Mental News June

Mental News

Mental Episode Features Video Games... of the Mind

6/15/09
Source: ITSky

Pushing hard into the series’ fourth episode, Fox’s “Mental” will be airing its fourth episode this week, featuring “an 8-year-old bipolar boy whose life is consumed by a video game he plays in his head.” Oh noes! According to the show’s main character/handsome devil Chris Vance (aka Dr. Jack Gallagher), the child won’t stop twitching his hands in an, erm, controllerly fashion and apparently tries killing himself due to “the game in his mind.” Dr. Gallagher chooses to approach the child’s problem from the most logical angle available and — no joke — starts playing the imaginary video game with him. Problem: Solved. To check out the episode in all its glory, tune in to Fox on June 16th. Or don’t. It’s really up to you, ya big chooser.

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Chris Vance Goes Mental on FOX

6/9/09
Source: iFMagazine

By EMERSON PARKER
The topic of solving some of the mental health issues facing this and other countries is at the heart of MENTAL – Fox’s latest medical drama focusing on one new director’s unique, albeit odd, ways at treating people with social disorders.

But what is it like actually playing a doctor on the show and having to act like you know what the hell you’re talking about and caring about these people. Chris Vance, who plays Jack on the show, the director a California facility he recently took over, takes it all in stride.

“It’s cosmic … that we don’t understand anything about [mental health,” Vance says. “From the premise of the series’ point of view, it really can go anywhere.And that was one of the most attractive things about playing Jack.Playing Jack, I’m never likely to get bored because there’s always another phobia, there’s always another psychosis.There’s always something that we don’t understand.The science of treating mental health as we understand it, it’s still in its infancy.We really know very little about it, which is the fascinating thing.”

But don’t call him a fraud for actually taking part on a show about mental health without having an iota about the subject. “I don’t feel like a fraud because it’s my job,” Vance adds.“I mean that’s kind of what I do as an actor.What it did do over the course of the series was it obviously opened my eyes and my mind to all of the phobias, disorders, and the real pain and the trauma that people with mental health disorders go through in life.That was certainly an eye opener and very humbling.”

Obviously, for a TV show the first and foremost aspect is to entertain the audience – otherwise there’s no point for the show to be on the air for a network – but are they trying to a little more with MENTAL? Maybe an eye opener to people that don’t know much about some of the health issues out there?

“We definitely hope so,” Vance says.When you’re doing a TV drama, there are two things you’re really trying to do:one is to entertain and one is to inform.The trouble with that is we’ve only got an hour.We can’t become a documentary.”

And as such, they can’t cover every phobia or psychoses or disorders that are out there, he says. But they try to cover those that are interesting and will end up being entertaining to the audience while giving them a little knowledge as well.

“Given the show that we’ve made, I think the writers have done a marvelous job at drawing a balance between the two,” Vance says.

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FOX's Mental to Pay Tribute to David Carradine

6/7/09
Source: EW.com

Jun 5, 2009 by Jeff Jensen

Next week’s episode of the Fox TV series Mental will conclude with a quiet salute to actor David Carradine, who was found dead in a Thailand hotel room earlier this week. Carradine--most famous for the 1970s TV series Kung Fu and for playing the titular object of Uma Thuman’s wrath in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies--filmed a guest appearance in the Fox drama, shot last summer. In “Book of Judges,” Carradine plays a character named Gideon Graham, described as “a famous professor, author and philosopher” who falls into a coma after getting struck by lightning. According to a Fox spokesperson, Carradine’s episode, which had always been slated to air on June 9, will end with an “In Memoriam” graphic.
Meanwhile, the producer of an independent movie called Beyond Legend, Johnny Kakota, which was set to begin production later this summer with Carradine in a supporting role, tells EW the film is now looking to recast. Nick Catello says Carradine's part had been written specifically for him and that he is “devastated” by the actor's death. Carradine would have played a villainous land baron. Catello says the production is hoping to replace him with Oscar winner Jon Voight, whom he says had previously expressed interest in the role. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Carradine's death has also forced the recasting of what was to be his next project, an independent drama called Portland.

Carradine had been attached to a number of other projects before his death, including the work that took him to Thailand, a movie reportedly titled Stretch. EW will update the status of those projects as information becomes available. (Reported by Missy Schwartz)

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FOX Decides to air Episode with David Carradine

6/5/09
Source: The Washington Post

By Lisa de Moraes

Friday, June 5, 2009

Fox lucked out because David Carradine is catatonic but not suicidal on Tuesday's episode of "Mental," which means the network can go ahead with the broadcast, as scheduled, in the wake of Carradine's apparent hanging death.

The 72-year-old actor was found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok, where he was working on a movie. A Thai newspaper reported he was found hanging from a rope in the closet of his hotel room; at press time, the U.S. Embassy had confirmed his death while offering no details.

"Mental," meanwhile, is Fox's new medical drama (and the latest knockoff of Fox's own hit "House") in which hot, dynamic shrink Dr. Jack Gallagher is named director of Mental Health Services at a Los Angeles hospital, where he inflames the staff and upsets the system with his radical methods and unorthodox treatment methods, clashing often with his conservative boss, Hospital Administrator Chick.

In the episode, Carradine plays a famous professor, author and philosopher named Gideon Graham, who lapses into a non-responsive catatonic state after being struck by lightning. Determined to bring Gideon back to the "real world," our hero Jack attempts a highly unorthodox treatment that carries great risk to the patient, Fox promises.

Nothing suggestive of yesterday's news figures into the unorthodox treatment, which is good because otherwise the network would have had to pull the episode; instead, "Mental" stands to attract more viewers in light of the Carradine news.

"Mental" opened a couple of weeks ago with an audience of just under 6 million viewers, and its second episode copped about 5 million. Most encouragingly, it built on its "House" rerun lead-in audience both weeks. But it's been no competition for the reruns of CBS's "The Mentalist," which averaged nearly 12 million viewers those same two weeks in the same hour.

Fox will run some kind of Carradine RIP at the end of the episode.

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FOX Hit Series Mental Brings Hollywood to Colombia

6/4/09
Source: Colombia Report

'Mental', the new Fox drama series that premiered with high ratings in the U.S. last week was not filmed in Hollywood but in a studio in the Colombian capital city of Bogota.Producers chose to film the 13 episode drama series, set in the psychiatric department of a Los Angeles hospital, in a 1,500 meter square Bogota TV studio.Why Bogota? "Basically because of production costs," Samuel Duque, the vice president of Fox Telecolombia Production and Operations told El Colombiano.
"To make the show in Colombia costs about half of what it would cost to make it in an L.A. studio," Duque said.He added that the Bogota studio where 'Mental' was filmed is the largest television studio in Latin America.The success of the series' premiere in the U.S. was unexpected."We are surprised because it had 35 percent more of an audience than 'House' [another Fox hit series] did," said Sofia Higuera, general manager of Fox headquarters in Colombia.
Fox executives expressed their contentment with how well the production of 'Mental' was executed. This combined with the series' success may spell good news for the future of international productions in Colombia.The production involved 75 foreign actors, as well as numerous Colombian translators, cameramen, make-up artists and other production crew.

El Colombiano suggested that 'Mental's' success may herald the start of a flow of American productions to 'Collywood'.

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•	Mental Episode Features Video Games... of the Mind
•	Chris Vance Goes Mental on FOX
•	FOX Mental to pay tribute to David Carradine
•	FOX Decides to Air Episode with David Carradine
•	FOX Hit Series Mental Brings Hollywood to Colombia

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