News.

*March 15th 2005:

And thanks to Christine Lahti, channel surfers lucky enough to have found "Jack & Bobby" are enjoying a weekly encounter with this rare and amazing Grace.


*Febr. 10th 2005:

Article and interview about Jack & Bobby:

By Ken Parish Perkins

Star-Telegram Tv Critic

HOLLYWOOD -- It's around 4 on a Wednesday afternoon in January, and Christine Lahti is curled up on a small sofa in her spacious trailer. It's situated only a hop, skip and jump from where she has just shot a playfully intimate slow-dance scene with co-star John Slattery for the high-minded WB drama Jack & Bobby.

The show's crew, on a late lunch break, is long gone, and the set is empty. There's an eerie, almost peaceful silence that hovers over the place, as though it's no longer breathing.

Lahti likes this silence, "this peace," she says with a smile. But behind those twinkling eyes is a worried skepticism, as if to say to the interviewer, "I know where you're going with this." As with her eagle-eyed character Grace McCallister, not much gets by the veteran actress, no matter how cleverly camouflaged the questions are.

You can't get away from talking about death on the set of Jack & Bobby, the engaging drama that imagines the high school years of the teen-age McCallister brothers, one of whom will become the president in 2041 and one who won't live long enough to see it.

The key to Jack & Bobby, which is beginning a crucial second-half season swing in search of viewers, has been tension and longing, the way the characters are intertwined in a quest for some sort of intangible sense of acceptance and love. It's not ludicrous to proclaim that this series is, line by line, scene by scene, episode by episode, the best series on network television.

Jack & Bobby, which plays off the famous Kennedy names, was born out of creator Greg Berlanti's ****ignment to craft an Everwood that is doused in politics or a West Wing with a WB dose of teen pouting.

The premise sounds intriguing. Fresh, even. But viewers aren't buying into it. According to Nielsen Media Research, last week's episode of Jack & Bobby fell short of 3 million viewers. In comparison, Fox's The Simple Life 3 drew 13 million viewers on the same night.

Jack & Bobby's total is just about the same number of viewers the series was pulling on Sunday night, when it was suffocating under the weight of the success of ABC's Desperate Housewives.

When it moved to Wednesdays in search of life, it went up against, of all shows, The West Wing (10.7 million) on NBC, the comedy King of Queens (11 million) on CBS and Kevin Hill (2.8 million), whose UPN network, like WB, reaches out to the same 12- to 34-year-old viewership. Lately, the new seasons of American Idol and Alias aren't making the fight any easier.

With an audience that's simply not expanding, the questions about Jack & Bobby are growing: Is the youthful WB audience rejecting the show's premise or its execution? Or both?

Lahti, whose TV career includes Chicago Hope, understands life on a series that is facing possible cancellation, but never when one of the questions is whether the series is a bad fit for the network on which it resides.

"I think it takes longer than one show to change the reputation of 10 years," Lahti says of WB, which pioneered Young Viewer TV. "The fact that this is a different demographic -- being for teen-agers and grown-ups -- I think it will take longer to get people aware that there's more than just the teen-age stuff."

"It's frustrating," admits WB Chairman Garth Ancier, who, when given the choice on Sundays, found himself clicking on Desperate Housewives, too.

"We'd love to see it succeed, which is why we gave it a full season [22 episodes from an initial order of 13] and moved it. But competition is everywhere. We also know it's one of those shows that needs time.

"We're patient, though," he says. "We'll wait."

But for how long? Is Jack & Bobby a great show on the wrong network? While Everwood was the first to try what Jack & Bobby co-executive producer Mickey Liddell calls "the WB hybrid" -- dramas about the parallel lives of adults and their children -- it did it by presenting a series that was pure family soap opera prettified by its picturesque setting in Colorado.

Jack & Bobby upped the degree of difficulty by tossing in politics and giving the project the feel of a drama series stuck inside a documentary.

It offers an ambitious tale of two interwoven story threads -- one the childhood of a great politician growing up in small-town Missouri, the other the story of that politician's presidential campaign and administration. While the series revolves tightly around Bobby (Logan Lerman) as a smart but awkward young teen-ager, the viewing audience is spoonfed bits of the story of his ascendancy by way of post-administration "interviews" in 2049, presumably after McCallister has left office.

The show is lovingly shot and slowly paced, and even its teen-age angst comes off as cerebral, certainly a turnoff for young viewers. Lahti's Grace is a dogmatic left-wing university professor known for spouting brainy banality even to Bobby, who is precocious but still only 12.

Her relationship with the high-school-age Jack, played by Matt Long, is strained to the point of being hard to watch because it's so realistically depicted.

It's certainly a far cry from the bed-hopping of, say, One Tree Hill, another teen/grown-up drama on the WB network.

"All we can do is the best show possible," says Liddell, interviewed at his office near the set. He promises there's been no pressure to play up the teen stories despite the recent additions of young stars like Mike Erwin, whose character, Nate, loosens up the usually morose Courteney, played by Jessica Pare. (Viewers were probably finding Courteney to be a complete downer, but perceptions will undoubtedly shift after tonight's episode.)

"If we were to look at Everwood over the course of the first season, I'd say we made just about the same amount of changes," says Berlanti, who was brought in to refocus (or, better yet, WB-ize) the series after Steve Cohen, who was Hillary Rodham Clinton's deputy communications director, and novelist Brad Meltzer came up with the idea for Jack & Bobby. Cohen and Meltzer are consulting producers on the series.

"You're always trying to sort of play with the recipe and play with the mix to make the show better," Berlanti says. "You want it to be closer to what you sort of see in your head," Berlanti says. "But, sure, I'll admit there have been obstacles."

The biggest might be the downside of the WB's success in luring young viewers. Jack & Bobby is darker and moodier than Berlanti's Everwood, which was considered something of a test balloon when it first aired three years ago. It, too, started slow but eventually enticed a respectable viewership.

Unlike Everwood, Jack & Bobby is what they call in Hollywood "a difficult watch," meaning viewers are asked to actually pay attention. That's not hard for The West Wing crowd, which tends to be older and interested in the dramatization of the inner workings of politics. Young viewers, accustomed to allowing television to wash over them with predictable scenarios, are often jolted by this tougher request.

Jack & Bobby asks its audience to "sit forward," says Liddell. "You don't have to be some intellectual to enjoy the series, but you do have to be willing to be challenged, to go on a journey."

A chunk of that journey leads viewers to Lahti's showy Grace, whose Golden Globe-nominated role has become a touchy issue. (That co-executive producer Thomas Schlamme is Lahti's husband only thickens the plot.) The 24-year-old Long, who plays the dreamy-eyed 16-year-old Jack, and Lerman as the dark-haired, geeky Bobby, have, for the most part, been overshadowed. (They weren't working on the day we visited the set.)

In tonight's episode, Jack is beginning a new relationship that may or may not be good for him, and Bobby learns about life by death through deer hunting. But it's Grace's relationship with her young teaching ****istant (Bradley Cooper) that takes center stage.

"In the editing room, we're always working on what's too much," says Liddell. But with Lahti, you get the idea that she signed up for a show where the mother was just as prominent as the sons.

"This is really about not just Jack and Bobby but, from my point of view, this family," Lahti says. "This single mother raising two boys, one of whom becomes president. But I guess if it was called Grace, Jack & Bobby, it wouldn't be such a catchy title."

But Lahti knows the main goal is getting more people to watch the show.

"The list of really good shows that never found an audience is long," she says. "It's a tough decision [for the WB]. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes to make it."

The plight of Jack & Bobby is reminiscent of the ABC series My So-Called Life, a drama that examined the realistic struggles of a 15-year-old, played by Claire Danes, from her point of view. Like Jack & Bobby, it, too, was loved by critics but languished near the bottom of the ratings until ABC made that tough decision.

"Well," says Lahti, referring to Life's swift cancellation, "let's hope that's where our similarities end."

Jack & Bobby

8 tonight, KDAF/Channel 33

GRADE: A
Ken Parish Perkins, (817) 390-7862 kperkins@star-telegram.com

*Febr. 9th 2005:

Warning! Some spoilers for the next episodes coming up!:

15. Time out of life:

A bad snow storms hits Hart, Missouri. Grace and Tom's relationship is exposed when a fellow professor catches them kissing in her office. Later in the evening, Peter turns to Grace for advice when he finds out Courtney is having sex with her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Jack's relationship with Katie (guest-star Kate Mara, "Everwood") progresses. In an effort to become popular at school, Bobby and Warren (guest-star Dean Collins) decide to have sleep over and come up with a shocking idea to make the evening memorable. Jack, Courtney, Missy and Katie are also trapped together, where they play a game of dare and inevitably leads to Jack and Courtney's first REAL kiss together in front of everyone.

Tom babysits Bobby and Warren's sleepover with the "cool" kids at Grace's house as he coerced them into coming as they promised they would watch porn. But the plan backfires when the tape goes missing, the power goes out and everyone is trapped. Lastly, Grace and Peter are stuck in their offices on campus waiting for the power to come back and the roads to clear.

16. And justice for all:

Peter is forced to take action after learning about the relationship between Grace and Tom (Bradley Cooper). Grace has to go up against the University Ethics Committee when they find out about her relationship with Tom. Bobby and Warren solicite themselves to members in the neighborhood to do odd jobs, but they keep getting rejected until Mrs. Sorensen has them clean out her infested garage at a very low wage. In a twist, Bobby finds Jack's wallet in the garage that was stolen by one of the guys that robbed him and finds out Mrs. Sorensens godson Ted was storing stuff in his garage. Jack and Marcus decide to confront him where he works, but it doesn't go well.

Then, Jack and Marcus immediately call the police but things don't go so well. Marcus and Jack then decide to take matters into their own hands with Ted, but it backfires. In the future Pres. McCallister has to handle being criticized by former Pres. Adler in retaliation to when McCallister criticzed Adler when he was president and the U.S. was at war and McCallister criticized his handling over the War of Americas.

17. Querida Grace:

Bobby must research his family history for a school assignment which leads to more unanswered questions about his fathers real life; Courtney learns a secret Nate has been keeping from her; Grace and Tom face the reality of their relationship; Jack and Katie play a game to see who knows the other better.

18. Friends with benefits:

Grace is now working with a new TA, Margaret which leads Grace at a lost without Tom even with another TA. Grace catches up on old times with a former colleague, Julius Edelman who was her former mentor when she was a TA at the college. But Grace is a little scared of how he'll feel about her once he finds out about her former relationship with Tom on campus---but the story takes a surprising turn for both.
Bobby takes a chance and tries join the track team. Lastly, Missy joins a Bible Study Group after her break up with Randy, but it doesn't go so well for her. In fact, Missy is not feeling well at all in this episode and later speaks to Jack...what could it possibly be?

*Febr. 7th 2005:

Interview with Christine about J&B:

By ALAN PERGAMENT

The president of entertainment at WB has given his best new series, "Jack & Bobby" (9 p.m. today, WNYO), a vote of confidence. But the series about a child growing up in 2005 who becomes president about four decades later needs your support badly.

Western New York is treating the McCallister brothers like sixth-party candidates. The show's return Wednesday (it repeats on Sundays) received a 1.1 rating here.

"We're determined to make the show work," WB Entertainment President David Janollari told critics in Los Angeles. "It's a little bit like "One Tree Hill' last year. We have to give it time to find an audience and figure out how to promote better to (viewers) that should be coming to it."

Janollari said the producers of "J&B" plan some subtle changes, including adding new characters and "broadening some of the story lines." Judging by the brief summaries of future story lines, the subtle changes don't look so subtle.

Courtney (Jessica Pare), the high school daughter of the college president, is apparently going to have sex soon with the new college character who was introduced last week. And the future president's flawed mother, Professor Grace McCallister (Christine Lahti), will be caught by one of her sons in bed with her boyfriend, Tom (Bradley Cooper), the graduate assistant.

In other words, the comparisons to "One Tree Hill" could be widening, and the chances that I'll continue to watch with my 11-year-old son could be narrowing. "J&B" has been a show that you could watch with younger children, who might see how lessons learned by the future president apply to them. Lahti, the elegant actress who plays Grace, watches with her twin 11-year-olds (one boy, one girl), who watch no other television.

"I think it is great for them to watch," said Lahti, whose husband, Thomas Schlamme, is one of the producers. "And it's fun, because I'm in it. I also have a 16-year-old son. He doesn't watch with us. I force him to watch, because I think the lessons in it are really valuable."

She says she isn't uncomfortable with the sex scenes. "No, I'm not, but maybe I should be," she laughs. "The (twins) usually turn away during the kissing. They're not that interested."

She is enjoying the "subtle" changes in her character. "The change for Grace is to show all aspects of her," said Lahti. "The fact she is sexual softens her in a way, and I like that. I think there is room for that."

Her children are behind in viewing and haven't seen her character's activity yet. What will she tell them?

"They might say, "Mom, what about dad?' I would answer it is my job. It's a tough job, somebody's got to do it."

What has she told her children about Grace's marijuana use?

"I say my character has a problem, and she uses pot as an escape because she's afraid of her feelings," said Lahti. "She has a problem, and she's going to work on it."

Lahti concedes the politically correct answer might not be a totally honest one for a woman who grew up in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

"Not to divulge my own experience, but there is kind of a hypocrisy with our generation because drugs were used frequently," said Lahti. "And I think it is OK to lie (to children). Because no good can come from saying it is a positive thing. Because I don't think it is, really. It was for us, but it was a different time."

The issue of cheating is a timeless one that Bobby (Logan Lerman) grappled with before his conscience caught up with him and he admitted his mistake to the teacher.

"I think that's a great lesson," said Lahti of the cheating episode. "Because who isn't tempted to cheat? And the fact that Bobby did and paid such a huge price for it and learned a huge moral lesson I think is great for our kids to watch. I love that."

Similarly, an episode in which Grace offered shelter to a homeless man she knew taught another strong lesson. "One of the prejudices they were exploring is that people who look different and maybe smell a little funky because they don't shower aren't scary and you have to get past that," said Lahti, who always has been politically active and loves playing an unapologetic liberal. In a few episodes, Grace rants about President Bush and his health care policies.

"Tom says, "You're only allowed three Bush rants a day,' " said Lahti. "She asks, "Is that three?' And he says, "That's nine.' "

She doesn't rant about her show's ratings but is frustrated about the inability to get an audience in a tough time slot that includes her husband's previous show, "The West Wing."

"Maybe people aren't used to a more grown-up show being on the WB," said Lahti.

If "J&B" fails, that could be the most painful lesson of all for its viewers.

*Febr. 7th 2005:

Christine didn't win unfortunately. Jennifer Garner won for her role in "Alias". She looked wonderful though. (Photo courtesy of Corbis Fotography.)

*Febr. 3rd 2005:

Christine received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, for her role as Grace McCallister on Jack & Bobby.

The awards will be broadcast live on Saturday February 5th 2005, on TNT.

Christine has been nominated many times before in the SAG Awards but never won.

And some fierce competition again:

Nominations for the 11th Annual SAG Awards™
 
TELEVISION:
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

Allison Janney Claudia Jean 'CJ' Cregg THE WEST WING		Christine Lahti Grace McCallister JACK & BOBBY		Drea de Matteo Adriana La Cerva THE SOPRANOS
	Edie Falco Carmela Soprano THE SOPRANOS		Jennifer Garner Sydney Bristow ALIAS