Page 14
The Battalion
Thursday, May 4,1989
J
‘Wiseguy’ creators try
to return show’s spice
ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Miami Vice” has gone cold. CBS’
“Wiseguy” has become the hottest
show in prime time.
It’s also the hippest guest shot on
TV. The current storyline, about the
recording industry, guest stars rock
stars Glenn Frey and Deborah
Harry, cult actor Tim Curry (“The
Rocky Horror Picture Show”) and
former Don Johnson main squeeze
Patti D’Arbanville.
An earlier storyline lured reverse-
cool Jerry Lewis into a rare television
role. Tony winner Ron Silver
(“Speed-the-Plow”) played Lewis’
son.
The attention is welcome — for
now — but the pitfalls of being an-
nointed as hot by the coolest of the
cool is not lost on the show’s pro
ducer-writers, Steve Kronish and
David Burke.
“When you get too cool, you can
get cold,” said Kronish, sitting in
Burke’s office in the Stephen J. Can-
nell Productions building in Holly
wood, a long way from Vancouver,
where “Wiseguy” is filmed.
Kronish said he and Burke plan to
avoid big-name stars in the future
and return to the obscure, offbeat
casting that impressed the industry
and TV critics alike when the show
premiered last season.
The first storyline rejuvenated
Ray Sharkey’s career. Then, un
knowns Kevin Spacey and Joan Sev
erance made a splash as an incestu
ous brother-sister crime wave in a
second storyline. Another of last sea
son’s guest stars was ’60s Andy War
hol film veteran Joe Dallesandro.
“Wiseguy” is something of a dis
tant cousin of “Miami Vice.” Burke
co-wrote the pilot of “Crime Story”
for “Miami Vice” executive pro
ducer Michael Mann.
Burke’s road to Hollywood was
winding.
His father, former late-night New
York talk-show host Alan Burke, dis
approved of his son’s show-biz aspi
rations, but begrudgingly got him a
job with a friend, director Otto Pre
minger.
Burke moved into documentary
production and became a political
media consultant for clients ranging
from Jamaica to U.S. Senate candi
date Jay Rockefeller.
Kronish, armed with a degree in
journalism, got a job as talent coordi
nator on a local talk show in L.A.
A play he had written landed him
his first script-writing job after he
was variously unemployed, an insur
ance salesman and an assistant golf
pro.
His first steady TV job was a game
show called, appropriately enough,
“Anything for Money.”
While still overseeing “Wiseguy,”
Burke and Kronish found them
selves with another series at midsea
son, NBC’s “Unsub,” about a crack
federal forensic unit.
“Unsub” was a modestly success
ful midseason replacement. “Wise
guy,” meanwhile, has begun to catch
on. CBS, picking up on the cult sta
tus of the show, has launched an ag
gressive ad campaign.
Burke and Kronish are hoping,
though, that the show is not a mega-
“Maybe the fact that it isn’t does
give us a certain amount of freedom
to do things that a hit show might
not be able to do,” said Kronish.
“I think the people who like ‘Wise
guy’ like it because we’ve done things
that are relatively unexpected, and I
think we deal with the sort of gray
areas of these characters’ lives that a
lot of episodic TV doesn’t deal with.”
‘Golden Girls ’ reaches ] 00th episode
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Susan Harris says “The Golden
Girls” began with a suggestion
that she write about a group of
older women in Miami.
But when the “suggestion”
comes from Brandon Tartikoff,
president of NBC Entertainment,
it’s a little hard to dismiss.
“I hadn’t wanted to do any
more television,” said Harris, who
had created “Soap” and “Ben
son.”
“But that appealed to me. I like
writing about older people. They
have more to say. They’ve led
rich lives. That’s really how it
started. After that I came up with
the concept and the characters.
We got the stars we wanted.”
The 100th episode of “The
Golden Girls” airs Saturday. The
Emmy-winning series just com
pleted its third season. It was fifth
in the Nielsen ratings for the sea
son.
“The Golden Girls” are four
women living in retirement in the
same house in Miami. Bea Arthur
plays Dorothy Zbornak, former
schoolteacher whose husband left
her for a younger woman; Betty
Rose Nylund, a naive,
grief counselor; Rue
White is
widowed _
McClanahan plays Blanche Deve
reaux, an aging Southern co
quette; and Estelle Getty is Doro
thy’s mother, Sophia Petrillo,
whose uncontrollable bluntness
was caused by a stroke.
“Estelle Getty was the only un
known when we started casting,
said Harris. “She came in, read
the part and in two minutes we
said. ‘That’s it.’”
Harris said she believes theres
a lot of life left in the “Gids" mi
that the award-winning show can
go on for many more years.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
It took three auditions before for
mer Midland TV reporter Rodney
Wunsch convinced Hollywood that
he could portray himself in the
movie “Everybody’s Baby: The Res
cue of Jessica McClure.”
In October 1987, Jessica fell into
an abandoned well in Midland and
was trapped for 58V2 hours.
Wunsch, 25, stayed on the accident
scene for 45 hours, often broadcast
ing live.
Intense news media coverage
turned then-18-month-old Jessica
into a household name and now a
movie event.
The film will air May s 21 on ABC.
The Midland area ABC affiliate is
KMID-TV Channel 2, Wunsch’s for
mer employer.
In a telephone interview from his
North Hollywood home, Wunsch
said the rescue drama will be accu
rate.
“The producers are really making
an effort to produce a factual dra
ma,” he said. “I think West Texans
will be pleased.”
When the Odessa native moved to
Hollywood six months ago, he noted
his interest in the movie project to
producer John Kander. Kander con
tacted Wunsch a few months later
and said the studio had written him
into the script.
“I was really excited about it,”
Wunsch said. “Out of four weeks of
shooting, I am on for three weeks. I
feel confident. Basically what I say in
the movie is what I said on television
reports during the rescue.”
Wunsch, who left KMID to pur
sue a career in screenwriting, said he
has missed some of the excitement
and creativity involved with news re
porting.
Wunsch works at AME Inc. in
Hollywood in video postproduction.
He still hopes to become involved in
screenwriting, and was allowed to
write a few of his own lines for some
of the movie’s simulated newscasts.
In a dramatic scene, reporter
Wunsch has to pause during a live
report because of tears. “We ll have
to see how I do on that,” he said.
Wunsch said much of the set re
sembles the Midland neighborhood
that for two days became the nation’s
focal point while men work feve
rishly to free Jessica.
“The Midland Fire and Police De
partments sent down decals for vehi
cles and patches for the rescue wor
kers,” Wunsch said. “It is very
realistic. Walking around, it looks
like Midland.”
Wunsch’s screen portrayal of him
self often involves a compilation of
several reporters.
“Things that happened to myself
and other reporters during the res
cue are together in my character,”
he said. “But a lot of it is things I ac
tually experienced.”
Along with Wunsch, the film stars
Beau Bridges as Midland Police
Chief Richard Czech, Roxana Zal as
Reba McClure, Will Oldham as Chip
McClure, Patty Duke as victim’s
sistance worker Carolyn Henry,)
Pat Hingle as Fire Chief JamesR
erts.
Also, Sam Whipple as
O’Donnell, Walter Olkewicz as An
Glasscock, Rudy Ramos as Mar.
Beltran, Miles Watson as CM
Boler, Scott Fults as Ribble
and Molly McClure as Maxine
& ue -
The actors, often inquisitiveabt
the rescue, have turned to Wuiu
for answers.
“They are all very nice,” W'um
said. “They ask a lot of questit
about what went on during the
cue. They’re really professionals
want it to be accurate.”
Wunsch isn’t sure if this rolecoti
lead to others.
“I don’t know, maybe it will,Bi
being involved with a movie Id
been a lifelong dream of mine, lii
kick.“
The timing for such a nwiei
right, Wunsch said.
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