This Everywoman Hopes Her ‘bliss’ Lingers

For stand-up comedian Debi Gutierrez, the prospect of starring in a network sitcom based on her life is thrilling, but right now she’s got pressing commitments to her three kids, her husband and sometimes even her ex-husband, whom she casually refers to as “the plaintiff.”

While she’s on the subject of her family, she’ll admit she doesn’t feel guilty about her fantasies to temporarily run away. She usually lets herself daydream if the laundry is folded. That way, she pointed out, she can have a clear conscience when she packs up the dusty suitcase near the washing machine, throws it in the back of the car and peels out of the driveway.

“Sometimes, I just don’t feel like being a mom,” she said. “Just for a few hours, or a day.”

That candor won over executives last fall at Warner Bros. Television who are producing the show for NBC. Next week, she’ll find out if “bliss,” (as in “domestic”), will become part of the network’s fall lineup.

But this is where highly charged ethnic discussions begin. Gutierrez is a Latina, which means that if “bliss” is selected--and it’s a big “if” based on Hollywood’s track record with nonwhite programming--she will join a small cadre of minority stars in the history of prime-time television.

The first Asian American woman to lead a prime-time show was Margaret Cho, who just wrote a book in which she flays Hollywood for its perception of nonwhites.

Last year, acclaimed filmmaker Gregory Nava came close to having the first Latino drama on network television when CBS commissioned a pilot for “American Family,” but executives ultimately passed on the series. (Late last week PBS picked up the series.)

Gutierrez downplays the ethnic subplots by insisting she has other barriers to break on network television, too.

“You know, being a Latina is one of the minorities I belong to,” she said. “I’m also a full-figured women, and I’m living in Southern California and I’m not twentysomething.”

Gutierrez and the sitcom’s executive producer, Regina Stewart, insist “bliss” focuses on an Everymother. Stewart described the sitcom’s sensibility as a mixture of “Roseanne” and “All in the Family.”

But whether or not the program is about a social rights crusader or a mom in Suburbia, USA, the fact remains that nonwhite actors and shows about them have had scant success on network television. Still, Gutierrez hopes to find her place among Desi Arnaz in “I Love Lucy” and Freddie Prinze, who starred in NBC’s “Chico and the Man” from 1974 to 1978.

(Shorter-lived sitcoms with Latino stars revolved around comedians Paul Rodriguez in “a.k.a. Pablo,” which aired on ABC for only a few episodes in 1984; and in 1995, the WB cast Jackie Guerra as the lead of “First Time Out,” which was pulled midseason.)

“I think every network has been trying to figure out how to do a show that has broad appeal to a Latin audience, but it’s failed in the past because they’ve gone into stereotypes and used the typical jokes that everyone expects,” said Steve Pearlman, head of development for Warner Bros. Television. “bliss” “isn’t about the culture clash. It’s about a family.”

But within that on-screen family are Gutierrez’s parents, who speak Spanish to each other when they’re agitated. Gutierrez’s husband translates for her, because while she never learned Spanish, he studied it in school. It’s a plot line lifted directly from Gutierrez’s life.

For the network, selecting Gutierrez as one of its stars means every move it makes could be interpreted as a slight or a display of favoritism. For example, will the new show be dumped in the deadly Friday night time slot, or will it be surgically inserted between two of NBC’s top-rated sitcoms, where it is nearly guaranteed a respectable premiere?

If the network chooses to pass on “bliss,” few will notice. Gutierrez is not a household name. She enrolled in the Screen Actors Guild on March 15, three weeks before the network taped her pilot.

“We have the health insurance and everything,” she said. “I told the kids, ‘Go play. We’ve got insurance.’ ”

The pilot was written by Stewart, who just left ABC’s “Dharma & Greg” after three seasons for the chance to run “bliss.” Stewart, who has two children of her own under 2, said Gutierrez will play a no-nonsense woman who sometimes screams at her kids but always stands up for them. This is the mainstay of Gutierrez’s stand-up act, during which she makes fun of impeccably stylish mothers who speak to their willowy children (usually named Ashley) as if they’re self-actualized adults.

In “bliss,” Gutierrez plays Debi Evans, a nurse. Her husband is Tom Evans, a white public defender.

“It’s not a blue-collar comedy,” said Stewart.

Gutierrez and her co-star, Joe Guzaldo, look average and unremarkable--like real suburbanites struggling to enjoy life while raising children and working full time.

“There’s always been a place for ‘Melrose Place’ shows, but there’s a place for this too, where real people can turn to one another and say, ‘See!’ ” Guzaldo said. “Besides, I’m 5-9, and Debi’s 5 feet. It did wonders for my ego.”

On Her Mark, Ready to Go

The cast also includes veteran actresses like Teri Garr, who plays Debi’s mother-in-law. Latina character actor Lupe Ontiveros was cast as Debi’s Spanish-speaking mother. And playing Sister Bernadette, who runs the Catholic school that the Evans’ two older children attend, is Susan Ruttan from NBC’s “L.A. Law.”

In contrast, Gutierrez has no acting experience. In early April, two days before the network’s top executives were scheduled to attend the pilot taping, Gutierrez rehearsed in front of a small crew. When the cameraman told her she was off her mark--meaning she was not standing on the right spot outlined on the stage--Gutierrez looked up at the rafters above her. Then she looked around. One of the cameraman politely explained the concept of a “mark.”

Gutierrez walked over to the pieces of tape on the stage, peeled them off and reapplied them where she had originally been standing. The crew said nothing. Finally, the show’s director, Gary Halvorson, asked her what she was doing.

“It was a baptism by fire,” Gutierrez said.

Two days later, she sat in a chair while makeup artists painted her with foundation. Unlike Jerry Seinfeld, who did bits of stand-up on his long-running hit comedy on NBC, Gutierrez did not break down that fourth wall. Instead, she got her jitters out before the cameras began rolling by warming up the live studio audience.

Dressed for the opening bedroom scene, Debi stood in a short, aqua bathrobe and asked the audience to applaud for her real son and daughter seated among them.

“This show’s gotta take off or this guy’s back on the freeway offramp selling oranges and she’s selling day-old roses,” she said. “And I’ll have to get a real job.”

Then she asked the Latinos in the audience to identify themselves.

“Did you all come in one [expletive] car?” she asked, laughing. “I know my people.”

The remark lingered.

Another comedian who thought she knew her people was Cho, whose 1994 sitcom on ABC, “All-American Girl,” was canceled after one season. Cho’s autobiography, “I’m the One That I Want,” hit bookstores this spring with details of the network experience, including demands by ABC executives that she drop weight before shooting the pilot. According to Cho, they didn’t like the “fullness” of her face. Two weeks before the pilot, the network sent a personal trainer as well as little white bags containing very small portions of low-fat meals to her house. Cho lost 30 pounds in two weeks, and the executives were pleased.

“That awful week before we shot the pilot, after I had put myself in the hospital, all I could think about was working out,” Cho writes. “I was afraid of losing the show by not losing enough weight.”

It took several months before they canceled the show, after dwindling ratings and an unexpected wave of criticism from Asian American groups who were offended by Cho as a symbol of their community.

Gutierrez may face similar pressures to conform to the networks’ physical standards--standards exemplified by the bone-thin actresses on “Friends.” But so far, Gutierrez said she’s been treated gently.

“When I saw myself on camera, I said to my manager, ‘Ugh. Does anyone want me to lose weight?’ They said, ‘No.’ ”

In the pilot, the Evanses try to make time for romance on their anniversary. It’s a tall order: One car is in the shop, their eldest son is in trouble at Catholic school for honoring Dracula in an essay, and Debi is detained at work when a doctor asks her to translate for a Latino patient. (When Debi tries to inform the doctor that she only speaks English, he says he doesn’t have time for her “political agenda.”)

That night, Debi and Tom have frank discussions about how the kids have tanked their sex life. At one point, a whimpering Debi mumbles something about wanting to feel “sexy.”

“Taxi?” asks Tom.

The jokes came quickly, the taping was efficient, and the studio audience seemed to enjoy it. Halvorson, who has also directed episodes of two hit sitcoms, CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond” and NBC’s “Friends,” required, at most, four takes of any given scene. The pilot was wrapped up in about 3 1/2 hours, and suddenly there was nothing more for Gutierrez to do.

The comic, whose demo tape caught the eye of executives nearly 18 months ago, headed back to the Burbank hotel with her daughter. Her husband returned with the younger kids to their rental home in Covina. The next day Gutierrez got up, drove home and did laundry. Her husband, Travis Townsend, went back to work as a self-employed Web page designer.

The following week, Gutierrez flew to Las Vegas for a stand-up gig at the Riviera. Two of the “bliss” cast members flew out to see her. Back in Covina, her family celebrated Easter Sunday.

“It was odd for me to be separated [from family] for a long time,” Gutierrez said later. “It was hard for me. They’re such a big part of my life.”

She says the most difficult part of this process is being away from the very commitments that used to drive her into catatonic daydreams. But by Friday night next week, Gutierrez will either reflect on the stardom she almost had, or she’ll take a last look behind her at life as a “struggling suburban mommycomic,” as she and her husband shop for a house to buy in Burbank.