Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 7, 1992 TAG: 9203070358
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL E. HILL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And perhaps he's out to show that, in the not-so-brave-new world of network television, he can still produce a hit sitcom.
With "All in the Family" on his resume, Lear has nothing to prove to anyone. On the other hand, with "Sunday Dinner" a not-yet faded memory, you can understand why he might want to show that he still can throw the fast ball.
"It was ill-fated, ill-conceived," he said, wiping away "Sunday Dinner," a show that was short on laughs, viewers and tenure. "I've grown sure about that. The impulses were correct, the execution was not. The only way I'm going to be able to discuss the burning issue of reconnecting with the inner life is in a very funny show."
Spirituality was the subtext of "Sunday Dinner," a show that was more fun to discuss than it was to watch.
"I think actually `Sunday Dinner' contrasts perfectly with `Powers That Be' in that sense - `Powers That Be' is right-off-the-bat funny, and whatever we make it into in substance is going to be encased in something funny."
Funnier, to be sure.
An hour-long introduction to "Powers That Be" will air at 8:30 p.m. today - Saturday (on WSLE-Channel 10 in the Roanoke viewing area), with the half-hour show taking up regular residence next week - Saturday nights following "The Golden Girls."
What Lear gives us this time is his stock in trade: not exactly a dysfunctional family - the main character's wife, love child and mistress all seem to function quite well - but surely a clan not hitting on all cylinders.
At the center of it all is John Forsythe, tanned, rested and ready for another go at series television after his endless stint on "Dynasty." He plays William Powers, a senator getting by on style rather than substance, surrounded by his manipulative wife, played by Holland Taylor; his administrative assistant and mistress, played by Eve Gordon; his hyper press agent, Peter MacNicol.
Valerie Mahaffey plays Powers's recovering anorexic daughter. Her suicidal husband - who manages to be truly funny, bandaged wrists and all - is David Pierce. The Powerses' young son is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Elizabeth Berridge is a much-abused maid.
And there's Robin Bartlett, who stirs up the already bubbling cauldron by showing up as the senator's Korean-War love child.
If there's a serious side to this series, it has to do, Lear said, with the nature of the senator's career and how he's been propelled and shaped by outside forces.
"The senator has spent a lot of time in the Senate pushed along by aides and a power-hungry wife, and so on, compromising and not realizing or fulfilling the essence that was there when he was a young man," Lear said. "There is a silhouette that existed once - he is simply not filling it out. What he represents is the Senate and House just full of people who are not filling out any silhouette of leadership."
In one episode, Lear recalled, "Powers suggests they should stop polling, that maybe he was sent to Washington to tell the people back home what direction to take. He's laughed at for thinking such a thing. For me, that's funny stuff. The emptiness of leadership at this time is certainly serious."
The idea of setting a series in Washington was secondary to the notion of a show built on a love child who suddenly shows up to disrupt the life of a married, established man.
"That idea existed in the company, by fits and starts, for a couple of years," Lear said. "The idea of the love child works best as a child who comes from the streets into a family who simply can't handle it - whoever he is - chief surgeon, manufacturer or politician. It was Marta Kaufman and David Crane [who share creator credits] who thought he should be a politician.
"It happened as a dynamic of comedy. Where could this piece of embarrassment be best felt?"
The answer for this show was Washington, D.C.
by CNB