Action

Action

A pitch black satire about the film business that aired on FOX (notice a trend yet?) in 1999.

The Set-Up: Jay Mohr plays venomous film producer Peter Dragon. After a string of hits, his latest opus, Slow Torture, bombs at the box office. Since he is only as good as his last movie, he must start at the bottom and make another hit. He gets a script he doesn’t want, called Beverly Hills Gun Club. He falls in with a prostitute as an advisor (Illeana Douglas). And he does whatever he must to get the movie made and survive in Hollywood.

Typical episode: Jay Mohr encounters some setback that threatens to derail Beverly Hills Gun Club. He sells off yet another portion of his soul and does something despicable to get the movie made.

Typical dialogue: “Wouldn’t it be hysterical if my character were molested as child? I would like to portray that in a series of dark but wacky flashbacks.”

A typical speech: “When I was thirteen years old, I saw my first R-rated movie, Barbarella. And in the opening sequence, Jane Fonda took out two of the most beautiful, ripe melons this ole farm boy ever did see. But they’re gone now because of time, aging, gravity, and that dirty ole bird Ted Turner pulling on them night after night.”

My favorite episodes:

• 1.4: “Blowhard” The leading man for Beverly Hills Gun Club, played by Point Pleasant’s Richard Burgi, confides in Peter that he’s gay. Peter convinces the star to stay in the closet by pretending to be gay himself, and going that extra mile. Special guest star: Sandra Bullock, who is upset with Mohr for releasing a sex tape of them together. The tape is called While You Were Sleeping . . . On My Face.
  
• 1.5: “Mr. Dragon Goes to Washington” While defending movie violence to Congress, Jay Mohr says some offensive shit. A publicist is hired (the dangerously named Connie Hunt) to offset the fallout. Jay Mohr tosses a baby into a crowd. Special guest star: David Hasselhoff, auctioning off Mary Tyler Moore’s corn holers.
  
• 1.6 : “Twelfth Step to Hell” After Leo DiCaprio passes on the movie, Jay Mohr rescues hot young actor Holden Van Dorn, played by Fabrizio Filippo, from rehab. Filippo’s character is my favorite on the show. Special Guest Stars: Tony Hawk, representing Leo DiCaprio. And Scott Wolf, trying to persuade Jay Mohr that he looks tall on camera.
  
• 1.8 “Love Sucks” The read thru of the script. Filippo falls off the wagon with real style. And the leading actress is fat, or as the lipo specialist Dr. Wong puts it, “She’s fat!” A “blood and piss guy” uses Amish blood he has obtained from “traps” to enable Filippo to pass the insurance drug test. The abuse the sexually-frustrated scriptwriter takes hits an all time high.
  
• 1.11 “Dead Man Floating” Filippo, off the wagon again, accidentally kills the movie’s director, played by R. Lee Ermy. Ermy is found floating in a pool – his water wings still on. As Filippo assesses the situation, “I have such bad luck!” Connie Hunt is called in.
  

Least Favorite:

• 1.3 “Blood Money” Mohr goes to gangsters, pimps and arm dealers to fund the movie. An obvious metaphor that’s been done before. And the show had not quite yet hit its dark stride.
  

How many episodes were produced? 13. Only eight aired.

Is there much continuity? It’s surprising to me that a comedy from the nineties would employ an ongoing story arc. That wasn’t really the fashion yet, but this show keeps track of all the elements creating the movie. There are some discrepancies in dialogue from episode to episode. And the age of Jay Mohr’s character seems to change.

Why was it canceled? Many theories. It was up against Frasier on Thursday nights. It was too inside. It pissed off the wrong people. Ultimately it all boils down to one thing: low ratings.

Was there closure? When they realized the show was going to be canceled, the creators made an episode where Jay Mohr’s character dies of a heart attack. While this was the last episode aired, it is not the final episode. The last episode concerns Illeana Douglas’s character realizing that being a whore is better than being in show business. After a particularly revolting play to keep the movie on track, she decides to drop out and move “some place clean.”

Any unattended issues? The movie is never finished. According to Joel Silver, the plan was to actually show Beverly Hills Gun Club as the last episode. Alas, it never came to be. It sounds awesome. Some scenes mentioned:

• The slaughter at the zoo. Including pandas!
  
• The toboggan full of lesbians.
  
• The lesbian/sister sex scene.
  
• Another sex scene.
  
• Some explosions.

The verdict: I absolutely loved this show when it first aired. There was nothing like it at the time. A plethora of name-dropping, and none of it kind. Since then, there have been many TV shows about despicable characters doing awful things, and now Action feels a little diluted as a result.

There are a few problems with the show. It doesn’t always commit fully to its rampant cynicism. And it gets a little broad sometimes. But when its game was on, the show was amazing. Mohr’s performance is abrasively ballsy.

The way the writer was treated by the characters really bummed me out the first time I saw it, and it still bums me out. But making movies still looks cool. It remains one of my favorite shows .