The events of Sept. 11 have affected Fox’s midseason series “Emma Brody” profoundly.
Instead of “Emma Brody,” it’s now “The American Embassy.” And the tone has shifted dramatically — literally.
It was appropriate that the series take “Ally McBeal’s” spot for six weeks (8 p.m. Monday, WFLD-Ch. 32); it was basically “Ally McBeal Goes to London.”
Emma Brody (Arija Bareikis) was a vice consul for the U.S. Embassy in London, where she had several light adventures, some romantic in nature. But that was before 9/11.
“I think that we as creators looked at 9/11 and said we have to respond to this,” says creator and executive producer James Parriott. “If our character is working in a U.S. Embassy, she is going to be a very different person than the person who was pre-9/11. And because our pilot happens post-9/11, we also have to assume that Emma Brody has had that information coming into the pilot.”
The pilot was made last March in London, but location scouting for the first of five more episodes was pre-empted when terrorists attacked America in September. After taking a break, the production team retooled the six shows into a comedy-drama.
“We have made the show a little more serious, but through editing, not through vast rewriting or re-shooting. We skewed it away from being quite as funny as it was, and have made it a more serious show,” Parriott says.
Explains Bareikis: “It’s definitely not as goofy, and it’s not really a dramedy anymore, it’s more a drama . . . the direction it’s taking feels appropriate.”
But one television expert questions the rationale of toughening up a series because of current events when it was supposed to be light in tone. “The notion that we can’t be lighthearted now is preposterous on its face,” says Robert Walter, professor and screenwriting chairman for UCLA’s Department of Film, Television and Digital Media. “You just don’t serve the nation well,” he adds, “by becoming heavy-handed and self-conscious.”
Parriott says if Fox gives “Embassy” another season, it will become even more about the inner workings of an American embassy, although still seen through the eyes of Brody.
