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Serious
Comedies
Writer-producer Jay Tarses makes the TV
sitcom look irrelevant with shows that
effectively combine low humor and high drama

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BY RON GIVENS

There's no particular reason why anyone
would ever notice this ugly, dark gray box of
a building. It squats between a tile store and
a flood-control canal in North Hollywood.
Across the busy six-lane street area "donut"
shop, a clinic that specializes in chiroprac-
tics and podiatry, a fast-food chicken place
and a video store. This is a typically nonde-
script commercial strip of the San Fernan-
do Valley, and even here the dark gray
buildingdoes not stand out. Yet it is here, in
what Jay Tarses calls "the bowels of hell, "
that the employees of Slap Happy Produc-
tions are trying to create television in a new
and exciting way.
ered one of the most brilliant
Who is Jay Tarses? He's consid-
men working in commercial
television today. But, unless
you're a dedicated scanner of
credits, you've probably never heard of
him. Tarses is a writer, producer and direc-
tor of television programs, as well as an
occasional actor. He has managed to devel-
op a glowing reputation in the TV industry
even though he's never come up with an
out-and-out hit series. In 15 years of full-
time TV work, only three of the shows he
has created, or helped to create, have run
beyond a single season. But Tarses, 48, pos-
sesses influence far beyond ratings. His
"Buffalo Bill," which starred Dabney Cole-
man as an abrasive talk-show host, has
become a cult show in its current incarna-
tion on cable. And in recent months, he has
pushed television comedy far beyond the
tired conventions of the sitcom-with "The
Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" last sum-
8 NEWSWEEKONCAMPUS

Taking a meeting: Brush, Doyle and
Tarses (from left); work and play E
mix on Tarses's desk

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mer on NBC and "The 'Slap' Maxwell Sto-
ry" on ABC this fall. Says Brandon Tarti-
koff, president of NBC Entertainment, "I
think he's one of the few original thinkers
in Hollywood."
Tarses is among a handful of producers
who've given TV a new, more serious
sense of humor. This can be seen most
strongly in a few influential shows that
blend comedy and drama in varying pro-
portions. The television industry has al-
ready coined a term for this kind of pro-
gram, "dramedy." (It's a term that some,
including Tarses, happen to hate.) Three
current shows fit this formatless format.
ABC has "'Slap' Maxwell" and "Hooper-
man," about a police detective, starring

John Ritter. And CBS has "Frank's
Place," about a New Orleans restaura-
teur, starring Tim Reid. Then there's
"Molly Dodd," which will return to the
NBC slate later this season.
All three networks have more dra-
medies in development. The reason is
simple, according to Bernie Brillstein,
Tarses's manager and the chief execu-
tive officer of Lorimar Telepictures,
who believes that the networks are
more willing to experiment because the
numbers of prime-time viewers have
been declining in recent years: "When
people have the [remote-control] clicker in
their hand, if you don't give
them an alternative, they're going to
turn you off."
It's 9:30 a.m., and the dark gray building
is bustling with activity. Tarses is meeting
with writer-producer Bob Brush and pro-
ducerRoz Doyle to discuss locations in New
York where "MollyDodd"mightshoot in a
month. In the back of the building, a group
of technicians is lighting a three-walled
kitchen set. And in the building's entry-
way, Beth Hillshafer is directing a "home
movie" version of Slap Maxwell's wedding
reception, to be projected later in the back-
ground of another scene. A small table has

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NOVEMBER 1987