Newspaper Articles about CBS' Cold Case

[Naj]

www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/6354242.htm

Posted on Tue, Jul. 22, 2003

Gail Shister | 'Cold Case' actress doesn't sing for her supper anymore
By Gail Shister
Inquirer Columnist

LOS ANGELES - Call her the singing detective.

Kathyrn Morris, star of CBS's new Philly-set cop drama, Cold Case, helped earn her Temple tuition in the early '90s by belting out show tunes as she waitressed on the Spirit of Philadelphia cruise ship.

"When you served dinner, you wore a black vest with a white tuxedo shirt," Morris recalled Sunday in an interview after addressing TV critics here. "When it was time for the Broadway revue, you turned the vest around and it said, 'It's show time!' "

Morris' Lilly Rush won't be crooning on Cold Case. The only female detective in the Philly Police Department's homicide squad, she finds her true calling when she's assigned to investigate old, unsolved crimes.

CSI's Jerry Bruckheimer is executive producer. Meredith Stiehm, a 1990 Penn grad, is co-e.p. and writer.

Morris is a tad vague about her early years. Her CBS bio says she's a Dallas native. She says she was born in Ohio. She won't say which city "because it doesn't matter."

Growing up, Morris says, she lived in Texas, among other places. Her family moved frequently as her father, a biblical scholar, pursued his studies. (Estranged for years, they don't communicate, she says.) Her mother lives in Texas and sells insurance.

At age 6, Morris and two of her five siblings formed a gospel group with their father, the Morris Code. Traveling "like the Partridge family," they toured and recorded two albums of hymns.

After graduating from the now-defunct Northeastern Christian Junior College in Villanova, Morris transferred to Temple. She dropped out after her junior year to pursue an acting career.

Her big break came in '97, when she joined the syndicated Pensacola: Wings of Gold as a pilot. That led to such films as 2000's The Contender and last year's Minority Report, in which she played Tom Cruise's ex-wife.

"I was a little nervous about meeting Tom, but he was sweet and very disarming. Some people are actors. Some are movie stars. He's an actor who happens to be a movie star."

To research her Cold Case role, Morris visited Philadelphia last month and shadowed detectives in the all-male cold-case squad.

"It's a very special job to knock on the door of someone whose son or daughter has died, and ask about new leads. These detectives can't sleep until they figure it out."

It seems Morris has figured out her love life. She and her boyfriend of five years are engaged, but no wedding date yet. Randy Hamilton, a "good Ohio boy," is an investor for rock stars and athletes. "He's Jerry Maguire after the epiphany, not before."

Help from above.Despite falling ratings, CBS Evening News is not in crisis, CBS News boss Andrew Heyward insists.

"It's an overstatement to say it's in trouble," Heyward said in an interview yesterday. "We're just dealing with the kind of warp and woof of television ratings."

Still, Heyward acknowledges he's "puzzled" by audience erosion in CBS's "hallowed franchise," anchored by Dan Rather since 1981. It's a distant third in the Nielsens, behind Tom Brokaw's top-rated NBC Nightly News and Peter Jennings' World News Tonight on ABC.

Since the season launched in September, CBS Evening News has averaged 8.26 million viewers - down 360,000 viewers from last season, according to Nielsen Media Research.

NBC is averaging 10.61 million viewers (up 350,000) and ABC, 9.91 million (up 60,000).

In Heyward's view, Evening News "is journalistically excellent," and Rather, 71, "is at the top of his game."

Heyward says it's important to develop a front-runner to succeed Rather, "but we've always resisted that. For us, we prefer for people to draw their own conclusions."

Meanwhile, Heyward is studying ways to improve ratings.

"We could probably do a better job showcasing what's different and makes it distinctive. As an insurance policy, I put in a call to Joan of Arcadia," a new CBS drama about a teen who has cryptic conversations with God.

~Naj

[Naj]

Kathryn even graced the cover of TV Guide's Fall Preview along with a short article.



{scan hosted at www.ausxip.com}





~Naj~

[CC Fan]

awww that clipping is cute, thanks for posting. I had no idea that was her eye, shes so pretty!

[Naj]

tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,274|81575|1|,00.html

Cold Case
Premise: The Philadelphia homicide squad's lone female detective finds her calling when she's assigned "cold cases" -- crimes that have never been solved.
From What We've Seen: While it's not called "CSI: Philly" or "Without a Trace in the City of Brotherly Love," it might as well be. Containing the tradmark Bruckheimer Television high production values and storylines heavy on recreations and flashbacks, it should be easy to hit a comfort zone quickly. Philadelphia has the potential to be just as interesting a crime backdrop as New York, Miami, or Vegas. Morris looks prepared to lead a show, but the supporting cast is noticeable sparse. Hopefully as the show goes deeper into development a racially diverse group of background characters will develop.
Stars: Kathryn Morris ("Minority Report" ), John Finn, Mel Winkler, Justin Chambers and Jeremy Ratchford
Studio: CBS Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television Production, Inc.
Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer ("CSI," "Without a Trace"), Jonathan Littman ("CSI," "Without a Trace") and Meredith Stiehm ("ER")

[Naj]

[glow=red,2,300]Do we have any AOL users here?
[/glow]


People Magazine had an article in the November 10th issue on Kathryn and Cold Case. Hopefully someone can get the text from the article online and post it here or email it to me.

people.aol.com/people/search/results/1,11400,,00.html?query=Kathryn+Morris&coll=peoplesite&x=10&y=5


~Naj~

[Naj]

I found this off of a list group I belong to:



Tuned In: 'Cold Case' follows trail of crime hits
Tuesday, July 22, 2003

By Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV Editor


HOLLYWOOD -- The television clone factory is thriving. When it's not popping out reality shows, there are plenty of procedural dramas that roll off the assembly line.

NBC's "Law & Order" has existed for years, flying under the radar. It was the success of CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" that revved into high gear the production of closed-ended dramas. Not only do
these shows fare well in the ratings on the initial broadcast, but their reruns do much better than repeats of serialized shows. That's why "The West Wing" reruns aren't on NBC this summer.

Action movie maker Jerry Bruckheimer ("Bad Boys II," "Pirates of the Caribbean") executive produced the stylized "CSI," and that show'ssuccess led to its spin-off, "CSI: Miami," and Bruckheimer's "Without a Trace," which also has its own unique visual style.

For Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBS this fall, Bruckheimer cribs from his past shows for the look of "Cold Case," which tells the story of long-dormant cases in the Philadelphia police homicide division.

"It's very cinematic," said executive producer Jonathan Littman. "The theory has always been in our company that people watch television with their thumbs and they click very quickly around the dial. You have to capture them with a look that's really distinctive. And then get them to stay with the story. We've really tried to work within those boundaries."

"Cold Case" stars Kathryn Morris as Det. Lilly Rush. That alone makes this series stand out from its procedural predecessors, according to CBS chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves.

"It's less of a team and more of a female lead piece, which is different," Moonves said. "And the public is still responding to[procedural shows]. When you look at the end of the week and you seeamong the Top 10 shows three 'Law & Orders' and two 'CSIs,' there's obviously an appetite for these shows."

Meredith Stiehm wrote for testosterone-heavy "NYPD Blue" for fouryears before writing the "Cold Case" pilot.

"One of the things I focused on in creating this was a femaledetective that was our lead and not just the partner of a male detective, which there's a lot of," Stiehm said. "It's just something that's been overlooked."

Although it's unlikely to stray too far from the Bruckheimer formula, Stiehm said she expects the series to hew closer to "Blue" than to "Law & Order."

"The emphasis is the work. We may get little windows into her life, but especially in the beginning it's really about the cases she's working," she said. "It's dangerous when you do too much character stuff too quickly because you start running out of stories and your credibility starts faltering when you give someone four tragedies in a season. But character is one of the main elements of drama, so I don't want to do a show that doesn't have any character."

Stiehm said the soapier elements of drama series rise in frequency as a show ages and writers run out of ideas.

"Often the crutch you use is, let's have them have an affair or let's have her get pregnant. That happens on a lot of shows just because of time. I'd like to avoid it. It may be inevitable. But I always think it's sort of a bad turn when that happens."


www.post-gazette.com/tv/20030722owen0722fnp4.asp

~Naj

[Naj]

New Season, New Thinking
How Some Very Creative Minds Are Taking Prime Time to the Next Level


For innovators, opportunities abound in prime time TV these days. With fierce competition from all angles, programming execs are looking for execution that stands out from the pack, and showrunners are hiring talent with the chops to make it happen. The competition just gets tougher — big-screen directors working in TV this year include Mark Pellington, Phillip Noyce, Peter Medak, Jeremy Podeswa and Rodrigo Garcia. Melding solid storytelling with technology breakthroughs, directors, editors, DPs and visual-effects artists are all on the quest for the next iteration of must-see TV.

CBS’s Cold Case
Watching The Detectives
The Forensics of Flashbacks
• By Alison Johns
Editor in Chief
Film & Video Magazine

Television is where Mark Pellington grew up as a director, first making promos for MTV when it blasted onto the air, then segueing into directing music videos — his most famous is Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” — then helming commercials for Gatorade and ADD cures. Grab the remote, and you’ll find Pellington’s features, the thrillers Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies, on cable. But with the exception of one episode of Homicide, he had never done a primetime episodic until this pilot season. Pellington is a driven polymath, not likely to sit on the sidelines of any film format. So after a reading eight scripts and taking a cycle of meetings this year, he found himself responding to Meredith Stiehm’s script for Cold Case and decided to throw himself into the foot-race of eight-day shoots and four-day edits with the extra challenge of making a series that wasn’t just another cop show.

Pellington’s attention was snagged by the complex, flawed female cop lead. Cold Case had a psychological angle he felt he could mine, but it was the element of flashbacks illuminating the original crime that he really thought he could work.


Mark Pellington
“I like mysteries,” says Pellington. “I like psychological themes because there's darkness and you can explore abstract themes. The idea of being able to go into a period and literally use the film stock so stylistically in the flashbacks was appealing. I said, ‘Great, so I’ll be able to be in the 70s for 1/4 of the show,’ and that’s kind of cool.”

Pilot season is like a triathlon for a producer/director. It’s also the most creative part of television — defining a look, hiring creatives and actors, and then finally culminating in selling the network. Finding himself on a new playing field, Pellington felt he’d get the visual look he’d imagined more easily with a DP he had an existing shorthand with and so he brought in Tom Richmond (Slums of Beverly Hills, Killing Zoe), who’d shot music videos with him, including “Jeremy.” It was a security blanket as the two had a working relationship, but it was also a gamble as Richmond hadn’t done episodic before. That was a plus in Pellington’s view. He says he knew that Richmond would get what he was trying to do with the flashback sequences, which he felt should use techniques that contrasted with the more traditional show footage.

"If I was going to be a little bit rock-and-roll in this show, or if I was going to do stuff that was slightly unorthodox, I knew that I needed a DP that would get it," Pellington says. From his videos through Mothman Prophecies, Pellington has established himself as a stylist born of the information age, layering data, symbols, feedback, and modes of perception together to create riveting film images.


The pilot, shot by DP Tom Richmond, is punctuated with flashbacks to the 70s, revealing suspects and witnesses as they were at the time of the crime. These sequences were shot with 16mm reversal negative.

For the subsequent episodes, Pellington brought in another DP with chops in music video and commercials, Eric Schmidt, who shot the Flaming Lips video "Do You Realize?" and several Gatorade spots with him. "I thought he’d be able to bring an enthusiasm,” says Pellington, “a vitality and a fresh perspective from the world of video and commercials to these narrative flashbacks instead of saying, 'Just shoot the negative and come up with some gimmick in post.' You cannot rely on color correction to be your look, you've got to have something coming out of the box that's different. You can do a lot in film-to-tape but you can't use it as a crutch."


Kathryn Morris as Lilly Rush, a complex detective created by Meredith Stiehm. Unable to resist getting as close to the frame as possible, Pellington almost always gets his hands on the camera except on features.

"Sometimes I just like to pick the camera up because I need to get in there and feel the scenes and sometimes I'm just bored. I wouldn't do it for a really complicated, elaborate dolly move. I'm not confident of my skills on the wheels but on commercials I operate all the time because I’m just finding frames and cutting it my head." The flashback scenes in Cold Case are where this series diverges from other cop series, bringing to life the memories of crimes that have been gathering dust in police department file cabinets.

CREDITS
Cold Case

• Executive Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, Meredith Stiehm

• Producer: Perry Jusman

• DPs: Tom Richmond (pilot), Eric Schmidt (series)

• Offline Editor(s): Conrad Gonzalez (pilot), Michael Ruscio, Maja Vrvioo (series)

• Post Production: R!ot/Santa Monica

• Dailies Colorist: Frank Berrios

• Color Correction: Gino Panaro

• Postproduction Supervisor: Elle Gereau



Pellington grabbed the camera to operate for a particularly confrontational sequence where detective Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris) questions a suspect in a parking lot. And for a key scene in the pilot that flashes back to moments after a murder, he also shouldered a camera and told a gaffer to get right into the face of his actor with a sun gun. Shot on 16mm Ektachrome 7239 160 daylight reversal stock at night, the scene evokes the highly stylized imagery of memory. “I convinced them to shoot the Vision2 stock,” says Pellington, who likes the stock’s blacks. “It gave us great malleability for the series and means that anything we do for flashbacks, be it Super 8, 35, infrared, [or] reversal, will look more unique.”


The DPs who worked with Pellington to create a look for Cold Case, Tom Richmond and Eric Schmidt, come out of shooting videos for Pearl Jam and the Flaming Lips. DP Eric Schmidt shot his flashbacks with Pellington using Vision2, pushed one stop under incredibly low-light situations. Other flashbacks for an episode directed by Paris Barclay, set in the 80s, were shot on Ektachrome 5285 100 daylight stock pushed two stops to 400 ASA and overexposed a stop-and-a-half to two-thirds, with much of the footage shot at 60 or 120 fps.

“We worked pretty closely with the colorist at R!ot, Gino Panaro,” says Pellington. “We added contrast and cooled it off a bit and shot the flashbacks with more lurid color so that it feels like a documentary shot in the 70s.”

Among the discoveries Pellington made in editing the pilot was an important one about rhythm. “Probably my pacing was construed to be a little bit slow, frankly, for TV. The murder at the end of the pilot was slightly slower and a little creepier in my original cut. But when three shots were lost and two little things were tightened, the feeling of it — where I put the camera, the way it was lit — was retained. That’s a certain kind of speed aesthetic that Jerry Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman get.”


Pellington underscores the flashback scenes to evoke 1976 with songs including Boston’s ”More than a Feeling“ and Hot Chocolate‘s ”You Sexy Thing.“

Pellington has opted not to make TV his day job, but remains with the series as a consulting producer. “My role is to talk to every director about what their ideas are for the design of every show and just keep quality control.” After directing some spots this fall, Pellington will be attaching talent to two films he’s been working on. “They’re more independent-minded, still probably able to attract talent, but not big huge star action movies or big romantic comedy things,” he says.

Before the TV experience, Pellington had figured it would take him 55 days to shoot one of his pictures. Now he’s gotten the schedule down to 38 days. “The TV thing’s been good," Pellington says, "I can still make something look good and with less time and a smaller machine.”


www.filmandvideomagazine.com

[Naj]

November 12, 2003
CBS PR: "Our programs don't suck"
CBS: OUR PROGRAMS DON'T SUCK*

<<11-12.DOC>>

CBS's New and Returning Series Strike a Ratings Chord with Viewers

As the Second Week of Sweeps Comes to an End,
CBS Dominates in Viewers, Adults 25-54 and is a Competitive Second in Adults 18-49 with Impressive Year-To-Year Gains

Contrary to assertions by a competing television executive that the quality of some network programming "just sucked," CBS's new and returning series are striking a ratings chord with viewers.

That ratings rhapsody you hear is the sound of CBS dominating the November sweep in viewers, households and adults 25-54 while upping the tempo in adults 18-49.

Despite CBS's success, it is understandable that there is some concern in the broadcasting ranks. One network has suffered declines of 12% in viewers, 12% in adult 18-49 and 11% in adults 25-54 while quickly canceling new series and shuffling its schedule.


CBS, on the other hand, claims four of the top five new series of the season, including TWO AND A HALF MEN (#1),[glow=red,2,300]COLD CASE (#2),[/glow]NAVY NCIS (#3) and JOAN OF ARCADIA (#5). (Editors Note: In the interest of full disclosure, the #4 new show is/was "Coupling").

CBS also commands the top six most watched broadcasts of the November sweep: CSI, 11/6 (29.65m), #1; CSI, 10/30 (27.35m), #2; THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW REUNION: BACK TO MAYBERRY, 11/11 (21.64m), #3; SURVIVOR: PEARL ISLANDS, 11/6 (21.45m), #4; SURVIVOR: PEARL ISLANDS, 10/30 (20.81m), #5 and THE 37TH ANNUAL CMA AWARDS, 11/5 (20.75m), #6.




www.tvbarn.com/ticker/archives/016582.html

[Naj]

'Cold Case': A Crime Show That Turns Up the Heat

By Tom Shales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 27, 2003; Page C01

Kathryn Morris warms the heart of "Cold Case" and should do the same for every human being who watches the show. It's hardly a heartwarming proposition, except for her presence -- another morbid drama about murder and torture and all the other horrible things that make prime time crime time. Though it's politically incorrect to use such a term, Morris is the Cold Case Cutie who takes the show to another, and better, level.

Unusually violent and raw for a Sunday-night-at-8 network show, "Cold Case"premieres tomorrow on Channel 9 by borrowing a page from thingy Wolf's book. He's the "Law & Order" impresario who likes the headlines. The first "cold case" that is re-opened on the CBS show is more than mildly reminiscent of the Michael Skakel case, a rich boy with prestige connections who seems to have killed a girl friend and gotten away
with it.

Morris plays Lilly Rush, a Philadelphia police detective who sort of stumbles onto this new beat, digging up old dirt in order to close unsolved murder cases, and finds she's very good at it. The investigation phase requires finesse and compassion, and Morris has no trouble at all conveying those qualities. She's the most beautiful of the new breed of female crime fighters on TV, but she departs from the dark-and-brooding stereotype.

Indeed, there's a twinkle in her eye -- or maybe it's a gleam -- or maybe it's a glinkle -- but whatever it is, it's reminiscent of Goldie Hawn in her early years, the dawn of Hawn as it were. Morris does not play dumb, however. She probably couldn't even if she agreed to it.

The show has one great gimmick going for it, akin to the roller coaster rides through bloodstreams and bone marrow on the "CSI" dramas. As Lilly digs into the past and interviews suspects and witnesses, the director does quick intercuts between the people as they looked then and as they look now.

It's a simple thing to do, but there's something almost magical about it. It adds a poignancy to the stories that makes them more than cop-and-robber capers.

"Cold Case" is off the Jerry Bruckheimer assembly line but does not have the trappings of a factory product. Morris, of course, is the main reason the show has a genuine humanity to it. But there are other distinguishing touches along the way. While we assume that Lilly is no sissy, some of the dialogue that comes out of her mouth seems too vulgar by half, though CBS has reportedly trimmed one or two of her bawdier expressions.

It's 8 o'clock on a Sunday night, for heaven's sake; couldn't this, atleast, be safe harbor for family-appropriate programming? "Cold Case" really doesn't belong in this time slot, but on the other hand, it's certainly made with enough imagination and craftsmanship to qualify for a prestige position on the schedule. CBS executives just better hope Ed Sullivan doesn't rise from his grave and smite them; this was, of course, his hour many TV moons ago.

And Ed, you may recall, didn't even want Elvis to undulate on the grounds it was unfit for family consumption. It's a long way from that mind-set to
the blood and gore and rough talk of "Cold Case."

But quality is quality, and even though the genre is criminally over-represented on TV right now, "Cold Case" is an outstanding crime drama. It has all the trappings of a good show and then, of course, one staple of a great one: An absolutely terrific star in the lead role. Kathryn Morris can go through my files anytime.


~Naj


From a list group
This was in the Washington Post October 2003 (don't have a link)

[Naj]

Short mention from Variety.com


[glow=red,2,300]Kathryn Morris 'Cold Case'[/glow]

By MICHAEL VENTRE

New shows
9/11/03 10:00pm


By choosing eclectic roles, Kathryn Morris ("A.I. Artificial Intelligence," "The Contender") has been aiming to endure.

She has slowly built an impressive list of feature credits, most notably her turn as the wife of Tom Cruise's character in "Minority Report." So a lead in the new Jerry Bruckheimer TV series, "Cold Case," seems like an unexpected twist when examining the Morris trail.

"I've read many great scripts, but I haven't always seen them precisely executed," says Morris."

Morris plays Det. Lilly Rush, who extractsclues from old homicides for present-day investigations. As luck would have it, Morris had been researching the territory long before "Cold Case" ever came along.

"On my TiVo, I always have '48 Hours' and 'Dateline', " she says.

Date in print: Fri., Sep. 12, 2003,



Cold Case
The plot: Kathryn Morris refuses to let long unsolved crimes be forgotten.
Showrunners: Meredith Stiehm
What works: Morris as a hipper Jessica Fletcher. Jerry Bruckheimer's got the golden touch.
What doesn't: Can't we go one night without a crime drama?
Bottom line: Success, she wrote.

[Naj]

www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2003/12/18/two_fall_shows_make_a_connection/

ON TV
Two fall shows make a connection
By Suzanne C. Ryan, Globe Staff, 12/18/2003

It's been a tough season for broadcast television. Of the 38 new shows to debut this fall, nine have been canceled already and a number of others placed on hiatus. Meanwhile, veteran shows such as "Friends" have lost viewers.

Amid this doom and gloom, are people watching anything?

Check CBS, which is making headway with the comedy "Two and a Half Men," starring Charlie Sheen, and the detective show "Cold Case."

Neither of these shows generated huge buzz initially. But fans are tuning in, a major accomplishment in this TV climate.

"Two and a Half Men" is averaging a solid 15.6 million viewers a week, "Cold Case" 14.2 million viewers, placing them in the top 15 list. In contrast, the number one show on television, CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," is averaging 26.5 million viewers.

There's no big secret behind these programs. To be sure, they benefit from strong lead-ins. "Two and a Half Men," which features Sheen as a wealthy, carefree bachelor in Southern California who is forced to take in his uptight brother and young nephew, airs Mondays at 9:30 p.m. after "Everybody Loves Raymond."

"Cold Case," starring Kathryn Morris as a homicide detective who investigates cases long closed, airs Sundays at 8 after "60 Minutes."

"Two and a Half Men" has resonated with some viewers because of its male perspective. David Coburn, a certified public accountant in Framingham, said he considers the program to be the "freshest show" on TV in years. "I remember one episode where Sheen's character meets a single mom at a soccer game," said the 37-year-old. "It was interesting to me because I went out with a single mom before. I could really relate to the hurdles you have to jump through in that situation. It captured my attention. So many shows are pretty juvenile."

Chuck Lorre, an executive producer for the program, said his writing team includes "a bunch of divorced guys" as well as a single mother and men in relationships.

"We are trying to keep the stories honest and simple," he says. "What happens when a man is frightened of intimate relationships because of how he was raised? We want to explore the characters as opposed to situations like two guys trapped in an elevator. Hopefully, people can watch and say `I know this guy. I'm married to this guy.'

"We can't take for granted that viewers are going to stay," he said. "There are too many choices out there. The business of television comedy seems to be dwindling. Half-hour comedies are generally driven by stories about women, except `Frasier' and shows about blue-collar men. Our characters are grown men with responsibilities. They're very different from Frasier and Niles. But they're not plumbers either."

Jonathan Littman, an executive producer for "Cold Case" who has worked with Jerry Bruckheimer on five prime-time shows this season including the failed "Skin," said he thinks "Cold Case" has appealed to viewers because it has a strong female lead actress who is not glamorous or sexy. "You believe she's a cop. Her hair and clothing are not perfect," he said.

"Cold Case" is also not procedural, he said. "The focus is on bringing dead people to life. It's a question of what happened to the victim years ago and what has happened to the living since the crime." Littman said the show always uses period music to "emotionally transport" viewers back in time.

Like many Bruckheimer shows, including "CSI" and "Without a Trace," "Cold Case" uses flashbacks to tell stories. Sean Buckley, a 31-year-old probation officer in Boston, thinks the technique adds to the mystery. "When you first see the opening shots, you have an idea of who the perpetrator is. But at the end, you're surprised a lot. It's a very interesting show. It keeps you guessing."


~Naj

[Naj]

www.indystar.com/articles/0/103556-5600-047.html

CBS show 'Cold Case' heats up


By Bridget Byrne
Associated Press
December 19, 2003


BURBANK, Calif. -- Crew members retouch dirty patches of fake snow and wet down the pavement on a grimy urban back street.

A crane-mounted camera swings high above the scene as three people wrapped in winter clothing move slowly between tenement buildings, glancing side to side, up and down, their eyes searching.

The camera swings down for a shot of detectives Lilly Rush, Tom Stillman and Scotty Valens of the CBS series "Cold Case" (8 p.m. Sundays) as they check out the location of a crime committed many years ago.

Cut.

Then the scene is repeated with exactly the same camera moves, but with a younger actor playing Stillman circa 1980. The match is excellent -- the same slender build and body language, but with a touch more hair.

"I think they flattered me," series star John Finn says about the choice of guest actor Anthony John Crane to play a younger Stillman.

Crane praises Finn for teaching him the nuances of the part. "There is something very still about him, something that's not fully expressed. Yet he has a quiet kind of strength and sensitivity," Crane says of his character.

The realistic time-morphing seen on "Cold Case" has set it apart from the other crime investigation dramas currently cluttering the networks.

Each week, images of then and now reveal not just the whys of a murder, but also the crime's impact on the survivors. The call sheet for this day's filming lists various roles that are dual cast for this purpose.

It's the first network series for casting directors Barbara Fiorentino and Rebecca Mangieri, and, says Mangieri, their first experience "having to age up and down in such a short amount of time every week."

There were 30 to 40 submissions for the role of the younger Stillman, with about 25 actors auditioning before a choice was made. The trick? To pick the physical feature that is the most important to match, then count on costuming and makeup to help viewers take it from there.

This episode focuses on a crime that Stillman was unable to solve in 1980, hence the need for Crane. It's a story line, Finn says, that "allows all the characters to look at each other in different ways, sometimes lightheartedly, other times with more gravity."

Today's filming on the Warner Bros. lot showcases many of the elements that have made this drama click with audiences: the dual casting, the feature film production values, and a keen attention to period detail, including the shooting of flashbacks using the film stock and style of the era. All that's missing on this set is period music, which will be added later.

Executive producer Jonathan Littman says a lot of money is spent to secure the rights for songs that establish the right tone for the times.

Cast members also point to human emotion as a reason for the success of "Cold Case."

"It's about people, not necessarily about physical evidence . . . why people hold in things that they've done in the past for so long, and why they ultimately give them up," says Danny Pino, who plays rookie detective Valens. "It's interesting to watch why people confess, or not."

Kathryn Morris, who plays lead investigator Rush, says the show is not so much a whodunit as a why-they-did-it.

The show "hits an emotional chord, rather than an overly intellectual chord," she explains, picking her words with care as she unwinds in her trailer at the end of a long day.

"It still has the intrigue . . . and the mystery-solving," she says. "However, the 'why' someone murders another is much more complicated, and provides an emotional through-line, because a murder touches so many people's lives, and time doesn't truly heal. It just changes perspective."




~Naj