September 2, 1994<\/p>\n
Day<\/b><\/p>\n
Fox tries a little Bondage<\/i><\/b>
\nBOB LANGFORD, Staff WRITER<\/i><\/p>\n
There’s no point in hiding the fact that “Fortune Hunter” is a James Bond rip-off.<\/p>\n
It just is.<\/p>\n
Not that that’s a bad thing.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Let’s face it, you just can’t have a spy series without there being a little Bondage involved.<\/p>\n
And “Fortune Hunter” is tied to Bond from the get-go.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He’s always wriggling out of impossible situations. Oh, and he’s always getting beautiful women to fall for him.<\/p>\n
“There are obviously,” says executive producer Carlton Cuse with a smile, “some similarities.”<\/p>\n
How’d they come up with that name?<\/p>\n
Well “Fortune Hunter” follows football on Fox. It starts this Sunday at 7, or whenever Dallas and Pittsburgh wrap up.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes,” he told TV critics this summer, “it’s hard to make a lot of noise on Fox.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It’s a neat twist that helps broaden the appeal of a genre that needs a twist.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Oh, and Dial doesn’t kill. He stuns. He only carries a tranquilizer gun. Sort of the Jim Fowler of secret agents.<\/p>\n
That also lets especially evil bad guys come back later in the season, and “Fortune Hunter” is good enough to stick around a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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