Tom Irwin

Now, look. I know people who’ve been involved in Steppenwolf like working together as often as possible, so it’s not entirely surprising to see Tom Irwin credited with, say Gary Sinise. That’s fine; that’s to be expected. It’s a little stranger when the thing with Gary Sinise—and this is predating My So-Called Life, understand—also stars, say, Dennis Farina and Billy Campbell. Some show I’ve never heard of? Also features a pre-Twin Peaks Lara Flynn Boyle. That made-for-TV movie starring Lindsay Wagner and Robert Loggia? Also has a Jennifer Lopez performance from when she was just starting to segue out of being a Fly Girl and four years before she played Selena.

For what it’s worth, I’m not sure Graham Chase is one of the best dads in the history of TV. He’s a much better dad than a husband; of that there is no doubt. But I don’t know. I don’t know how he would have handled a potential season two wherein the Chases got divorced; I think the best of his parenting came from knowing he always had Patty there as a backup. I strongly suspect him of being one of those parents who doesn’t know the names of their kids’ teachers and only knows the friends who come over to the house.

However, Tom Irwin’s performance sold him to us. He seemed slightly bewildered by life in general and how he ended up where he was in particular. He clearly loved Patty and his daughters, but he wasn’t sure how he ended up a suburban dad, especially in the early episodes where he worked at his wife’s family business. He was gentle and compassionate, and my Gods I’d love to eat food he prepared if he was willing to work around my food issues, and if he wasn’t, possibly, as smart and sensible as Patty, he was perfectly willing to let Patty be the one in charge because she was good at it. Though his distrust of Brian Krakow was almost certainly based more on himself than Brian Krakow.

While, no, his post-My So-Called career hasn’t been quite as star-studded, there’s still a fair amount of it. A made-for-TV movie with fifteen-year-old Allison Pill here; a made-for-TV movie with Christopher Reeve, Brad Dourif, Alfre Woodard, and Judith Light there. A version of Snow White with Miranda Richardson, Vera Farmiga, Warwick Davis—and Clancy Brown as a representative of Satan? Probably the weirdest. Oh, and an actual bear. Can a mere episode of CSI top that? I ask you.

The Steppenwolf thing does make me happier, though, because it lets me assume that, if I haven’t seen him in anything good for a while, he’s probably on the stage. He apparently won an award once for Tom in The Glass Menagerie, and honestly that tracks with Graham. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to watch his performance of the role, but I have seen, among others, fellow Steppenwolf member John Malkovich in the role. I think Irwin could bring that same bewildered quality that made Graham so successful, not to mention that longing for a different life.