Citizens' Voice from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania • 45

I Dj Citizens' Voice Saturday, December 29, 1 990 SDDQ Joyce Burditt spends days plotting murders By JERRY BUCK AT TtltvUwi Writer if iff VI U'LJ A working on a political assassination story for "Father Dowling." "It's a real puzzle," Miss Burditt said. "It takes you in one direction and then another. Dowling is the friend of a black Baptist minister, and we open in his church with gospel music. The target is a candidate for district attorney. If we do it right, the audience will think the target is one candidate, while it's really the other.

"We also have another murder, that of a young black musician. The minister's grandson is a suspect. The suspect's father is a police captain, and he disapproves of him playing in a jazz club. So it's a generational story and a chase to prevent the assassination." Miss Burditt had worked as a program executive at ABC and had been vice president for comedy development at NBC. At ABC, she had formed a relationship with Fred Silverman, who was then president of ABC Entertainment and now is an executive producer of "Father Dowling" and "Matlock." She was asked to join the writing staff of "Matlock" after writing a movie for Silverman's company.

Then the Writers Guild went on strike and she had to wait six months to start work. "I was working on but I would see the dailies on 'Father Miss Burditt said. "I loved the relation between the priest and the nun. I'm Catholic and went to parochial schools for 12 years, so that gives me a good foundation to work on." -h The requirements for each show are different. "Father Dowling" is more of a traditional mystery.

Dowling and Sister Steve, played by Tom Bosley and Tracy Nelson, solve murders as amateur detectives. "Matlock" is in the tradition of "Perry Mason." Andy Griffith stars as a defense attorney who must prove his client innocent. Although each show uses free-lance writers, they rely heavily on a staff of producers who perform double duty as writers because of the time pressures of getting out LOS ANGELES Joyce Burditt has bumped off 72 people by one devious means or another. And she has no regrets. Miss Burditt admits to having a good time as she confines her bent for murder to the scripts of ABC's "Father Dowling Mysteries" and the NBC legal drama, "Matlock." She is a co-producer on each series.

"It's difficult to think of all those murders," she said, "but it's such fun. I have no regrets whatsoever. It's wonderful when we have our story meetings and come up with interesting ways to do away with people. Can we hang someone? No, we hanged someone last year. What kind of poison kills instantly? The only murder that made me uneasy was on The victim was in a bathtub and someone threw a hair dryer into the tub." Although she's an experienced writer, Miss Burditt said she found it difficult to adapt to the mystery format.

"I'd written two. books and several movies, but until I started on 'Father Dowling' and I'd never plotted a killing that had to be solved," she said. "It was a whole new way of thinking and writing for me. You have to come up with a murder that will interest people. "You have to let the audience know what Father Dowling knows and what Sister Steve knows.

I work. out the premise of the story and the beginning. It has to be in a setting that will involve your character. Then I skip to the end. "The acts in between will take you through all the twists and turns to the solution.

The murder mystery tends to be formulaic. You start out with Dowling. You have to connect the victim or the killer to him. There must be some personal relationship. The clues have to be there for everyone to see." At the time of the interview, she was Tom Bosley stars as Father Dowling end Trccy Nelson plays Sister Steve in ABC's 'Father Dowling Mysteries' a weekly show.

Miss Burditt also is the author of two books, "The Cracker Factory," which was: made into a movie with Natalie Wood in 1979, and "Triplets." She wrote the movie "Under the Influence," which starred Andy Griffith. "The Cracker Factory" was based on Miss Burditt's recovery from alcoholism. "It takes place in a psychiatric ward in a Cleveland hospital," she said. "I was treated there for alcoholism because at that time, they didn't regard it as a disease. That was 23 years ago, and that was when I had my last drink." Host of 'Reunion' wears several hafs these days By JERRY BUCK WhtmMonWritar 54,, -A 1 I But there's much more in store for Brolin: -He plays his first comedy role, as a hippie artist on the beach in 1974, in the upcoming movie "Love in Venice." -In February he plays a murder victim in the CBS miniseries "And the Sea Will Tell." -Brolin and Barry Morrow, Oscar-winning co-writer of "Rain Man," have teamed up to develop an unorthodox police show for CBS.

Brolin will play a crime laboratory technician who loses his job in a budget cutback and forces the city to make him a detective so he can complete the years needed for retirement. -Brolin also told the producers of ABC's "Young Riders" he'd like to direct an episode, and possibly co-star with his son Josh. Two years ago they teamed up as father and son for Turner Network Television's first original movie, "Finish Line." Brolin's iron-gray hair and beard is growing back after he shaved his face clean and wore a crewcut for his role in "And the Sea Will Tell" in Hawaii. "I prefer the beard," he says. "It's easier than shaving.

I started growing a beard in 1971. I've worn it most of the time. I had it for The people at 'Reunion' don't care if I have the beard or not." LOS ANGELES James Brolin's 30-year acting career has had many incarnations and these days he's wearing several hats. In addition to serving as host of a new syndicated TV program, he's working on a film, a miniseries, and a new police series. Brolin most often has been the leading man in series such as "Hotel" and movies such as One," "Westworld" and "Gable and Lombard," a bomb in whichheportrayedscreenheroClarkGable.

This season, Brolin, who's turned down many series offers since his original success as the young doctor in "Marcus Welby, M.D.," is host of a heart-tugging TV series called "Reunion." It brings together friends and relatives who have become separated and seeks those who heretofore have defied contact. The weekly series, which began in September, is seen on-130 television stations across the country. "When they showed me a tape of what they were doing the tears started flowing," he says. "I figured if it could work on old jaded me it should be a success. The 1 i v.

James Brolin show has a goodness to it. We're not trying to catch crooks. I don't think there's any other show that opens your heart like this.".