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Had Tony Vellela taken a sleep enhancer, it's possible that we wouldn't be able to enjoy the "Character Studies" series. He explains, "I got the idea in the middle of the night. I woke up and wrote it down. The next morning, I called a very good friend, Austin Pendleton, and asked, 'Has anyone ever done this?'"

The idea was to examine the lives of those depicted in plays and musicals. "Every great character in a play is a fully-formed person," observes Vellela. Fascinated by "the colors behind the facts," he set out to examine the individuals through interviews with writers, actors, and directors.

"We treat characters like real people. It's a study in human behavior. I don't know if it's unique," Vellela admits, "but it's unusual." Interspersed with interviews are film and TV clips, stills, and archival photographs that reflect the time period. The series' hosts are Eli Wallach, Eric Stoltz and Phylicia Rashad.

Among those discussing Mrs. Wingfield were Julie Harris, Olympia Dukakis, and Ruby Dee (all of whom portrayed the heroine), Sam Waterston (a TV Tom, opposite Katharine Hepburn), James Naughton (once a Gentleman Caller), and Martha Plimpton (a one-time Laura). Commentators on Mama Rose included Tyne Daly, Betty Buckley, Bernadette Peters, Arthur Laurents, and Stephen Sondheim. Focusing on Raisin's Ruth were talents such as Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad and Lloyd Richards.

Says Vellela, "We are pacing the releases of episodes based on [recorded] material. We were able to do the first ones because we had a tremendous amount of material." He's grateful for the expanded format for "Our Town," stating, "Originally, we were going to concentrate on just George [Gibbs]. An hour allows us more depth, and we can also study Emily [Webb]." For anyone who may not know, George and Emily are the young couple — next-door neighbors and friends since childhood — around whose relationship Thornton Wilder's play revolves. Overseeing the action is the character of the Stage Manager.

Participants in the "Our Town" episode include host-narrator Eli Wallach; members of the most recent Broadway revival (aired on PBS in 2003): Paul Newman, Stephen Spinella, Ben Fox, Maggie Lacey, Jeffrey De Munn, and its director, James Naughton; Eric Stoltz, James Rebhorn, and Frances Conroy (Lincoln Center's 1988 production, also seen on PBS); Cynthia Nixon (Emily in a 1990 Old Globe presentation); and Harvey Evans (Broadway's George in 1969). "We were very pleased to include Harvey," Vellela tells me. "We thought that we were only going to interview actors who did George in the last ten years."

Also seen is Tom Jones who, with Harvey Schmidt, wrote a musical version of Wilder's play, which they called Grover's Corners. Jones portrayed the Stage Manager. Rarest among the clips is a scene from a 1955 TV-musical version, with Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint as George and Emily. (Not seen in the documentary is Frank Sinatra who, as the Stage Manger, introduced the standard "Love and Marriage.") The program allows you to see Newman as George and — almost a half-century later — as the Stage Manager. "To be able to see that kind of an arc in a person's career," exclaims Vellela, "is amazing!"

Clips are seen from the 1940 film version (for which a happy ending was added), with William Holden and Martha Scott as George and Emily, and a cast including Thomas Mitchell, Fay Bainter, Guy Kibbee, Beulah Bondi, Stuart Erwin and Frank Craven (Broadway's original 1938 Stage Manager).

Occasionally, the same scene shifts from the '40 film to a subsequent TV version, among which are a 1977 NBC telecast, with Sada Thompson and Ned Beatty as George's parents, and the 1989 PBS presentation (featuring the 1988 Lincoln Center cast, including Spalding Gray and Penelope Ann Miller).

Sixty minutes also lets Vellela a more in-depth look at the drama. "Every single person I talked to had the same experience — that [Our Town] is not a Hallmark-card-theme play, but a dark, serious work. People don't always realize that." It's also noted that the Stage Manager character may have inspired George Burns' introductions to episodes of the 1950s sitcom "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show."

Included in the documentary are stills from school and regional productions of Our Town.

Upcoming "Character Studies" include profiles of Anna in The King and I ("We interviewed Shirley Jones, Barbara Cook, and Donna Murphy"), Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Edmund in Long Day's Journey Into Night, Mark in Rent, Roxie and Velma in Chicago, Music Man Harold Hill, and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Vellela was able to interview the original Martha, the late Uta Hagen. "She was in failing health, but she knew about the project and had a long history with Austin Pendleton [the series' Creative Consultant], because of the HB Studios."

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