TV Tattler: Celebrity Interviews

John Stamos Dishes About a Revamped 'Jake in Progress'

About 'Jake in Progress' Show Info & Listings Talk About It Midseason TV Premieres

Jan. 10 -- 'Jake in Progress,' indeed. ABC's year-old sitcom starring John Stamos is getting a reboot, with a new storyline, new characters and new wardrobe for its leading man.

In season two, which premieres tonight, the show will become more of a traditional romantic comedy after introducing Annie, played by 'NYPD Blue' star Charlotte Ross, who left Jake at the altar three years ago. She's getting married to another man, but when the exes start working together at Jake's PR firm, old feelings start coming back.

Stamos chatted with AOL Television editor Kelly Woo about the changes, his New Year resolutions and the hilarious short film 'I Am Stamos.'

I watched the first two episodes of season two, and the premiere really feels like a pilot for an almost totally new show.
It's interesting that you say the first show is like a pilot because we always treated it like that, like it was going to be a new fresh show that people saw for the first time. The main goal was to make Jake more vulnerable and accessible and less slick Last year, we started out and we really got thrown into so many different directions because the show was initially going to be a romantic comedy version of '24.' We threw that idea out. Then we thought he should date a bunch of girls, and that became kind of disrespectful I thought. It takes time to figure these shows out; luckily we got to do it under the radar last year. So, our goal this year was to figure out what worked and do only that.

So the girl of the week stories weren't working?
A lot of it didn't work. I never liked the idea of different girl of the week. I think that a good, smart, traditional romantic comedy is a guy and a girl. That's been the backbone of this season, and everything else seems to be falling into place really well. Everyone has their own thing to do and their own storyline, with Jake still weaved within them. Our goal also was to put more out there for more people, so you wouldn't just have to watch my ass for 22 minutes.

Will the season be focused on the Jake/Annie relationship, or will he still be a bit of the man about town?
Certainly the first six or seven episodes, I end up working with her. She's still getting married. We go through broad-stroke romantic comedy themes, but I think we do it really well. I try to break up her wedding. So the first half is about Jake and Annie. The second half … you'll have to watch.

How was Charlotte Ross cast as Annie?
The usual way -- she came in and auditioned. There was some great people who wanted to do the show, but it's all about chemistry. She's got an old-school movie star quality that I like about her. We're playing a lot of Hepburn-Tracy fast dialogue and she did that really well. I think she kind of grounds me as Jake. She's been a good match for me.

Jake has a new friend, Mark. Why was he brought into the fold?
We needed Jake to have a friend. We were having issues with the Patrick character, making it believable that he would be someone that Jake would hang out with all the time.We love Rick Hoffman, he's so funny. We figured out what worked best for him: It wasn't really him being a friend of mine, it was more him antagonizing me all the time. And then Ian [Gomez, as Adrian], he's got the wife and kids. We wanted a fun old friend that could be my buddy, and also take some of the heat off of me dating. He's freshly single, he's out there in the field. He can be more of the "date of the week" kind of guy.

The first two episodes didn't show Jake doing much PR work. Will we be seeing those stories again?
We see it. Actually we're doing an episode next week where I'm kind of on a rebound of Annie, she leaves again, it's about episode seven or eight. We do a story that parallels Brad and Jennifer. So I have to deal with her break-up, and we kind of fall for each other a bit as a rebound thing. We have a lot more references coming up and we get into it more.

There were some rumors you were joining the cast of 'ER,' and then you ended up doing a guest stint in November. Is drama something you'd like to do later down the road?
My absolute first priority is 'Jake.' I'm doing everything I can do keep it on the air, I'm doing everything I can to make people want to watch the show. That's all I'm really thinking about. I did 'ER,' I had the time and I wanted to continue my relationship with John Wells. But I'm really not thinking past 'Jake' at all.

Our sister site, Moviefone, ran a funny short called 'I Am Stamos' in its short film festival. How did you get involved in that?
These two smart kids came and saw me in … I think it was 'Cabaret.' I think they felt I had a sense of humor about myself, which I do. They pitched me this idea about some guy, a character actor who wanted to look like me and gets his wish and destroys my life. I thought they made a really funny little movie.

Have you been doing much with music?
Not enough. I play with the Beach Boys once in awhile. There was a time when I was doing so many different things, my goal was a little unfocused. I'm trying to be the best actor I can be right now and trying to make 'Jake' as good as it can be. But I'll do some big shows with the Beach Boys, occasionally, and benefits. We did some Katrina benefits.

Do you have any New Year's resolutions?
I usually start bad habits at New Year's. No, no I haven't made any.