"We wanted Eli's first 'vision' to be a song from his formative years by someone who's been out of the spotlight for a while yet instantly recognizable. George not only fit this criteria, but was perfect because the themes of his music perfectly fit all the themes of the series, they really capture the message of the show"
Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, who bring us the dramedy 'Eli Stone', named each episode of the first season of this series after a song of George Michael and also George is making a couple appearances in the show - he is brought in episode 1, 7 and 13 where he appears as a vision and in episode 9 George will apppear as his flesh and blood self, wanting Eli to represent him in a legal case - all in the first season.
"Because we wrote the show with George Michael in mind. And we wrote it basically like, we picked George because of a lot of different reasons I'll get to - but we picked him sort of knowing that he probably wouldn't do it...wouldn't do it in a million years. So we wrote George Michael, we got word back from his agents saying that he wasn't interested. So then we went about the part of trying to find a replacement. And through the process of finding a replacement, we learned - or rather, realy saw - it was impossible to replace him. Because no one had the right mix of '80s icon, but not overexposed today...fun, the right song, the right name, there were like all these elicit elements that worked perfectly with George. Like five elements, another artist would satisfy maybe three out of the five. George was just perfect from day one. And I don't think we realized how perfect he was until we tried to replace him. Luckily, a different agent of his learned about the script and said, "You know, I think this is something that George would like to do." And he went to George - and George is a big television fan, a total TV-ofile. Even when he's in England he downloads everything off of iTunes and watches a lot of American television. And he really responded to it - as a show, as something he wanted to do - so we really got lucky because I think I did four or five drafts for different artists and they were never as good as the original one we had for George."
Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, who bring us the dramedy 'Eli Stone', named each episode of the first season of this series after a song of George Michael and also George is making a couple appearances in the show - he is brought in episode 1, 7 and 13 where he appears as a vision and in episode 9 George will apppear as his flesh and blood self, wanting Eli to represent him in a legal case - all in the first season.
"Because we wrote the show with George Michael in mind. And we wrote it basically like, we picked George because of a lot of different reasons I'll get to - but we picked him sort of knowing that he probably wouldn't do it...wouldn't do it in a million years. So we wrote George Michael, we got word back from his agents saying that he wasn't interested. So then we went about the part of trying to find a replacement. And through the process of finding a replacement, we learned - or rather, realy saw - it was impossible to replace him. Because no one had the right mix of '80s icon, but not overexposed today...fun, the right song, the right name, there were like all these elicit elements that worked perfectly with George. Like five elements, another artist would satisfy maybe three out of the five. George was just perfect from day one. And I don't think we realized how perfect he was until we tried to replace him. Luckily, a different agent of his learned about the script and said, "You know, I think this is something that George would like to do." And he went to George - and George is a big television fan, a total TV-ofile. Even when he's in England he downloads everything off of iTunes and watches a lot of American television. And he really responded to it - as a show, as something he wanted to do - so we really got lucky because I think I did four or five drafts for different artists and they were never as good as the original one we had for George."
