![]() ![]() So it should not have been a surprise that he was equally skilled in sitcoms and dramas. He began his showbiz career performing stand-up and honing his improv skills as a member of the Groundlings. ![]() In many ways, he continued to play that same role, from playing Tom Cruise's football coach in All the Right Moves to the hippie, Vietnam-vet patriarch on Parenthood.īut Nelson's roots were in comedy. Nelson perfectly nailed the part of a man who once had a wild past and now found himself in a role of heavy responsibility. He was suburban, aspirational, manly, good with his kids, and with a pinch of repressed counterculture cool. Heck, in one early scene he reads Reagan: The Man, The President while his wife rolls a joint. He became a model man of the era, transitioning from the free-spirited '70s to Yuppie-dom. The Steven Spielberg-produced (and some say, er, "ghost" directed) 1982 blockbuster cast the relatively unknown actor as the prototypical early-'80s dad. A long time ago, I found a VHS tape of it on eBay - but nothing from the series.For us, personally, our first encounter with Craig T. There was actual history there as the U-2 that was shot down over Cuba was launched from Laughlin - and there's one on static display there. In the show, that scene wound up being all of around 30 seconds worth of film. Then there'd be some technical issue - or something. We just wanted to get the hell out of there - but were committed to it. ![]() I don't know what his issue or problem was - but he couldn't get out a few lines without screwing it up - it was painful. It sounded like fun - so they took us over to a hangar, put U-2 patches on us and Craig Nelson did his lines from a big speech. Our section was on "early week" - so as some of us were done for the day - and we were asked if we'd like to be extras. They used some of our instructors for the opening T-38 scene. I was in pilot training at Laughlin AFB in 1983 when they filmed that. ![]()
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