THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 20, 1995 TAG: 9510200089
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
I'M NOT COMFORTABLE with the guy on ``Law & Order'' who replaced Chris Noth. Benjamin Bratt.
And I'm squirming when I watch the new cop on ``Homicide: Life on the Street.'' Reed Diamond.
The producers screwed up the chemistry of both NBC shows when they brought in Generation X hunks to replace actors who had some mileage on their bones. Noth, in his J.C. Penney's cop wardrobe, looked like he actually enjoyed arresting people without doing the Rambo thing that Bratt favors.
I miss Noth. Because he's history, I've stopped watching what used to be my favorite drama.
Diamond, who shows up in the season premiere of ``Homicide'' tonight at 10 as an arson investigator, appears to have drifted in off the set of ``Baywatch.''
The last place I'd expect to see a blonde surfer type like Diamond is in the squad room of a grimy police station in Baltimore, or Bawl'more if you prefer the local pronunciation. When the wonderfully gruff Ned Beatty and edgy Daniel Baldwin left the cast, the producers brought in Diamond, who is way too boyish for the role. (A Virginia Beach woman, Tina Nigro, is responsible for the look of all the ``Homicide'' characters. She's the show's costume designer).
``Homicide'' isn't the interesting, unconventional show it was in its first season, when executive producers Tom Fontana and Henry Bromell introduced jerky camera angles, real cop talk and actors who convinced me that they really live on stale coffee and jelly-filled doughnuts.
Diamond? His face says, ``Which way to the frat party?''
When Fontana met with members of the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles not long ago, he announced that Diamond was hired to play off the very intense Detective Frank Pembleton, a character created by the tightly wound Andre Braugher.
``Pembleton is the total opposite of the new guy,'' said Fontana.
``Homicide'' opens tonight with ``Fire,'' a two-part telecast in which arson evolves into murder. Diamond, as Detective Mike Kellerman, goes about the investigation in a surfer-cool manner while Braugher, as Pembleton, is forever on edge, lighting one cigarette after another, second-guessing himself, fretting about becoming a new father.
Pembleton is not an angry guy, Braugher told me when we crossed paths in Los Angeles. ``And I am not an angry actor,'' he added.
He could have fooled me.
The mood among producers and cast members was upbeat when they met the TV press, because they knew NBC had renewed ``Homicide'' for a full season. The show charmed critics from the start but has yet to pull away large numbers of viewers from ``20/20'' on ABC.
The producers admitted that in the first season they put on ``an odd and wonderfully strange'' show that a lot of viewers didn't get. ``In the first season, when we were moving the camera around a lot, people were asking if we intended to pass out barf bags to the viewers. We were trying to do something different, going to the extreme,'' said Fontana.
``Homicide'' was a better show in season No. 1, just as ``Law & Order'' was a better show when Noth was still partners with Jerry Orbach. When Orbach and new guy Bratt - he plays Detective Reynaldo Curtis - appear on screen together, there is no spark. You get the impression that they don't care for each other.
And on ``Homicide,'' I don't see Diamond, as Kellerman, fitting in well with anyone else in the squad room, certainly not the explosive Pembleton or the cynical Munch (Richard Belzer) or the insecure Detective Bayliss (Kyle Secor). In other changes upcoming on ``Homicide,'' Detective Kay Howard, played by Melissa Leo, passes the sergeant's exam; Isabella Hofmann, playing a character who rose quickly from detective to lieutenant to captain, finds herself busted down to detective.
Don't you hate it when the networks and producers mess around with a show that you love to watch? by CNB