Post by CC Fan on Oct 3, 2004 4:20:41 GMT -5
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Heading toward its second season, "Cold Case" is coming off a hot freshman year.
The top-rated new drama series for 2003-04, the Sunday-night CBS show will continue to step back into the past as present-day Philadelphia police detective Lilly Rush (played by Kathryn Morris) revives unsolved -- or "cold" -- cases. She interrogates people about long-ago tragedies and uses modern forensic techniques unavailable at the time of the crimes, assisted by her partner (Danny Pino) and other homicide-squad members (John Finn, Jeremy Ratchford, Thom Barry).
"The show really runs like a well-oiled machine," star Morris maintains, "thanks to the people who run it. We do 12- and 16-hour days and the occasional 18 hours, but it's very organized. We have a lot to shoot because we do both the flashbacks and the present-day stuff. We have a system where we try to use any lighting or makeup-trailer time to rehearse. Luckily, everyone in the cast and all the writers are very cohesive about trying to really fine-tune what we're going to do before we start shooting it."
Someone especially appreciative is "Cold Case" executive producer Meredith Stiehm, enjoying success with the first show she created after working on already established series like "ER," "NYPD Blue" and "Beverly Hills, 90210." She claims to be "surprised" that "Cold Case" has fared so well: "The odds are always bad, so I'm almost a pessimist. I always expect the worst, but we had a better chance because we were latching onto the Bruckheimer train." Executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer also has furnished CBS with the "CSI" series, "Without a Trace" and "The Amazing Race."
Stiehm felt "Cold Case" hit its stride with an episode during the show's second month on the air. She says, "It was called 'A Time to Hate.' It was about a gay-bashing in the '60s, and that's the one we still hold up as the one to emulate, the one that really worked and had the effect we wanted for the show. It was a story that couldn't have been told back then, and we can tell it now in hindsight because we have terms like 'gay-bashing.' You really feel how time has affected a case or affected characters."
Decade-appropriate music also plays a big role in "Cold Case," and it doesn't come cheap. "Everyone realized early on that music really was a character, as well as a real part of the narrative," executive producer (and Bruckheimer associate) Jonathan Littman reflects, "and not once did we ever get a concerned call. It was, 'Just keep doing it.' Some songs have just been too expensive, and we've had people who would not give us the rights. We kept going after Bruce Springsteen's people for different episodes, a couple that would work really great with a Springsteen song; finally, they said, 'Yes.'" (Note: The show's music supervisor is Jason Alexander ... and no, not that one.)
While some details about Lilly's personal life seep into "Cold Case," the show focuses primarily on the police procedural of the week, not unlike "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" or NBC's "Law & Order." That's in keeping with the formula Stiehm first set down. "I like to learn things sparingly," she allows, "and I like the mystery of Lilly Rush, along with the mystery of whatever the case is that week. We'll meet new people in her life. We'll have some more story with Valens (Pino's character) and his girlfriend. But we'll never turn it into a whole story about their personal lives. It will remain 90 to 95 percent about the case."
The ratio's effectiveness is proven to Morris by feedback she gets from "Cold Case" fans. "Everybody goes to a 9-to-5 job or a night-shift job, but in the midst of their work schedule, they have life and relationships. I've been amazed by the response of working women toward Lilly Rush. It's not just about her being a cop. It's almost like she's become a spokesperson for the single, working woman. I find that very interesting and very challenging."
Adding actor-director Tim Matheson ("The West Wing") to its production team for its new year, "Cold Case" is guaranteed extra exposure beyond its usual post-"60 Minutes" Sunday slot. Repeats will be part of a weekly "Crimetime Saturday" wheel that also will utilize other CBS shows like "CSI," "CSI: Miami" and "Without a Trace." For the newer "Cold Case" stories, Stiehm expects the continued cooperation of the experts she has consulted thus far.
"We're in constant touch with the Philadelphia cold-case detectives," she reports, "and they have told me that people have newfound interest in, and respect for, what they do. It has to be in the public awareness more. There's also 'Cold Case Files' on A&E, so it's out in the world. I think TV is probably helping push people's knowledge about it."
Heading toward its second season, "Cold Case" is coming off a hot freshman year.
The top-rated new drama series for 2003-04, the Sunday-night CBS show will continue to step back into the past as present-day Philadelphia police detective Lilly Rush (played by Kathryn Morris) revives unsolved -- or "cold" -- cases. She interrogates people about long-ago tragedies and uses modern forensic techniques unavailable at the time of the crimes, assisted by her partner (Danny Pino) and other homicide-squad members (John Finn, Jeremy Ratchford, Thom Barry).
"The show really runs like a well-oiled machine," star Morris maintains, "thanks to the people who run it. We do 12- and 16-hour days and the occasional 18 hours, but it's very organized. We have a lot to shoot because we do both the flashbacks and the present-day stuff. We have a system where we try to use any lighting or makeup-trailer time to rehearse. Luckily, everyone in the cast and all the writers are very cohesive about trying to really fine-tune what we're going to do before we start shooting it."
Someone especially appreciative is "Cold Case" executive producer Meredith Stiehm, enjoying success with the first show she created after working on already established series like "ER," "NYPD Blue" and "Beverly Hills, 90210." She claims to be "surprised" that "Cold Case" has fared so well: "The odds are always bad, so I'm almost a pessimist. I always expect the worst, but we had a better chance because we were latching onto the Bruckheimer train." Executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer also has furnished CBS with the "CSI" series, "Without a Trace" and "The Amazing Race."
Stiehm felt "Cold Case" hit its stride with an episode during the show's second month on the air. She says, "It was called 'A Time to Hate.' It was about a gay-bashing in the '60s, and that's the one we still hold up as the one to emulate, the one that really worked and had the effect we wanted for the show. It was a story that couldn't have been told back then, and we can tell it now in hindsight because we have terms like 'gay-bashing.' You really feel how time has affected a case or affected characters."
Decade-appropriate music also plays a big role in "Cold Case," and it doesn't come cheap. "Everyone realized early on that music really was a character, as well as a real part of the narrative," executive producer (and Bruckheimer associate) Jonathan Littman reflects, "and not once did we ever get a concerned call. It was, 'Just keep doing it.' Some songs have just been too expensive, and we've had people who would not give us the rights. We kept going after Bruce Springsteen's people for different episodes, a couple that would work really great with a Springsteen song; finally, they said, 'Yes.'" (Note: The show's music supervisor is Jason Alexander ... and no, not that one.)
While some details about Lilly's personal life seep into "Cold Case," the show focuses primarily on the police procedural of the week, not unlike "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" or NBC's "Law & Order." That's in keeping with the formula Stiehm first set down. "I like to learn things sparingly," she allows, "and I like the mystery of Lilly Rush, along with the mystery of whatever the case is that week. We'll meet new people in her life. We'll have some more story with Valens (Pino's character) and his girlfriend. But we'll never turn it into a whole story about their personal lives. It will remain 90 to 95 percent about the case."
The ratio's effectiveness is proven to Morris by feedback she gets from "Cold Case" fans. "Everybody goes to a 9-to-5 job or a night-shift job, but in the midst of their work schedule, they have life and relationships. I've been amazed by the response of working women toward Lilly Rush. It's not just about her being a cop. It's almost like she's become a spokesperson for the single, working woman. I find that very interesting and very challenging."
Adding actor-director Tim Matheson ("The West Wing") to its production team for its new year, "Cold Case" is guaranteed extra exposure beyond its usual post-"60 Minutes" Sunday slot. Repeats will be part of a weekly "Crimetime Saturday" wheel that also will utilize other CBS shows like "CSI," "CSI: Miami" and "Without a Trace." For the newer "Cold Case" stories, Stiehm expects the continued cooperation of the experts she has consulted thus far.
"We're in constant touch with the Philadelphia cold-case detectives," she reports, "and they have told me that people have newfound interest in, and respect for, what they do. It has to be in the public awareness more. There's also 'Cold Case Files' on A&E, so it's out in the world. I think TV is probably helping push people's knowledge about it."
