Random TV Title: Karen Sisco

I've written plenty about KAREN SISCO on this blog, including individual reviews of all ten episodes. Elmore Leonard created the character for a short story and the novel OUT OF SIGHT, published in 1996. OUT OF SIGHT was made into an excellent film in 1998 with Jennifer Lopez playing the role.

When ABC brought the character to television in 2003, the very foxy Carla Gugino (WATCHMEN) played Karen, a U.S. Marshal based in Florida who encounters a bevy of oddballs in both her professional and personal lives. Bill Duke (who once signed my PREDATOR DVD) played her limping boss at the Marshal's office (don't know if the cane was a carryover from the Leonard stories), and Robert Forster (JACKIE BROWN) played her father, with whom she had a very personable relationship. In fact, I'd say it was one of the most interesting father/daughter teams I've ever seen on television, partially because the overall writing on KAREN SISCO was so good, but mostly because Forster and Gugino had genuine chemistry together.

ABC treated KAREN SISCO like shit, promoted it badly, took it off the schedule, and never put it on Sundays back-to-back with ALIAS, where it would have been a hit. ABC only aired seven episodes with the three unaired shows running later on USA and on Sleuth. USA realized what a good concept it was, and is currently ripping it off with its series IN PLAIN SIGHT, which stars Mary McCormack (MURDER ONE) as a U.S. Marshal in another sun-drenched locale: Albuquerque.

KAREN SISCO's groovy open bathes Gugino in MIAMI VICE-style Day Glo colors (the show was set in Miami) and features a remix of the Isley Brothers' 1971 smash "It's Your Thing."

He Was A Friend Of Mine

10 HE WAS A FRIEND OF MINE
April 14, 2004 (USA)
Writer: Peter Lefcourt
Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Although it was a crime drama, KAREN SISCO was light in tone. Not a spoof or breezy like cop shows of the 1970s like STARSKY & HUTCH, but a series with quirky characters and humor that flowed naturally from them. It felt like a breath of fresh air in a network television landscape packed with grim shows like 24, LAW & ORDER and C.S.I., in which tightlipped characters solve crimes with barely a hint of a smile.

Of course, KAREN SISCO was a ratings bust, so perhaps audiences weren’t looking for fresh air in their detective shows. “He Was a Friend of Mine” is certainly the darkest segment of SISCO’s limited run, a bleak outing that takes its characters to a place we had never seen them before. Nor would we again, as “He Was a Friend of Mine” was the final episode ever telecast.

Mordecai Jones (Robert Deacon), a friend of the Siscos for many years, is found dead in a Miami warehouse. The investigating police, led by young detective Rollins (Dylan Bruno, now a regular on NUMB3RS) and Dave Campos (THE MOD SQUAD’s Clarence Williams III), an old colleague of Karen’s father Marshall (Robert Forster), close the case and determine it an accident when the autopsy shows that Mordecai died of a heroin overdose. As Mordecai’s best friend, Marshall knows he was clean and begins his own investigation, which leads to major head-butting with Campos, who warns Karen (Carla Gugino) to pull her obsessive dad off the case before it consumes him.

If this was the direction in which KAREN SISCO was headed before ABC cancelled it, then the series had by no means yet hit its peak. Although the offbeat tone of the show, which coincided with that of the motion picture OUT OF SIGHT, from which the Sisco character (played by Jennifer Lopez) was taken, was the right one creatively, stepping back from the formula occasionally, as writer Peter Lefcourt did here, opened new doors into the minds of the characters. For one thing, “He Was a Friend of Mine” is the first time we see open friction between the Siscos, who to this point had never been less than bosom buddies who joked and hugged. The Karen/Marshall relationship was one of television’s most interesting between a father and a daughter, and Lefcourt shows us their rarely seen dark side, exposing us to secrets from Marshall’s past that he’d never admitted to Karen.

Gugino shines in the episode, which kills time with a fluffy subplot that disguises Karen as a hooker to lure a drug dealer to confess (which does allow Gugino to act sexy, which she does exceedingly well), but this is Forster’s episode and he is the “mine” of the title. Never showy, Forster acts with calm determination even when Marshall’s emotions are at full tilt, as the ex-cop puts his very life on the line to preserve a friend’s memory. Is it out of a sense of justice or a sense of guilt, for reasons revealed in Lefcourt’s teleplay? Reading Forster’s tight face allows us to make our own decision.

Surprisingly, director Kathryn Bigelow has helmed neither a TV episode nor a feature film since making her only KAREN SISCO episode. The former wife of director James Cameron (TITANIC), Bigelow once had quite a big-screen career, specializing in action movies (virtually the only female director to do so) like POINT BREAK, BLUE STEEL and STRANGE DAYS. After the submarine thriller K-19, starring Harrison Ford, died at the box office in 2002, Bigelow found herself out of work, with “He Was a Friend of Mine” her only significant directing credit since.

After ten episodes, KAREN SISCO was history. It’s unlikely it will ever receive a DVD release, although the entire run has appeared on the Sleuth cable channel, which is dedicated to showing old crime dramas owned by Universal. The series may not have been successful, but it certainly didn’t hurt the careers of its stars. Gugino returned to network television two seasons later as the star of CBS’ science fiction thriller THRESHOLD, but it was cancelled after 13 episodes. She also memorably appeared in the smash hits SIN CITY and NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM and guest-starred in the acclaimed HBO sitcom ENTOURAGE. Forster has steadily bounced back and forth between guest shots on TV series (like HUFF and NUMB3RS) and supporting roles in motion pictures, both major (FIREWALL) and independent, including the upcoming horror movie RISE: BLOOD HUNTER, which also stars Carla Gugino. Hopefully, director Sebastian Gutierrez, who wrote the KAREN SISCO episode “Dog Day Sisco,” was smart enough to give them scenes together. It would be a shame to waste such magnificent chemistry.

No One's Girl

09 NO ONE’S GIRL
April 7, 2004 (USA)
Teleplay: John Landgraf
Story: John Landgraf & Jeffrey Fenner
Director: David Carson

John Landgraf, the president of Jersey Films, the production company that made KAREN SISCO, demonstrated he was more than an executive producer in name only when he co-wrote the story (with Jeffrey Fenner) and penned the teleplay to “No One’s Girl,” an lightly plotted but sweet episode of KAREN SISCO. Robert Davi (LICENCE TO KILL) plays Denton, a vicious pimp and drug dealer who murders the man who ratted him out to the U.S. Marshals office. Unfortunately for him, someone sees the murder: an 11-year-old homeless girl named Josie (Jennette McCurdy).

Marshal Karen Sisco (Carla Gugino) discovers Josie while investigating the murder scene and takes the little girl home, realizing she’s a witness to the crime. On her own since the death of her grandmother, Josie distrusts Karen and refuses to talk about the murder. Though Karen’s father Marshall (Robert Forster) manages to warm Josie up a bit, using the same techniques that worked on tough little Karen at the same age, it isn’t until Karen springs Josie’s father, bank robber Harry Boyle (D.B. Sweeney), from prison that the girl really starts to come around.

Davi’s role is actually smaller than you would think judging from the teaser, as “No One’s Girl” really isn’t about murder at all. The Denton storyline and another involving Boyle’s partners’ kidnapping of Josie in exchange for the bank loot exist to satisfy crime drama fans, but the episode is really about Josie and Harry and their attempt at loving each other, even though they’re complete strangers. Forster, who has daughters in real life, shines in his scenes with Gugino and McCurdy, rolling with excessive charm and contributing to a final shot that says more about his character than would most soliloquies. Gugino carries the episode well, playing a couple of moments for comedy and building chemistry with GREY’S ANATOMY’s Kate Walsh, who returns as Marley Novak, the lesbian detective Karen met in “Nobody’s Perfect.”

Director David Carson, probably best known for his work on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and its spinoff feature STAR TREK: GENERATIONS, may have been responsible for hiring guest actor Sweeney, who starred in the short-lived cult series STRANGE LUCK, for which Carson helmed some episodes. Likewise, writer Landgraf, whose only script this is, was the president of NBC and the husband of actress Ally Walker when PROFILER, a series that starred both Walker and Robert Davi, was part of that network’s Saturday-night “thrillogy”. In Hollywood, who you know is almost as handy as what you know.

Dog Day Sisco

08 DOG DAY SISCO
March 31, 2004 (USA)
Writer: Sebastian Gutierrez
Director: Rick Wallace

Only eight episodes into production, and already a bottle show? A “bottle show” is an episode designed specifically to save money by scaling way back on the number of sets, locations and guest actors. These usually involve the main characters being stuck someplace—locked in a vault or trapped in a snowbound cabin—allowing the director to shoot more setups per day using the same basic set. Bottle shows normally appear near the end of a series’ production cycle after a few episodes have been allowed to run over budget and the cast and crew are tired and need an “easy” show as a breather. Perhaps the studio, after early KAREN SISCO episodes failed to rank high in the Nielsen ratings, urged the producers to cut costs in an effort to improve its ROI (Return On Investment).

“Dog Day Sisco” is, obviously, patterned after the 1973 film DOG DAY AFTERNOON, and reunites star Carla Gugino with her co-star (Gil Bellows) and her writer/director (Sebastian Gutierrez) on the 1998 crime drama JUDAS KISS. Karen Sisco (Gugino) and her father Marshall (Robert Forster) stop off at their bank on the way to breakfast, just a few minutes before it’s hit by armed robbers. Wearing ski masks and naming themselves after Looney Tunes characters, the crooks appear to the Siscos to be frightened amateurs, which could make them more dangerous, not less. Hiding her badge behind a trash can in order to hide her identity as a United States marshal, Karen does her best to keep the robbers’ emotions on an even keel and prevent any bloodshed. Outside the bank, the lives of the hostages are in the hands of FBI negotiator Donnie Pepper (Bellows), a reckless and stubborn agent in whose abilities Karen and her boss Amos Andrews (Bill Duke) have little faith.

If you’ve ever seen a TV cop show, you’ve basically seen this episode, as the hero-taken-hostage scenario is a genre standard. What sets “Dog Day Sisco” apart from other is its leading performances by Gugino and Forster, who have the most screen time together in any episode to date. The Karen/Marshall relationship is one of television’s most intriguing daughter/father dynamics in that they’re good friends as well as relatives. Even when they aren’t speaking, the deep bond the characters have for each other is clear to the audience. Not only does “Dog Day Sisco” put Gugino and Forster together for the entire hour, but it also gets Duke out from behind his desk and at the crime scene, where his impatience with the cocky Donnie Pepper makes from some sparkling repartee.

Though Gutierrez got the nod to pen the teleplay as a freelancer, he didn’t direct it. Handling the helming chores was Rick Wallace, an Emmy winner who began as a producer and director on Steven Bochco productions like HILL STREET BLUES and L.A. LAW and continues to be very busy working on MEN IN TREES, THE CLOSER and COMMANDER IN CHIEF. Marley Shelton, most recently in GRINDHOUSE, plays the lone female member of the bank heist gang, and red-haired Glenn Morshower (Special Service agent Pierce on 24, a fan favorite character) does his terse authority figure thing as the chief of the Miami-Dade police force.

Hardly anyone has seen “Dog Day Sisco,” because it never aired on ABC. KAREN SISCO was cancelled after only seven episodes, but ten were already in the can. “Dog Day Sisco” and the other two remaining episodes made their debut on the USA cable network, more than four months after the series’ final ABC broadcast. All ten episodes have also aired on the Sleuth cable channel.

Nobody's Perfect

07 NOBODY’S PERFECT
November 12, 2003 (ABC)
Writer: Peter Lefcourt
Director: Michael Katleman

Writer Peter Lefcourt (“Dear Derwood”) must have had a GLAAD award in mind when he penned this KAREN SISCO episode, in which nearly every significant guest character is gay. U.S. marshal Karen Sisco (Carla Gugino) pursues murder suspect Louis DiNardo (NASH BRIDGES regular Jaime Gomez) to Kalamazoo, where he cold-cocks her in a sauna and escapes. Six months later, there’s a hit on DiNardo’s credit card at a hardware store in Miami, and Karen pesters her boss Amos (Bill Duke) for the case. Amos warily agrees, under the condition that she doesn’t make the case a personal one (“Pissed off marshals don’t do good work.”) and that she bring in DiNardo in 72 hours.

The store’s surveillance cameras prove the purchaser of a hedge trimmer isn’t DiNardo, and why would a murder suspect buy one anyway? Not only is DiNardo on the run from the Feds, but also Fred (Bodhi Elfman) and Stan (Oded Gross), two eccentric gay hitmen who love listening to opera and speaking in colorful phrases like Jules and Vincent in PULP FICTION. They work for “Mr. G” (Marc Vann), an extortionist from whom DiNardo stole $300,000—money he wants back in a bad way.

While Karen shuffles around Miami, chasing one vague clue after another, interviewing DiNardo’s former associates like the wife he cheated on (Sarah Aldrich) and Cary (Jonathan Slavin from ANDY RICHTER CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE), his gay lover, her father Marshall (Robert Forster), a private eye, takes on beautiful Mrs. Mulraney (Isabella Hofmann, formerly a detective on HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET) as a client. She suspects her husband of infidelity, and agrees to pay Marshall $5000 to find out. This subplot is well-played by Forster and Hofmann, who have enough chemistry to convince the audience that their relationship may go somewhere, but it was either not thought out very well or was the victim of post-production editing, because it ends in a confusing manner.

I can’t say much more about the main plot without giving it away, but it includes the casting of transgendered actress Alexandra Billings in a key role and current GREY’S ANATOMY star Kate Walsh as a Miami-Dade homicide detective with the hots for Karen. Outside of the villain’s identity, “Nobody’s Perfect” serves up a typical television crime plot, but spices it up with colorful supporting players, a snifter of surprising violence, a bit more screen time for Forster (SISCO’s secret weapon) and Gugino in more cleavage-baring tanktops. Although she isn’t credited, I’m pretty sure MY NAME IS EARL’s Nadine Velasquez appears with Gugino in the teaser set in a health club.

Writer Lefcourt is also a novelist, and two of his books, THE DEAL and THE DREYFUS AFFAIR, have been optioned by Hollywood to be adapted into movie form. Director Michael Katleman is busy in episodic television with credits ranging from CHINA BEACH to TRU CALLING; he made his feature-film debut with 2007’s killer-croc horror movie PRIMEVAL.

“Nobody’s Perfect” was also the final KAREN SISCO episode to air on ABC. By the time the network placed SISCO on “hiatus,” ten episodes were in the can with no indication they would ever air. ABC promised it would return SISCO to its prime-time schedule, possibly in the spring of 2004 and maybe even paired with ALIAS on Sunday night, but, alas, it never happened, and KAREN was dead.

Although ABC never ran the final three episodes, they did eventually premiere on the USA cable network, beginning in March 2004. All ten KAREN SISCOs also have run on Universal’s Sleuth network, a cable channel dedicated to reruns of TV crime dramas.

Dear Derwood

06 DEAR DERWOOD
November 5, 2003 (ABC)
Teleplay: Jason Smilovic and Peter Lefcourt
Story: Bob Brush
Director: Charles Haid

True love dodges U.S. marshal Karen Sisco (Carla Gugino), but strikes hard and heavy for the escaped con she’s pursuing in KAREN SISCO’s sixth episode to air on ABC in the fall of 2003. Derwood Edson (Tim Guinee) is a non-violent con originally sentenced to a brief one-year sentence, but is now up around twenty years, because he keeps breaking out of prisons in order to visit his One True Love.

Angie (Jennifer Aspen, later a regular on ABC’s RODNEY) is Derwood’s girl, a stripper looking to quit the flesh biz to start her own gift-basket company. She loves Derwood as much as he loves her, but she keeps breaking up with him and moving around the country away from him so he won’t bust out and follow her. Her efforts don’t prevent his latest escape, and Karen is waiting for him at Angie’s apartment complex. He doesn’t mind going to all that effort and getting arrested just to see Angie for five minutes, probably because he knows he’ll make another break before the marshals ever get him back to prison.

Meanwhile, some real crime occurs because of Dwight (Michael Stoyanov), Derwood’s best friend and Angie’s business partner, who’s secretly using Angie’s gift baskets to deliver drugs. Derwood and Angie’s romantic plans are hindered when Dwight’s dealing lands Angie in the can and the Russian mob on all their tails.

Karen finds Derwood and Angie’s romance quite touching, particularly because the torrid sexual relationship she’s having with a Florida Marlins relief pitcher (Eduardo Verastegui) is sapping his strength, causing him to serve up gopher balls and threaten his job in the major leagues.

“Dear Derwood” is a nice light-hearted crime story with a touching (and tragic) romance and good performances by its guest stars. Robert Forster as Karen’s father Marshall and Bill Duke as her boss Ambrose have little to do this time. Same goes for Gugino, really, as the guest stars do most of the heavy lifting. A brief scene showing Karen busting a perp (Jack Kehler) on the boardwalk seems out of place, as though it were added to give Gugino some extra action that week (and to put her in some skimpy clothing). Director Haid, also an actor best known for his role as cop Renko on HILL STREET BLUES, makes an unbilled cameo as a drug enforcement agent. Writers Smilovic and Brush were KAREN SISCO’s co-executive producers, and co-writer Lefcourt, credited with his first teleplay, has credits dating back to SCARECROW & MRS. KING and CAGNEY & LACEY.

The 1998 film OUT OF SIGHT, which starred Jennifer Lopez as Karen, is quickly referenced in “Dear Derwood”. Angie asks Karen if she’s ever been in love. She answers, yes, once. “What happened?” “I shot him,” which is what Karen did to Jack Foley (George Clooney) in the brilliant Stephen Soderbergh movie.

Nostalgia

05 NOSTALGIA
October 29, 2003 (ABC)
Writer: Jason Smilovic
Director: Steve Miner

An old case comes back to haunt Marshall Sisco (Robert Forster) in this good KAREN SISCO episode written by executive producer Smilovic. U.S. marshal Karen Sisco (Carla Gugino), teaming up with Treasury agent Garrison Kick (Frank Grillo), busts an amiable counterfeiter, Lestor Porter (Jim True-Frost), at his hideout in the swamp. To escape a third term in the joint, he claims knowledge of underworld dealings, and makes a deal to give up a mobster named Salvatore Gigliani, but with one condition: that Karen be assigned to bodyguard him until he gets into Witness Protection. He trusts Karen, because, according to him, they were classmates in high school.

Meanwhile, bank robber Junior McLeod (John Diehl) is released after a fifteen-year stint in Lompoc. After a quick smash-and-grab armored car heist for traveling money, McLeod buys a black-market rifle and takes a rooftop shot through Lestor’s hotel room window that leaves the counterfeiter wounded. Why would McLeod, whom Marshall arrested fifteen years ago, want to kill Lestor, whom the ex-con doesn’t even know? One hint: it has nothing to do with Lestor’s mob tales.

An interesting mystery and plenty of screen time for Forster make “Nostalgia” one of KAREN SISCO’s finer shows. Appealing guest turns by True-Frost and Diehl add immeasurably to the suspense, particularly True-Frost, who makes Lestor a likable “villain.” Lestor has a seemingly photographic memory of Karen, even where she sat in 3rd period English. On the other hand, Karen has no memory of him whatsoever, a realization that bothers her, particularly when she is stung by unintentionally insulting comments that imply her classmates considered her standoffish. Gugino plays these scenes beautifully and non-verbally, providing the audience with more insight into Karen without hitting us over the head. Conversations with her father, as well as a brief glance at her high school yearbook (including Gugino’s real school photo), help fill in some blanks concerning her childhood. Also, that yearbook is the source of a hilarious gag involving a football player and a black eye.

In addition to True-Frost, who went on to a regular role as a cop on THE WIRE, and veteran character actor Diehl, perhaps best known for his regular role—as a cop—on MIAMI VICE, “Nostalgia” delivers a nice array of familiar faces, including Grillo (a regular on PRISON BREAK), Emmy-winning soap star Sarah Joy Brown (GENERAL HOSPITAL), Kurt Fuller (Werner Klemperer in AUTO FOCUS) and the ubiquitous Dick Miller (!) as shoe-selling Salvatore. Horror-movie fans will note the direction by Steve Miner, who bounces back and forth between features and episodic television, but is best known for FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 and FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III, which was gruelingly lensed in audience-pleasing 3D. No shocks or scares in “Nostalgia,” however. Just good old-fashioned crime drama with a nice blend of humor and suspense.

Justice

04 JUSTICE
October 22, 2003 (ABC)
Teleplay: Robert Palm
Story: Charles H. Eglee
Director: John David Coles

Popular guest star Gary Cole, who popped up in an enigmatic cameo in KAREN SISCO’s pilot, “Blown Away,” is back, and he’s bad news. KAREN SISCO was cancelled after only eight episodes were telecast, so we may never know for sure, but one has to wonder whether Cole was intended to become a recurring foe for U.S. marshal Karen (Carla Gugino). His appearance here seems rushed and unfinished, and it’s still a mystery why he had such a minor part in the pilot. I suspect his scenes may have been filmed during the production of “Justice” and cut into “Blown Away” before it was telecast. Cole is, of course, an excellent actor, and I wish he had gotten the opportunity to flesh out this part a little better.

Three fugitives bust out of a prison in Biloxi, Mississippi and head to Miami, where they plan to charter a boat to Costa Rica and open a restaurant. But, first, they stop off to see Naomi (Juliette Jetters), the sister of Jamal (Antonio David Lyons), one of the escapees. The others are Sixpack (Fredro Starr), Naomi’s baby’s bad-news daddy, and the child-like Fuzz (Omar Benson Miller). Marshal Konner (Cole) is assigned to capture them and return them to prison, and he selects Karen as his partner. She doesn’t like him much—he’s arrogant and rude—but she begrudgingly admits he’s a good officer and attempts to get along with him. However, she soon comes to regret her original opinion of Konner’s abilities as a law enforcement officer, when she discovers that he blames the three cons for the death of his former partner, and he may be looking to settle the score.

Despite Cole’s best efforts, “Justice” is not one of SISCO’s finest hours. We’ve seen the good-guy-goes-bad scenario in dozens of cop shows, and this one doesn’t bring anything new to the table. The actors playing the fugitives help the episode by making their characters somewhat sympathetic, so that when Konner finally draws down on them, you’re definitely not on the side of the man with the badge. Director Coles (not to be confused with actor Gary Cole) does a nice job keeping the show moving and the (presumably) California locations looking like the Sunshine State. This was Coles’ only KAREN SISCO; he moved on to direct and produce the shortlived THIEF and 3 LBS. Writer Palm, a veteran of Dick Wolf shows like DEADLINE and LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, went on to become executive producer of WANTED, a series that starred Gary Cole as…a federal law enforcement agent. Eglee, who provided “Justice”’s story, co-created another phenomenal crime drama mercilessly treated by ABC, MURDER ONE.

After taking last week off, KAREN SISCO’s nifty opening titles return.

The One That Got Away

03 THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
October 15, 2003 (ABC)
Writer: Jason Smilovic
Director: Michael Dinner

U.S. marshal Karen Sisco (Carla Gugino), already worn out from 27 consecutive hours on the job, becomes increasingly frazzled when con artist and cop killer Nicholas Pell (Thomas Kretchmann) escapes from custody, assumes the identity of a marshal, and slips right through her fingers at the airport. A smooth talker who has married four wealthy women and bilked them of their fortunes, Pell periodically phones Karen on her cell and tries to seduce her with promises of writing a song with her name in it.

Meanwhile, Alvin Simmons (Xander Berkeley), a former mob accountant who testified against Charlie Lucre (played by Danny DeVito in “Dumb Bunnies”) and was relocated to Kansas in the Witness Protection Program, shows up in Miami, where Karen finds him at one of Charlie’s strip clubs. Lonely in Wichita after his wife and son left him and tired of looking over his shoulder for one of Charlie’s hitmen, Alvin wants to die and leave his son a million-dollar insurance policy. It’s up to Karen and, unofficially, her father Marshall (Robert Forster) to keep Alvin alive until the next flight back to Wichita.

Both stories are rich enough for their own episode, and “The One That Got Away” is one plot too many. Neither is given enough screen time to flex its muscles, though Berkeley’s tender performance is strong enough to disappoint the audience whenever the other storyline is playing out. And if that isn’t enough, Karen also contemplates her own loneliness while romancing a married man named Will (Carlos Ponce). Her dad thinks Will’s a great catch, though it’s obvious that Will feels uncomfortable around a woman who carries a gun and has killed men with it.

Dinner, whose overly flashy direction is occasionally annoying (for instance, a clichéd 360-degree spin around Karen at the airport, meant to signify her confusion, yet succeeds only in giving us a headache), assembles a stellar guest cast. In addition to Kretchmann (KING KONG) and Berkeley (the ill-fated George Mason on 24), “The One That Got Away” features Martha Plimpton (RUNNING ON EMPTY) as Pell’s fourth wife, Jake Busey (acting normal for a change) as a fellow marshal, an unbilled Sarah Clarke as Alvin’s wife (she and Berkeley fell in love for real when she was playing the treasonous agent Nina Myers on 24’s first season), DeVito (his voice only) and Peter Horton as FBI agent Ray, likely Ray Nicolet, the character played by Michael Keaton in OUT OF SIGHT and JACKIE BROWN.

No opening title sequence in this episode, possibly because the dueling plots made it run long.

Even though Karen says she’s lived in her apartment for two years, it’s not the same place (though likely the same set) we see in the pilot with the cool porthole-windowed front door.

Though Marshall had mostly been seen, to this point, as an amiable guy with a sense of humor and much love for his daughter, we finally get a taste of what he was like as a lawman, when he faces down a machine-gun-wielding assassin in his back yard.

Writer Smilovic was KAREN SISCO’s co-executive producer and series developer. He went on to write the film LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN and create the shortlived NBC series KIDNAPPED, whose pilot was directed by Michael Dinner.

Dumb Bunnies

02 DUMB BUNNIES
October 8, 2003 (ABC)
Writer: John Mankiewicz
Director: Jeremy Paul Kagan

The Salchek brothers are on the run, and U.S. marshal Karen Sisco (Carla Gugino) is on their case. Even though they had just six months left to serve on their five-year sentences, dumb clucks Merle (Billy Burke) and Bob Salchek (a pre-Johnny Drama Kevin Dillon) bust out of prison on advice from wizened old blind inmate Homer (Scott Wilson of IN COLD BLOOD). Their mission is to burglarize the estate of reputed gangster Charlie Lucre (Danny DeVito) and swipe his prized Babe Ruth autographed baseball, so they can sell it and use the cash to buy their beleaguered ma (Rhea Perlman) a double-wide trailer.

If it seems as though it was awful nice of movie star/director DeVito (HOFFA) to help out, it wasn’t such a big deal really. His Jersey Films was KAREN SISCO’s production company, and DeVito is credited as an executive producer. Mankiewicz’s teleplay aims for laughs more than crime drama, and the lunkheaded Salcheks (“plateheads,” Karen’s father Marshall [Robert Forster] calls them) are perfect foils for DeVito’s patented slow burns. Lucre may be the nicest gangster you’ve ever seen; even after he summons hitmen from Detroit to whack the brothers, he tries to call them off after Karen sweetly asks him to (that the assassins keep getting accidentally killed by the Salcheks isn’t his fault).

And why does Homer convince the Salcheks to bust out with so little time left on their sentences? Ah, you’ll have to wait for the episode’s final shot for the punchline to that gag.

“Dumb Bunnies” is a fun episode blessed with nimble comic performances, an appropriately jaunty score by Danny Lux and Carla Gugino’s appreciated choice of tight tank tops as proper work attire. Surprisingly, considering “Dumb Bunnies” was only the second SISCO episode to air, Gugino has little to do except play straight man to the large supporting cast, which also includes Obba Babatunde as an unethical FBI agent, Mike Starr (ED WOOD) as DeVito’s henchman and series regular Bill Duke (PREDATOR) as Sisco’s boss.

TV veteran Mankiewicz moved on to produce and write scripts for HOUSE, M.D. and SAVED. Director Kagan began his television career in the 1970s, but was promoted to features, where he compiled studio credits such as THE STING II, THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN and HEROES with Harrison Ford. Not long afterwards, Kagan returned to the small screen, first helming numerous made-for-TV movies and then returning to his roots doing episodes of THE WEST WING and BOOMTOWN. “Dumb Bunnies” was the only KAREN SISCO for both Kagan and Mankiewicz.

Blown Away

01 BLOWN AWAY
October 1, 2003 (ABC)
Teleplay: Bob Brush
Story: Elmore Leonard (short story: Karen Makes Out)
Director: Michael Dinner

In KAREN SISCO's pilot episode, U.S. marshal Karen (Carla Gugino) suffers from both physical and psychological bruising. Days after she was shot in the chest during a stakeout (the bulletproof vest she was wearing saved her life), Karen learns that Carl (Patrick Dempsey), the mysterious wavy-haired man she’s been dating, may be the bank robber the FBI has been looking for. Although the two have been out only a few times, her attraction to him is strong, and the fact that he doesn’t yet know what she does for a living (him trying to guess her occupation is a flirty game they play) makes her decision on whether or not to help the Feds build a case against Carl even tougher. Meanwhile, Marshall (Robert Forster), Karen's father, a retired marshal now working as a private detective, follows around a man in a wheelchair whom the insurance company believes may be faking his injury for a sizable settlement.

“Blown Away” is perhaps of more interest these days because of Dempsey’s prominent guest role. Barely a blip on the B-list following years of undistinguished feature and TV-movie credits, less than two years later Dempsey became one of television’s biggest stars as Dr. Derek Shepherd on the smash ABC drama GREY’S ANATOMY (who knows…maybe ABC is getting better about developing its hour dramas?). We know little about Carl, although it seems a foregone conclusion that he will indeed turn out to be the bad guy, but we know enough to understand the feelings he has for Karen and vice versa.

A more intriguing guest turn is that of Gary Cole, who appears in a couple of scenes as Konner, a fellow marshal working under Amos. What’s odd is that Konner, at least in the pilot, is not much of a role, and not the kind of character that you go out and hire a guy like Gary Cole to play. Are there plans to make Cole a regular or are the writers merely setting him up for a major storyline down the road?

Though set in Florida, KAREN SISCO was actually filmed in Los Angeles, though it looks like much of the pilot was made on location with a second unit filming pickups and little dialogue scenes to be edited into future episodes.

She's Your Thing

I may do a KAREN SISCO episode guide, simply because, well, no one else is doing one, and the Internet could certainly use one. Only ten episodes were produced in 2003. ABC aired just seven. The rest made their broadcast premieres on the USA cable network alongside unaired episodes of the also-canceled-by-ABC L.A. DRAGNET.

Over the last couple of decades, ABC has developed a reputation as a notorious mishandler of quality one-hour dramas. The list of dramas ABC prematurely killed by canceling them too soon or sticking them in dreadful time slots or meddling with the creative team is long enough to make fans of quality television cry. Shows like MURDER ONE, CUPID, FANTASY ISLAND, C-16, NOTHING SACRED, CRACKER, HOMEFRONT, THE MARSHAL, VENGEANCE UNLIMITED, GIDEON’S CROSING…really, just about every season, you can expect ABC to develop one or two very good dramas and then find a way to destroy them.

In the fall of 2003, KAREN SISCO was ABC’s sacrificial lamb, which was evident from the moment it was scheduled on Wednesday nights opposite NBC’s powerhouse LAW & ORDER, as well as the Major League Baseball postseason. Never mind that it would have been a perfect fit behind ALIAS on Sundays, when ABC could have creatively and aggressively promoted the two female-oriented action shows. On Wednesdays, however, KAREN received a rough ride, though it quite possibly could have survived if it has gotten a chance to grow. ABC pulled the series after just seven weeks, and even though it announced that KAREN would return from “hiatus” in the spring, it never did.

Fans of light character-driven crime fare are still feeling the loss, as the cop shows that followed in KAREN SISCO’s wake are pretty much pulled from the same mold—humorless procedurals with great emphasis on gory corpses and technobabble dialogue. KAREN SISCO was based on the literary works of the great pulp novelist Elmore Leonard. She appeared in Leonard’s novel OUT OF SIGHT (Jennifer Lopez played her in the excellent 1998 film adaptation), as well as the short story “Karen Makes Out,” which became KAREN’s pilot.

Although Lopez was quite good opposite George Clooney in OUT OF SIGHT, it’s hard to imagine any actress fitting the role better than 31-year-old Carla Gugino, a talented brunette with much film experience (such as the SPY KIDS franchise and the sharp thriller JUDAS KISS) and occasional TV work, such as Michael J. Fox’s forgotten love interest during the first season of the sitcom SPIN CITY. A rare combination of mature sex appeal and brainy sophistication, Gugino is a television star waiting to happen. But not this time (nor on her next series, THRESHOLD, which CBS cancelled after nine episodes).

Karen Sisco is a United States Marshal based in Miami, where she works under the leadership and guidance of her father-figure boss Amos Andrews (Bill Duke, who signed my PREDATOR DVD). Actually, Karen is surrounded by father figures, including her actual parent, Marshall (Robert Forster in his first regular television gig since 1974’s NAKIA), and a bevy of family friends, many of whom are lovable ex-cons with a protective yen for Karen. Unusual for a television leading lady, Karen has an exceptionally close bond with her father, with whom she shares intimate details of her personal life, although most of the time it appears she’d rather be playing poker with him and his buddies than out on a date. Believably tough clad in her U.S. Marshal garb busting a perp and scrumptiously soft flirting with a guy over bourbon, Karen Sisco is a refreshingly contemporary TV heroine.

She’s also contemporary in her manner of dress, at least by TV standards. Although KAREN SISCO isn’t exactly a jiggle show, the producers jump at any chance to outfit their star in something that accentuates her curves. No typical TV waif, Gugino sometimes chases fugitives in tight tanktops and hip-hugging slacks. In the pilot, even though an ugly bruise from a gunshot marks her chest, Karen wears a loose-fitting lacy blouse on her first date with a hunky new beau.

Note should also be made of KAREN’s musical score by John Ehrlich. Standing alone alongside the various synthesizer and techno scores that mar other dramas, Ehrlich’s R&B-styled underscoring is perfectly suited to Leonard’s eccentric universe and the series’ sunny Florida environs. Accentuating the show’s light atmosphere is its opening titles, a sharply paced collection of red- and orange-tinted stills of Miami and the actors, punctuated by the Isley Brothers’ funky “It’s Your Thing.”