Some of the most-asked questions we’ve gotten lately about TV-related issues have been about NBC’s “The Pretender” and “Profiler,” the two long-standing components of the network’s “Thrillogy” block of Saturday night action/adventure shows that were canned last season.
“Profiler” is still a goner, but fans should brace themselves for “The Pretender 2001,” a new TNT movie that tries to tie up the loose ends from May’s cliffhanger, but actually poses more questions than it answers.
Premiering at 7 p.m. Monday, it quickly resolves the finale, where genius chameleon Jarod (Michael T. Weiss), his relentless pursuer Miss Parker (Andrea Parker), and the two’s recently discovered younger brother Ethan (Tyler Christopher — and Jarod and Parker aren’t related, but that’s another story) escape an exploding bomb in a subway station.
It then moves to a “pretend,” or circumstance where Jarod uses his skills to practice any profession almost instantly. This one plays close to home: Jarod pretends to be an FBI agent investigating the attempted murder of another agent . . . one who escaped with Jarod years before from The Centre, the think tank that kidnapped Jarod when he was young and exploited his abilities.
“The Pretender’s” true strength has always been its ability to seamlessly blend the “mythology” of the Centre, and Jarod’s history with it, into the main storyline. “The Pretender 2001” reveals some new details about both Jarod and the ruthless, sardonic Miss Parker, who grew up in the Centre and who is obsessed with the mysterious death of her mother.
There are way too many new wrinkles in the movie, taking the mythology to dizzying heights. But the two stars of the series say wait until April, when a new “Pretender” is scheduled to reveal more . . . or less.
“It’s an infinite amount of possibilities for what they can do with this show,” says Weiss, the Chicago native who has played Jarod since the show’s 1996 premiere.
Adds Parker: “These next couple of movies of the week are our opportunity to answer a few questions and hopefully continue some twisted entertainment.”
The next film will have Jarod and Parker on a Scottish island investigating a shared past so intermingled that you need a road map to sort it all out.
“Our show is so twisted,” Parker says gleefully.
Fans of “The Pretender” should be gleefully happy the show is back in any form after its sudden cancellation, which happened partly because NBC wanted to eventually make way on Saturday nights for the XFL football league, which begins next month. Those loyal to the show have to make do with reruns, which are on TNT at 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and at 2 p.m. Sundays on WCIU-Ch. 26.
Weiss, who has been acting since he was kid attending classes at Second City, was thrilled to reprise the role of Jarod, at least for these two films.
“Very soon, I think Jarod will go to bed and it will have been a wonderful five years of my life,” he says. “But in the meantime, I’ve had a great time playing him, and I really enjoy the character quite a bit.”
Parker, who started off as a dancer but moved into acting more than eight years ago, agreed — although she uses one of her favorite terms to describe the characters.
“It’s a character-driven show, and I think people really, hopefully, obviously, I don’t know, are entertained by these twisted characters and what they’re up to.”
`WWF Smackdown’ is safe: UPN came to an agreement with Chris-Craft Industries to continue programming its shows on Chris-Craft’s eight television stations. When News Corp., owners of the Fox network, among other things, acquired Chris-Craft, it was hinted that UPN series would be dumped, possibly for some new kind of Fox-related programming.
The move would have limited UPN’s penetration around the country to the point where it couldn’t have survived.
House calls: WBBM-Ch. 2’s medical editor and reporter is getting his own show.
“On Call with Dr. Michael Breen” starts at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 28. It will look at some of the top medical stories of the week, as well as offer stories on health, research and technology, and answer e-mail questions from viewers.
The playing is the thing: Kissing another woman is one thing, but it was all that fake crying that was trying for Brooke Shields in “What Makes a Family,” a new Lifetime movie based on a true story.
Shields plays a Florida woman who fought for custody of her young daughter with the girl’s maternal grandparents (Anne Meara, Al Waxman), after Shield’s companion — and the girl’s biological mother (Cherry Jones) — passes away.
“They were heart-wrenching,” Shields says of several scenes requiring her to bawl for a variety of reasons.
“My biggest problem and fear,” she says, “[was] that it just didn’t become a big cry fest. Because when you have that many scenes and you know that they’re all going to be in a row, you really want the tears to have a different meaning.”
The few intimate scenes between Jones and Shields were more touching than salacious, although they also were no walk in the park, according to Shields, 35.
“The director [Maggie Greenwald] just wanted to make a beautiful romantic scene. Nobody was saying `Ooh, look, it’s two girls.’ And nobody was uncomfortable with it. Crew members were coming up to us saying, `That was just so beautiful.’
“What Makes a Family” is on Monday at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.
