Tim DeKay in 1998's "Cupid"

[tzikeh]

I had seen "The Bizarro Jerry" episode of Seinfeld, but it was the episode, more than Tim as Kevin, that made an impression. Other than being a nice guy, the character of Kevin didn't really have much for an actor to play with. But In 1998, Tim guest-starred in Cupid, and I said, "Who is THAT?", and I've been following his career ever since. He is unbearably sweet and darling in this role.

Cupid was a wonderful, hilarious show set and filmed in Chicago. It was canceled way too soon, because ABC sucks puréed donkey balls through a Krazy Straw. It was remade... this? Last? season, and was unbelievably crappy, and thank God it was quickly taken off the air. (I could go on a diatribe about how ABC treated the original, but instead I'll just give you the premise, and then links to Tim's episode, "The Linguist," on YouTube.)



Jeremy Piven plays a man who believes he's Cupid. According to him, he's been banished to Earth for some transgression against the gods, and has to match up one hundred couples without using his godly powers (bow&arrow, for example) before he can return to Mount Olympus. (One of the lovely things about the show is that it's never quite clear if he *is* Cupid or not--he does seem to have a few things going on that are not quite explicable.)

His psychiatrist (Get it? Cupid & Psyche?) is Dr. Claire Allen, who, in the pilot, winds up taking "custody" of him, in a way, so that he can be released from the asylum where he's being held. No one has any leads on his real name, where he's from, anything. (He goes by the name Trevor Hale, for reasons made clear in the pilot.)

Claire, on top of her private practice, runs a therapy group for singles. Trevor joins up, and it becomes a battle between mind and heart as to the best way to find love matches for the group members.

Trevor has found a roommate named Champ, who works at a bar while he tries to get jobs as an actor. In Trevor's room is a string of 100 beads, hung from the ceiling. For each couple he matches up, he moves a bead from one end of the string to the other.

In "The Linguist," Tim plays Jennings Crawford, a professor of Linguistics at the University of Chicago, whom Claire enlists to try to figure out where Trevor might be from via his accent and speech patterns. But Jennings turns out to need Claire and Trevor's help as much as Claire needs Jennings' help....

(Oh, and keep your eyes open for Tim's wife, Elisa, in a two-scene role; Claire meets her in a bookshop where she's looking for books on Glenn Miller.)

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If you want to save the episode to your computer, simply copy each link, and then paste it into the field at KeepVid and click "download." It will give you several filetype options for you to save it as.

I cannot stress enough how freaking adorkable Tim is in this. Seriously. I fell completely in love.

All comments about the episode and character are welcome here. SO. FREAKIN'. CUTE.

(x-posted to whitecollar_tv and timdekay_daily)

Comments

[anoel.livejournal.com]

Man I looove this episode and Tim in it. So freaking cute. I actually remembered him from this and the blind preacher in Everwood and one day spotted him at Universal Studios in Hollywood back in 2008ish. Unfortunately he was in a rush and it took me awhile to recognize him or I would have said something.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Aww! Two ships passing in the night! I would have run after him. :) I never watched Everwood, but I do remember hearing he was in it. My friend from NU, Greg Berlanti, was the showrunner--I should have asked him for a copy. :D

[laura47.livejournal.com]

i loved "Cupid"! It was awesome!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

It was a truly awesome show. ABC sucks ass.

[bailunrui.livejournal.com]

When I saw White Collar for the first time, I was like... I KNOW that guy. Took me about ten minutes to realize it was from Cupid. <3 Cupid!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Dood - you didn't watch Carnivàle? You must rectify this immediately.

[leviathan0999.livejournal.com]

See, I first "met" Tim in Tell Me You Love Me, and was vey impressed with his honest, human performance, and even more so in the behind-the-scenes interviews, where he was so witty and smart and fun. I loved that one of his character motivations was a huge crush on the therapist played by Jane Alexander.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I saw the first few episodes of Tell Me You Love Me and was really turned off by it. I kind of hated, like, *every single character*. It was just dour, IMO, so I gave up on it, even though it had TDK, and I was *still* bumming about the cancellation of Carnivàle, so I gave it everything I had. Alas.

Maybe I'll Netflix the DVDs just to watch the behind-the-scenes stuff.

[gin200168.livejournal.com]

Ok, that was awesome. Like make me smile because he's adorable and smishable and CUTE. I'm slowly on a find all the Tim stuff I can kick, but it's slow going. Cupid was on the list. That was epic awesome.

The tuxedo and the happy disheveled bit at the end were so cute! I could have done without the bad accent, but he makes up for it in smishability.

(I am hoping the happy disheveled bit will inspire the Peter in my head. Optimistic, I know.)

The more I see of him, the more I'm really impressed with both his on-screen talent and off-screen personality. I'd love to sit down and talk to him, but I'd feel like an idiot and totally outclassed because my science brain probably couldn't keep up or intelligently speak about anything relevant.

Thanks for the links. :-)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

He is *adorable*. I swear I had no idea who he was and I wanted to take him home and... help him get past his little problem. :D

TUX FTW!

Re: accent -- honest to God, that *is* what people from Saaahth Baaahstan sound like. It is the strangest accent in America.

[gin200168.livejournal.com]

I know! I was like ooh, I would help you! Professor, cute, adorable... YES. LOL

That's a real and accurate accent? o_O Odd. That is the weirdest thing I've ever heard. I knew the East Coast had a lot of those, but huh. I've confused people and been told I don't have one-- a west coast/Northwest thing, I hear.

... I still want to smish him. :-p

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

That's a real and accurate accent?

The folks in south Boston (or, as denizens of the area would be quick to correct you, SOUTHIES) have a completely strange mix of RP English, Irish, Standard American, and their own unique sound. You can listen to a voice coach teach the difference between Southie, lower Maine, and Prov (Providence RI) heaah. You'll see that the East Coast is a wonderful-sounding place, and the sound can change from mile to mile.

[wersheep.livejournal.com]

thank you very much - that was soo cute. I do not remember if Cupid ever made it to German TV (and we have the nasty habit of dubbing everything - thats why our English is so bad btw). Thanks for the explanation of the accent - my own is pretty much over the English speaking world - always taking inspiration from the last movie/tv show I watched.

but Heavens Tim is adorable in this ep. I have just started Carnivale (with subtitles, otherwise I only get half of it) and it is a brilliant series and I cannot wait to see Tim in this so completely different setting.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, Carnivàle--one of my all-time favorite shows. If you need any help understanding the American mythos (the very rich social history of that time plays into the plot in significant ways), just drop me an lj mail!

[stevenglassman.livejournal.com]

I loved the original Cupid- it was on the same year they did the Malcolm McDowell rehash of Fantasy Island, and that was another show that ABC didn't let play out, alas.

The retread was never even remotely as good- without Piven, it just fell flat. My favorite episode from the original was always "First Loves," the ep with Lisa Loeb.

As an aside, I have collected fifteen episodes of the original series in mpg form. Do you need 'em?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I loved that Fantasy Island--especially the conceit that it was Shakespeare's Tempest.

Thanks for the offer, but I have all of the original Cupid, plus the one that never aired here ("Botched Makeover") that I converted from VHS to DVD.

Man, they were really building a great mythology just before they were canceled. Pissed me off. Though it was relatively easy, once we had the episode with Sherilyn Fenn, how the series would end, given appropriate time to air and plan out a final episode. ;)