In the Name Of The People
Status: CBS Movie of the Week -- Aired February 2, 2000
October 21,1999
Announcement
Scott has signed to star in the CBS-TV movie In the Name of the People. The MOW co-stars Amy Madigan, the wife in the movie Field of Dreams.
November 16
More Movie Updates
from an article on Above Suspicion
HOLLYWOOD (Variety)
[snipped]
The deal comes on the heels of Bakula landing a starring gig in the CBS
telefilm "In the Name of the People," with Amy Madigan, written by Richard Leder and directed by Peter Levin.
Both gigs, brokered by ICM's Brian Mann and Chris Andrews, come as New Latin Pictures picked up rights to distribute the independent picture
"Luminarias", starring Bakula.
More details
Veteran Vancouver line producer Lisa Richardson of Dogwood Films is
overseeing a CBS Movie of the Week called "In the Name of the People".
Production runs until December 6th.
Starring Scott Bakula, Amy Madigan and Richard Thomas, the television
picture is about a death row inmate who, in his final days, asks the
parents of the girl he murdered to raise his daughter when he's gone.
Thanks to Barbara
December 27
In The Name Of The People -- Detail
starring
Scott Bakula
Richard Thomas
Amy Madigan
CBS - Wednesday, Feb. 2, 9:00 PM, ET/PT
In this emotionally charged drama, John Burke (Bakula), is a man on death row for the murder of a teenage girl. He anguishes over the fate of his own 13-year-old daughter, wondering what will become of her after his execution.
The murdered girl's mother (Madigan) presides over an activist group rallying for Burke's execution. But ironically, it is the victim's father (Thomas) who finds a common bond with the killer-namely, the killer's daughter.
Thanks to Anita and Diane
January 6
Picture of Scott from In the Name of the People
brace yourself before viewing
thanks to Emma and Anita
January 18
A few Words from Scott
From Kristy by way of the Quantum Leap Message Board
Just found this out on the Web at http://www.nandotimes.com/entertainment/. It's from
Marilyn Beck and Stacy Janel Smith:
THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Scott Bakula's biggest concern about starring in CBS' Feb. 2
"In the Name of the People" TV movie was that his core TV audience wouldn't buy him in
the role of a cold-blooded killer on death row.
"I told the director if I'm going to be a detriment to this piece, I don't want to do it. The curse sometimes of television," says the former "Quantum Leap" hero, "is that people feel
like they know you really well, and that you're not capable of this or that. I didn't want people at home thinking, 'Oh, it's Scott Bakula. In the last act, we'll find out he really didn't do it."' He says he was convinced to play the inmate responsible for murder when the
director agreed to let him take his own approach to the role and change his appearance.
"I
look very different ... it's kind of eerie, but I think that removes the familiarity. This piece is
not about my character's guilt. It's about what happens to the victim's family that's been
living with what he did, and about the innocent family of
people who do bad things. They're guilty by association, and go through a lot of stress and
turmoil."
February 1
Log of Scott chat
This is a cleaned-up and color coded log of the chat Scott did for In The Name of the People, February 1, 2000, at the Palace.
thanks to Gianna
Ratings for ITNOTP
thanks to Margaret
The man in Jay's office gave Margaret the ratings for ITNOTP:
9pm: 7.4
9:30pm: 7.7
10pm: 8.2
10:30pm: 8.2
Average: 7.9
The movie placed second in its time slot for the first hour; don't know about the second hour. These ratings are pretty much in line with what CBS usually gets for the Wednesday movie.
Pam notes that she is clueless as to the competition, then retracts that--I had to skip both Spin City and the West Wing to watch this (as if I wouldn't).
Interview/Review
Scott Bakula Turns Murderous
By Jay Bobbin TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
Given the nature of his latest TV role, Scott Bakula can be credited with taking another quantum leap.
Normally seen in a nice-guy vein, the actor plays a killer awaiting his fate on death row in the CBS movie "In the Name of the People," airing Wednesday (9 p.m. ET). The convict worries what will happen to his motherless daughter (Robin Ann Phipps) if he dies, something understood by the murder victim's father (Richard Thomas) despite that man's anguish over losing his own child. His wife (Amy Madigan), meanwhile, tries to ensure the inmate's execution.
"Whatever people perceive me to be, television gives me a chance to branch out from that every once in a while," Bakula says. "Actors are always looking for that, and when this came along, they were kind enough to say to me, 'Read the script and tell us what you want to do.' I just wanted to tackle this kind of role, while Richard Thomas has the part that most people would expect me to play.
"Traditionally, we're so preoccupied with the punishment that a criminal receives, we often forget he may have other people in his life who are made to feel guilty by association," Bakula adds. "This movie shows what they go through, and I found that side of the situation very compelling. The trick for me was to keep this from becoming a case of 'Oh, that poor guy,' because he's clearly a bad guy who did a horrible, terrible thing."
Despite the bleak setting of "In the Name of the People," it wasn't filmed in an actual prison, "though it might as well have been," Bakula reflects. "We shot this in a closed-down mental hospital in Vancouver, and I found out later that it was almost a permanent location for 'The X-Files' when they were shooting up there. It was just a very depressing place that lent itself well to this piece."
"In the Name of the People" might seem to have the elements of a true story, but it's a work of fiction. "Unfortunately, these kinds of things seem to happen all the time," Bakula allows, "and one less is good. When I read the script the first time, I thought it was based on truth. There have been similar stories in the news, with the families of some victims being involved in the sentencing of those on trial.
"I remember the crime that inspired 'In Cold Blood' happening while I was growing up, and it seemed that was the only bad thing to happen that year. It gripped the nation, and now it seems like those things are just everywhere. In an odd way, no place is really safe anymore, and I think that's disconcerting."
Bakula and co-star Thomas worked together previously in Fox's 1995 miniseries update of the 1960s show "The Invaders." Thomas played "a really strange alien," Bakula muses, "and every time I've seen him since, I've said, 'Sucked on any exhaust pipes lately, pal?' That was one of his character traits, that he needed a carbon-monoxide fix to survive, so that's how I think of him. He's really a warm guy, full of spirit and a lot of fun to work with."
That was a big bonus on a project as downbeat as "In the Name of the People," says Bakula: "For a moment, I went down the path of actor games: 'Maybe I won't spend any time with anybody else on the set.' When we finally got up there and talked with each other about keeping this as real as we could and not too heavy-handed, we all realized we needed as much lightheartedness and ease -- away from the actual filming -- as we could get. This was a hard shoot."
Not planning to return to the TV-series beat for a while at least, Bakula has had good fortune in the feature-film world lately. He co-starred with Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening in "American Beauty," the acclaimed comedy-drama that's all but certain to get multiple Oscar nominations on Feb. 15. "I'm delighted to be associated in any way with that movie," Bakula states. "It affects all sorts of people in different ways, and in an artistic sense, I don't know that you can ask for more than that."
Copyright 1997-8 Union-Tribune Publishing Co., Tribune Media Services and Lookahead Communications Inc.
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