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By Jenny Hontz
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - NBC has pulled the Dick Wolf drama "Players" off its schedule, with no return date scheduled. The crime show, starring rapper Ice-T, averaged a 5.4 rating and 10 share in homes this season and a 2.9/10 in the key adults 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen.
On Friday, NBC plugged an episode of "Bloopers" into the Friday 8 p.m. timeslot, but it didn't fare any better. "Bloopers" averaged a third-place 4.5/9 in homes and a fourth place 2.4/10 in adults 18-49. NBC will air specials in place of "Players" for the rest of the season.
With "Players" gone, only three of the 13 dramas launched last fall are still on the air: Fox's hit "Ally McBeal," which is arguably a comedy, and CBS' struggling cop shows "Brooklyn South" and "Michael Hayes."
Reuters/Variety
Not since Miami Vice's Don Johnson has there been a male lead on TV who "looks like some high roller walking into Vegas shaking the dice," says Ice-T. Until now. For his role as a streetwise ex-con in cahoots with the FBI in NBC's Players (Fridays, 8 P.M./ET), the rapper-writer-actor sports banana yellow Versace, leopard-print shirts and orange Hush Puppies.
But while Johnson got men across the country to throw their socks away, it might be precipitous to sell your Brooks Brothers stock. After all, not everyone can look as cool as Ice-T in a lime green suit. Still, after years of glitz-free cop shows, it's a kick to see Ice and his male costars -- Costas Mandylor, slick in sensuous silks from Gucci, DKNY and Hugo Boss; and Frank John Hughes as a computer nerd in retro Ban-Lon -- having fun with fashion.
Costume designer Greg LaVoi, who creates about half of the show's clothes himself, calls Ice-T "the first actor in 20 years who can wear anything. Loud, bright, obnoxious: On Ice, it looks good."
But will it fly in Sheboygan? Ice-T, whose show returned to the schedule earlier this month after a six-week hiatus, hopes so. "I want guys to work up their courage,"he says. "Tell 'em to watch. See what we're wearing, then go out to the clubs looking like a player."
-- Lynn Schnurnberger
WOLF: The show is about three conmen who have been released from prison to the FBI, who are using their skills as conmen to take down bigger criminals. Basically, it's a second chance for our three regulars. Each episode will have a scam in it - the idea is it's THE STING every week.
ICE T: I play the leader of the team. I have the job of keeping these two other guys in line because they sometimes wander because now we're free, you know? We're serving 25 year sentences, but we are actually free and we're on the streets. I set up the scams and then all of us, when we put our heads together, we play out the parts necessary to put the bad guys away.
How did this role come about for you?
WOLF: He thought it up and then he brought it to me! It's a whole new way for an actor to get a job.
ICE T: Yeah, I was working on NEW YORK UNDERCOVER and I dug the whole vibe there. I had this idea for a story along time ago, but people said it was too hot for television. My initial story was also a little bit too hot for TV. And Dick Wolf and his team were able to bring it into a television format and not lose the edge, you know? And it worked.
Are there any similarities between Ice T the person and the character you portray?
ICE T: Oh yeah, most definitely. I mean, the dialogue, the vibe of me, a lot of that stuff is going on in there. I know a lot about the streets. Everybody knows that back in the days I was involved out there in the street life and hustling and scamming. So I'm bringing the scams from the streets to the TV show. Mainly what I try to do is just give it that street credibility that's reality. I'm trying to do that on this show, keep it on line.
WOLF: But it's not that far off. I mean, the character is named Ice.
ICE T: Yeah, so I got that out of it. It was funny because when my friends saw the pilot, they were like, "Oh, that's cool, man! You the man! They even call you your name? Oh my God!" It came off cool.
How does television differ than music you've written?
ICE T: Television is the closest parallel. This type of TV, not like situation comedy, but this is like making a movie. You just make it faster. In music, you have total control over everything - you make the music, then the words, then you mix the records. But when you do this, you act and you step back.
Are you into the Internet, chat rooms, e-mail?
ICE T: I dig the Internet. I was into it early when people were just getting into it. And I dig the World Wide Web. I think the best thing about the Internet is that you have no face, you have no race. And you can travel. You can talk to people in Sweden and Switzerland. Its' really powerful.
WOLF: My company is really into it. I like the idea that you can go through "www.players.com" and find links to Wolf Films, PLAYERS, NBC. And wherever you go, there will at least be the icons at other websites to lead you to PLAYERS.
Concept: A trio of specially trained ex-cons turned FBI operatives takes the cases that the stuffed shirts can't handle. Paroled from prison early under a radical bureau program, Ice (guess who?), Alphonse (Costas Mandylor), and Charlie (Frank John Hughes) must be careful to walk the straight and narrow, or it's back to the slammer.
Critique: Players comes courtesy of producer Dick Wolf, the man behind such shows as Law & Order and Miami Vice. The tone of his latest effort meets his previous successes somewhere in the middle: Players isn't too cerebral or too cheesy. Rapper Ice-T makes his debut as a small-screent regular as Ice; he handles his street-savvy role respectably, as do cohorts Mandylor (Alphonse, the womanizer) and Hughes (Charlie, the computer expert). In the pilot episode, the ex-cons foil an attempt by an agency bigwig to make off with $50 million in bonds and set them up for the fall. Players is a light, entertaining crime drama that may do well with teens ready to graduate from Urkel and Sabrina.
--MrShowBiz.com