Polo Lounger

Get those coonskin caps out of mothballs and dust off those “Ballad of Davy Crockett” records: The King of the Wild Frontier is back.

Whether the role of the frontiersman-turned-statesman will do for Tim Dunigan what it did for Fess Parker nearly 34 years ago--make him a star--remains to be seen. For now, simply sitting in the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel discussing the part is quite an experience for him.

“I used to drive limos here all the time,” he says. “Now I’m sitting here being interviewed. This is pretty cool.”

Dunigan, 33, feels lightning may strike a second time with “Davy Crockett”--the second episode of which airs Sunday at 7 p.m. on NBC’s “The Magical World of Disney” (KNBC-TV Channel 4)--because it is not telling the same stories or taking the same approach as the first one.

“If there’s one thing we’re trying to do differently, it’s that we’re concerned more with relationships and how the characters work together. We want to bring some of the legend of Crockett and the reality together,” Dunigan explains.

A native of St. Louis, Dunigan starred in the syndicated series “Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future” and has appeared in episodes of “Cheers,” “The Fall Guy” and “Silver Spoons.”

None of it prepared him for the rigors of portraying Davy Crockett, however.

“I knew the shooting was going to be tough . . . but not this tough,” he says, wincing.

He describes his basic day: “Running up a mountain and running down a mountain. I run into the woods. I run out of the woods. I swim through the river. I run around the river. I move. I do all of my own stunts.

“And I have no trouble sleeping at night.”