- News Archive July 1998 -
FRIENDS ON SET - July 27 1998
TV WEEK - Australia (August 1-7)
Spending many long days in front of the camera to put together each episode of The Sentinel, the cast say their friendships get them through.
Garett Maggart (left), who plays Blair Sandburg in the explosive action series, says his feisty on-screen relationship with Richard Burgi (police detective and ex-soldier Jim Ellison) mellows considerably once the cameras stop rolling.
"Richard and I fuelled the antagonism between the two characters from the very start," he says. "But, off screen, we get along brilliantly.
"He's a real trip, man. He's out there! We have a blast together. We all do. It makes the job easier and the day go faster.
"We're always messing around and pulling jokes on each other.
"We pass time playing basketball. We're both very competitive. Richard's a big guy and he's tall. I'm short, but I'm definitely the dominator."
RICHARD BURGI'S BIRTHDAY - July 22 1998
Taya reports:
Associated Press has put out its advanced copy of the "On This Date In History" column for 30 July ... and Richard Burgi is mentioned in the birthday section!
Ultimate TV - July's Hottest Birthday Boy UltimateTV is running a feature on celebrity birthdays for July and visitors to the site are asked to vote for the Hottest Birthday Boy and Girl.
As of the morning of July 22, the current vote is as follows:
Results of The Hottest Birthday Boy
| Richard Burgi | 44 % |
| Kevin Spacey | 34 % |
| Dean Cain | 18 % |
| Matt LeBlanc | 1 % |
| Rob Estes | 1 % |
| Brian Austin Green | 1 % |
| Laurence Fishburn | 0 % |
| Dean Haglund | 0 % |
| Wil Wheaton | 0 % |
| Kadeem Hardison | 0 % |
| Campbell Scott | 0 % |
| Eriq La Salle | 0 % |
| Woody Harrelson | 0 % |
SURFERS JAM NET SITE TO SAVE TELEVISION'S SENTINEL - July 21 1998
The West Australian
by David Watts
Perth Internet users have helped save the cult television program The Sentinel.
The science-fiction drama screens here on Channel 7 late on Thursdays. It has attracted a devoted audience, many of whom joined the global campaign to rescue it after its American makers announced in late May they were canning it.
Perth viewers were able to concentrate their pleas at the Support Our Sentinel Web site in the US.
The site was set up as fans began campaigning by more conventional means such as letters, faxes and phone calls to the United Paramount Network. Highlights of the campaign included a full-page advertisement in USA Today protesting against UPN's decision, and a mass e-mail write-in to a poll at the Ultimate TV Web site. The poll asked viewers to say which of four threatened programs should be saved.
The Sentinel was a close second to Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman, with more than 20,000 surfers voting for it.
UPN was staggered by the weight of protest. It took 13,000 phone calls from angry fans in the 48 hours after it announced the show's axing. During June several sponsors threatened to withdraw support for UPN productions as well.
Early this month the SOS site was able to tell Web users that UPN had buckled under pressure and ordered eight new episodes for the 1998-99 TV season.
UPN credited the fan campaign as a deciding factor. At the SOS Web site, UPN entertainment chief Tom Nunan is quoted as saying: "The outpouring of fan support has been tremendous. Aside from the legion of loyal Sentinel fans who have bombarded our office with tens of thousands of phone calls, I think the happiest person to hear the news is the UPN switchboard operator."
The article also included the SOS and Ultimate TV urls and a grpahic of the SOS main webpage.
(Thanks Sphinx)
WATCHING THE SENTINEL - July 20 1998
People Online
Richard Burgi talks about love, life -- and (offline) surfing
"Call me after noon, and we'll swing, Baby," Sentinel star Richard Burgi promises PEOPLE Online. Barely awake and staring down a cup of coffee while playing with his toddler son, Jack, the actor talks from his L.A. home about his hiatus before starting the series' fourth season. "We're all done till some time in August, September -- then we're going to be filming in Vancouver for about seven months. Vancouver is a beautiful place to work. My wife Lori teaches yoga up there, and my son comes to the set and wreaks havoc all over the place."
Of his success as the psychic Jim Ellison on the UPN series, Burgi seems pleased with his progress on the show, which has a large online following. "I guess I fooled them all. I felt for a long time, in some way, deficient. But now I think through all the work I've done in life -- I still have a long way to go -- and I'm saying, give me the ball, I'll run with it. I've always shied away [from] taking the bull by the horns, as it were."
The Montclair NJ native got into acting "when an old girlfriend was directing a play when I was in high school, and she asked me to come in and read. I was playing in a band and playing sports, and I thought, sure, I can fit it in."
Turns out acting was a good fit for the 40-year-old actor, who first attracted attention in several soap roles -- Another World, As the World Turns, One Life to Live and Days of Our Lives. After a one-year stint in District Attorney William Conrad's office on CBS' Jake and the Fatman, Burgi had a recurring role in the NBC series Viper. Then, in 1994, he costarred with Cheryl Ladd in the short-lived One West Waikiki. which can now be seen on the Lifetime Television Network.
At first, The Sentinel almost didn't make it, though a strong viewer campaign -- reportedly, more than 10,000 fans called to protest the show's imminent cancellation -- ensured the show's survival. "I believe the fans had a great influence keeping it going," Burgi says, "though I also think it was Paramount's intention to keep the show alive." Burgi appreciated the effort: "I love the show, I love the people I act with -- Garett Maggart and Bruce Young -- and the crew up in Canada are terrific. As far as doing a show that's not on CBS or NBC -- I love working, and this for me is actually more fun," he explains. "If Sentinel were on CBS, NBC, ABC, I have no idea what it would be like. First of all, those big network shows seem more reality-based. Secondly, I don't think I'd want that scrutiny and incessant attention right now. I don't like to be creative when I'm feeling stressed. I like to have a good time and be relaxed."
He was once so relaxed he nearly cracked his head open. "While filming, I was doing a stunt on a jet ski -- I'm not that fond of those -- and doing another scene, I had hurt my back picking a bad guy up and putting him down. I've had this on and off back problem for years," Burgi recalls. "The doctor gave me a Percocet. I was pretty hammered. So I got on this thing, and I was spinning around and trying to splash the producer -- the stunt guy had taught me how to take it on its side. We were working near this huge steel barge, and each time I tried to get closer to it. I finally nicked it, fell off, and the whole crew jumped up and were peering over the side, thinking I'd crushed my skull on this barge. I got up, and the producer, still on the phone, took it all in, never stopped talking, just kind of nodded like, yep, okay, he's still alive."
For someone so relaxed -- both on and off the set -- Burgi says he has been focused on some major goals. "I've had three clear thoughts in my life. One, I was going to get married and have a family, one I was going to be an actor and one I was going to surf," he says. His marriage three years ago to Lori Kahn and the birth of his son (Jack Charles Burgi) in 1996 "changed my life around," he says. He married at 37 -- kind of late for a handsome hunk. (One of his ex-girlfriends is Anne Heche.) "I came close, maybe, but it was just all for the wrong reasons. Men, they evolve slower. They mature slower than women -- they should take more time" in settling down.
In his spare time Burgi pursues his love of music -- he is an accomplished musician and owns a vintage drum set. A nature lover, he is actively involved with the Bozeman, Montana-based Yellowstone Ecological Survey, which works to inform and educate people about Yellowstone Park's fragile ecosystem. "Life comes and goes, and I think we need to save our planet and not hurt it," he explains. "I like to be proactive, but at the same time I like to work in a grass roots way and impact my environment as best I can."
As for having an interview published on the Internet -- well, Burgi's not sure he will see the finished product online. "My wife is involved on the Internet. I don't know how to turn the computer on, and I would like it to remain that way," he admits. "My grandmother never got a driver's license. She's 98 now -- she thought, no, I'll stick with the horse and buggy. To me, the computer takes too much away from my analog life."
UPN (Wednesdays, 8 p.m. ET)Rescued after 18 months in the Peruvian jungle, GI Jim Ellison (Richard Burgi) has developed heightened senses. Home in fictional Cascade, Wash., he turns supercop--what anthropologist Blair Sandburg (Garett Maggart) terms "a human crime lab with organic surveillance equipment." With the hippie-ish Sandburg's help, Ellison sniffs out serial bombers and terrorists in an exciting but hyperactive series.
Grade: B
(Thanks Cathryn)
DEVOTED FANS SAVE SHOWS - July 17 1998
Entertainment Weekly - July 24 Print Issue
Remote Patrol
by Bruce Fretts
Devoted fans leap into action to save two adventure shows from certain death
When viewers campaign to save endangered series, it's usually for a so-called quality show like Cagney & Lacey (which was brought back by popular demand after being scrapped by CBS in 1988) or Relativity (which ABC canned in 1997, despite appeals from rabid fans). This summer, The Magnificent Seven (CBS, Saturdays, 9-10pm) and The Sentinel (UPN, Wednesdays 8-9pm) were snatched from the jaws of cancellation after supporters deluged their networks with calls, letters, and e-mails. (Alas, a similar effort couldn't save CBS' Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, which attracts a less demographically desirable audience than these young-male-skewing action series.) Both Seven and Sentinel will now return as mid-season replacement. While no one would mistake these cult faves for Emmy-caliber TV, they do have their schlocky charms.
Seven got off to a lucky start, CBS' promos - cleverly set to the tune of Paula Cole's smash single, "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" - helped the show debut in the top 10. Yet its pilot proved an uninspired remake of the 1960 Western movie (which itself was an uninspired remake of Akira Kurasawa's The Seven Samurai). Viewers tuned out and missed seeing the series actually get better.
In subsequent episodes, Seven's ensemble began to take shape: Michael Biehn (The Terminator) stars as Chris Larrabee, a black-clad gunslinger who organizes a ragtag posse to defend underdogs in the Old West. His compadres include a hard-drinking preacher (Beauty and the Beast's Ron Perlman), an ex-bounty hunter (Eric Close), a con artist (Anthony Starke), a lady-killer (Dale Midkiff), a former slave (Rick Worthy), and a tenderfoot Easterner (Andrew Kavovit). Old pro guest stars Robert Vaughn (one of the original Magnificent Seven) and John Cullum (Northern Exposure) also lent the show credibility.
An unapologetically violent throwback to the golden age of TV shoot-'em-ups, Seven overflows with barrom brawls and gunfights. It's TV's best Western series since Gunsmoke left the air nearly 25 years ago - which unfortunately isn't saying much, considering the competition (e.g The Young Riders).
Another steadily improving series, The Sentinel has built a small but loyal following since its 1996 debut. It's the straight-faced story of a police detective (Richard Burgi) with extra-ordinarily heightened sense; he can literally sniff out criminals. He's assisted by an anthropologist (Garett Maggart) who's studying sentinel - member of ancient tribes with the same special powers. In the fiction Northwestern city of Cascade, they chase bad guys under the supervision of a terminally apoplectic police captain (Bruce A Young, channeling Starsky and Hutch's Bernie Hamilton).
The Sentinel got a much-needed kick from the recent addition of the Nicole Kidman-esque Anna Galvin as an Aussie officer assigned by be Burgi's partner. Like a Down Under Lois Lane, she's unaware of her coworker's superhuman abilities. The show is clearly trying to follow the model of UPN's own Star Trek: Voyager which got a big boost after beaming up space babe Jeri Ryan (who also guested on The Sentinel's season finale as an evil seductress who may have murdered Maggart's character).
Did The Magnificent Seven and The Sentinel deserve to be saved? Maybe not as much as some of last season's other casualties, like CBS' George & Leo, The Gregary Hines Show and Michael Hayes. But the dedication of Seven's and Sentinel's fans seems refreshing in an era when American's remote-control trigger fingers are growing increasingly itchy.
(Thanks Sherry)
SCORE ONE FOR THE FANS - July 9 1998
The Sacramento Bee
By Rick Kushman - television columnist
"...score one for the parade of fans who urged UPN to un-cancel the sci-fi/cop drama The Sentinel.
"The fans were a significant factor in that decision," said UPN spokeswoman Patti McTeague. "Their campaign had a very strong influence".
"It is rare that fan protests get network executives to change their minds - an example is CBS's refusal to bugde on canceling Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman - particularly if a show is not drawing bid Nielsen ratings. But a mini- network like UPN, which expects smaller ratings can afford to be more responsive to hard-core fans of a show because that might give the network a chance to build a loyal following..."
(Thanks Cynthia)
THE SENTINEL 'TONIGHT'S PICK' ON MR SHOWBIZ - July 8 1998
Mr Showbiz Website - Tv Reviews
The following run down of the episode Three Point Shot, does not go by without a mention of the hard won renewal of the show.
Tonight's Pick
The Sentinel
There was one thing our hero with the superhuman senses couldn't forsee: his cancellation from UPN's lineup. But get a whiff of this - fans of the show flooded the network with negative feedback on its decision, and The Sentinel will return midseason next year.In this episode, the Houston Rockets' Clyde Drexler stars as a basketball player suspected of murder. Past and present NBA stars Mitch Richmond, Kurt Rambis, and Hubie Brown also appear.
SENTINEL FANS PURCHASE 'THANK YOU' AD IN HOLLYWOOD REPORTER - July 7 1998
Following on from the success of the USA Today ad in reaching the general public about the plight of The Sentinel, fans have thrown their support behind a further advertisement within the television industry.
The half-page ad, featured below, appeared in the Hollywood Reporter both as a statement of support for the show, and a thank you to UPN and Paramount for their ongoing commitment to The Sentinel.
This ad, again co-ordinated and designed by Barbara Nice-Miller, reinforces the prominence The Sentinel has achieved from the ongoing fan campaign to the industry and the advertisers.
SENTINEL CALLED FOR DUTY AGAIN - July 6 1998
Chicago Sun-Times
By Lon Grahnke
Television Critic
When UPN canceled The Sentinel in May after three seasons, loyal viewers protested vigorously. And they got results.
Chief programmer Tom Nunan, UPN Entertainment president, has responded by renewing the action drama as a midseason replacement series, airing here on WPWR- Channel 50.
Richard Burgi will return as Lt. Jim Ellison, a police detective in the fictional city of Cascade, Wash. A former Special Forces soldier, Ellison survived alone for 18 months in a Peruvian jungle. During his ordeal, Ellison developed his heightened senses to a superhuman level. Back in civilization, working as a Cascade cop, Ellison uses his sensory powers to fight crime and protect people.
The Sentinel ranked 159th among the 179 prime-time series during the 1997-98 season. Nunan will select a slot for the show after the fall cancellations begin.