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Cable Networks Cool New Series Are Oases in the Summer Heat

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 August 2005, 06:00 CDT

Television writer Larry Bonko is attending the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif.

TNT, the cable network with a humdinger of a cop show in The Closer, introduces another dandy police drama Sunday night at 10 in Wanted starring Gary Cole.

While broadcast networks poke along in hot weather with reruns, another ho-hum edition of Big Brother on CBS and the overstuffed Empire on ABC, the cable networks sizzle in the summer with a raft of new programming.

Theres The Closer, Wanted and Into the West on TNT. Monk is back on USA with an Emmy nomination for Tony Shalhoub. Entourage on HBO is a hip, hot show. Strong Medicine and Missing pump up Sundays on Lifetime.

Over There could give FX its highest ratings ever. Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis on the Sci-Fi Channel have a combined 8.5 million viewers. The under-30 crowd is hooked on The 70s House and The Real World: Austin on MTV.

The competition in broadcast television acknowledges the summer initiative of cable.

The cable networks realize that their time to shine is in June, July and August with their first-run programs, said Garth Ancier, chairman of The WB.

On TNT, Cole and his select band of law enforcement officers add to cables heat with a bang-bang series about tracking down the 100 most wanted criminals in and around Los Angeles.

Were gypsies, said Cole of the cast and crew. Were not locked away on a soundstage for days at a time.

Were a traveling troupe, added Ryan Hurst, who plays Jimmy McGloin. The look of the show is dark and cinematic. We shoot in some interesting places.

And some bad places, chimed in Josey Scott, who plays Rodney Gronbeck. They spoke as Wanted was previewed for members of the Television Critics Association who are slogging through the summer press tour in a Southern California heat wave.

Coles an old pro whos comfortable in almost any role, be it playing Mike Brady in two Brady Bunch movies or Vice President Robert Bingo Bob Russell on The West Wing or a Satanic sheriff in American Gothic.

And now hes this tough-as-sandpaper guy on TNT Conrad Rose, a police lieutenant who leads a team that includes agents from the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Office of Naval Intelligence; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Its a diverse group of five men (Cole, Scott, Hurst, Benjamin Benitez and Lee Tergesen) and two women. They are Dedee Pfeiffer and Rashida Jones, the daughter of Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton, who starred in Mod Squad for five years starting in 1968.

Jones said, My mom didnt carry a gun and wore very short skirts.

Mod Squad was produced by the same men, Aaron Spelling and E. Duke Vincent, who are producing Wanted. Small world.

Of the officers played by Jones and the others, the shows creator, Jorge Zamacona, said, Theyre irreverent, professional, heroic and vulgar.

Theyre also loud and argue a lot.

There is acrimony in the squad about what tactics to use to get the bad guys. They talk about what lines to cross and what lines they will not cross. But they do not break the law to enforce the law. They dont go stomping down doors without search warrants in their pockets, said Zamacona, who has worked on Oz and Homicide: Life on the Street.

There are times when you wish they would go busting in after the perps, warrant or no warrant, as in the first episode when a cop killer and child rapist is on the loose. In a future episode, Coles force goes after bank robbers who set out on a murderous rampage. In the Aug. 14 show, a Korean gang lord makes big trouble.

We deal with darkness, Cole said of his elite unit.

Out of the darkness, Cole is the father of a son about to enter his teens. Hes divorced. It is jarring for him to jump back and forth between the in-your-face brutality of his job and the quiet of his personal life, Cole said.

Cole as Lt. Rose has a decision to make in the first episode. Should he sit with the young rape victim who has asked him to remain at her side in the hospital? Or should he go as promised to spend the afternoon with his son?

Hes conflicted and flawed, said Cole of his character. Hes short- tempered, too, roughing up suspects to a greater degree than Andy Sipowicz ever did on NYPD Blue.

The shows pace is quick. The action is abundant. Bodies fall. There are car chases. And a bloody shootout pops up here and there.

But we are not trying to out-violence other police programs, said Zamacona. While it may seem weve ratcheted up the violence, our advisers tell us that we couldnt possibly film what the real police officers go through day to day.

Cole wanted so much to be a part of this series about the wild side Los Angeles that he auditioned for the part of Lt. Rose. Thats rare for an actor with Coles resume.

He actually came in and read for the part. An actor of Coles stature usually doesnt do that. The fact that he did speaks volumes about what he thinks of his part and the series, Zamacona said.

I suspect that Cole is a workaholic or he has a really big mortgage.

n Reach Larry Bonko at (757) 446-2486 or larry.bonko@pilotonline.com.

Source: Virginian - Pilot

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