Jim Troesh knows that most people don’t turn on their televisions expecting to see a voluptuous bikini model tossing grapes into the mouth of a quadriplegic. He also knows that young people with disabilities don’t usually put “television star” at the top of their lists of potential careers. He’s determined to change both.
Troesh, most famous for his role as the quadriplegic attorney on Highway to Heaven, is the writer, director, and star of The Hollywood Quad, a TV comedy pilot which he hopes will be snatched up and made into a series in the near future. He spoke recently with a Disaboom writer.
Troesh sustained his disability after a fall at age 14.
“I was putting up an antenna on my friend’s roof, on a tower he had," Jim remembers. “And I had climbed up to the top of this tower and was putting up this antenna, not realizing that electricity could actually jump off the high voltage wire that was about five feet away from me. I thought you actually had to touch it. So it jumped onto the antenna, and that threw me off the tower. I bounced on the roof and then into some bushes, and that’s when my neck got broken at C4/5.”
Disability as a Teen
As a teenager with a new disability, Troesh didn’t envision himself going on to become a well-known actor. “I couldn’t see doing anything. You know, I got suicidal, and all of that stuff that happens, cause you know, I’m a teenager and quadriplegic at the same time.”
Jim’s main concerns after acquiring his disability were, “Getting high and watching cartoons… I finished high school, but after that, I just did that and I kind of drifted back into college and I took classes that I could still get high in. Film classes, where you just watch movies.”
Soon, however, Jim Troesh realized that in looking for an easy way through college, he’d found a talent and a potential career path. On the advice of college professors, Troesh studied broadcast journalism, abandoning marijuana in favor of better grades, and then taking acting classes.
He began to audition as an actor and took on a variety of small roles before landing what was supposed to be a role in a single Highway to Heaven episode. Highway star Michael Landon liked Troesh’s acting, and invited him to write an episode for the show.
15 Minutes of Disability Fame
Landon bought the episode, the quadriplegic lawyer became a continuing character, and Jim Troesh became one of the most recognizable television actors of the 1980’s. “I was a, quote, 'celebrity' for a number of years…. I hung out with famous people… Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Kennedys, TV and movie stars.”
However, Troesh’s celebrity didn’t last forever. “I kind of was around for several years, and I figured that my career was pretty well set. And then it slowed down, as it does for able-bodied people. Your series ends, and suddenly you’re out of work… and it all, it has nothing to do with disability. That’s just the nature of the business.”
For several years, Jim Troesh did assorted jobs and continued to write in his spare time, with credits including the movie Color of the Cross. Though he was absent from TV screens, acting was never far from Jim’s mind. The idea for The Hollywood Quad was born when he recorded a series of podcasts with the same title.
Hollywood Quad is Born
“With that, I pretty much just wanted to talk about me and me being in the business and joke around and show you what my life is like," says Tresh. “Then, I’d done several and I thought I’d like to talk about the sex thing. Well, the podcast was called ‘Sex and the Single Quad,’ and that got 10 or 20 times more hits than any of my other podcasts, and I got a ton of good feedback from other disabled people, saying, ‘Hey, thanks for putting this out there.’”
Friends and viewers, both with disabilities and able-bodied, clamored to know what the next Hollywood Quad podcast would be about. Troesh realized that, to help tell his story, he wanted to bring in other actors.
“Most of my friends are comedy actors… and it just kind of grew, and I thought, ‘This needs to be taken up a level and why not make it a pilot for TV?’” That’s exactly what Jim Troesh did, recruiting Brian Cranston (formerly of Malcolm in the Middle) as a guest star. Cranston plays a network executive who commits every possible disability faux pas in meeting with Jim. Jim plays himself and, in a twist Jim describes as, “almost Seinfeld-esque,” pitches to Cranston’s character his idea for a sitcom called “The Hollywood Quad.”
About the pilot, Jim says, “I didn’t put myself or disability in the forefront. I put story in the forefront. Cause my life isn’t all about, ‘Hey, I’m a quadriplegic guy.’ It’s all about, ‘My girlfriend is upset, I’ve got to fix that, she thinks I’m cheating on her, I’ve got to fix that, my best friend thinks I’m an idiot…’ It’s all stuff that you have in life. I turn to the camera from time to time and say things like, ‘And you thought me being quadriplegic was my biggest problem.’”
Even Cranston’s character’s fumbling is based on Troesh’s real-life experiences as one of few performers with disabilities in Hollywood. “He tries to shake my hand. Almost every executive’s office that I go into, they reach out to shake my hand. And then I’m like, ‘Well, I can’t shake your hand, but nice to meet you.’ And I’ve been in the office 30 seconds and now they feel like an idiot.”
Still Obstacles for Actors with Disabilities
Troesh is confident that The Hollywood Quad will appeal to able-bodied and viewers with disabilities alike, but he knows that some obstacles remain in Hollywood, which he describes as, “A world where glitz is often chosen over substance.”
Actors in the pilot have already encountered some resistance. “I have a couple able-bodied people in my cast, who have talked about this show to other executives that they deal with… and some are like, ‘Oh, a quadriplegic guy? Who would ever want to watch that?’ But they said that about lots of shows. Years ago, they would have told black people ‘Well I don’t know, you’re black, so it ain’t gonna work out for you in show business.’ But obviously that has been proven wrong. But usually on most lists (of minority performers), performers with disabilities aren’t even listed… So we’re trying to turn that around. There are a lot of people actively working on that.”
Is a career in show business a realistic goal for a young person with a disability? According to Jim, “Absolutely.” His advice to young would-be stars is “just take acting classes, writing classes, producing—just go to the places where everybody goes. UCLA, USC, to colleges in your hometown if that’s what you have. Almost every college has their own theater program. So get involved in that. If you’re disabled and want to do it, don’t take no for an answer.”
