"Over all, especially in the shows where it's an ensemble cast, learning who the viewers are connecting with can be surprising, and definitely influential in how we promote the show," says Ms. Troiano.
However, theatre and theatre organisations are often far less open to casting learning disabled actors and integrating them into productions than TV, hence Hughes's sharp words and the need to keep challenging the assumptions made about disabled performers.
In October, the cast learned that the second series of "Eden" had not been broadcast.
The cast learned of Brexit and Trump's election from passing walkers but did not know if the news was true.
"Cab Legs," which played at P.S. 122 in 1997, was a barely recognizable version of "Summer and Smoke," by Tennessee Williams — the cast learned the lines, and then paraphrased them in performance — combined with Cab Calloway-inspired dance moves.
Maybe everyone else in the cast learned a lesson from the second-season villainess Angelina Pivarnick's galumphing "I'm Hot" and Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino's "The Situation," neither of which inspired much fist-pumping.
Majella Hurley, a dialect coach whose theater and film résumé includes the recent revival of "Journey's End," helped Ms. Danes, Mr. Mays, Boyd Gaines and the rest of the "Pygmalion" cast learn several different British dialects.
NBC also put together an alternate schedule it could present to the advertisers in the upfront session, set for a few days away, and made sure the "Friends" cast learned of it.
"Anchorman" was heavily impacted by what McKay and his cast learned in their early years of comedy training.
Finally, though, the rest of the cast learned how difficult it was to play off of Swedberg's character.
