NEW YORK -- Firemen, cops and paramedics all work together in 'H.E.L.P.,' a new ensemble series that has the unusual combination of being long on action and short on violence.
Sex? Forget it. That's not what this show is about.
'H.E.L.P' stands for Harlem Eastside Lifesaving Program -- an experimental project in which all the lifesaving aspects of the 9-1-1 emergency service are concentrated under one roof and one command. The series makes its debut on ABC Saturday, March 3, 8-9 p.m. Eastern time.
John Mahoney stars as Battalion Chief Patrick Meacham, the fireman who heads the experimental 'H.E.L.P.' program and takes a lot of flack from the regular firemen and cops who are strong believers in separation of the services.
Mahoney, gray-haired, mature, with a strong face and a nice smile, makes a totally believable fireman. The name may not strike a chord, but you probably will recognize him when you see him -- most memorably for the scene in 'Moonstruck' when he has dinner with Olympia Dukakis after his date throws her drink at him.
Also featured in the series is Tom Breznahan, who in real life is the son of a New York firefighter. He plays Jimmy Ryan, a rookie fireman who learns some valuable lessons in the first episode.
The opening show of the series starts off with an emergency services dispatcher trying to lead an hysterical mother through CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her child, who she found floating in the bathtub, not breathing.
From there the scene shifts to the porch of a non-flossy suburban home -- the kind real people live in, not television executives -- where Meacham is writing in his journal about a dying fireman injured in an arson fire. Someday, he says, he wants to write a book.
The main plot skein in the episode involves finding out who is paying a trio of subteen boys to set fire to dilapidated ghetto buildings. The script telegraphs the answer.
Suspense comes from the various ways these emergency workers save people from life-threatening situations. These range from a raging fire on a tugboat on the East River to a delightful little vignette when two cop members of 'H.E.L.P.' are called to a building by a little girl complaining about a cougar in the basement.
Childish imagination? Wanna bet?
The show is filmed in grimy, glittering New York, where the slums and skyline, rivers and seasons and glitz, add an extra dimension.
The show moves fast, flashing from one dramatic encounter to the next, with the sturdy Mahoney serving as the thread holding the proceedings together.
Mahoney, incidentally, only began his acting career in 1977 at age 37. He had been the editor of a medical journal in Chicago.
'I was in my office on the 20th floor of the Hancock Building and bored out of my mind,' he said. 'I thought, 'Am I going to be sitting here bored for the rest of my life, or am I going to do what I always wanted to do?''NEWLN:------
They don't make them like Cary Grant any more.
If in doubt, tune in 'American Movie Legend: Cary Grant,' to premiere on American Movie Classics channel on Thursday, March 1, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.
'Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. I want to be Cary Grant. I play him to perfection,' Grant is quoted on the show as saying.
The show will be fun for Grant fans, since it consists almost entirely of film clips, from 'She Done Him Wrong' in 1933 with Mae West inviting him to come up and see her sometime, to 'Charade' in 1963, with stops along the way for such wonders as 'Bringing Up Baby' with Katharine Hepburn, 'The Awful Truth' with Irene Dunne, 'The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer' with Shirley Temple, 'Suspicion' with Joan Fontaine, and 'Notorious' with Ingrid Bergman.
Grant made so many wonderful films that the viewer could wish for more -- longer clips and more extensive scenes from such wonders as 'Arsenic and Old Lace,' 'The Philadelphia Story,' 'Topper,' 'Holiday' and 'To Catch A Thief,' to name a few.
But this show is only a half hour long, a kaleidoscope of film clips with only the merest smattering of biography. Enjoy it for what it is.NEWLN: adv wed feb 28
