This was looking like it might be one that got away. One of the very few items of Kathryn’s work that I never got to see.
The mid-1990s was an important time in Kathryn’s career. She took lots of small roles in films and TV shows. Most actors do the same thing. They are learning their trade and making connections that could stand them in good stead for the future. Pensacola: Wings Of Gold, Kathryn’s first as a series regular in a leading role, was still a year away.
By that period Ted Danson was already very established in the industry after a number of films and a long run in the show Cheers. Ted had gone through his apprenticeship more than a decade earlier. He was looking for a new vehicle for himself, and no doubt the networks were too. The year before the comedy Becker came along, Ted tried another comedy called Ink. This time he got to work with his wife, the wonderful Mary Steenburgen (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist).
Ink is based in a newspaper (ask your parents if you’re not sure what that is, it’s sort of the Internet without reception or battery worries). Ted and Mary play journalists who have recently divorced but find themselves working together, despite attempts not to. Hilarity ensues. It lasted just the one season.
For ages the credit has been sitting in Kathryn’s filmography as ‘woman’ in the pilot episode (season 1, episode 1) of Ink. It is very much correct but really tells us nothing. Well, I can finally expand on that description. The more accurate version is…. ready for this? Taken directly from the show itself. ‘Woman on the street’. Yes. That’s it. That is Kathryn’s full credit in this.
Sadly it is another blink and you’ll miss it appearance of Kathryn in something. Look at the picture above for 10 seconds and you’ve gone too long. To be fair, if they ran the credits in order of appearance, she’d practically be the headline act. Less than 1 minute into the show is all she gets. I hoped for a funny call back to that opening scene but it was not to be. It’s a bright, shining moment, but a moment none the less.
As you’ve come to expect of this site there are some screencaps from the scene and a short video of it now in the Gallery. Despite the small size and not great quality of the images and video, it is unmistakably Kathryn.
Many thanks to the person who made this available. You brought to an end a very long search.
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