ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, September 23, 1996 TAG: 9609240012
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
When Grant Show took a break from his nice-guy ``Melrose Place'' duties, he decided to tackle something more than a little bit different.
So in the Fox Tuesday night movie ``Pretty Poison'' (airing at 8 on WJPR/WFXR-Channel 21/27), he plays a former psychiatric inmate who enters a scary fantasy world.
Show stars with Michelle Phillips, Wendy Benson of ``Beverly Hills 90210'' and Lynne Thigpen in a new version of the 1968 movie that featured Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. Having been institutionalized since the age of 15, Show's character finds a job in a small town where he is attracted to a school cheerleader (Benson) with a deadly plan in mind.
``Pretty Poison'' is the third TV movie Show has been able to fit into his onerous ``Melrose Place'' schedule; it allows only two months of hiatus, whereas most series afford four or five.
``I can't complain,'' he says realistically. ``I know if I hadn't been doing the series, I wouldn't get the movies. Television demands that kind of recognition.''
Show grew up in San Jose, Calif., and studied at UCLA until his junior year, leaving for a job on the daytime serial ``Ryan's Hope.'' For three years, he played Officer Rick Hyde - which proved to be a mixed blessing. The discipline and exposure of a daily soap benefited a young actor. But there were drawbacks.
``The worst thing about the daytime show was that the writing was so poorly thought out and so repetitive,'' he said. ``They assumed that the audience only watched two or three episodes a week. So you had to do the same scenes at least three times, sometimes more. That was frustrating.''
Show decided to exit after his contract expired. He noticed that his actor friends who left soaps experienced a year or two delay before they entered other mediums - ``it took them that long to shake that stigma they were carrying around.''
He decided that if he wasn't going to work, he would study. He enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts for a year and returned to appear in theater, then landed ``Melrose Place.''
Show, 34, appears to be an actor who can adjust to any circumstances. In late summer, he toiled in ``Melrose Place'' in Santa Clarita, north of the San Fernando Valley.
The temperature was 100 degrees-plus and the stage where the series' interiors are shot couldn't be kept cool despite a huge air conditioning unit that augmented the studio's usual cooling.
To add to the actors' difficulties, the company shot two episodes of the never-ending saga simultaneously.
``You have to keep reading the scripts over and over again to make sure you know where you are,'' Show explained. ``But they write the show sort of actor-proof. All you have to do is play each scene, and the story goes along anyway.''
Does that make it less challenging for an actor?
``Well, you can look at it one of two ways: It's either extremely challenging, or not challenging at all. If you choose to really try to do something with it, it's difficult to do because it's very verbose.
``But if you don't do anything with it, you're telling the story, not acting it.''
Is there any satisfaction for an actor? His reply was surprisingly frank: ``I think very little, after you've been doing it five years.''
This season of ``Melrose Place'' is the last Show is contracted for. After that?
``I don't know. The money's not bad - that's the plus side. The other side is: I didn't get in this business for money.''
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Grant Show of "Melrose Place" and Wendy Benson star inby CNB"Pretty Poison" Tuesday night at 8 on WJPR/WFXR (Channel 21/27).