Dye Casting

Dale Dye, the ex-Marine tech consultant given much credit for the war authenticity of “Platoon”--and who made his acting debut in the pic--is now aboard as ship commander in the ABC series, “Supercarrier,” a Navy flyboy drama that debuts with a 90-minute pilot March 6. But Dye won’t be seen until the first hour episode the following week--he’s replacing an actor from the pilot. And Dye says the new role has him “four or five feet off the deck.”

Meaning he’s happy to get another acting job: “It’s rags to riches, because other than playing Capt. Harris (the company commander who saved the day in the final “Platoon” battle), there wasn’t much happening acting-wise.”

Dye, also an aspiring scripter, happened to be pitching ideas to supervising producer Richard Maynard when ABC ordered 13 episodes of “Supercarrier.” Maynard wasn’t keen on the story ideas--but liked Dye for a bit part. After he read, they wanted him for the regular role of the commander and signed him up (“I guaranteed them seven years (if the series lasts)--and they guaranteed me seven weeks!”). Robert Hooks, Richard Jaeckel and Ken Olandt star. The Navy--not Dye--is providing technical consultation.

We wondered if “Supercarrier” wasn’t riding the jetstream of “Top Gun.”

Said Dye: “ ‘Top Gun’ showed there is an interest and excitement about the topic (Navy jets) that is marketable. But this goes beyond ‘Top Gun’--this is about a floating city and all its human stories.”