Proposed ABC series 'The Deep End' films in Dallas

November 8, 2009

By JOE O'CONNELL
Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

The camera doesn't see this: David Hemingson, creator of new ABC television series The Deep End , slaps a pink Post-it on his forehead. Visible through the glass of the law-office conference room, his arms flap wildly and a grin creeps across his face. The five sharply dressed actors – including Tina Majorino ( the ponytailed Deb of Napoleon Dynamite ), Austin native Mehcad Brooks ( True Blood ) and Matt Long (Jack of Jack & Bobby) – huddle around a conference table littered with pizza remnants and soda bottles and intently watch him before breaking into laughter.

The Deep End was taping its fourth episode last Tuesday in a positive sign of life for what recently has been a slow time for Texas' film and television industry. The series is about five newly minted lawyers trying to survive in a powerful law firm; it mirrors the early experiences of Hemingson, an attorney turned comedy writer for shows including How I Met Your Mother and Family Guy . Our scene is on an upper floor of the Arco Tower in downtown Los Angeles , only it isn't. The pilot for the ABC series produced by 20th Century Fox was shot in Los Angeles. This is a reproduction created in the Studios at Las Colinas, complete with " Star Trek doors," Hemingson says as he touches a button that magically zips open a massive wooden gateway.

Outside the windows, the Los Angeles cityscape twinkles, except it's a series of photos taken from the windows of the real office building. Inside, the offices are polished marble, massive abstract paintings and glimmering wood that reek of money and power. But above, one can see scaffolding and lights through the ceiling, and the reality sinks in. We are in North Texas shooting six episodes of the "dramedy" series that Hemingson describes as L.A. Law with "the back-stabbing of The Devil Wears Prada and the sun-drenched bed-hopping of Entourage." Perhaps there's a bit of Grey's Anatomy as well.

"Our job is to move you, hopefully to move you to tears and to get you to laugh out loud," Hemingson says. In a few weeks, after ABC executives look at the first episodes, a decision will be made on expanding the number of episodes.

"It's significantly less expensive to shoot here in Dallas just because of the cost of doing business here" as opposed to Los Angeles, says Garry Brown, the show's co-executive producer and a driving force in both persuading the Texas Legislature to recently increase the size of financial incentives for filming in the Lone Star State and Fox to shoot in Dallas.

The irony of Dallas stepping in for Los Angeles is that films portraying Texas have lately been shot out of state. The Dallas Film Commission fought to have a film based on the television series Dallas shoot in North Texas (the film has never materialized), and rumors are now rampant of a modern-day version of the Dallas series that may or may not shoot in its title town.

Brown first came to Dallas to work for a year on Chuck Norris' Walker, Texas Ranger . That year stretched to six. After a few subsequent years back in LA, he found himself in Chicago shooting Prison Break. Brown persuaded that show's producers to move it to Dallas, where they would have no trouble finding an experienced film crew and diverse locations. That experience led The Deep End to Texas.

"I believe in them," Brown says of North Texas crews. "The film community we have here in Dallas deserves to work here."

Enter suave Billy Zane (Titanic), clad in a natty gray suit and shiny gold tie, from stage left. He portrays Cliff Huddle, one of the law firm's leaders, a seminefarious character with his eye always on the bottom line.

"David discusses Cliff as a three-dimensional chess player," Zane says. "There's always a clear motive behind his actions. He believes in tough love. He's the coach you love in retrospect but hate in the day."

Zane loves Dallas and spends time with castmates hanging out at the Havana Social Club in Victory Plaza, or screening classic films such as His Girl Friday and Road to Bali that include the snappy dialogue the show hopes to emulate. Consider Zane's recent itinerary: Watching the Dallas Cowboys play from Jerry Jones' private box; rocking to AC/DC from a front-row seat at American Airlines Center; and watching the Dallas Mavericks from courtside. "I am smitten with your fair city," says Zane, who has flirted with television work (Charmed) but is now jumping in head first.

"It's nice to actually originate a character," he says. "These days television is the medium that has proven itself to be where the best writers live."

Back in the conference room, Timothy Busfield, the Emmy Award-winning Thirtysomething actor turned frequent episodic TV director, enters from stage right, singing "You're just too good to be true." He surveys the scene and notices the soft-drink bottles on the table. "Wouldn't we have beers?" Busfield asks Hemingson. Two beer bottles quickly appear on the table.

Busfield follows Adam Arkin as an episodic director, and he says he enjoys helping to steer a new series. "There's a certain responsibility in the first 13 [episodes] to help find the voice of the show," he says. "When you come in during year two and three, it is what it is."

During a break, the actors step away. Blond beauty Leah Pipes (Sorority Row) spends the free time knitting, while North Texas resident and costuming crew member Tina Lawler shoots photos of the actors' outfits to make sure they match each time the cameras roll. Cameramen roll into place, while other crew members scurry about.

Stand-ins fill the actors' seats at the conference table. Dallas actress and model April Barnett takes Pipes' chair. She is also portraying a law-office secretary. "I love it," Barnett says. "It's long hours, but you don't realize it. They clip away, and you start to get to know everyone as a family."

The camera does see this: The actors return to their seats. The five young lawyers slap colorful Post-its on their foreheads and bond as they try to guess what one word their colleagues used to describe them. Australian actor Ben Lawson's word is "sensitive." Soon, the party breaks up. The other actors abscond with the pizza but leave the mess. Majorino is left sitting alone, a Post-it still prominent on her forehead. "I paid for that, you guys," she says of the pizza, and pouts. "Thanks for all of the fun. I'll clean all of this up." Cut. Print it.