Nathan Fillion Had a Full Circle Moment When He Appeared in ‘American Housewife’
Actor Nathan Fillion had a brief period where he had trouble finding work before his breakthrough role. A couple of showrunners took a chance on him when he might’ve needed it the most, allowing Fillion to make a living doing what he enjoyed. Years later, Fillion would reunite with those showrunners again for a special occasion.
How Nathan Fillion reunited with his ‘Two Guys And a Girl’ showrunners
Fillion had a guest spot in the hit ABC sitcom American Housewife. On that episode, he played a more exaggerated version of himself. But his American Housewife appearance was particularly special because of a couple of reasons. Fillion found himself somewhat reprising his role as Firefly captain Malcolm Reynolds on the show as well. Additionally, Fillion reunited with Two Guys and a Girl showrunners Rick Weiner and Kenny Schwartz.
The two cast Fillion on the Two Guys sitcom at a time when his acting career wasn’t looking too good. Schwartz and Weiner would later develop American Housewife, and invited Fillion to appear in the program.
“This is an opportunity to honor some wonderful friends and excellent mentors of mine, guys who saved my ass at an amazing time in my life,” Fillion once told Vulture about the opportunity. “When I became an actor, my first gig was a big old soap opera. Then I’d moved out to L.A., had a couple of jobs right away, and I was on a rocket. Then I was unemployed for about a year. I watched my savings dwindle away, I started paying my rent on a credit card, and I was ready to pack it up and call One Life to Live and see if they would take me back. The phone rang and I got a job on a sitcom called Two Guys and A Girl, and that week-long job turned into two-and-a-half years. The fellas who created that show, Rick and Kenny, they called me up and said, ‘Would you like to come down and do this?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.'”
Nathan Fillion felt his experience on ‘Two Guys and a Girl’ was a hard one to learn
Two Guys and a Girl may have helped rescue Fillion’s career and stave off potential financial ruin. But in hindsight, he wasn’t too proud of the work he did on the show during its latter seasons.
“Back when I was a younger man, I spent two and a half years on a sitcom. My first half-season? I did a great job. My second season? Spectacular. My last season was the worst. I failed because I was trying to be funny rater than just being honest. It was a hard lesson to learn,” he once said according to Whedon’s World.
“I’m not going to say [the show was] a failure. Just to my learning experience, I slipped a bit,” Fillion said.
Still, he enjoyed his time on the show enough to entertain the idea of a possible revival of the sitcom.
“A couple of years ago, I ran into one of my former castmates We were laughing about old times, and he mentioned, ‘Wouldn’t a reunion be great?’ Wouldn’t that be cool? Just do a one-off and see what happens. So yeah, it’s been mentioned. Nothing’s planned. Nothing’s in the works. But the idea has been tossed around,” he said.
Nathan Fillion learned how important it was for a character to have flaws in ‘Two Guys and a Girl’
Although it didn’t last long, Two Guys and a Girl gave The Rookie star a lot of important lessons that would help inform his acting career. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he reflected on his role on the sitcom as the flawed handyman Johnny Donnelly.
”He wasn’t that good a handyman, and it turns out he was really cheap. In other words, he was flawed, and what that show taught me was the kind of comedy gold that could be mined from a flaw. Two Guys and a Girl gave me what I had been missing from One Life to Live — the live audience. I love that energy, that visceral reaction of the audience there with you,” he said.
