HBO BANKS ON ITS OWN ‘CONSPIRACY’

The phrase “The child is father of the man” best describes the juxtaposition of people involved in the final day of filming on the HBO movie “Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8” (reviewed by Dan Sullivan on Page 10). In a cramped studio in Glendale last January, seven of the original defendants whose anti-Vietnam protests disrupted the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago met for the first time since they stood trial the following year for conspiracy and intent to riot.

As Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), one of the Chicago 8, remarked with childlike surprise: “It’s like watching ‘Back to the Future’ and feeling you can change your own history.”

Or at least edit it. The Chicago 8 were watching actors portray them as each defendant made his pacifist plea before the late Judge Julius Hoffman. For Abbie Hoffman, who recently was acquitted with defendant Amy Carter in a protest against CIA recruiting on campus, seeing actor David Opatoshu as Judge Hoffman (no relation) made “me fear we were going to have to replay the trial.”

HBO is hoping subscribers will want to relive those turbulent times, a period that actor Carl Lumbly recalls was so volatile that the man he is playing, Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, “got chained and gagged at his own trial just because of his color.”

The pay-TV service also is banking on “Conspiracy” (which debuts on HBO tonight, 10 to midnight) to give its HBO Showcase productions a specific image--one different from its other original programming.

Bridget Potter, senior vice president of original programming at HBO, thinks “Conspiracy” will show the “Hollywood community that we’re open to controversial material the networks are afraid of.”

On the surface, the multiple-image format of “Conspiracy” fits her description. As the courtroom action occurs, viewers will witness actual news footage from the event being debated while new interviews with the actual Chicago defendants are also seen on screen.

Its background also fits the bill, according to “Conspiracy” director-screenwriter Jeremy Kagan (“The Journey of Natty Gann,” “Katharine,” “Heroes”). “In 1976 I had Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, George C. Scott and Dustin Hoffman committed to working on the project for scale and CBS turned it down. They thought the material was too controversial and nobody cared about the ‘60s,” he recalls, his voice etched with emotion.

“I knew the Vietnam War was never going away from the memories of those who were political at the time. I figured they’d grow up soon and want to see their history enacted. I hoped somebody in power would realize the network’s target audience were people who lived the politics of my script.”

The affable film maker’s pause then becomes a benign sigh. “I just never felt it would take Hollywood this long to recognize the economic power of the so-called baby boomers.”

Though Kagan’s timing seemed always out of sync, his script remained in circulation. A TV Guide story on the 10 best television scripts that hadn’t been made caught Potter’s attention. She contacted Kagan and a deal was soon struck where HBO Showcase and Zenith Television in England split the $1.5-million cost.

Politics, not economics, attracted an offbeat cast of actors to “Conspiracy” (originally titled “. . . And Nothing but the Truth”), including Peter Boyle, Michael Lembeck, David Clennon, Harris Yulin, Barry Miller, Elliott Gould, Robert Loggia and Martin Sheen.

An articulate executive who doesn’t seem at ease in casual conversation, the New York-based Potter admits that HBO will probably make a profit just from the eventual home-video sale of “Conspiracy.” Her main objective, however, is that “Conspiracy” will prove to be “the serious, acclaimed type of project that distinguishes HBO Showcase from HBO Pictures.”

That’s a message Potter acknowledges hasn’t gotten across in the past. “There’s a lot of lip service paid to doing high-quality television, and people don’t necessarily buy it. You have to prove yourself to the creative community. Hopefully, ‘Conspiracy’ will show people here that we take risks and have our doors open to any talented people.”

The three previous HBO Showcase dramas (“Half a Lifetime,” starring Keith Carradine; “Yuri Nosenko, KGB” and “Control,” with Burt Lancaster) could have played on the networks without many major changes. The next trio of Showcase films seems more daring: “Intimate Contact” stars Daniel Massey as a heterosexual family man who gets AIDS, “War Story” is a trilogy of 30-minute Vietnam War dramas inspired by actual accounts of veterans and “The Impossible Spy” casts John Shea as a real-life undercover Israeli agent.

According to Potter, HBO hopes to make six Showcase projects a year, all of which it will only co-finance. “You won’t get rich working for us, but you’ll get the chance to do the special material you truly care about,” she said. “The only other place on TV where that happens is ‘American Playhouse’ on PBS.”

One can almost hear the sound of dust being blown away throughout Hollywood when Potter says HBO Showcase seeks material that may not heretofore have been considered commercial. “We don’t need superstar stuff,” she explained. “What’s exciting is when a project comes to us that’s been written someplace else or a long time ago or someone has had this thing that they’ve always wanted to do that still excites them.”

Formerly in charge of movies and miniseries at ABC-TV, Potter feels that cable television, and particularly HBO, does some things better than the networks.

“We’ve given many young or unknown comedians the chance to display their talents. We’ve also been the only outlet for top superstars like Barbra Streisand and Tina Turner to present their music in a format they’re comfortable with. Our philosophy has always been to adjust to the changing business of cable and the interests of our subscribers,” she said, politely pausing to acknowledge a producer who rudely interrupts her luncheon interview in hopes of securing a meeting with the elusive executive.

One change HBO made last year was to gear future musical concerts to the tastes of its subscribers rather than reflecting the Top 40 charts. “We’re now looking at Peter Gabriel, for instance, but I don’t think he’s mainstream enough to warrant the type of money to promote and produce the show. We’re reluctant to give all but the top superstars in music their own concert special because most musicians are overexposed on MTV,” says Potter, who’s in negotiations with Billy Joel for a concert to be filmed in Russia.

How would Potter grade the original programming currently available on HBO and other cable channels?

“I wouldn’t. But if you look at HBO closely, you’ll find a constant desire to experiment and take risks the past few years. I’m not sure any network executive can make the same statement truthfully.”