Richiepiep
Administrator
This is a genuine and very fascinating find. In 1982, Crisis Counselor was the first of a string of dramatized American TV series about real events re-enacted by actors, in this case an actual, practicing crisis counselor, Thom Thompson, who introduced each episode, with actors playing his clients.
The goal was to demonstrate the role of a counselor and the potential revelations that might occur in counseling sessions. Each show attempted to be true to the counseling process and base each drama on actual problems addressed by counselors across the country, with subjects ranging from homosexuality, alcoholism, divorce, depression and suicidal tendencies, religious conflicts to various serious illnesses and mental disorders.
Family members were portrayed by actors selected based on their ability to relate to the crisis. Surprisingly, many actors had experienced various problems in their own lives or the lives of family members. Thus their dialog was as real as the crisis. Dialog was improvised based on an outline the writers created for cast members. Too, each actor received a character description. According to the official site, the best performances occurred when the actors added elements, incidents or viewpoints to the show challenging the other actors and the counselor to respond as he would with any family counseling session.
In two of them, broadcast on August 20 and September 7, 1982, Bryan Cranston (at the age of 26!) played a young husband coming to terms with his bisexuality while his wife is pregnant.
I thought this would be very dated and possibly embarrassing, but in fact I think it's very well done by all actors, Bryan included!
Official site:
http://www.crisiscounselortv.com/CrisisCounselorTV.html
Video:
Rich
The goal was to demonstrate the role of a counselor and the potential revelations that might occur in counseling sessions. Each show attempted to be true to the counseling process and base each drama on actual problems addressed by counselors across the country, with subjects ranging from homosexuality, alcoholism, divorce, depression and suicidal tendencies, religious conflicts to various serious illnesses and mental disorders.
Family members were portrayed by actors selected based on their ability to relate to the crisis. Surprisingly, many actors had experienced various problems in their own lives or the lives of family members. Thus their dialog was as real as the crisis. Dialog was improvised based on an outline the writers created for cast members. Too, each actor received a character description. According to the official site, the best performances occurred when the actors added elements, incidents or viewpoints to the show challenging the other actors and the counselor to respond as he would with any family counseling session.
In two of them, broadcast on August 20 and September 7, 1982, Bryan Cranston (at the age of 26!) played a young husband coming to terms with his bisexuality while his wife is pregnant.
I thought this would be very dated and possibly embarrassing, but in fact I think it's very well done by all actors, Bryan included!
Official site:
http://www.crisiscounselortv.com/CrisisCounselorTV.html
Video:
Rich
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