Fred Goss

Straddling roles as writer, director, producer and actor, multihyphenate Fred Goss launched his career as the progenitor of two quirky series comedies during the early 1990s - with highly uneven results. Significant Others (launched on the Bravo cable network in 2004) offered a highly improvisational comic riff on group psychotherapy, by cutting back-and-forth between the private lives of four couples and their respective therapy sessions. That program scored with the public, received an utterly enthusiastic critical response, and continued to run well after its first season. Unfortunately, Goss's attempt to mount a follow up on one of the main networks, Sons and Daughters (aired on ABC in 2006 and not to be confused with the 1991 CBS Lucie Arnaz drama of the same title) failed to catch fire with viewers, alternately panned by the press as a diluted version of the same general setup and as a knock-off of Arrested Development. Starring Voss, Gillian Vigman and Dee Wallace, this irreverent sitcom concerned an overstressed suburbanite (Voss) plagued with stresses and frustrations from a bunch of nutty characters who surround him, and whose inability to keep secrets to themselves trigger a chain reaction of catastrophic consequences. Unfortunately, that program folded after less than one season. Not one to be daunted, Goss teamed up with Arrested Development creators Anthony and Joe Russo to star in their new series comedy Carpoolers (2007), about a group of middle-aged men who engage in irreverent discussions together on their shared drive to and from work each day, and the office complications that ensue for each man in-between drives. The program co-starred Jerry O'Connell, Jerry Minor and Tim Peper. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide