MOVIE/ MINISERIES & REALITY ISSUE

Kathy Bates and Christopher McDonald in Harry’s LawAnjelica Huston in SmashJaon Allen, Dustin Hoffman, and Dennis Farina in LuckAlec Baldwin in 30 RockFROMSILVER SCREENThey say dying is easy, it’s getting a hit TV seriesthat’s hard. Well, if they didn’t say that, they shouldhave. That’s especially true if you already have a bigcareer in the movies. It is tough out there for thosesilver-screen legends to get arrested on the little screen.Or so it seems.Television audiences like to discover their own TV stars,not have a big movie name forced on them. Oscarwinner Kathy Bates just saw her first series, Harry’sLaw cancelled by NBC after just two seasons, eventhough it was produced and created by TV golden boyDavid E. Kelley. Two-time Oscar winner DustinHoffman and multiple Oscar nominee Nick Noltehad their highly touted HBO series Luck whackedeven before they could finish shooting the second seasonand get any of those episodes on the air. Of course,there were extenuating circumstances on that one dueto the death of racehorses on the set, but the serieswas not racking up big numbers for the pay networkanyway. Rob Schneider may not be a huge film starbut, since his days on Saturday Night Live he hasbeen known mostly for his movie roles. In an attemptto trade in that success for weekly TV stardom, all hegot in return was a quick ax from CBS for his freshmansitcom Rob. Producers thought film star ChristinaRicci would be a big draw for the highly touted andexpensive ABC series Pan Am, but it crashed andburned after a single season, even with Ricci on board.The list goes on and on.Ashley Judd’s first series, Missing, will be permanentlymissing on ABC, which deep-sixed the drama.Christian Slater’s latest attempt at breaking into thelucrative world of sitcoms, fittingly called Breaking In,tanked after getting a brief reprieve on Fox. Hispreviously short-lived NBC series The Forgotten livedup to its title and another, My Own Worst Enemy, failedtoo. Their failures won’t stop others from trying.Kevin Bacon and Dennis Quaid will be among thoseTV-series virgins trying to make the grade next season.Of course, there are those stars who have managed tomake the transition from movie stardom to ratings hits.Glenn Close won a couple of Emmys for Damages,but even that series was kicked to the curb by FX afterlow ratings and had to finish its life on DirecTV. Filmnames like Sarah Jessica Parker and Alec Baldwinhave enjoyed big rewards on the little screen, but theyactually started on television so there wasn’t a big transition.Candice Bergen, Charlie Sheen and Burt Reynoldsall had hit shows, but the latter was a TV name beforebecoming a No. 1 box office star and then returning totelevision when it all faded. Sometimes it is better foran Oscar winner or movie name to tread gingerly intothe world of series TV, maybe toe the line between thetwo mediums such as Anjelica Huston is doing nowin the supporting role of the Broadway producer onNBC’s Smash. And Jane Fonda is going to be recurringon Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming new HBO series, TheNewsroom, which stars another movie name, Jeff Daniels.In this case, it is Sorkin and it is HBO (though that didn’thelp Hoffman or Nolte, and Diane Keaton’s Tilda didn’teven make it past the pilot stage).One seemingly successful and smart way to merge intoTV series without breaking the back of a movie careeris the new trend of guest-star arcs on existing series.It worked famously well for Gwyneth Paltrow, whoeven picked up an Emmy for guest star in a comedyfor her talked-about recurring role on Glee. Andnext year both Parker and Kate Hudson are going totry the same route. Zooey Deschanel has actuallyTO SMALLER SCREENActors Learn It’s Not as Easy as They Thoughtbecome a bigger star than she ever was in the moviesthanks to the first season of her hit Fox sitcom, TheNew Girl. And no one has had a more eclectic ridethan Sally Field who went from TV sitcoms to Oscarwinningmovie stardom, back to a hit TV series inBrothers and Sisters and now back to movies with Lincoln.Some people obviously move easily between the two.And it is much easier to go from TV to movie superstardom.Just look at those stars of past series likeSteve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, George Clooney,Steve Carell, the Saturday Night Live casts andso many others.It wasn’t always so difficult for film actors to becomehousehold TV names. In TV’s early days, it was quitecommon to see people like Lucille Ball, Loretta Young,Ann Sothern, Barbara Stanwyck and many others strikegold in the emerging medium. Even well into the ’70s,actors like Oscar winner Jane Wyman (Falcon Crest) andCarroll O’Connor carved out a nice living in featurefilms. O’Connor abruptly hit pay dirt as Archie Bunkerand then did it again with a hit Oscar-winning movieturned hit TV series, In the Heat of the Night. But moreoften than not, the biggest names in movies just couldn’tmake the same kind of magic on a 20-inch screen.Henry Fonda, Lana Turner, Shirley MacLaine, JudyGarland, Bing Crosby, Anthony Quinn, James Stewart,Richard Widmark and Jerry Lewis are just a few of thenames who flopped when they tried to make the switch.The one area where big movie stars shine on TV is,of course, in movies. This year will be no different ascelebrated big-screen names like Julianne Moore(Game Change) and Nicole Kidman (Hemingway& Gellhorn) will likely compete for the lead actress ina movie or miniseries Emmy – the place movie starsusually prevail. It’s called sticking to what you do best.By Pete Hammond