Monday, January 10, 2005

Hi, Tim!

I spotted an old schoolmate on tonight's episode of 24.

If you frequent The West Wing, you'd recognize Timothy Davis-Reed (as he's known professionally — he was merely Tim Davis back in those long-ago high school days). He appears in about half the episodes each season as Mark O'Donnell, one of the reporters populating the White House press corps. (A common pastime on Wednesday evenings at our house is waiting for me to shout "Hi, Tim!" at the television if Tim utters a line in that week's episode.)



Tim was also a regular on Sports Night, which I watched only occasionally (I'm not a sitcom fan, I'm afraid), and from time to time he pops up on other cathode-tube fare as well.

Tim and I had what I call a "yearbook acquaintance." We had enough classes together than we knew each other well enough to swap autographs at yearbook-signing time, but not well enough that, if Tim pulled out the old Icon and leafed through it today, he'd recall who I was. I rather suspect that his signature in my yearbook is somewhat more intrinsically valuable than mine in his.

At any rate, Tim was a good guy — still is, I suppose — and I'm delighted to take a certain vicarious pride in his success. (Hi, Tim!)

Interestingly enough, I don't remember Tim being a drama geek in high school. I would remember, too, because I was one for a while (someday I'll regale you with the tale of my skyrocket to stardom as Snoopy in our production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown), and Tim didn't run in our crowd. Back then, he was an athlete. Now he's an actor. People change.

Some do, anyway. I still spend an inordinate amount of time in the doghouse.

2 insisted on sticking two cents in:

Blogger Janet offered these pearls of wisdom...

It's so bizarre when you see people you "know" make it "big". I've had a few of those encounters myself, but then again, with the onset or reality tv, the chances of seeing someone you know make it greatly increase I guess.

6:58 PM  
Blogger SwanShadow offered these pearls of wisdom...

Bizarre, yes. But it's gratifying when you see good things happen to good people. The guy I knew as Tim Davis was a decent fellow. I had a class or two in college with Carla Pennington, who for years was a producer on Entertainment Tonight and now is the executive producer of the Dr. Phil show, and I remember her being pretty decent too. It's when you see the jerks succeed that it's galling.

12:12 AM  

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