Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 142

Sunday, November .18, 1990 Austin American-Statesman 1 1 1 1 'Ll jii if '1' "I is. 1 Tim Curry plays Pennywise the Clown, who lurks in the sewers of Derry, Maine. firms 111', Igfeit In) teFGW By Diane Holloway American-Statesman Staff Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher, Annette OToole and John Ritter. including his oft-photographed triplets, said he was glad the movie was made under such careful scrutiny. "The trend in movies is away from real psychological horror and into really hideous, visceral sort of thrill rides," he said.

"One of the things about doing this picture for television is that we are forced into certain constraints, and I think that works in our favor. It forces us to re-channel the horror and re-examine it in terms that are more psychological and more character-oriented." The clown is the primary manifestation of fear. Alternately chuckling an eerie, wheezing chuckle and flashing a grotesque smile of jagged teeth, Pennywise appears before, during and after such scary sights as a blood-filled balloon exploding and a shower nozzle that suddenly takes on a life of its own. The 250-foot "it" that arrives toward the end is a special-effects monster. Thomas jokingly called the thing "diva," and Ritter referred to it as "the Muppet from hell." During this interview, Ritter and Thomas said their children were in the studio playing with the huge model.

But is It going to be too scary for other children, most of whom form the core audience for horror films? "It's a scary picture, but I don't think it's going to be a picture you're going to feel bad about having your kids see," Thomas said, noting that preschoolers would definitely be an exception. "You won't have to sleep with them the night it's on, but it will be spooky for them." If the ratings for It are good, horror films may become less of an oddity on network television. Can a scary but relatively tame clown and a large spiderlike monster compete with Freddy Krueger? Well find out when next week's Nielsens are released. Childhood friends reunite to get rid of 'it' when it resurfaces. Clockwise from top, are "These kids call themselves the 'losers and that was something my friends and I used to call each other when we were particularly depressed," said Ritter, who grew up in Hollywood with his father, singer Tex Ritter.

"I felt as a child that I was never in the mainstream of what was happening. I was always hanging out with strange little people who turned out to be Stephen King fans like me." Thomas, who was born in New York and began acting in the theater when he was in elementary school, wasn't a stammerer, like his character. But he was riddled with childhood fears. "I'was scared of just about everything except getting on stage," he said. "I was afraid of the dark as a little child My imagination was so vivid that I could scare myself about just about anything.

And I've never been particularly fond of snakes." Upon hearing this revelation from his friend, Ritter made a verbal note to himself to pick up a couple of snakes for the film's wrap party. Thomas promised to bring a few rats along with him. Adapting a horror novel for television is not an easy task. Network censors do not allow excessive violence or bloodshed and also frown upon frightening situations that are too intense. Although there isn't a lot of violence in Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock could never have made his scary classic for network television.

"There are no chainsaws in this picture, and there are no guns," said producer Green. "It's all psychodrama. We have taken the horror and intensified it with the clown. Blood comes from the sink and out of photo books, but it doesn't come out of orifices. We're very careful with what we're doing here." Thomas, who has four young children gether on The Waltons in the 1970s, talked with critics via satellite recently during location filming in Vancouver.

Executive producer Jim Green was on hand to rein in his clowning co-stars, but he didn't have much luck. "Down, Cujo!" Ritter screamed when a dog suddenly lunged at him from nowhere. Asked about their own childhood fears, Ritter said "rats a ratophobia kind of thing," and Thomas replied flatly, "Coming to the set of The Waltons." Ritter, 42, had a recurring role as the Rev. Fordwick on The Waltons, and Thomas, of course, was the star who played aspiring writer John Boy Walton. They both left the long-running CBS series in 1977 and have been fast friends ever since, but It marks their first professional meeting since The Waltons.

"I always looked up to Richard," Ritter said. "Even though he's younger than I am, he's sort of always been my peer idol. He's been acting since he was a fetus, and on The Waltons he was so amazing He can be as truthful as the best method actor I've ever seen, but then the minute it's over, he just plays and goofs around." "I've been wanting to work with John since we did our last episode of The Waltons together said Thomas, 39. "I have more fun with this man than just about anybody I've ever worked with in my life. Not only is he a really funny guy, but he's also a wonderful dramatic actor." Both actors are Stephen King fans, and both identified easily with their characters.

The seven children in the story are all misfits of some kind one is fat, one is a stutterer, one is poor and by a parent, one is asthmatic, etc. Their problems influence their fears and follow them into adulthood. horror movie about child- hood fears that grow up to (J be life-threatening mon- sters is unusual for Lj television. Slash-and-gash films may be big-screen staples, but television is a mass medium with serious restrictions on the amount of terror and gore that can be beamed into millions of American households. Into this relatively uncharted territory comes Stephen King's It, a genuine, old-fashioned horror flick (tonight and Tuesday at 8 on KVUE-TV, Channel 24 Cable 3).

It is about seven friends who, as children, defeat the demon of Derry, Maine, and then return 30 years later to attempt this terrifying task a second time, when the monster suddenly reappears. The cast includes several well-known television stars, most of whom have worked together before and are longtime friends John Ritter (Three's Company, Hooperman), Richard Thomas (The Waltons), Tim Reid (WKRP in Cincinnati, Frank's Place), Harry Anderson (Night Court), Annette OToole (The Kennedys of Massachusetts) and Dennis Christopher (Breaking Away). Wearing makeup that takes about four hours to apply, Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) also stars as Pennywise the Clown, the personification of evil who lurks in the town's sewer system and pops up to transform himself in a variety of terrifying ways. Written by Lawrence Cohen, who wrote Carrie, this $12 million production was directed by Halloween 11 and Halloween III director Tommy Lee Wallace. Ritter and Thomas, who worked to.