Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 28, 1995 TAG: 9501310106
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICIA BRENNAN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She never did drink the coffee. It turns out she believes that caffeine is partly responsible for the fact that she's not on hit series ``E.R.'' More about that later.
Campbell made two episodes of ``Ballgame'' and flew back East just before Christmas to spend the holidays with her parents and her four brothers and sisters at the family home in Burke, Va., outside Washington.
``I have strong family support,'' she said. ``I come home at least twice a year, and they [her parents] come out. For how spread out we are, we see each other a lot.''
This week, for example, her mother is visiting at the house Julia recently bought near the HOLLYWOOD sign. The mother will see her daughter appear as Nina in the Matrix Theater's production of Chekhov's ``The Seagull'' and stay for tapings of ``Ballgame.''
``A Whole New Ballgame'' is the second ABC series this season for Campbell, who played Harvard MBA Ellie Baskin in ``Blue Skies.'' The show co-starred Matt Roth and Corey Parker, with Stephen Tobolowsky and Richard Kind. It died after eight airings, but Campbell, Tobolowsky and Kind all ended up on ``Ballgame.''
``Blue Skies,'' about an L.L. Bean-type mail-order firm, followed ``Coach,'' which had originated with the same executive producers, John Peaslee and Judd Pillot and consultant Barry Kemp.
``I thought it was a show that could have done something,'' said Campbell, ``but I didn't think that `Coach' was a good lead-in. You don't put `Coach' on before a twentysomething show. Plus we never aired in the Rocky Mountains, because from 7 to 10 was when the football game was on. And that was our audience.''
Campbell had high hopes for ``Blue Skies'' because she liked the fact that ``they've written an intelligent young woman who is strong, rather than a damsel in distress. ... I knew when I read that script that that role was mine. I just knew it.''
Actually, it wasn't hers, originally. She replaced an actress who, the network decided, wasn't right for the part. ``It doesn't mean anything, just that her chemistry was not right with those two,'' she said.
The ``Blue Skies'' producers were planning to add a romantic interest for Ellie, she said, and had contacted Corbin Bernsen, who was interested. But then the network killed the show.
So Pillot and Peaslee tried again with ``Ballgame.'' This time, Bernsen and Campbell were to star. ABC signed up for 13 shows.
Now, about NBC's ``E.R.,'' this year's hit drama:
Last spring, Campbell was working on location from Monday through Thursday for one of The Family Channel's ``Young Indiana Jones'' movies, flying to Los Angeles on Thursdays to appear in a play, reading scripts for TV pilots backstage at the theater, and then doing the auditions for those prospective series on Fridays.
``I had three auditions in one day: One was for an HBO movie of the week, one was for a comedy pilot, `The Dudley Moore Show,' and one was for `E.R,''' she recalled.
Fueled by nerves, anticipation and infusions of Diet Coke, she said, she was getting caffeine jitters.
``At `The Dudley Moore Show,' they didn't think I was right, but now I think I dodged a bullet. [The show was canceled.] Then I went in for the movie of the week, but they kept me, wanting me to read with people. Finally it was time for `E.R.' I get over to Warner Bros. and I go in and my heart just starts to beat wildly and I thought, ``Omigod, I'm dying.' I had to sit down for a few moments. I could just see the front page of the trades: `Actress Dies During Pilot Season, Too Much Caffeine.' I know that they didn't hear a word that I said. As I was leaving, they all said, `Take care of yourself.' And that's the one I really wanted. But it's just one of those things.''
by CNB