "role model." "I'm not sure it's absolutely so. Or, as Guillaume put it recently, "We've demonstrated, as much as it's possible to demonstrate through TV, that it is possible for a black person to move from one venue to another without losing credibility."
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We owe a great debt to him for the attitude." "It's about a character going from butler to elected official based on common sense and the ability to cut through to the heart of things. "It's a Capra-esque kind of show," said Bob Fraser, one of the show's producers. And now that the show's producers have the results of a national poll of governors' staff members (63 percent of the respondents thought the show realistic and 46 percent would vote for Benson if he ran for governor in their state), they say Benson will be on the gubernatorial ticket by the end of this season.Īn unusual progression in the land of situation comedies, where actors may age and characters vanish overnight, but few are exactly eager to take on the American class system.
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"In all honesty and candor and modesty, I always wanted the character to have that kind of upward mobility, because it mirrored the American dream," said Guillaume when talking of the show, which airs Friday nights at 9 on Channel 7. In the eight years since his introduction in ABC's "Soap," Benson has gone from crotchety, irreverent butler to crotchety, irreverent "household head of the governor's mansion" to crotchety, irreverent state budget director to crotchety, irreverent lieutenant governor. Guillaume did spice up his Emmy acceptance speech with a sharp quip ("I'd like to thank Bill Cosby for not being here," he said, referring to the fact that the leading contender for the award had taken himself out of the running because he said he didn't want to compete with other actors), but off camera, he sounds more like a cautious candidate for office than an actor. Expectant smiles are greeted not with autographs and grins but with an austere nod - Benson's acerbity without the punch lines. His medium may be comedy, but his manner decidedly is not. "īut usually Guillaume, who on Sunday night won the Emmy Award for best actor in a comedy series, doesn't oblige. People watch Robert Guillaume with expectant, sly smiles, waiting for him to perform, to shoot them the cutting glance, the raised eyebrows, the "Hmmm.