Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130371
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From wire reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BRAND NEW DEY
SUSAN Dey doesn't miss "L.A. Law.""There is nothing to miss," says the actress who played no-nonsense attorney Grace Van Owen on the Emmy-winning NBC series for six seasons. "I think so well of everybody there. I love them all. But I had no place left there. I did everything. There was nothing more for me to do but really repeat [myself]."
Dey hasn't had the time to look back since departing from "L.A. Law" last year. She's starring in the hit series "Love & War," the sophisticated Diane English CBS sitcom that airs Mondays after English's "Murphy Brown."
The actress also is the star and associate producer of Sunday's ABC movie "Lies and Lullabies" (at 9 p.m. on WSET-Channel 13), in which she plays Christina, a young woman with a cocaine problem who continues to use the drug while pregnant. Because her prematurely born baby is addicted to cocaine, the infant is taken away from her and placed in a foster home. Christina's desire to prove herself a fit mother results in her ending her self-destructive behavior.
Originally, Dey and her fellow producers had developed a story in which the drug-addicted mother died during childbirth. "We wanted to do a story on drug-exposed babies, and we hated these mothers," Dey says. "How could they do this to these kids?"
But as Dey and the production team researched the topic for two years, their view of drug-addicted mothers began to change, and so did the story line. It's a misconception, Dey found, that a drug-exposed baby's problems are over after withdrawal.
"The withdrawal enough is traumatizing, but most people in the country are not aware that these children will be handicapped for the rest of their lives," she says. "The drugs get into their nervous system."
After talking with the director of the Eden Center, which works with drug-addicted mothers in Los Angeles, the producers became convinced that the mothers needed as much attention as their babies and that the mother-child bond shouldn't be broken.
"All of a sudden, the only story that could be told was about these women we hate so much," Dey says. "To do a story about a drug-exposed baby alone would do nothing but perpetuate our anger and hatred."
But Dey didn't want "Lies and Lullabies" to become a message piece. "That's the last thing I wanted to do. I just wanted people to respond. You like parts of Christina and there are parts when you don't like her. But you stay with her."
Dey says she was able to identify in some ways with Christina because of her own past addiction to alcohol.
"I knew what made her jump," she says. "I knew that addictive behavior which made her manipulate the system to work her way. It was helpful. Before starting the role I had to approach it on a different level. The act of playing this character and getting inside her was terrifying to me.
"When I went to the Eden Center I realized I had been in denial. I was not attuned to the fact that Christina was no different than me. I apologized to the women at Eden because I had forgotten. I attended meetings for my alcoholism until the tabloids got hold of it. I knew that anything I said about my life and family would be printed."
Though the actress first came to fame in 1970 as Laurie Partridge in the popular ABC comedy series "The Partridge Family" and was in "Emerald Point, N.A.S." in 1983-84, "Love & War" marks the first time Dey has attempted a sitcom shot in front of an audience. She acknowledges that she was nervous about doing the show. "It was learning a new language, a new rhythm," Dey says. "I said I am either going to destroy my career or this is going to be wonderful."
She also thought the sitcom's schedule would give her more free time.
After six years on "L.A. Law," she says "I was ready for a comedy, but this is a tough schedule. You work every day, you get your five-minute breaks and you're on your feet talking all day long. `L.A. Law' was like being an airline stewardess because with the large cast you only worked three or four days a week.
After filming 21 shows, Dey says, she finally feels comfortable in the format. The series, she feels, is gelling. "I wanted to laugh [doing the series], and I haven't started laughing yet completely. There are so many things I want to do with Wally and with the relationship between Jack and Wally. When I did `Partridge Family' and `L.A. Law,' I felt like I was almost the last to know it was a hit. I know `Love & War' is a hit show, but it is not a hit for me yet. There's something there that hasn't happened for me yet."