TELEVISION
Song and dance and series?
The networks count on Craig Zadan and Neil Meron to turn out classy
special events that draw big ratings. Now the duo is looking to
weekly TV for a secure future.
By Elizabeth Jensen, Times Staff Writer
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/suncal/cl-ca-
jensen29dec29.story

New York -- There's a new Professor Harold Hill coming to town, to
sell parents on the dubious virtues of 76-trombone marching bands,
when ABC revives "The Music Man" in mid-February. A new Billy Flynn
has just arrived too, and the scheming "Chicago" lawyer, embodied by
Richard Gere, is hard at work concocting perfect story lines to win
clients the attention of tabloid newspaper reporters and sympathy of
gullible juries.

Even those master salesmen might have learned a thing or two from
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. The executive producers behind "Music
Man" and "Chicago," the business partners have perfected a razzle-
dazzle sell-job in recent years persuading doubtful entertainment
executives and audiences that decades-old musicals can have a new
life as events for a new generation.

Unlike Hill, the duo's Storyline Entertainment has come up with the
goods to back up their sweet talk, resulting in a successful string
of television hits, including CBS' Bette Midler-starring "Gypsy," and
at ABC, "Annie" and the music-filled "Life With Judy Garland: Me and
My Shadows." The films have earned critical praise for their fidelity
to the material, big production values and inspired casting. The
projects have been important for the networks at a time when
competition is fierce and TV movies are a difficult audience sell.

So Zadan and Meron expanded their sales pitch. The Miramax theatrical
release "Chicago," a film version of the Broadway musical starring
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger and Gere, just opened, after
weeks of buzz about possible Oscar nominations. Up next, and a big
test of whether Storyline can break into completely different
territory, is the ABC action-adventure series "Veritas: The Quest,"
set to launch Jan. 27. More feature films, dramas and even sitcoms
are in development.

The new projects come on top of a busy -- some might whisper
overextended -- period for Storyline's bread-and-butter business.
A "Martin and Lewis" biopic earned solid ratings for CBS in November.
Final details are being cleaned up on the much-anticipated "Music
Man," which stars Matthew Broderick. Casting on a new "Fiddler on the
Roof," also for ABC, is ongoing. CBS is expecting a three-hour film
about the creation of "I Love Lucy" for May.

"Our interests were never 'Friday the 13th Part 3,' " says Meron. "Or
Part 8," adds Zadan.

Lucky for them, nostalgia TV came in vogue just as they were hitting
their stride. Both raised in Brooklyn, Zadan, 53, and Meron, 48,
first met in New York in the 1970s, when Meron, a Brooklyn College
student, invited Zadan, author of a book on Stephen Sondheim, to
speak at a lecture series. Eventually, Meron went to work as Zadan's
assistant on a series of club acts at the Ballroom in SoHo; they
later spent three years working together at Joseph Papp's New York
Shakespeare Festival. In 1979, Zadan moved to Los Angeles, where he
lives in the Hollywood Hills; Meron, who lives in West Hollywood,
followed in 1980.

With a long string of theater credits and a grab bag of Hollywood
film and television jobs between them, including Zadan's just-ended
work as producer of "Footloose," they teamed up in the mid-1980s to
form Storyline, first focusing on long-to-gel features. It was in
1993 that having realized TV was a faster process, they hit it big
with "Gypsy," spurning the then-vogue "women in jeopardy" TV movies
for a project that got CBS' attention only when they promised they
could bring in a star and landed Bette Midler. Some 36 million
viewers tuned in.

"Cinderella," for ABC, followed in 1997, with its groundbreaking
colorblind casting of Whitney Houston, Brandy and Bernadette Peters.
(In between, there were some less notable projects, the Jack Lemmon-
James Garner feature film "My Fellow Americans" and the well-
received "Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story,"
starring Glenn Close as an Army officer ousted for being gay.)

With ABC's 1999 "Annie," Storyline took off, catapulting them, along
with Robert Halmi Sr., into the top rank of big-event TV movie
producers at a time when few are making it in the shrinking business.
Susan Lyne, now president of ABC Entertainment, was running ABC's
movie department and took on oversight of "Wonderful World of
Disney," where "Annie" was in development.

Same-old movies of the week weren't working with bored audiences, and
Zadan, Lyne says, "knew that I was looking at new ways to break out
television movies. We really needed to look at each movie we greenlit
as an event in and of itself. Craig and Neil really believed they
could deliver movies that made people forgo their regular TV habits
and tune in to ABC."

"Susan was the first person to treat us as filmmakers and not as
suppliers," says Zadan, who goes on to compare the woman who is their
biggest client to Jackie Kennedy.

Storyline, which does much of its production work in Toronto, did
seem to have the charmed touch. Other producers' TV movies about '60s
and '70s rock drew lackluster audience response; Storyline's "Beach
Boys: An American Family" followed on ABC and succeeded. Zadan says
that as with all of their films, the key was to "give it an emotional
core" that revolves around family. "If we can't find that, then we
find it hard to tell the story," adds Meron.

So "Beach Boys" was about an abusive father; "Martin and Lewis" a
platonic love story about two men as close as brothers; "Annie" about
a little girl looking for family; and "Music Man" will emphasize the
love story. With biopics especially, Zadan says, the audience will
come based on the appeal of learning about "a show business icon, but
they'll stay because they can relate to the emotional point of view."

Others around Hollywood zero in on different Storyline strengths. The
company, they say, is about bringing in the stars and then selling
the projects to audiences once they are finished. "They realize that
making the movie is often the least of it," Lyne says, crediting
their savvy choice of material as well as casting.


Salesmanship and stars

Often drawing on theater relationships, Storyline has delivered
stars. Case in point: Broderick, just off Broadway's hit "The
Producers," to play Harold Hill. They had put out feelers to Billy
Crystal, Kevin Kline and Steve Martin in the role, Zadan says;
Broderick heard about the part and approached them; he was the only
one to be offered the role. Zadan had known him through the actor's
wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, who played Rusty in "Footloose." His
charm is the opposite of that of the slick Robert Preston, who
originated -- and, in essence, has personified ever since --
the "Music Man" role, and the casting has raised eyebrows in the
entertainment world. Zadan calls him "adorable," a word no one would
ever apply to Preston in the role.

That's the appeal, Lyne says: "It's about how can we surprise both
[the audience and the critics] with the mix of casting." Broderick's
Marian the librarian will be Kristin Chenoweth, not as well known to
TV viewers but a darling of New York musical theater.

As for the selling, Quinn Taylor, who oversees ABC's movie
department, calls Zadan and Meron "the single best marketing machine
in town." Lyne agrees: "Nobody is better at marketing their material."

For "Annie," they spent weeks fine-tuning a theatrical-length trailer
to send to reporters, something ABC had never done, to build buzz for
a project that wasn't going to be finished until very close to its
air date. They also have good relationships with many important TV
critics. Then there's the prodigious amount of e-mail Zadan sends out
with quotes from positive reviews (such as a recent Liz Smith column
devoted entirely to a rave about "Chicago") and news of awards, wins
or just nominations, an in-your-face approach that rankles some.
Zadan blames former Walt Disney Studios Chairman Peter Schneider,
who, he says, "screamed at us that we were sending too many faxes"
and insisted they start using e-mail.

The ability to generate attention can make others want to get on
board. "I have not yet worked with any producers more adept at
getting publicity for themselves and their projects," said Kirk
Ellis, a journalist-turned-writer who has worked on three Storyline
projects, adding that, "I've been a beneficiary of that."

"They come in with these great big branded titles and put every
breath into these movies," says Bela Bajaria, who runs CBS' movie
department. "They are so passionate about the movies they do,
sometimes working for years to get the rights to material. It's never
just for the gig; it really is about making this movie."

Zadan and Meron say they are drawn to projects that have an untold
side, such as the love story in "Music Man," which they want to be
more believable in the ABC project than in the original play or
movie. "Perfect" movies aren't candidates for remakes: "We would
never do 'The Sound of Music,' " says Zadan.

"Music Man" had a typical several years' long gestation, starting in
Zadan's Hollywood Hills living room in about 1998, just before the
revival of Meredith Willson's 1957 hit. The producers held a star-
cast read-through with Crystal as Hill; Bernadette Peters as Marian;
Shirley Jones, who played Marian in the 1962 film, as Mrs. Paroo;
Christine Ebersol and Edward Asner, among others; and catering from
Greenblatt's Deli on Sunset Boulevard.

Compared with the original show, "we realized there was a whole other
show here," says Meron, with a darker, more emotional second half,
and they committed the next day. Once they tapped Broderick for the
role, they had to wait more than a year for him to be freed up
from "The Producers."

In an interview in New York in November, during a particularly
frenzied period when they were in town to finish up editing
on "Chicago" and with "The Music Man" still in post-production in Los
Angeles, the two vied collegially to tell their stories. Unlike many
partnerships that break down into a creative partner and a financial
one, both do all of the jobs at the business, although Meron
gravitates toward the prep work and hiring, while Zadan likes post-
production. "They can really take over, one for the other," says
Helen Verno, executive vice president, movies, at Sony Pictures
Television, where Storyline has had a long producing deal for films
such as "Martin and Lewis."

On projects, say some who have worked with them, they use more of
a "good cop, bad cop" routine. When "Music Man" had some early
setbacks, Zadan fired off a middle-of-the-night e-mail suggesting
that the top behind-the-scenes team be fired (it wasn't). "They're
both good cops," says Sony's Verno, although she adds that "Neil
sometimes has a gentler approach and Craig sometimes has a firmer
approach."

Despite some on-set tensions, the same directors and production
staff -- even those who have had contentious experiences -- tend to
work with them over and over, partly drawn to the scope of the
projects. Network executives have been known to get frustrated with
the process too. Bajaria says much can be allowed "when people are
that good at what they do and deliver the goods time after time."

With successes to their credit, Zadan and Meron tend to get bigger
budgets to play with than the average TV movie producer. Lyne says
the two "have to work within the same budgetary constraints that
everybody else does," at least for event movies, but concedes that
Storyline pictures, which recoup some costs from video sales, aren't
done for the standard $3.2 million for two hours. The three-
hour "Music Man" will come in at more than $15 million, according to
people familiar with the numbers.

"They wanted to make a film that would look good and be right for the
material," Ellis says of writing "The Beach Boys." He says he was
told to ignore traditional TV scale in writing the script and think
feature film; later, the team pared back to meet budget
constraints. "We did incredibly elaborate concert sequences with
hundreds of extras, instead of the usual four extras moving in front
of and behind the cameras over and over again," Ellis says.

Not everything has been coming up roses recently. With the "Fiddler
on the Roof" remake, they started out with hopes of casting Crystal
and Bette Midler as Tevye and Golde. Instead, the much-praised but
lesser known Victor Garber -- who also had starring roles in "The
Music Man," "Life With Judy Garland," "Annie" and "Cinderella," when
not playing Jennifer Garner's slippery father on "Alias" -- is
expected to play Tevye and the Golde casting remains undecided. ABC
recently took the long-promised remake of "Mame," with Barbara
Streisand as an executive producer and Cher in the starring roll, off
its futures list because the much-delayed project hasn't come
together, although network sources said ABC would still like to
revive it.

With bravado to rival Harold Hill's, Zadan and Meron haven't gone
timidly into their new ventures, many of which seem to have few
threads in common with the formula that has worked for Storyline so
far. Zadan rattles off a list of eight series with script orders at
Disney's Touchstone Television: five comedies and three dramas.
Series television, says Meron, is a way to "make a better living.
It's a great way of securing the future."

Among the prospects: an hourlong drama set in the world of
gladiators. A dramedy about a young businesswoman who also must take
over her family business, which happens to be a Mafia family ("Sex
and the City" meets "The Sopranos," Zadan says). A half-hour "anti-
'Sex and the City' show about real Midwestern housewives." And a
sitcom, in its second go-round in development, about gay parents,
which would be groundbreaking if it gets on the air.

There's also another theatrical film, based on Ray Bradbury's
futuristic novel "Fahrenheit 451," with Mel Gibson, as well as "a
slew" of family feature films for Disney, Zadan says. In addition
to "Fiddler" for ABC, the pair are working on a movie based
on "Ghostlight," New York Times columnist Frank Rich's memoir of
growing up fascinated by the theater, and a live-action "Hunchback of
Notre Dame," with new music from Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken to
augment their original songs for the animated version.

At CBS, a long-in-the-works biography of Ronald and Nancy Reagan and
a remake of "Butterflies Are Free" are in development.

The list is lengthy for a reason, they say. "I made the most tragic
mistake of life after 'Footloose,' " Zadan says. He was new to
Hollywood in 1984 and focused for years on the movie, neglecting to
begin development of other projects. When "Footloose" was a hit "for
two seconds, I was a very hot producer. All the studios were wining
and dining me, and I had nothing to make." He began to put things in
development, but by then, he says, "people had moved on. It was a
really bad time for me in life. I wasn't able to capitalize
on 'Footloose' at all and I never made that mistake again."

Most imminently, there's "Veritas: The Quest," an "Indiana Jones"-
like show about a father and son's archeological adventures
in "search of the truth behind the mysteries of history and
civilization." With a tough 8 p.m. Monday time slot, up against CBS'
comedies, NBC's "Fear Factor" and the WB's family-friendly "7th
Heaven," industry observers are already speculating that it may be
short-lived. ABC's Lyne calls it "a really fun commercial program,"
but the network declined to make it available for viewing.

It may also have the dubious distinction of being one of the most
expensive pilots ever, having started out as a $7-million, two-hour
movie that was cut to an hour. ABC was considering a lengthier
hourlong version without commercials, but in the end it will air with
ads. Zadan says the shorter version was chosen so the program could
air the night after ABC's Super Bowl broadcast.

Lyne says she wasn't skittish about giving Zadan and Meron a shot at
a series despite their lack of experience in the genre. "I think that
they are smart enough producers and so committed to winning that I
had every confidence that what they didn't know about the series
business they would learn very fast. And they are: Day by day, week
by week, they are more assured in that arena. They are going to be
great series producers."

Of more concern is the big pile of projects on their dance card. "Of
course I worry. I would love them to do nothing for anyone but our
network," Lyne says. "It's hard to reel them in because they are in
demand and they've worked hard to be able to cast this wide net."
But, she added, "they said they could do it and I do trust that if
they tell me they can pull it off, they will do it."