Lauren Lee Smith (6/10 Good Dog, Good God)
Excerpt from Newswire 6/29/10: Lauren Lee Smith | Good Dog
Shaftesbury starts production on Ken Finkleman's hotly anticipated new series, Good Dog: Lauren Lee Smith co-stars fresh off hit series CSI
TORONTO, June 29 /CNW/ - Shaftesbury Films, Canada's leading creator and producer of original content, today announced that the company has commenced production on Good Dog, a half-hour comedy created, written and directed by Ken Finkleman (The Newsroom). Starring Finkleman and Lauren Lee Smith (CSI, The L-Word), the 13-episode series will be shot on location in Toronto until August. Produced in association with Astral's The Movie Network and Corus Entertainment's Movie Central, Good Dog will premiere in 2011. Good Dog centers on the life of George (Finkleman). He's self-absorbed, neurotic and he lives with Claire, (Smith) a gorgeous ex-model, half his age. It's a hot May-December relationship in which George discovers he must be a "Good Dog" if he wants it to work out. Did we mention Claire has two young children and a nanny, who over time come to live with them?
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After an extensive casting search, Vancouver native Lauren Lee Smith has been selected for the role of Georges' much younger girlfriend, Claire. Smith returns to Canada after playing CSI agent Riley Adams in season nine of the international hit series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation alongside Laurence Fishburne. Smith is also known for her starring role in Clement Virgo's award-winning film, Lie with Me, and the Showtime series The L-Word.
© Newswire
Excerpt from Elle Canada 9/12/10: Lauren Lee Smith
TIFF: Meet Lauren Lee Smith In conversation with one of Canada’s coolest acting talents.
September 12th, 2010
What’s next for you? I saw that you’re working on a TV series with Ken Finkleman-can you tell me a bit about that?
“Yes I just finished 13 episodes of Ken’s new show, Good Dog, about a very neurotic writer who has many quirks and issues-it’s a very, very funny show. I play his much younger girlfriend, who convinces him in the first episode that myself, two young children, and an Austrian nanny should move in!"
© Elle Canada
Excerpt from Market Watch 9/14/10: Lauren Lee Smith
Robert Redford Leads Star Lineup at MIPCOM 2010
Sept. 14, 2010, 1:15 p.m. EDT
PARIS, Sept 14, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- For its 26th edition, MIPCOM is preparing to welcome a host of international television and cinema stars.
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Critically-acclaimed writer, producer and actor Ken Finkleman (The Newsroom) will bring his unique brand of deadpan humor and social satire to the Croisette with an exclusive preview of Good Dog, his new series from Shaftesbury Films. Starring Finkleman and Lauren Lee Smith (CSI; The L Word), the half-hour comedy series focuses on the life of George, a self-absorbed, neurotic TV producer living with a gorgeous woman half his age.
© Market Watch
The Cultural Post 2/6/11: Lauren Lee Smith
'Good Dog' Premieres March 6 on HBO Canada
Sunday, 6 February, 2011
The Canadian half-hour comedy Good Dog - which was written, showrunned and directed by Ken Finkleman (The Newsroom) - premieres Sunday, March 6 at 8 PM with the first two episodes back-to-back on HBO Canada, a premium cable network. The TV series follows a self-absorbed, neurotic TV producer played by Ken Finkleman himself. His character named George is involved with a gorgeous model, Claire (Lauren Lee Smith), who is half his age. George also pitch a reality show centred on him and his life. However, the network executives want Claire to move in George's house, George is forced to escalate the relationship and, consequently, his fears of commitment.
© The Cultural Post
Excerpt from The Province 2/14/11: Lauren Lee Smith
Easy listening to star of the Listener
By Glen Schaefer, The Province February 14, 2011
It’s hard to pin actor Lauren Lee Smith down, either geographically or thematically.
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Adding to Smith’s pile of work this past year was a co-starring role in Toronto with actor-writer Ken Finkelman in 13 episodes of his HBO Canada sitcom Good Dog, set to première this March. “I play his much, much younger live-in girlfriend,” she says. “It was my first jump into the genre of comedy, so to balance something like that with The Listener . . . I’d be a little bit scared to go totally mainstream, I still like doing the crazy, weird indie stuff.”
© The Province
Excerpt from Digital Journal 2/16/11: Lauren Lee Smith
KEN FINKLEMAN RETURNS TO TELEVISION IN GOOD DOG, A NEW ORIGINAL SERIES FROM THE MOVIE NETWORK AND MOVIE CENTRAL
TORONTO, Feb. 16
Half-hour Canadian series starring Ken Finkleman, Lauren Lee Smith and Jason Weinberg
Premieres Sunday, March 6 at 8 p.m. ET/MT Sampling opportunities begin Monday, February 28
TORONTO, Feb. 16 /CNW Telbec/ - Start with a self-absorbed, neurotic TV producer and his hot young new girlfriend, add a reality series pitch about their volatile lives into the mix, and you get Good Dog, a sharp, snappy new comedy series from award-winning writer and producer Ken Finkleman (The Newsroom). The series debuts with two back-to-back episodes beginning Sunday, March 6 at 8 p.m. ET/MT on HBO Canada, a multiplex channel of Astral's The Movie Network (Eastern Canada) and Corus Entertainment's Movie Central (Western Canada).
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Following its special two-part premiere, subsequent episodes of Good Dog will debut at 8:30 p.m. ET/MT Sunday nights on HBO Canada. All episodes will be broadcast in High Definition, and will be available on demand and through The Movie Network OnLine with Bell TV, Rogers and Videotron following their network premieres.
© Digital Journal
Excerpt from Canada.com 3/3/11: Lauren Lee Smith
From CSI to Good Dog: Actress Lauren Lee Smith switches gears to star in new comedy
By Alex Strachan, Postmedia News March 3, 2011
A year ago, Lauren Lee Smith was poring over TV crime scenes in Burbank, California, as forensic investigator Riley Adams in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. This weekend, she's about to appear as Claire in Good Dog, Ken Finkleman's new 13-week comedy of manners for The Movie Network and Movie Central, about a self-absorbed TV producer facing a mid-life crisis. Finkleman both wrote and directed Good Dog's opener, as well as playing its 50-ish obsessive neurotic George; Smith plays the twentysomething girlfriend who moves in with him and, not being as naive as she seems, turns the emotional tables on their relationship. Life hasn't slowed down for Smith, a Vancouver-born and -trained actress who first came to light in the Vancouver-based ensemble drama, The L Word. Smith jumped from The L Word to key roles in Terry Zwigoff's Art School Confidential and Clement Virgo's Lie With Me, before landing a supporting role in CSI. On this early morning, Smith is on the phone from Toronto, where she's between scenes on The Listener, a CTV psychodrama in which she plays a police detective to Craig Olejnik's psychic paramedic. Smith feels closer to home somehow in Toronto, she says with a bright laugh, than she did in Los Angeles, even though L.A. is in the same time zone as Vancouver, and just two and a half hours away by air. "It's funny, but I do feel closer, being in Toronto, even though it is much farther away," Smith said. "Longer flight, different time zone, but it definitely feels closer to home than Los Angeles."
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When the light, breezy, feel-good Good Dog came along, Smith jumped at it. "I was looking to try something a bit different," she said. "I had come off a few years of doing some pretty heavy material. And sure enough, when I read the pilot script for Good Dog, I just loved it. I thought it was so clever and so smart and so funny."
Ironically, Smith ended up reading for the role with Finkleman in Los Angeles, not in Toronto, where Good Dog was filmed last summer. Smith has made Toronto her home away from home, but after production finishes on The Listener, she'll be back in Vancouver, where she hopes to relax and spend time at her mother's lakeside home. "I'm hoping to just spend some time there over the summer. I'm going to give myself at least a couple of weeks to decompress, and see what happens with the two shows I'm doing now and see what else is out there."
The difference in pace between CSI and The Listener has been dramatic, she said. But not in the way one might suppose...."Working on The Listener, the show is reinventing itself this season. It's the second season, but in a way, it feels like a first season, because they've introduced four new characters. It's been an adjustment, because it's been 15, 16, 17 hours every day, five days a week. It's a totally different grind."
Smith has learned to adapt, though. Television, as a medium, is more challenging to a performer than indie film, which was Smith's main medium before she landed The L Word. "On a TV series, I don't have a beginning, a middle and an end. I cannot create a full character arc going into it. When you're doing a film, you have a lot of time to do all the work beforehand and to prepare yourself and know what you're doing. On TV, every week, you're learning more about your character and figuring things out. There are times when you think you have something figured out, and then you get a new script and you're, like, 'Oh, OK, well, that changes everything.' The pace is so much quicker. On a series, sometimes you're doing 12 or 13 pages a day. It's just a whole different pace."
Good Dog is in the can: All 13 episodes have been filmed. Smith worked throughout the summer in Toronto, after learning she would not be back on CSI. "Good Dog was a wonderful experience for me, just to have the opportunity to jump into a genre I really hadn't done before. We had this luxury that Ken had written all the scripts ... before we went to camera. I was given the 13 scripts two months before we started shooting, so I was able to do all my prep work and get everything down beforehand. That really helps me, personally.
"Hey, it was Toronto, it was summertime. I really love the way Ken works - he knows exactly what he wants. He's good at communicating that. He's really fun; he keeps you on your toes. And he's hilarious. He had the entire crew in stitches, every day, just because of his crazy antics. It was a really, really wonderful experience."
Good Dog premieres Sunday on HBO Canada at 8 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. PT.
© Postmedia News
Excerpt from Toronto Sun 3/5/11: Lauren Lee Smith
Smith a 'gorgeous model' on Finkleman show
By BILL HARRIS, Last Updated: March 5, 2011 2:00am
Lauren Lee Smith had an interesting reaction when she was given this flattering bit of information: In the media material for Smith's new TV series Good Dog, which debuts Sunday on HBO Canada, her character is described as "a gorgeous model." Smith laughed very, very hard. "You know what, I haven't even read any of that," the Vancouver native said. "That's probably good. I don't think my ego needs to be reading that over and over again.
"I would have to say, they're probably using that based on the fact that I've sat in a hair and makeup trailer for two hours and they've put me in amazing clothes. I'm sure that's a good part of it."
Well, let's be perfectly blunt: Some people could spend their entire lives in a hair and makeup trailer and never approach the "gorgeous model" sphere. So way to go, Lauren Lee Smith. The "gorgeous model" angle actually is at the heart of Good Dog, a 13-episode, half-hour comedy series starring creator/writer/director Ken Finkleman (The Newsroom). In Good Dog, George (Finkleman) is a grumpy TV producer who has become romantically involved with Claire (Smith), a "gorgeous model half his age." George has pitched his new relationship to a TV network as a reality show, but the network insists that George and Claire move in together.
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Smith obviously has been busy post-CSI, but Good Dog is her first real foray into comedy. "If you're jumping head-first into a different genre, Ken Finkleman is the guy to do it with," Smith said. "It's not necessarily that I personally have to be funny, but the lightness of the show is new for me."
And don't forget, when all else fails, Smith can just stand there being "a gorgeous model." "I guess they couldn't say, 'A mediocre model,'" added Smith, laughing hard again. "Hopefully people aren't disappointed. You have me worried now.
"Oh man, that's funny. Thank you for that."
© Toronto Sun
Excerpt from Macleans 3/14/11: Lauren Lee Smith
Ken Finkleman doesn’t ‘get’ women: In his new series, Canada’s most famous TV creator-star is out of his comfort zone
by Jaime Weinman on Monday, March 14, 2011 10:41am
Ken Finkleman says he’s “terrible at writing women. I should not be allowed to do it.” So why is Good Dog, the newest series from Canada’s most famous TV creator-star (The Newsroom), about his relationship with a woman-and not just any woman, but one half his age? The pilot, which aired on the Movie Network last Sunday, seemed like another of Finkleman’s reality-TV parodies, as his character, George, is forced to move in with his beautiful young girlfriend (Lauren Lee Smith) by a network that’s making a reality show about his life.
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While Claire still fits the sitcom tradition of the sensible straight woman, she gets occasional chances to do funny things, like throwing a plate at George and taking up Zen Buddhism to deal with the strain of living with him. And in other scenes, she displays a warmth that makes him almost believable as a human being: “She saw something in him,” Finkleman says, and conveys it through “her posture toward him.” Finkleman thinks Smith managed to create an interesting attitude for her character mostly because he didn’t try to direct her too much: “I just let her react. I don’t know how she did it or what it was, but she has a very natural quality, and I like her very much.” When Finkleman is up to his usual cringe-making antics, like accidentally starting a rumour that Jack Nicholson is dead, Claire occasionally gets to give the show some extra depth through her reactions to him. Instead of the show just being about George, it’s also about the question of how a woman can live with such an impossible person.
© Macleans
Excerpt from What Culture 3/29/11: Lauren Lee Smith
TV Review: GOOD DOG, 1.1 - “Pilot”
by Dan Owen
The concept of Good Dog (or it’s pilot, at least) involves George realizing that his pitch for a reality TV show based on his life will be more attractive to viewers if his 30-year-old girlfriend Claire (Lauren Lee Smith) moves in with him. George is unsure because of his commitment issues, but decides to go ahead; taking their relationship to the next level as preparation for TV show success. Consequently, Claire moves in with her two kids from a psycho ex-boyfriend, an enormous Neil Young painting, and a growling Rottweiler - forcing George to bite his tongue as he loses his independence for selfish business needs. Nothing about Good Dog worked for me, on every meaningful level. There was zero chemistry between Finkleman and Smith as lovers (which gave the whole show a weird, detached feel), and it made no sense that George would believe anyone would be interested in watching his life on TV.
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George and Claire aren’t funny characters in the slightest, George’s friend Doug (Jason Weinberg) was nothing but a sounding board, and there were no memorable jokes or comic situations.
© What Culture
Excerpt from Digital Journal 9/19/11: Lauren Lee Smith
Same dog, new tricks - Shaftesbury, The Movie Network and Movie Central confirm casting and production details for season two of Ken Finkleman's GOOD DOG
TORONTO, Sept. 19, 2011.
Season two of Good Dog finds neurotic TV producer George Findlay (Finkleman) once again at a crossroads in life. Ditched by his live-in girlfriend Claire (Lauren Lee Smith; The Listener) for his defiant attitude toward change and compromise, George reconnects with Virginia Hailwood (Davidovich), a socialite and trustafarian he had a fling with 20 years earlier.
© Digital Journal
Excerpt from AV Club 4/5/12: Lauren Lee Smith | Good God, on Shaw
Ken Finkleman heads back to the newsroom with Good God
Ken Finkleman’s new show is it a lot like his old shows. Good God, which premières on The Movie Network on April 9, ostensibly pivots out of Finkleman’s previous series, Good Dog.
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One Station Under God
Once again, George Findlay (Ken Finkleman) finds himself at a crossroads in life. Ditched by his live-in girlfriend Claire (Lauren Lee Smith) for his defiant attitude toward change and compromise, George reconnects with Virginia Hailwood (Lolita Davidovich), a socialite and trustafarian he had a fling with 20 years earlier.
© AV Club