Monk see, Monk do
09/07/07 08:51 AM
By ED BARK
Whatever your profession, it's often who you know. And D-FW media vet Nancy Jay has been virtually lifelong friends with Monk executive producer Randy Zisk.
He gifts her with a brief role as a news anchor on the Friday, Sept. 7th episode of Monk (8 p.m. central), subtitled "Mr. Monk and the Wrong Man."
"This is my 15 minutes of fame, probably condensed down to about 45 seconds," Jay says in a telephone interview.
She's otherwise been all over the D-FW media landscape since the early 1980s. Jay's worked in radio at KZPS, WBAP and KRLD. She's written for The Dallas Times Herald and was an entertainment reporter/anchor for much of the 1990s for KTVT-TV before CBS bought the station.
Lately she's freelancing in both radio and TV. Listen for her as the off-camera voice of Jerry Jones' wife during a new commercial in which he cradles a Super Bowl trophy while talking in his sleep and wearing his Cowboys pajamas.
"I want it all . . . I've tasted greatness and I'm hungry for it again," Jones says before his "wife" yells, "Jerry, wake up! You're dreamin' about Papa John's pizza again!"
Jay and Zisk have known each other since his days at St. Mark's School of Texas and her days at W.T. White. So he threw a little work her way when Monk's script called for a news anchor to report that a murderer put away by Monk had his conviction overturned.
"My heart was pounding," she says, "but it was an absolute blast."
Jay and fellow guest stars Alfred Molina and Angela Kinsey from The Office all had their own trailers, even if their names were spelled out in impermanent masking tape. She then spent six hours worth of "hurry up and wait" after a 6:15 a.m. makeup call. Jay says it gave her a firsthand understanding of why actors sometimes act up on the set. They're simply bored.
"If Brad Pitt had been my co-star, sure I'd invite him in and lock the door," she says.
Jay hasn't seen her Monk episode yet, but has been assured that "I do not end up on the cutting room floor."
Her character didn't have a name during filming, she says. "I'm thinking Nancy Jay'll work."