Up Close: Here We Go Again!

Eric Close -- one of the stars of the CBS drama Without a Trace -- must be having a sense of deja-vu. You can find Eric on the front cover of the March 27 TV Guide.

Apparently, Eric's character, Martin Fitzgerald, is going through a rough patch. He's been shot and fallen down a flight of stairs in the line of duty, and now he's addicted to pain medication. Cue his friends who are going to realize it's time to intervene and get him back to health and sobriety. As TV Guide puts it:

If you want to know what rock bottom looks like, have a gander at Martin Fitzgerald's living room, Normally, the buttoned-up FBI agent from Without a Trace is the picture of polished decorum. But sprawled on his couch, surrounded by empty pizza boxes and pill bottles and with a nasty case of bed head, he looks more like the long-lost son of Nick Nolte.

The article goes on to mention that Eric will be getting an unexpected visit from his blonde co-star, Poppy Montgomery because he's late for work.

Hmmm... been there, done that. Ten years ago, Eric Close was the star of a TV series I'd created with Brent Friedman, Dark Skies. On episode 17 (amazing how you remember these things), we'd decided that we had to mess him up a bit. That episode, "To Prey in Darkness", began with Eric, late for work, sitting in an apartment full of empty pizza boxes, getting a surprise unexpected visit from his blonde co-star Jeri Lynn Ryan, who played his fellow MJ-12 agent. Eric's character, John Loengard, had lost his son to the alien hive, and found his only allies to be the secret-keepers of Majestic 12, people who knew would sell him down the river in a heartbeat. No wonder he started drinking! Jeri Lynn Ryan, BTW, went on to star as the Borg, Seven-of-Nine, on Star Trek: Voyager, then become a lead on Boston Public, and we worked together again when she served on the executive committee of the TV Academy when I was the chairman a few years ago.

Eric's one of the greatest guys I know, and I'm proud to call him my friend. He's a great father and husband, but he's full of fun. But he plays clean-cut very well. It looks like Without a Trace ended up in the same territory as Dark Skies did because we both cast him as a government agent (FBI -v- MJ12) straight-arrow. The temptation then, with a character like that, is to let him fall, so that he can pick himself up, find a new purpose and get on with his life. It's more story, and better character development. So, there you go. According to TV Guide, Eric's ready to climb out of the emotional basement he's been living in:

"We've been doing it since July, and it's depressing," he says. "I'm looking forward to Martin getting better and his personality blossoming. He's been very subdued, and his confidence has taken a beating. He could use a vacation."

Well, obviously, you're going to have a chance to watch Eric's fall in the next episode of Without a Trace. Since the Dark Skies DVD set isn't out yet (please, fans, contact SONY and tell them you want it), if you'd like to see our storyline with Eric, you can download the entire script by clicking here.

BTW, this is my favorite Dark Skies episode next to the pilot where the Kennedy assassination had been basically caused by the Loengard character's attempt to get the truth out to the American public about UFOs. "To Prey in Darkness" explains the 1965 New York power black-out by way of the Dorothy Kilgallen murder being linked to Jack Ruby having been taken over by an alien ganglion, and includes characters like Dan Rather and William S. Paley (actors playing them, not the real people).

Anyway, back to Without a Trace which is a great show, well-worth watching. It's produced by the mega-successful Jerry Bruckheimer Television and was created by a talented writer/producer and friend, Hank Steinberg.

And, by the way, how do you spell deja-vu with the accent marks on a blog like this? Does that require a college degree in HTML?

Comments

[Teva]

ERIC CLOSE ROCKS!!!! I really hope that his character, Martin, gets back together with Samantha. Hopefully, Samantha can come to her senses and not be afraid to be seen with Martin in public. -Stay True Eric