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Meet Hollywood's New It Guy
TV Guide - Tuesday, April
1, 2003
by: Ben Katner
Out of Harvard for just five years, playwright Samuel Baum already has two series in the
works — and, just for good measure, a feature film, too. First up for the scribe
— a handsome palooka who looks like he ought to be auditioning to play bashful hunks
on Aaron Spelling soaps — is the WB's youthful MacGyver update, with Gilmore Girls
sweetheart Jared Padalecki as Clay, the nephew of Richard Dean Anderson's character from
ABC's 1985-92 hit, and original executive producer Henry Winkler on board once again.
"It's been an excruciating writing process for me," Baum tells TV Guide with a
laugh, "because I, of course, have to try all these [makeshift gadgets and]
MacGyverisms out before I write them. I've actually blown off every finger on both hands
rigging all the things that Clay uses." Also on Baum's drawing board is Hometown, an
NBC/PAX dramedy about a young politician who is forced to share quarters with his
incorrigible grandmother after she's kicked out of her retirement community for
"gross misbehavior." "There aren't as many explosions in this show,"
its creator says, tongue in cheek, "but by Season Four, whoa — huge
action!" All kidding aside, if Baum's wit alone doesn't put Hometown on the map, he
could always call on old friends to provide guest-star power: The sometime actor has
shared the stage with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. For the moment,
though, Baum's head is still spinning from the whirlwind of activity that followed the
optioning of his first play, Breakfast All Day (think a modern-day Diner), by the suits
behind the sexy indie sleeper Kissing Jessica Stein. "I moved out to L.A., and five
months later," marvels the native New Yorker, "I was writing MacGyver and
working with the Fonz!" Can a photo op with Michelle Pfeiffer be far behind?
Dushku, Padalecki to
Star in Pilots
ZAP2IT.com
- Tue, Feb 25, 2003 11:45 AM PDT Los Angeles
The good news for fans of Eliza Dushku and Jared Padalecki is that they
might have regular roles on TV come fall. They just might not be on the shows where
viewers are accustomed to seeing them. Dushku, who's played rogue vampire slayer Faith on
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spinoff, "Angel," has agreed to
star in an untitled drama pilot for FOX. Padalecki, Dean on "Gilmore Girls," has
taken the title role in The WB's "MacGyver" pilot, according to The Hollywood
Reporter. John Feldman, creator of the FOX pilot, says he had Dushku in mind when writing
his lead character, a young woman who discovers she can go back in time and relive a day
in order to save lives. "Onscreen and off, she is smart, strong, beautiful and
embodies all the characteristics that are imperative to the character," Feldman says.
Dushku will play Faith on three episodes of "Angel" beginning Wednesday, March
5, and is also slated to appear in several "Buffy" episodes later this season.
There has been talk of a possible Faith spinoff for UPN, but it apparently has yet to
advance past the talking stage. Padalecki, meanwhile, is staying in The WB fold with
"MacGyver," an update of the 1980s series. He will play the nephew of the
original MacGyver -- played by Richard Dean Anderson on the ABC show -- who's brought into
his uncle's Phoenix Foundation, a think tank/crime-fighting organization.
Coming to the WB:
'Young MacGyver'
CNN.com -
Thursday, October 17, 2002 9:17 am (EDT)
(Reuters)
The man who can short-circuit a nuclear missile with a paper clip and stop
an acid leak with a candy bar is back -- but this time in the guise of "Young
MacGyver." The WB has made a production commitment with producer Paramount Network
Television to pick up a new version of the action drama "MacGyver." But the new
version of the series will focus on MacGyver's nephew. The original series starred Richard
Dean Anderson and ran from September 1985 to August 1992. The WB is a unit of AOL Time
Warner, as is CNN. "Young MacGyver" will follow the twentysomething hero as he
leaves school and winds up joining the Phoenix Foundation -- the good-guy organization his
uncle belonged to -- on a lark. Once there, he discovers that he's incredibly adept at
stepping into Uncle MacGyver's shoes. "Our MacGyver will be a little more irreverent
than the original," said Carolyn Bernstein, senior VP of drama development at the WB.
"It will have a lot in terms of the same elements of the original series, but with a
brand-new cast of characters and updated for present day," WB and Paramount plan to
start casting for the new "Young MacGyver" shortly. It is targeted for a 2003
bow. The original "MacGyver" was the last show to pop a solid number for ABC in
the pre-"Monday Night Football" time slot. Indeed, Paramount first approached
ABC about the "Young MacGyver" project, but the network passed. "Young
MacGyver" comes on the heels of another franchise that the WB reinvented with a young
slant -- the teenage Superman of "Smallville." "We would never look a gift
horse in the mouth, if given a familiar, adored franchise that came our way and we could
age down to make it appealing to our audience," Bernstein said.
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