THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 29, 1995 TAG: 9507280099
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long : 114 lines
WHEN YOU SPEND a couple of weeks schmoozing with the people who produce and star in television programs, you meet many kids in the business, including some who are their family's breadwinner.
Seventeen-year-old Danielle Harris is a kid like that.
She's been supporting her mother, Fran, and 10-year-old brother for years with the money she earned in TV and films. Maybe you remember Harris from the year she spent on ``Roseanne,'' playing the cute girl who moved in next door to the Connors and had eyes for Darlene's boyfriend.
If you tune in The Disney Channel at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, you'll see Harris again, this time without makeup or costume. In a 10-episode documentary series called ``Hollywood Lives,'' Harris is one of several teens who allowed executive producers Wili Baronet and Mark Israel to film them for seven months as they pursued careers in show business. Or tried to re-start them.
There is 17-year-old Brian Gross, who leaves Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with dreams of breaking into acting. There is also Brandy Norwood, a 15-year-old singer who has already had a single (``I Wanna Be Down'') on the charts, and there is Harris, who had been out of work for six months.
She wonders . . . will she be cast in ``Halloween VI,'' the latest in a string of sequels in which she has worked before? The cameras pick up tensions between Harris and her mother - arguments about Danielle living on her own, and who will be her personal manager.
``Nothing in the series was planned, and that includes the moments I fought with my mom,'' Harris said when she met with members of the Television Critics Association, who are here in Los Angeles to preview the season's new programming.
``Until this series, I don't think the public has seen what it's really like to be a kid actor, to know what we go through at times. I've been at it since I was 5. You'll see some moments that were fun, some that were sad. I get to speak my mind on some issues that are important to me.''
The producers said they considered more than 3,000 young people before choosing 12 between the ages of 15 and 23 on whom to focus. If you have stars in your eyes, watch this 10-parter and use it as a road map to launching a career in film or music.
``Every kid shared a passion for their work and a belief they had the talent to make it,'' said Israel, who also directed ``Hollywood Lives.'' Think of this series from Disney as MTV's ``Real World'' with a focus, a point of view.
All 12 share the same goal - to make it and make it big in show business.
``Auditioning isn't as easy as I thought it would be,'' said Gross.
All these young people have learned to live with rejection.
The camera, said Israel, will reveal the pressures that befall Danielle Harris because she is supporting her family.
``Her mother asked that I not portray her as some horrible witch who is pushing her daughter forward into an acting career,'' he said. ``I didn't do that, of course, because mother and daughter actually have a tender relationship going.''
It is interesting, and disturbing, to hear Harris say that even in her tender years, producers asked her to project a sexy image to get work.
``Being a teenaged girl in show business is different than being a guy because you have to deal with the sexist attitude,'' she said. ``There is still a casting couch sort of a thing going on in the business.''
The good news about Harris is that she has gone back to work with a role in a feature film. In Episode No. 1 of ``Hollywood Lives,'' you'll see Gross leaving Iowa for Hollywood; a fashion model named Tamara Ruth, 15, who wants to work, but not in commercials; and singer Norwood on the verge of breaking through on the Billboard rhythm and blues Top 10.
Israel calls it eavesdropping on their lives, and eavesdropping is not always a comfortable thing to experience. The series concludes Oct. 5.
Elsewhere on the tube, here is more of the offbeat, the strange, the mysterious, the best darn time-killers around:
The Discovery Channel, TV that you can watch guilt-free, starts a miniseries called ``Seekers of the Lost Treasure'' on Sunday at 9 p.m. This is about the for-real Indiana Joneses of the world. First up is ``The Michael Rockefeller Story,'' which is about the risks in recovering archaeological treasures. Rockefeller vanished at age 21 seeking ancient carvings in Dutch New Guinea more than 30 years ago. ``Seekers of the Lost Treasure'' continues Monday night at 9.
The Learning Channel begins the countdown to the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima with ``Dismantling the Bomb,'' on Wednesday at 9 p.m. This program goes into the making of the first nuclear weapon and the aftermath decades later - taking the darn things apart and disposing of them.
Made-for-TV-movie alert! Jim Belushi stars in a remake of the 1943 Humphrey Bogart war film, ``Sahara,'' on Showtime Sunday at 8 p.m.
On Wednesday at 9 p.m., Linda Hamilton gives an intense performance on the USA Network in ``A Mother's Prayer,'' which is about a young woman stricken with AIDS. Hamilton beat herself up physically for this role.
Three cheers for the return of ``Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' on HBO Sunday at 9:45 p.m. This is a sports magazine show with bite. Your humble columnist saw highlights from this episode, and let me tell you that the piece about players who play hurt is plenty gritty.
``CBS Reports'' returns to the network Thursday at 9 p.m. with Dan Rather joining retired general H. Norman Schwarzkopf to retrace the Allies' ``Victory in the Pacific'' five decades ago. Your humble columnist also caught a glimpse of this show on the recent TCA press tour, and was quite surprised to learn that actor Eddie Albert was deeply involved in the fighting.
After watching hour after hour of programs about super babes on the tube, how about some time for the hunks among us? E! Entertainment Television cues up ``World's Sexiest Men'' on Sunday at 9 p.m. Already nominated is David Duchovny of ``The X-Files.'' MEMO: Television columnist Larry Bonko is in Los Angeles for the twice-yearly
Television Critics press tour.
ILLUSTRATION: "Seekers of the Lost Treasure," a miniseries about explorers,
begins at 9 p.m. Sunday on Discovery.
Singer Brandy Norwood is one of several teen-agers whose quest for
fame is documented in "Hollywood Lives," beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday on Disney.
by CNB