Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 25, 1993 TAG: 9312250158
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 14 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: JACKIE HYMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
OK, so Ezekiel Bridges hasn't co-starred with Daddy yet, but give him time. He's only two months old.
"I always love to deal with them because my family's right at the center of my life," said Bridges, who plays lingerie salesman-turned-dude-rancher Dave Hart in the CBS Saturday night comedy-drama "Harts of the West" (at 9 on WDBJ-Channel 7).
His father, Lloyd Bridges, has a recurring role in the series, and his mother, Dorothy, appeared in the pilot episode as Dave Hart's neglected mother. In a dream sequence, she gleefully pulled the switch at his hanging.
"We have a good time together," Bridges said. "We've gone through our problems I guess like anyone, but we've worked it out. My mom kind of orchestrates that. She gets everyone together."
It's been a busy season for Bridges. In addition to landing his own series, he directed his parents and himself in an upcoming NBC thriller, "Secret Sins of the Father."
This fall, he won a best supporting actor Emmy for HBO's "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas-Cheerleader Murdering Mom."
And he also sponsors a youth theater group he founded 15 years ago in the Los Angeles coastal neighborhood of Venice.
"I read a newspaper article that described Oakwood as the most violent neighborhood block-for-block in the nation," he said. "That's in Venice, where I went to high school. I was amazed to hear that, so I took down some video equipment and started funning around with the kids just to give them some things to do."
That was the start of the Pearl White Theatre of Performing Arts, which provides classes in dance, singing, acting and writing to as many as 50 or 60 youngsters a night.
Some participants have launched professional careers, and Bridges is seeking corporate sponsorship to expand the workshop.
"It's amazing that you have such unrest in the city and the answer seems to be more police and more guns," he said. "I think the obvious answer is to give the kids a safe place to express themselves so they don't have to play cops and robbers on the corner."
Matters are considerably lighter on "Harts," in which Bridges' character recovers from a heart attack and starts a new life by buying a rundown dude ranch, to the dismay of his wife (Harley Jane Kozak) and three children.
Lloyd Bridges plays the gun-happy ranch foreman.
"I wasn't looking to do a series," the younger Bridges said, taking a break in a studio lounge. "They just sent me the pilot script. What I responded to was the story and I liked the character of Dave Hart.
"And it didn't hurt that I had a chance to work with my dad," he added. "I saw the part and I said, `My dad would just kill that role.' I had a hard time talking him into it because he's so in demand now."
Beau, now 52, first directed his father in the 1986 TV movie, "The Thanksgiving Promise," which also featured his mother and brother Jeff, along with Beau's son Jordan, now 20. He's worked on other projects with daughter Emily, 6, son Dylan, 9, and son Casey, 24.
Bridges scored a major success with his brother in "The Fabulous Baker Boys," but one of his favorite recollections of collaborating with him concerns a "Saturday Night Live" skit.
The improvisation, about how uncomfortable men feel touching each other, focused on Beau's uneasiness when he shows up for a massage to find a masseur - Jeff - instead of a masseuse.
After some misunderstandings and a confrontation, the men ended the scene, as rehearsed, by shaking hands. But then, unexpectedly, Jeff pushed his brother onto the massage table, jumped up and down on him and gave him a big kiss.
"Oh, it was so weird," Bridges said. "And the guy that censors things, he was up there in the booth, well, he just comes down and he says, `I can't believe that you did that.'
"Then he said the greatest thing to me. He said, `The only reason we let you guys do anything at all on that skit was because you're brothers.' I thought that was a wonderful statement."
by CNB