The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 56

E12 CALENDAR LOSANGELESTIMES TELEVISION RADIO Los Angeles five years ago to write television sitcoms. When Fox canceled after its single 2001-02 season, Rothman, then 28, decided it was time to check out retirement, if only temporarily. was Rothman, 31, said recently over a grilled- cheese sandwich and fries at a Beachwood Canyon diner near his apartment. I work, I get consumed by my just genuinely was curious about going to see what was at the end of all that work. That was the question I posed to myself where does all this work take It took him to Century Village in Boca Raton, a condominium community of mostly working- class and middle-class retirees from New York, where Rothman spent six months testing the waters of idleness for his recently published book, He also worked up a television pilot based on his experiences for NBC it was filmed at Leisure World in Orange Laguna Woods but the show make the fall schedule.

Rothman and his partners are still hoping to land the project somewhere. The concept has comic overtones the characterKramer retired to Florida briefly during the 1997-98 season but Rothman was driven more by curiosity than comedy. He was rewarded with small epiphanies about the elderly and how people get there, the persistence of personality and the fallacy that wisdom comes with age. Structured as a series of vignettes in loose chronological order, the book is a personal tour of the future, not quite a farce but not a sociological tract either. more an exercise in immersion journalism.

see myself as somebody writing first-person accounts of real Rothman said. compare myself more to a documentarian than a journalist, in that documenting real things and often part of the story the same way a documentary crew is part of the In a sense, the book is a bounce-back project for Roth- man, who achieved a small level of notoriety when it was discovered he had made up some details in his Fake first- person article for the New Nov. 27, 2000, issue. Rothman showed up at a dot- com firm in New Silicon Alley, describing himself as a project from the satellite and spent 17 days pretending to work. He wrote of having wide access including getting a massage without being challenged or found out.

Problem was, his mother had worked for the firm, which gave him more of an than he let on. And the massage happen Rothman put his name on the list but made himself scarce when his turn came. was nervous about taking things from this company that hired Rothman said. I was writing, I kind of said to myself, well, I signed up for the massage, and they were looking for me, I could have gotten the massage, so the harm in it? It was was about The sin rise to Jayson Blair levels, but the backlash was severe as the New Yorker repudiated the article and Rothman was pilloried as a fraud. was certainly no Rothman said.

made stupid choices. I think it got way overblown, by the way, but I also see how my own actions created the problem. I learned from it and moved Rothman insists that everything in the new book happened, and with a television optimism sees the silver lining in the cloud that still shadows him. did everything I could to go into this with a clear conscience. That said, I derive a certain amount of pleasure that, given all the stuff that had happened, I kind of have come back a few years later with something 20 times as Rothman went into the project expecting to spend two or three months in a retirement community, reprising his youthful visits to his retired grandparents.

was the last time in my life been relaxed, when I was down in Florida visiting my Rothman said. think there was, you know, that component of me wanting to go write some gonzo journalism in some place style gonzo, though, as created by the late Hunter S. Thompson, whose acid tongue was seemingly powered by booze and amphetamines. writing voice is detached wryness, a half-step short of mockery. He tries to laugh with his subjects, not at them.

And he spices the approach with moments of self-deprecation over his lack of athletic ability, his spotty romantic successes and, in a high school flashback, his fumbling efforts to join the group gathering poolside at the retirement center (he was finally accepted). had more in common with people that age than I Rothman said. He found that the first three months in Florida were largely pump priming. After weeks of daily contact he began to learn the more important details of lives, and found himself thinking less about his apartment and old friends back in Los Angeles and more about his new life in Florida. do three months of small talk and all of a sudden tell you, my husband drank himself to Rothman said.

was starting to download their lives a little bit, starting to be affected by what they were telling me. At that point, the idea of going back to Los Angeles and going back to my apartment and seeing what my TiVo had taped and meeting my buddies idea of going back to Los Angeles and picking up that old life seemed less Mostly, Rothman writes about himself as he writes about others, detailing his surprise at the raunchy humor of a 93-year- old woman who used to do stand-up comedy, the irrepressible sexiness of another woman in her 70s, and the preoccupation with sex among many of the men he befriended. For many, Rothman said, the death of a wife after 50 years was like hitting an emotional rewind button, as though they reverted to who they were before they had married. like he became frozen at 19 and all the tedious 19-year-old misconceptions he had unfreeze and he just becomes a moron Rothman said. I met older people who were in the same boat as distracted by concerns over what to do with their lives.

Rothman became golfing buddies with one man in his 60s, identified as Artie, who spent 30 years living overseas as a heroin junkie and low-level dealer before moving to Florida when his lover became ill. Artie and the woman were drug-free when Rothman was there, and he and Artie spent hours discussing their futures. were legitimate buddies who would fool around in the golf cart and give each other guidance Rothman said. be like, man, maybe you should cook for a And be like, probably like That I definitely Rothman fears that in some ways the lifestyle he chronicled may be threatened as baby boomers decide rather retire to more isolated suburban settings than those offered by traditional retirement communities, which Rothman sees as transplanted urban neighborhoods people living in close quarters who evolve complicated social networks based on proximity, interests and outlook. was the generation that grew up in the outer boroughs of New York; used to living with people on top of said Rothman, who grew up in Scarsdale, a wealthy suburb in New Westchester County.

reminded me of college. Everything that missed since college I got back when I lived in the retirement community. You walk out your door, you see 50 people you know, they all ask you about your life, you ask them about their life. You have And he found that retirement was more than shuffleboard, early bird specials and spoiling grandchildren from afar. is supposed to be stagnant and people imagine Rothman said.

me, it was actually incredibly vibrant and exciting. I was surprised by something every Outside the age brackets Rothman, from Page E1 Where: Fox When: 9to 10 tonight Ratings: TV-14-LV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14, with advisories for coarse language and violence) Rachel Nichols Agent Rebecca Locke Jay Harrington Agent Paul Ryan Katie Finneran Agent Melody Sim Adam Baldwin Agent Danny Love Nelsan Ellis Howard Peter Coyote Webster Writer and directorTim Minear. CreatorsTim Minear and Howard Gordon. Executive producers Tim Minear, Brian Grazerand David Nevins. By Robert Lloyd Times Staff Writer in-no-sense- summery series premiering to- nighton Fox, offers Peter Coyote as Virgil Webster, the autocratic and manipulative head of a very special Angeles Violent Crimes operating freely within the FBI, and Rachel Nichols as Rebecca Locke, the new girl in town.

(She has come to replace an agent who peeled off her own face, to give you a general idea of the vibe.) Abducted as a child, Rebecca has consequently developed an unerring ability to get into the heads of victims, criminals and creeps alike and to reconstruct crime scenes from the wispiest remains. Apart from some of the design choices 21st century noir is the prevailing mode there is little here you seen before, if perhaps not exactly in this configuration. (That is what meansin a voracious medium that demands content faster than actual new ideas can be generated: a different shuffle of the old cards.) You may be reminded at times of or Certainly you may think of for despite its sharp threads, this is ultimately another in the parade of modishly gruesome police procedurals, tonight offering yet another in a seemingly endless series of overly clever serial killers. As you might well expect, it does not take long for the naked corpses (female, good-looking) to make their appearance. Even though it is built around a plucky, if affectless, heroine, the series suggests as well that in the big city the wages of being female are death.

(Critic shakes head sadly, peels off own face.) Perhaps I am living in a paradise. Perhaps I underestimate the seriousness of the serial killer problem. Certainly I understand the dramatic convenience and appeal of villains who are more than usually villainous. But become a bore, with their inevitable special signatures, their cat-and-mouse games, their hubristic boastsand their ruminations on the thin line that separates copper from quarry. Enough now.

Such retread conservatism is disappointing, given that show co-creator Tim Minear working with Howard Gordon a veteran of and and was executive producer of the tonally perfect new best moments are the ones thatbreak away from dull dread into offbeat humor, as when agent Melody alum Katie Finneran) asks a hyper Rebecca, many coffees did you have this should I have she answers, as though she does not quite understand the ways of Earth. But these bursts of playfulness are no match for the prevailing portentousness, nor for the ponderous blue light that colors every scene, as if the sun itself were fluorescent, giving everything and everyone a remote and sickly, unreal look. On the plus side, Minear and Gordon know how to prepare a red herring you get to the end of a story 20 minutes before the detectives do. And the cast is excellent. Like Patricia Arquette in Nichols has a kind of aqueous, dreamy qualityand a face that draws the camera in close, while Coyote is a naturally unsettling presence.

Also on the team are the acid Ellis in the Greg Morris techie role, and Jay Harrington as special agent Paul Ryan, who wants to protect Rachel from Webster. He likes to put her in way, though she does not need a push: Twice in three episodes, she gets herself handcuffed. I would be happy to accept that as a running joke, but I fear it TELEVISION REVIEW another serial killer face-off Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 30-June 5) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S.

ages2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions. Program Network View- ersProgram Network Viewers 1 CSICBS14.19 2 Dancing With the Stars (Wed.) ABC13.48 3 CSI: MiamiCBS13.10 4 Without a TraceCBS12.61 5 Two and a Half MenCBS12.06 --------------------------------------------6 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS11.23 7 48 Hours Mystery 8 NCIS (9 p.m.)CBS10.35 9 60 MinutesCBS10.33 10 Law Order: Criminal Intent NBC10.10 --------------------------------------------11 CSI: NYCBS10.03 12 NCISCBS9.35 13 Miss Universe PageantNBC9.19 14 Crossing Jordan 15 Cold CaseCBS9.11 --------------------------------------------16 Law OrderNBC8.95 17 Hit Me Baby One More Time NBC8.90 18 Farewell 19 HouseFOX8.14 20 ABC8.13 --------------------------------------------21 LostABC8.12 22 SupernannyABC7.83 23 Dateline: NBC 24 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC7.44 25 48 Hours Mystery --------------------------------------------26 Still StandingCBS7.38 27 Family GuyFOX7.35 28 Desperate HousewivesABC7.30 29 60 Minutes WednesdayCBS7.15 30 NBA playoffs --------------------------------------------31 According to JimABC6.91 32 Primetime LiveABC6.84 33 KitchenFOX6.80 Listen UpCBS6.80 35 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC6.61 --------------------------------------------36 Law Order: Trial by JuryNBC6.55 37 Numb3rsCBS6.53 38 Tony AwardsCBS6.50 39 Dateline: NBC 40 George LopezABC6.41 --------------------------------------------41 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX6.40 42 Blind JusticeABC6.38 43 Trading SpousesFOX6.31 44 Will Grace (8:30 p.m.)NBC6.29 My Wife and KidsABC6.29 --------------------------------------------46 ERNBC6.25 47 AnatomyABC6.24 48 King of QueensCBS6.23 49 50 Nanny 911FOX6.14 --------------------------------------------51 Yes, DearCBS6.13 52 American DadFOX6.09 53 Most WantedFOX5.92 54 Crimetime SaturdayCBS5.84 55 Fear FactorNBC5.73 --------------------------------------------56 Cops (8:30 p.m.)FOX5.70 57 Will GraceNBC5.69 58 The SimpsonsFOX5.62 59 60 That Show (9 p.m.)FOX5.08 --------------------------------------------61 Funniest Home Videos ABC5.07 62 Crossing Jordan 63 JAGCBS5.02 64 That Show (9:30 p.m.) FOX4.87 65 Dancing With the Stars (Sun.) ABC4.85 --------------------------------------------66 That Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX4.77 67 Cold Case 68 That Show (8 p.m.)FOX4.64 69 WWE 70 --------------------------------------------71 CopsFOX4.43 72 Hope FaithABC4.41 73 74 75 King of the HillFOX4.06 --------------------------------------------76 8 Simple RulesABC4.04 77 Joan of ArcadiaCBS3.87 78 Wonderful World of Disney ABC3.85 79 Complete SavagesABC3.82 80 Less Than PerfectABC3.81 --------------------------------------------81 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB3.52 82 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) WB3.17 83 Blue Collar TVWB3.10 84 Malcolm in the MiddleFOX3.07 85 The O.C. (9 p.m.)FOX2.94 --------------------------------------------86 The O.C.FOX2.84 87 Eve 88 Beauty and the Geek (Thu.) WB2.70 89 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.)WB2.62 90 RebaWB2.56 --------------------------------------------91 All of Us 92 Britney and Kevin: Chaotic UPN2.51 93 Steve Big TimeWB2.33 94 7th Heaven (9 p.m.)WB2.29 95 SmallvilleWB2.26 --------------------------------------------Eve 97 GirlfriendsUPN2.20 98 7th Heaven (8 p.m.)WB2.19 99 Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.)WB2.12 100 CharmedWB2.07 --------------------------------------------101 CutsUPN2.02 102 Half and HalfUPN1.98 103 Living With FranWB1.95 104 One on OneUPN1.88 105 All of Us --------------------------------------------106 What I Like About You (8:30 p.m.) WB1.79 107 Kevin HillUPN1.60 108 What I Like About YouWB1.56 109 110 Bad Girls GuideUPN1.49 --------------------------------------------111 CharmedWB1.41 Network averages Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season. Network Last week Season to date CBS8.4012.72 NBC7.069.65 ABC6.489.87 FOX5.229.85 UPN2.473.33 WB2.343.30 Los Angeles Times Prime-Time TV Rankings.