TV Guide
by Shawna Malcolm
Whose Brain Is It Anyway?
Not even getting
creamed by a subway can keep John Goodman down. The 47-year-old
actor returns to CBS's Now and Again this week, even
though his character, insurance agent Michael Wiseman, fell in
front of a train in the series premiere. (His brain was then
transplanted into the well-toned bod of a government-created
superhero.) So how exactly does this "dead" man walk?
"It's February sweeps," the former Roseanne
star says with a laugh. "Anything's possible."
But not just anything would do. "I thought
maybe he could come back as Michael's evil twin, but nobody
[seemed] to go for that," says Eric Close, who plays the
recipient of the brain. "Or I thought I could look in the
mirror and see John staring back at me," à la Quantum
Leap. "I wish I'd though of that," admits series
creator Glenn Gordon Caron. "I'm sorry to say I
didn't." Instead, Caron concocted a plot in which Close --
about to put on a dog and pony
show for a senator who supplies funding for Michael's
"development" - slips into a catatonic trance.
Flashbacks reveal reveal that the $3 billion man has experienced
these seizures before, during his John Goodman days.
"I'm excited to be back," insists Goodman. "The show's really well done, and it's an easy way for me to make a couple of bucks."
Not that he's hurting for cash: Goodman has five upcoming films, including "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" opposite George Clooney and Michael Badalucco. Still, says the actor, "I've told Glenn, 'I'm here when you need me. If you need me to play the guy's cousin Skippy, I'll do it.' Hell, if they needed me to screw in a lightbulb, I'd do it." Now there's a bright idea.
February 12, 2000