ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610220109
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
A grizzled old-timer drives his buckboard down the dusty street. A slickly groomed gambler ambles by on his palomino, casing the town for suckers. A luckless prospector plods aimlessly along.
Into this untamed setting comes Jane Seymour, trim in a frontier dress, innately dignified, with a beauty that would stop a stagecoach.
What is Jane Seymour, the lovely English star of ``Somewhere in Time'' and TV's ``War and Remembrance,'' doing in the Wild West?
That question was raised when ``Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' first appeared on CBS in 1993. The answer proved unnecessary as the series caught on and consistently won its Saturday night time slot. Now it is entering its fourth season with no end in sight.
``Dr. Quinn'' is filmed almost entirely on Western sets built at the Paramount location ranch in Agoura Hills, 40 miles from Hollywood. The U.S. Park Service owns the land so standards are enforced: no harm to native trees and shrubs, etc. The pine trees you see on the show are portable because they don't grow here.
After finishing a scene, Seymour sat on a bench outside the town saloon and talked about her years out West, as well as an upcoming CBS television movie.
``People say, `How can you do a one-hour series all these years?''' she remarked. ``I say, `You know how you wait for a day to go to a park with your kids and take a trail ride on a horse and watch the red-tailed hawks circling overhead, the mountain lions and the coyotes circling around?' I get to do that every day.'
``As long as you don't step on the rattlesnakes, you're OK.''
Born in Wimbledon, Jane Seymour has enjoyed a busy career in the theater (``Amadeus'' in New York), movies (``Live and Let Live,'' ``Lassiter'') and television (``East of Eden''). ``Dr. Quinn'' wasn't exactly a carefully contemplated career move.
``I had less than 24-hour notice,'' she recalled with chagrin.
``I was offered it at 7 o'clock in the evening. I read it at 11 that night because I was a little bit sleepless. I had to make a decision by 10 the next morning.
``I had been in a conference at Paramount to make a sitcom for CBS. They said, `Don't worry, do this; it's a wonderful two-hour movie that will never make it as a series. Then we'll do the sitcom that we want to do with you.'
``I said yes at 10 o'clock. After my Paramount meeting, I came here at midday, they fitted me for wardrobe. The next morning at 6 a.m. I'm shooting.
``People ask how much preparation did I do. I say, none, this was like manna from heaven: it landed on my lap. I told myself, `Oh, I'm a doctor's daughter, I'm one of three girls, I have an extended family, I understand the history of medicine, I understand surgery, that's what I grew up with.'
``I understand what it is to be a fish out of water, what it is to come out here from the East Coast. I just come from farther east.''
``Dr. Quinn,'' she said, was ``a perfect fit, because I wanted to be a mom and not be endlessly jetting around the world. Also to do something that meant something to me.''
The 1870s series has dealt with such issues as the death penalty, drug addiction, violence, racism and the Klan, as well as the treatment of American Indians.
Her youngest children, twins John and Chris, 10 months, join her every day at the location. Sean, 11, Katy, 14 and two stepchildren visit when they're not in school.
Seymour and her husband, James Keach, operate a company, Catfish Productions, which develops features and TV movies.
``Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' airs tonight at 8 on WDBJ-Channel 7.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Seymour colorby CNB