NEW YORK - Actors Andre Braugher, Ray Romano and Scott Bakula speak at the TEN Upfront presentation ... [+]
At a time when anyone over the age of 50 was rarely embraced, TNT boldly went where no other broadcaster dared to. It launched the dramedy Men of a Certain Age, the tale of three men — Joe (Ray Romano), Owen (Andre Braugher), and Terry (Scott Bakula) — pushing 50 who were best friends since college.
Steve Koonin, who was running Turner Broadcasting at the time, was riding on a wave of successful crime-related dramas (The Closer with Kyra Sedgwick, in particular). But he wanted to diversify, and the arrival of Men of a Certain Age on December 7, 2009 meant he was serious about taking risks.
While never a success by the traditional Nielsen ratings, Men of a Certain Age won a Peabody Award in 2010 and 2011, respectively, among other honors. And, on July 6, 2011, it signed off after two memorable seasons.
For Ray Romano, who collaborated with Mike Royce on the pilot script, Men of a Certain Age was a huge leap forward from his nine season Emmy Award-winning stint as Ray Barone on CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. The pair had previously worked together on Raymond, and Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula were both cast. Braugher, of couse, was previously known on the small screen as Lt. Frank Pembleton on NBC crime solver Homicide: Life on the Street. And Scott Bakula (pre-NCIS: New Orleans) made his mark on televison as Dr. Sam Beckett on NBC’s Quantum Leap and as Captain Jonathan Archer on UPN’s Star Trek: Enterprise.
(L - R) Actors Scott Bakula, Ray Romano, and Andre Braugher attend the 70th Annual Peabody Awards at ... [+]
In Men of a Certain Age, Romano played Joe, a party-store owner recently separated from his wife, battling a gambling addiction, with the theory it was all downhill from here. Braugher’s Owen was a frustrated car salesman working in the shadow of his overbearing father. And Bakula’s Terry was a would-be actor who never quite made it in the business, nor ever really gew up.
Unlike the then stereotpical sitcom and drama roles, these three actors broke creative ground with stories that this “man of a certain age” could relate to. We all have to muddle through middle age at some point. And there was no exaggerated drama here — just regular people trying to get through life.
Men of a Certain Age was gone way to soon. But it is still worth celebrating 13 years after concluding.
