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| Lowe on a high with new show July 28, 2003 BY PHIL ROSENTHAL TELEVISION CRITIC HOLLYWOOD--Rob Lowe is that rare individual thrilled to have left the White House behind. His new NBC series for fall, "The Lyon's Den," may not have as many powerful emotional highs as his old one, "The West Wing," but it sure looks to have more Lowe. "I'm very, very proud of this show," said Lowe, who has an executive producer credit along with star billing this time around. "I'm so proprietary about it. 'The West Wing' wasn't mine. I was a working stiff there. This is my show." "The West Wing" originally was going to be Lowe's show. As first conceived by creator Aaron Sorkin, the series was going to focus on the White House staff that saves the world each week, and the president was to be an afterthought. By the time the series hit the air, however, Martin Sheen's President Bartlet had taken a more prominent role and Lowe's Sam Seaborn character wasn't even the most interesting aide. Things came to a head last summer when Lowe's requests for more money and more significant storylines were summarily rejected. In a move likened to the professional U-turns of Shelley Long and Maclean Stevenson, Lowe announced he would leave the White House series that led many to take the former Brat Packer more seriously and, in effect, turned his career around in the first place. "I don't know about 'turned my career around,' but I do know that it showed me in a light that I had never been seen [in] before," Lowe said. "For that I am grateful. You know, I think that this show has the ability to do so many things that 'The West Wing' just chooses not to do, for whatever reason." Like give him top billing. The rest is sort of similar. "Lyon's Den" creator Remi Aubuchon has Lowe playing yet another whipsmart idealistic Washington lawyer, but this time he's nobody's second banana. The entire first episode of the ensemble drama, in fact, is built around persuading Lowe's character to step up and take centerstage. "Sam just was getting less and less and less and less and less to do," Lowe said. "I want to be really clear: It wasn't about screen time. ... But at the end of the day, I wanted Sam--because I was in love with Sam--I wanted Sam to have the president's ear. I wanted Sam to be involved in big storylines, not just shuffled in and out for relief. "Thanks to Remi and everyone here, I'm getting a chance in this to really do some themes that are important to me and themes that have some resonance. ...You're not going to see any agriculture bill stuff on this show. They got that covered somewhere else." "The West Wing" exile's agriculture-bill days may be over, but it might be argued Lowe's still dealing in corn. His "Lyon's Den" role, Jack Turner, is a do-gooder who resists (for most of the show's pilot episode, at least) the top job at a prestigious but shadowy firm, which seeks to exploit his good name to overcome the taint of scandal. Like "The West Wing," this is a show populated by overachievers, but only up to a point. "They don't wear halos," Lowe said. "They're very complex. They don't all sound alike. They are all very, very different. They're flawed, some of them, if not all of them, and even though they're workaholics, they also have people in their lives who they love, who they hate. They have mortgages. They have children." Lowe's departure was the first of many changes for "The West Wing" last season, which, in the face of declining ratings and rising production costs (owing to Sorkin's inability to deliver scripts on time), bid adieu to Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme, the executive producers responsible for the Emmy fave's distinctive sound, look and feel. Executive producer John Wells ("ER"), the boss who stayed behind to run "Wing," has written the first two scripts of the new season and NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker says there is less hallway banter now. But this clearly is a show that--like the fictional Bartlet presidency it chronicles--is at a critical turning point. "Do I feel prescient? The show definitely had changed course, without a question," Lowe said of taking flight from "Wing." "It's like being a crew member on a big ship. You know the ship is changing course probably before the passengers do, and I think it continues on that course. It just wasn't for me. "As far as Aaron, listen, I love Aaron Sorkin. Aaron Sorkin is a genius, and he could be 15 years late on a script for me, and that would never be a problem because when you got it, it was like Christmas morning." But it was a Christmas morning in which he thought he had been a better boy than Santa did. More often than not, there was room in his stocking for more goodies than he got. "I felt like I had a lot of unfinished business on 'The West Wing,"' Lowe said. "I felt there were things that I didn't get to accomplish, and in this show I get to deal with some of those. ...I just want to be involved in stories with some teeth, and it was never about screen time for me. ... Every week on this show, I'm going to be involved in a story with some real heft to it." Because sometimes saving the world isn't enough. |