Sunday, April 9, 2000

Live...from 1964, showdown between Super Powers

  Whenever a network promises something bold and new, you can bet that whatever it is actually is a remake of something tried and true. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Look at the game show boom.
  Tonight brings the return of another old TV staple, the live black-and-white drama. "Fail Safe" (8 p.m., CBS) is a remake of the riveting 1963 Sidney Lumet film about an accidental nuclear showdown between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. It is CBS’ first live primetime drama in 39 years. (West Coast viewers will see it only on tape.)
  George Clooney, free of his duties on NBC’s "ER," began developing this project months ago. He promised the network he would executive produce, and play a small but pivotal role in the drama. His "ER" buddy Noah Wyle would co-star. The network had to promise to air it live, with no musical score and with minimal commercial interruption.
  CBS said OK on all counts and big names starting signing on: director Stephen Frears ("High Fidelity," "Dangerous Liaisons"), actors Richard Dreyfuss, Brian Dennehy, Sam Elliott, Hank Azaria, Harvey Keitel, Don Cheadle, James Cromwell and Miguel Ferrer.
  Walter Bernstein, who wrote the original screenplay in ‘63, returned to adapt it for television.
  The drama is based on the 1962 best-selling novel of the same title, in which Cold War tensions escalate to fever pitch when a computer foul-up sends U.S. bombers to drop nuclear weapons on Moscow.
  Dreyfuss plays the role Henry Fonda had in the feature film, a tense but fair-minded president trying desperately to explain by phone to a disbelieving Russian premier that the bombers headed his way are not an act of war.
  Wyle plays the president’s interpreter (Larry Hagman’s role in the movie). The two men spend the entire episode locked in a secure underground bunker, anchored to the world only by phone lines.
  Clooney is the dedicated American pilot who isn’t sure if he’s on a patriotic mission or committing a grave mistake.
  The startling end of the film served, in the 1960s, as a cautionary message about nuclear proliferation.
  Updating the story was never considered, said Clooney. And despite the end of the Cold War, the impact of technological errors on innocent people is still a relevant issue.
  "The question is about whether or not machines and our technology get ahead of us and actually put us in jeopardy of nuclear war," said the actor-producer.
  Viewers shouldn’t read any political statements into the drama, however. "It just happens to be one of my favorite stories of all time. In fact, my favorite film of all time. And we thought it was sort of made for live television," said Clooney.
  The logistics of getting "Fail Safe" on the air tonight are staggering. The cast of 40 rehearsed for five weeks, blocking out moves for the 16 cameras that will follow the actors between two soundstages on the Warner Bros. lot. The $4.5 million budget was spent on period set pieces that include a massive war room complete with a missile-tracking map that uses 21st century techno-tricks to stay on target even if actors flub their lines.
  Clooney expects some things to go wrong. After all, he lived through the live episode of "ER" two seasons back. And he grew up watching his dad, Nick Clooney (now a host on cable’s American Movie Classics), do live TV in Cincinnati.
  "That’s the fun of live television, that somewhere along the way, things screw up and you fix them," said Clooney.
  If "Fail Safe" doesn’t fail to deliver a large audience, Clooney wants to revive the old "Playhouse 90" format of live dramas, doing three or four a year for CBS. For material he’s looking at TV gems of the ‘60s, teleplays by Paddy Chayefsky and Rod Serling. He next would like to produce a live version of the 1965 Herb Gardner comedy "A Thousand Clowns."
  Live TV and live theater have much in common, said Clooney, with one notable exception.
  "It’s like doing a play and it’s opening night. And whether you do it well or not, you’re closing down right after opening."

Also this week

• "Don Quixote," 7 p.m. Today, TNT. John Lithgow stars in the newest adaptation of Cervantes’ novel about a man seeking justice in an unjust world. Repeats tonight at 9:30 p.m. and midnight.
• "The Sopranos," 8 p.m. today, HBO. What will become of Tony, Carmela, Meadow and A.J.? Is Meadow going to Berkeley or Georgetown? Is Livia long for this world? Has the whacking of Richie Aprile torn the mobsters apart? What about the Feds and Big Puss? Stay tuned as TV’s best-ever drama concludes its second season.
• "Talk to Me," 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, ABC. A radio station is the setting for a new comedy. In the center of the action is Janey Munro, an irreverent talk show host who (sometimes painfully) shares her personal life with her listeners. Based on the Nashville radio show hosted by comic Beth Donahue. Stars Kyra Sedgwick, Beverly D’Angelo, David Newsom and Nicole Sullivan ("Mad TV").
• "Evil Among Us: Hate in America," 7 p.m. Friday, Discovery. The special uses interviews with former participants in World Church of the Creator, the Aryan Nation and the Ku Klux Klan to explore the history of extremist groups.

 
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