September 2, 1994

Day

Fox tries a little Bondage
BOB LANGFORD, Staff WRITER

There’s no point in hiding the fact that “Fortune Hunter” is a James Bond rip-off.

It just is.

Not that that’s a bad thing.

“Get Smart” was even a James Bond rip-off, too. So was “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” Even “Mission: Impossible” was, with Bond broken up into six different characters.

Let’s face it, you just can’t have a spy series without there being a little Bondage involved.

And “Fortune Hunter” is tied to Bond from the get-go.

First of all, it stars a dashing young Brit who spends a lot of time in a tuxedo. The guy who plays him, Mark Frankel, has dark hair and every once in a while, if the light strikes him just right, he could pass for Sean Connery’s nephew.

He’s always wriggling out of impossible situations. Oh, and he’s always getting beautiful women to fall for him.

“There are obviously,” says executive producer Carlton Cuse with a smile, “some similarities.”

How’d they come up with that name?

Well “Fortune Hunter” follows football on Fox. It starts this Sunday at 7, or whenever Dallas and Pittsburgh wrap up.

And that makes it more than just another show on Fox. It makes it the show that has to keep 10 million viewers, a good percentage of them men, tuned to the network.

“There’s always a little pressure,” says executive producer Frank Lupo. “I think this show is a natural to follow football because it’s got, you know, a lot of action and adventure and a couple of strong male stars.”

And it’s better to start out with a bunch of viewers who may tune you out, says Cuse, than to never get anyone to tune you in.

“Sometimes,” he told TV critics this summer, “it’s hard to make a lot of noise on Fox.”

Plus “Hunter” isn’t trying to attract the same audience as “60 Minutes.” Sure some people will think about it for a minute, but not many viewers will be on the fence between Carlton Dial and Andy Rooney.

Cuse used to head up “The Adventures of Brisco County Junior,” a show with a similar sensibility that never could get over the ratings hump. Later in its run, when it was trying to stay on the air, he used a huddle full of NFL stars to boost ratings.

So don’t be surprised if you see Reggie White showing up as someone’s bodyguard. Or Jimmy Johnson playing an evil villain with perfect hair.

But back to the show itself. While Dial, Carlton Dial, is running around the world pulling off these capers for Intercept, there’s another guy watching everything he does.

See, Dial is all wired up with a camera and a mike, so a computer nerd named Harry Flack helps him out of a jam, or helps him win at cards, or just makes jokes.

It’s a neat twist that helps broaden the appeal of a genre that needs a twist.

There are other differences in doing a Bond, say, 30 years ago, and in the 1990’s. Besides the obvious one of the bad guys being gone.

Oh, and Dial doesn’t kill. He stuns. He only carries a tranquilizer gun. Sort of the Jim Fowler of secret agents.

That also lets especially evil bad guys come back later in the season, and “Fortune Hunter” is good enough to stick around a while.