Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 14, 1995 TAG: 9501280003
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SUSAN KING LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD LENGTH: Medium
``I think it will do well, especially in the South,'' says Carroll O'Connor, who plays Sheriff Bill Gillespie on the series and served as executive producer and head writer. ``It does very, very well in the South and it has been doing well in the South in syndication.''
The series starred Howard Rollins from 1988 to 1993 as Detective Virgil Tibbs; Carl Weathers joined the show in 1993 as Police Chief Hampton Forbes. It was set in fictitious Sparta, Miss., and filmed in Covington, Ga.
O'Connor became a TV superstar in 1971 with his award-winning portrayal of the working-class bigot Archie Bunker on the landmark series ``All in the Family,'' which was followed by ``Archie Bunker's Place.'' ``Heat'' was his first series since ``Archie Bunker's Place'' left the air in 1983.
``Heat'' kicked off on March 6, 1988, on NBC with a two-hour movie and continued on the Peacock network for five seasons. After NBC gave it the pink slip in the spring of 1993, CBS picked up the series. This season, O'Connor & Co. made four two-hour ``Heat'' movies for the network. Two have already aired.
O'Connor, 70, says those four movies will likely mark the end of original episodes.
``CBS bought seven scripts, though they told me at the time they would probably only do four,'' he says. ``That is all they did, but we have those scripts pretty much in readiness. We could go down there and do a couple of those, but it might be difficult because our plant is all gone down there. Over the years, I had built two wonderful stages down there. I had all the editing down there. I did my musical scoring in Atlanta with the symphony.''
According to the fan mail he gets, audiences love ``Heat,'' O'Connor says, because ``we worked very hard for realism. By realism, I mean authenticity as far as small-town life is concerned in America in the South.''
Law enforcement officers, he discovered, also admire the series. ``I met a police officer the other day on the street in New York who said all the cops up here watch it because of the reality of the police situations. I was thrilled to hear that from a New York cop.''
And, O'Connor modestly adds, ``I just think I have a lot of fans out there, so that accounts for a little. They all seem to think I played the role very well. They like me as the chief of police and later the sheriff.''
The series never shied away from controversy, especially when Gillespie married Harriet DeLong (Denise Nichols), an African American council member. Letters, O'Connor says, ran about 50-50 in favor of and against the interracial marriage. ``It may have been a little bit more against than for, but we went for it anyhow,'' he says. ``I don't think it cost us anything. I think we maybe picked up [audiences].''
Over the seasons, O'Connor says, the show improved. ``We had a writing staff that knew exactly what I wanted to do and what they wanted to do. We got in there and we turned it out very smoothly. We watched each other's work very carefully and we were very sharp critics of one another. We didn't let anything slide by. `It will work' was a judgment that was never allowed down there. `Is it exciting?' is what our standard was. I think we kept up a good standard.''
O'Connor, who also is in discussions with CBS about reviving Archie Bunker, is writing a new project for CBS titled ``Savannah,'' which could either be a miniseries, a series of two-hour movies or a weekly series.
``It is an original idea by me and it is about two families in the South who have known each other for about 200 years - for the reason that one of the families once owned the other,'' he explains. ``Over the decades, all of those relationships have changed.''
O'Connor would like George C. Scott, who appeared in the first ``Heat'' movie last fall, to star and he's written a part for himself. ``If I could get George in it and play in it myself and get some other good people in it, we will have a good thing.''
``In the Heat of the Night'' airs weekdays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. on TNT.
by CNB