A Few Dear John Articles From St. Petersburg Times

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`Dear John' lures wary Hirsch back to television as lonely guy (Nov. 6, 1988)


LOS ANGELES - Judd Hirsch is having better luck than the characters he plays on the stage and screen.

In his Tony award-winning role in Broadway's I'm Not Rappaport, he was a man going ungracefully into old age and contemplating suicide.

In the critically acclaimed movie Running on Empty, he's a 1960s activist who's still on the run from the police.

In NBC's Dear John, touted by some as the biggest hit of the fall season, he's a schmuck whose wife has run off with his best friend. He seeks comfort in a singles group that reminds you of Bob Newhart's therapy sessions.

The series, like his previous hit Taxi, sought out Hirsch. The man behind Dear John, and Taxi before that, is Ed Weinberger.

``When this came along, I wasn't available,`` Hirsch says. ``I was on stage and doing a couple of movies. I was getting very cautious about going back to television unless I found something as good as Taxi.

``This looked good. It's based on a successful English show, so you don't have to agonize over getting it into shape.

``Most actors don't have this opportunity. Most get into situations with doom written all over them. I'm not immune to that, but I've been lucky.``

Also in his favor is the fact that the show is scheduled between two perennial ratings winners, Cheers and L.A. Law.

In Dear John, which made its debut last month, Hirsch plays a New Rochelle, N.Y., English teacher named John Lacey who gets a goodbye letter from his departing wife. Unable to cope with being suddenly alone, he joins a singles group.

``I think of him as a very capable hapless man,`` says Hirsch during a lunch break in his dressing room. In one corner is a piano. Next to it is a handmade ``one-man band`` instrument.

``That's the one I play,`` Hirsch says in an aside as he sits down behind his desk. The sleeves of his green-and-white striped shirt are rolled up and he's wearing black horn-rim glasses.

``You'd expect him to take care of himself, but he can't,`` Hirsch continues. ``He thought he was happily married for 10 years. He suddenly finds himself totally alone. He's a fish out of water.``

This is the fifth series for Hirsch, although his first was so brief it didn't make the record books. He twice won Emmys as best actor in a comedy series for Taxi.

``The first television I did I thought was the best series ever made,`` says Hirsch, referring to NBC's The Law in 1974. ``It became the best series never made.``

In The Law, which won an Emmy as the best TV movie of 1974, Hirsch played a public defender. The attempt to turn it into a series foundered when NBC insisted that he become a private attorney. Hirsch says that several shows were made, but that he doesn't know what happened to them.

His next show, for CBS in 1976-77, was a detective series called Delvecchio, sort of a precursor of Hill Street Blues. Its creator was Steven Bochco, who went on to develop Hill Street.

``The Law begat Delvecchio, which begat Hill Street Blues, which begat L.A. Law, which is probably what The Law would have been,`` Hirsch says.

Hirsch's third series, Taxi, is his only television success to date. The Emmy-winning comedy ran from 1978 to 1983, first on ABC and then on NBC.

His most recent show was Detective in the House, which was briefly on CBS in 1985.



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LOS ANGELES - It became the catch-phrase of the television season, Louise Mercer's voyeuristic inquiry of recently divorced new singles group members: ``Any sex-u-al problems?``

Louise's recurring laugh line on NBC's Dear John almost didn't come with the now-trademark, raised-eyebrow English accent.

``In the beginning they didn't know if I should play it as English or use an American accent,`` said Jane Carr, who has done an American accent on English television.

``The decision wasn't made until just before I tested. It's better for me. You don't have that added pressure of how to pronounce your words.``

Louise's accent is one vestige of the roots of Dear John, which is based on a short-run English series.

Carr plays the leader of a Queens, N.Y., community group that serves the needs of newly single people, including John Lacey (Judd Hirsch), a schoolteacher whose wife ran off with his best friend. He soon befriends several members of the group, including Louise.

``Louise is inquisitive, independent, warm and loving,`` said Carr. ``She really cares about these people. She loves the group.``

More than Carr's accent was incorporated into the show. Because she was pregnant, so was Louise. Carr and her husband, American actor Mark Arnott (The Return of the Secaucus Seven), had a son, Dashiel, in February.

``I wasn't pregnant when we did the pilot,`` said Carr. ``The costuming was fabulous. It wasn't apparent until the end. I stayed small until the eighth month, then I exploded. I just looked buxom and matronly. People just thought I was putting on a little weight. It was so nice they kept me employed. I only missed three shows. They wrote in my pregnancy and Louise has become a single parent. We'll have more on that next season.``

Woody Harrelson of Cheers made a guest appearance as the baby's father.

Carr had come to the United States from England with the New York and Los Angeles production of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby.

``By the time we finished the play I'd been here a year,`` she said. ``I played different roles, such as Fanny Squeelas, Miss Snevelici and Peg Sliderskew. By the time we got to Los Angeles there was a lot of interest in me.

``In that naive way I thought I was going to be a Hollywood star in a minute. It doesn't work that way at all. It's very difficult. I thought it would be easier if I met agents and casting people so they would know me when they came to London. Then I met Mark in my agent's office, and six months later we got married.``

Carr made her film debut at the age of 8 in Gary Cooper's last movie, The Naked Edge.

``It's hard to remember much about it,`` she said. ``Gary Cooper looked quite ill. My mother put me in a neat cardigan, but it got torn because I had to look more poverty-stricken. They tore a hole in it. It was a wonderful way to make extra cash. My family was poor. I kept pestering them for dance classes. It was a way to pay for my classes.``

She made her professional stage debut at 15 in a touring production of Agatha Christie's The Spider's Web.

She originated the role of Mary McGregor in the West End production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and made her film debut in the role.



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[Skywalker]

I'd like to send a ``Dear John`` letter to NBC's comedy Dear John, which premieres tonight at 9 p.m., locally on WXFL-Channel 8. It's painful for me to write off Judd Hirsch, who stars as the newly divorced John Lacey, but Taxi this show isn't. Dear John has Hirsch playing (once again) a sensible, lonely guy type among a bunch of crazies. But the pilot puts Lacey in a singles group (``One to One`` club) and, quite frankly, it's a one-joke situation. Laugh at the losers; okay, now what? Kirk (played by Jere Burns) is the letch. His dialogue is crude and rude. Sample: Kirk tells John, ``Stick with me and we'll make out like a bandit.`` Then eyeing the women in the singles' group, Kirk adds, ``We could really get our turkeys tetrazzini-ed in this place.`` But Kirk isn't the most offensive character. That's the group leader, Louise Mercer (Jane Carr), who keeps asking everyone if they have any (arched eyebrow) sexual problems. Dear John probably is destined for ratings greatness, given its golden time slot after Cheers and before L.A. Law. We'll have to learn to live with these people on Dear John, hoping our good influence will rub off, or something. - JANIS D. FROELICH, Times Television Writer



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