Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 24, 1993 TAG: 9307240298
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACKIE HYMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
"I have a huge, huge working class family on my mother's side," says Sullivan, executive producer of the show, which airs Saturday nights (at 8 on WDBJ-Channel 7).
"At a Fourth of July gathering, after we'd eaten and the kids were rolling around . . . I said, `I'm doing this thing, let me run it by you and see what you think."'
She described a woman doctor from Boston who moves to a Colorado frontier town in 1867. She told about the heroine's adoption of three orphans and her on-and-off-again relationship with a brooding frontiersman, with subplots concerning American Indians, blacks and townspeople.
"At the end I said, `What do you think?' . . . They gave me a lot of feedback, and said, `That's what's missing,' and `I like this,' and the girls had some suggestions, and a couple of my uncles said a few things."
The network proved harder to persuade, Sullivan recalls.
For one thing, she asked for Saturday nights, a time traditionally regarded as a graveyard for drama. But she was sure baby boomers were staying home with their children to provide an audience nucleus.
The show also bucked a trend toward targeting narrow segments of the audience. Sullivan hoped to appeal to everyone.
"I saw a lot of people scrambling around not knowing how to keep the audience that was drifting to cable," said the co-creator of the series "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill" and former production executive at Fox television.
"I said we need a family show, something that can hold the interest of adults and appeal to children."
Also, although many women co-produce TV shows, there was little precedent for a woman creating and executive producing a show by herself, Sullivan says.
"I did have to push," she said. "There's no question that had my name been Bob Sullivan or Bill Sullivan or whatever, I wouldn't have had to give them (the network) that song and dance. It wasn't a war but I did have to stand up and make the point."
Then the show was pulled from the fall schedule, and held until January. When "Dr. Quinn" did appear, it drew tremendous ratings for its time slot. It was CBS's first hit series on Saturday night in more than 10 years.
It has also received tremendous ratings in Australia and Great Britain.
Sullivan was pleased by the high ratings, and philosophical about largely negative reviews.
"I said to all involved, `Don't be surprised. This is going to look like something from outer space to these guys. It's not going to be trendy. It's the farthest thing from hip that you could find . . . It's going to look softer to people,' and I used the word, `it's going to look corny to some people.' "
She's irked, however, by critics who challenge the show's accuracy.
"People don't know their history, the ones who pronounced it so politically correct as to be out of place, they don't know what they're talking about," she said. "I do my research, believe me."
She also challenged the misconception that star Jane Seymour is made up to look too glamorous to be credible.
"Frankly I've seen the woman scrubbed down in jeans and she still turns heads three blocks away," Sullivan said.
Sullivan's own lifestyle fits well with the family, home, hard work, outdoor and romance qualities of her new show. She was interviewed in the living room of her country-style home in the Studio City section of Los Angeles. The home has a white picket fence, a rose garden and a rocking chair on the porch.
Creating "Dr. Quinn" has inspired at least one real-life romance, for the producer herself.
Sullivan had worked with actor Jim Knobeloch on "Rosie O'Neill" and cast him as Jake, one of the townsmen skeptical of Dr. Quinn's abilities.
He asked her out to lunch to thank her for casting him. They began by discussing business and gradually realized something more was happening.
"About halfway through the lunch we kind of looked at each other and said, `Oh, my God,' " recalled Sullivan.
"The first thing we did, I went to his shrink and we sat and had a long talk, and then I took him to my shrink and we sat and had a long talk. This is not the days of taking someone home to meet Mom and Dad."
They were married last October.
by CNB