Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 30, 1994 TAG: 9408200001
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
"Hotel Malibu" makes its debut Thursday (at 10 p.m. on WDBJ-Channel 7) for a six-week run on CBS to determine if it has the legs for the regular series season.
Since there's no major hotel in Malibu, a seaside resort in nearby Hermosa Beach sufficed.
Publicity releases say the series has "romance, comedy and offbeat family drama." A large order, but the creators are licensed pros - producers Bernard Lechowitz and Lynn Marie Latham (``Homefront,'' ``Knot's Landing,'' ``Second Chances'') and co-producers Dianne Messina and James Stanley (``Homefront'').
The central figure of "Hotel Malibu" is Joanna Cassidy, playing a plucky widow who has built a roadside stop into a major hotel. Shades of "Dynasty" - her son (John Dye) wants to sell the place. But her daughter (Cheryl Pollak) sides with her.
Not too long ago, the company was back at the CBS Studio Center, once the corral of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and more recently home of dozens of TV series such as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Hill Street Blues."
The stage was a honeycomb of hotel corridors and rooms. In one room, Cassidy and Pollak performed a lengthy, dialogue-heavy scene, working through it letter-perfect four times before director Stefan Scalni called a final "cut!" The camera crew quickly began setting up for closeups, and Cassidy had a chance to chat.
"How much rehearsal did you get?" she was asked.
"None, zero," she replied.
"How many pages was that scene?"
"Three."
"That's an average day's work in a feature."
"That's right. And I have four more big scenes today - 13 to 14 more pages."
She can handle it. Cassidy brings with her a wealth of experience in the series world. Her own list: " `Buffalo Bill' with Dabney Coleman. `240 Robert.' I played one of the sheriffs with Mark Harmon. `Code Name Foxfire.' `Family Tree' with Jimmy Spader." Plus guest shots on "L.A. Law," "Northern Exposure," "Taxi" and others, and a half-dozen TV movies.
"I love to work," Cassidy said. "I don't like to work in just anything. I can be pretty selective. This is really well-written, a lot of humor in it."
Cassidy has a flawless face that TV screens love, an explosion of auburn hair and a ready laugh, often self-deprecating. And she refuses to bemoan the pace of a TV series.
"This is such an ensemble piece," she explained. "It's not like being the lead in an hour show. It's pretty nice for me - three days a week. Long hours, mind you, but it doesn't bother me."
Cassidy grew up in Haddonfield, N.J., and studied art at Syracuse University, until she became entranced with acting. Coming to Hollywood in the early 1970s, she was discovered by casting agent Joyce Selznick, who landed her a role in "The Laughing Policeman" with Walter Matthau.
She won a New York Critics Award for "Under Fire" and starred with Bob Hoskins in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." Most recently, her film work included "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead."
Cassidy agreed to the hypothesis that movies are a man's world, while women find television more favorable.
"That seems to be the case," she said. "There certainly are more choices in TV for women. I read movie scripts that are detective stories, and I wonder, `Why are these written for men? Why not have a woman do it?'
"If the public were inundated by more women in films, they would begin to accept it. It's not that they like men over women; women have to be put out there. It's like politics. Get some women into it, and people say, `Yeah, why not?' "
by CNB