14 --The Michigan Daily -- Tuesday, September 14, 1999 Older actors return to TV during new fall season Los Angeles Times "I think certainly there is a prevailing atti- tude in a lot of television that if you are over 24, your face shouldn't be on the airwaves," confesses Chris Thompson, creator and exec- utive producer of two new comedies: CBS' "Ladies Man" and Fox's "Action." But Thompson is refusing to listen to the "prevailing" attitude. "I've got the two oldest stars in Hollywood," he says referring to the fact he cast veteran sitcom star Betty White in "Ladies Man" and the legendary comic Buddy Hackett in "Action." "Both Betty and Buddy are in their 70s, but they are as sharp and quick (as ever)," says Thompson. "The timing is dead on there. They can no longer give the greatest pratfall in the world, but that's row what you are looking for." In fact, says Thompson, he loves going to a run-through of "Ladies Man," in which White plays the caustic mother of series star, Alfred Molina. "She's a laugh magnet," he says. "She knows everything. It is actually sort of intim- idating working with Betty. You know if that line doesn't work, it is your fault." White and Hackett, who plays the uncle of a high-powered Hollywood producer in "Action," aren't the only familiar series faces popping up on TV this fall. In his first series gig since "MASH" went off the airwaves 16 years ago,. Alan Alda is returning to doctor's scrubs as an attending physician on a five- part stint on "ER." Dixie Carter, who played Julia Sugarbaker on "Designing Women," is a regular on CBS' new legal drama, "Family Law," and a recur- ring character on "Ladies Man." Multi-Emmy-winner Tyne Daly plays Amy Brenneman's mother on the new CBS drama, "Judging Amy." Rue McClanahan, who was the sex obsessed divorcee on "The Golden Girls," is playing the mother of widower Gregory Harrison in WB's new family drama, "Safe Harbor." And Swoosie Kurtz ("Sisters") and David Ogden Stiers ("MASH") play a snobby rich couple on the new CBS comedy "Love & Money." Considering the new season boasts one too many new youth series, it's a breath of fresh air to see these pros given the opportunity to strut their stuff. And the producers are thrilled to be able to give these actors a chance to shine. "I am having the time of my life with a cast of veterans," says Thompson. "People who are so knowledgeable about their craft. It is such a joy to go through a run-through and see people who are not fumbling, or search- ing for the line. Directing this is the easiest job in Hollywood." "I haven't work with a lot of young actors, but there is nothing to replace, not just the stage and screen experience, but the life experience these people can bring to a part," says Barbara Hall ("I'll Fly Away"), an exec- utive producer of "Judging Amy." Hall hadn't previously worked with Daly, who won Emmys for "Cagney & Lacey" and "Christy." But when the actress read the part of Brenneman's mother, Hall says, she com- pletely embodied the role. "I suddenly even got a better sense of who this person is," she says. "She is an incredi- ble actress, but she also has this energy and spirit. Tyne can bring wisdom to the.part you can't get anywhere else." Hall also says casting a popular TV star such as Daly helps bring viewers to a new series. "I think that people respond to her," she says. "I think people of all ages respond to great acting and a lot of times great acting comes with experience and time." Paul Haggis ("Due South"), creator and executive producer of "Family Law" was ini- tially worried about casting Dixie Carter as an outrageous, cutthroat attorney. He was concerned that Julia Sugarbaker was too entrenched in viewers' minds. "That's why I wanted her to read the char- acter," he explains. "But I forgot completely about Miss Sugarbaker (when she auditioned). I saw the character as I had written it. She made a truly outrageous character, complete- ly believable. She is a woman who exudes power and control. You don't want to cross her." Besides, says Haggis, Carter is "gorgeous. You put her in a scene and she's strikingly beautiful." Though "ER" is Alda's first series in 16 years, he doesn't believe he is "returning" to series TV. "You have to excuse me, but I don't th it is coming back," he says. "I know everybody else will talk abou as such. But for me, it is the ncxt itntercst thing (to do). So it really didn't stat whether or not people had seen me on prir time television lately. It didn't enter into What I thought about was, 'Would it be to do? Would I be able to make a co~l tion?' That seemed really exciting to These people are just terrific to work w' They have been extraordinarily kind t warm in their welcome." Though the past wasn't written for Al says executive producer Lydia Woodw the actor was someone who fit their critet "We wanted a really distinguished guy this character. That is clearly what Alan A is. He has had an incredible career." Woodward says "ER" was thril agreed to do the series. "He doesn't do a lot of television," says. Though Woodward acknowledgs participation will bring his fans to the ser Alda wasn't hired to bolster ratings. "It a more that we had this idea for a story arc I a character we thought was interesting." Read the Daily. Producers develop influential show Los Angeles Times Some writers are lured to television by fame and fortune, others want to reach the masses - those large audiences that only a prime-time network series can deliver. And then some simply want to work with Marshall and Ed. That would be Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, creators and executive producers of the new ABC series, "Once & Again." Starring Sela Ward ("Sisters") as a woman going through a separation, who begins dating a divorced man, played by Bill Campbell ("The Rocketeer"), the series explores the ripple effect of that relationship - on their respective children, former spouses and friends. The Bedford Falls Company, Zwick and Herskovitz's production entity, produces the show in association with Touchstone Television. The longtime partners have carved out a not completely enviable niche within TV - critically acclaimed, literate shows that haven't drawn big ratings. Their first and longest-running show was the ground-breaking "thirtysomething," which debuted in 1987. They were also behind the short- lived, but influential "My So-Called Life" (1994), and "Relativity" (1996), in addition to both direct- ing feature films. In building a stable of writers for the new show, lerskovitz says that what unites them is talent: "They come from different walks of life and have different views of things, but talent is just so unmistakable." The pair are working once again with Richard Kramer, who wrote for "thirtysomething" and "My So-Called Life," as well as adapting., Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City." He has known Zwick and Herskovitz for 20 years and says that what they are dedicated to is "selecting writers whose individual voices they find interesting and unique, and encouraging that writer to be most himself, even if it's at the sacri- fice of sounding less like them." - "My So-Called Life" creator Winnie Holzman, a writer whose collaboration with them goes back nearly a decade, also is writing for them again. Holzman gaot her start by penning a "thirtysome- thing" spec script. Another "thirtysomething"/"My So-Called Life" veteran who re-enlisted to work on "Once & Again" is Liberty Godshall, Zwick's wife. "I managed to browbeat or entice her into writ- ing for us," he says. "She knows where the bodies are buried." They originally hired Jan Oxenberg for "Relativity," who then went on to "Chicago Hope." Her combination of "acerbic" humor and "a very nonsaccharine view of life," says Herskovitz, are what made them eager to bring her back to write for the new show. For "Once & Again," several writers have made the leap from writing half-hour comedy to the hourlong format. Alexa Junge, a writer and pro- ducer on "Friends," and Dan and Sue Paige, who created "Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane," which aired on the WB last season, have joined the seri extensive writing pool. The Paiges have found move to dramatic writing fairly painless, in I due to the connection they've felt with Zwick i Herskovitz. It is not uncommon in television to recruit fr the theater. It is uncommon for that recruit to bc accomplished as Donald Margulies, an oft-p duced playwright who has twice been nomina for the Pulitzer Prize in drama. Zwic# Herskovitz's desire to work with him goes back the "thirtysomething" years. He has writte; Thanksgiving episode for "Once & Again." Another playwright they've long wanted to w with is Michael Weller. Zwick says that Weller plays such as "Moonchildren," "was among first to try to explore what this generation's vc sounded like and how it distinguished itself ft the generations preceding it." A relative newcomer is Pamela Gray, a writer whose work includes the 1999 rele Walk on the Moon" and the upcoming "Music the Heart." Gray's initial aspirations were to w for a television series, but she found it veryiit cessible. It was only after her feature writing career t off and she happened to meet Zwick at an aws ceremony, that she wound up writing for "One Again.' Zwick and Herskovitz's ability in persuac such formidable writers to work with theme their reputations for fostering the work oW writers. 'I MORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITTER AP 4 . Tuesday, September 21, 1999 7:00 PM Michigan Union, Pendleton Room 530 S. State Street Meet Representatives from: * Equity Research * Investment Banking www.msdw.com/career/recruiting Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is an Equal Opportunity Employer I -r . Y