Interview: Tony Denison Talks About Major Crimes and The Closer

In a new interview with Asssignment X Magazine, Tony Denison reminisces on the end of The Closer, the differences in Major Crimes, and his role on the 80′s drama Crime Story.

ASSIGNMENT X: Has Andy Flynn changed in going from THE CLOSER TO MAJOR CRIMES?

TONY DENISON: No, he’s still the lieutenant and we have more to do on the new show, which is great. It’s great what we were doing on the old show. G.W. and I had an opportunity to have these comic episodes that we would break off and do. We had those opportunities to do those sort of off-kilter [scenes and episodes]. In this show, we really haven’t had a chance to do that much. But we do still have our repartee with one another, looks, rolled eyes and stuff. We also are doing much more procedural work now with Mary. We’re on crime scenes coming up with stuff to do as detectives would.

Read the whole interview here.

Graham Patrick Martin On His Role in Major Crimes

Starry Constellation Magazine Interviewed Graham Patrick Martin on his role on The Closer and how he fits into Major Crimes.

My character (is) Rusty Beck, and I am introduced in the finale of “The Closer.” The Major Crimes Division needs my help with a case that they are working on. I use that leverage to make a deal with the Major Crimes Division saying, “I’ll give you the help that you need if you use your resources to find my mother, who has abandoned me.” Rusty is a homeless teen who has been abandoned by his mother seven months prior and has been living on the streets. So, he takes this opportunity as his one shot to find his mother who has left him. Ultimately, “The Closer” ends and Rusty’s end of the deal is upheld. That’s where I come in on “Major Crimes.” Rusty comes back and says, “You guys have to uphold your end of the deal and find my mom.”

Whole interview here.

Goodbye Kyra, Hello Mary!

In a new interview in Dish Mag, creator James Duff talks about bringing The Closer to and end, and creating Major Crimes to continue its legacy.

Major Crimes Creator James Duff described how that show picks up where The Closer leaves off.  “What I mean by that,” he said, “is The Closer concentrated almost exclusively on getting confessions, while the major crimes team is expected to deliver convictions.  And with the help of a few intriguing new characters, such as former Two and a Half Men’s Graham Patrick Martin as homeless teen Rusty, and a new undercover detective, a few DAs, and members of the FBI task forces, Major Crimes proves that in life, everything, even murder, could be a negotiation.”

Whole article here.

James Duff on the End of The Closer, and the Future of Major Crimes

James Duff, showrunner and creator of both Major Crimes and The Closer wrote a note to fans reguarding the end and the beginning of his two shows:

While The Closer generally wrapped up with a final interview, Major Crimes must reach further into the process. I look forward to exploring the justice system by seeing how it works when people play as absolutely by the rules as they can. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to what came before. Let us ask ourselves, and also ask our collective conscience, given a serious lack of funding, what kind of bargains is the justice system designed to make? It’s a new and different way of looking at murder, and part of the authentic change occurring inside the public sector (independent of which party is in power).

Read his whole letter to fans here.

Same show, different closer ‘Major Crimes’ picks up where Kyra left off

There’s a new closer in town. She’s diligent, brusque and tough — maybe too tough.

After Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson’s last case is filed next month, she’ll be succeeded by the cold, meddling thorn in her side, Capt. Sharon Raydor, played by Mary McDonnell, on “Major Crimes,” the “Closer” spinoff that premieres on TNT Aug. 13.

 

Series creator James Duff knows “Closer” fans are split on Raydor’s likability. He hopes viewers will be patient.

“The first year of ‘The Closer’ a lot of people just hated Brenda. My own attorney called after the third episode and said, ‘I just don’t know if I like her,’’’ he says. “Then he called the next week and goes, ‘She’s growing on me a little bit.’ That’s what happened — people grew to like her.”

Read more here.

 

James Duff on the end of The Closer and the future of Major Crimes

In a new interview with Assignment X Magazine, Creator and Executive Producer James Duff talks about bringing The Closer to an end, and moving forward with Major Crimes.

AX: Can you talk about the differences and the similarities between Brenda and Sharon as characters?

DUFF: Brenda is a much more personality-driven, impulse-driven, what-I-need-to-do, obsessive/compulsive kind of personality.Sharon is much more orderly and she is more like her conscience. Brenda is more like your desires and your wants and your conscious self, and Raydor is more like your conscience telling you what you ought to do. It would be appealing to think that we always followed our conscience, or found our conscience in some way attractive, but a lot of us would like to avoid it.

Read the whole interview here.