A Sitcom Is a Dramatic Change for Robert Loggia

In an upcoming episode of Norman Lear’s new CBS sitcom, “Sunday Dinner,” Robert Loggia suddenly bursts into song. And not just any song, but the Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein classic “People Will Say We’re In Love” from “Oklahoma!”

It’s an unexpected moment from the actor who has made a name for himself as one of the premier movie and TV tough guys thanks to his performances in “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “The Jagged Edge” (for which he received an Oscar nomination) and “Mancuso, F.B.I.”

“Sunday Dinner” audiences will see a soft, sweet, sexy Loggia, who plays Ben Benedict, a 56-year-old widower with three grown children who falls in love with a 30-year-old environmental attorney (Teri Hatcher) who talks to God.

Though Loggia had never worked with Lear before, the two have known each other for three decades.

“I have certainly admired him and adored him,” Loggia said, via phone from Chicago where he was completing Columbia’s boxing drama “Gladiator.”

“This series is somewhat autobiographical (about Lear), and I thought it would be a kick to play somebody you know and base it on him.”

Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, but Loggia didn’t try to look or act like Lear. “You try to take somewhat of an essence of the fellow. I have observed and selected a few things about him I thought I could use.”

“Sunday Dinner” is Loggia’s sitcom debut and the first time he’s done a series in front of an audience. “We taped two shows for each episode,” he said. “It was a real carnival atmosphere and kind of a new experience for me. I have to admit I do prefer stage or screen to that kind of atmosphere.”

Loggia had some trepidation about doing “Sunday Dinner” because it was so different for him until he talked to Lear about the series. “I like him so much that it seemed interesting,” Loggia said. “There was that character, and I had been told by many actors that doing a sitcom is the best, most delightful experience.”

And a far different experience from “Mancuso, F.B.I,” his short-lived dramatic series that aired on NBC 1989-90 and for which Loggia received an Emmy nomination.

“I really believed in that character,” he said. “I wanted to do it and Brandon Tartikoff (then NBC president) promised me that if I agreed to do it he would make it right. But it didn’t happen with NBC Productions (the company that produced the series), which is a separate entity from Brandon and NBC. They didn’t make the show that was promised me and that I promised affiliates and sponsors.”

The show he promised, Loggia said, was supposed to tell “bonafide” FBI stories. “They started to go into demographics and whom my secretary was sleeping with and Frick and Frack with a lady partner,” he said. “FBI people don’t have partners to begin with, so it was like the sexual escapade of the week.”

Loggia completed the six episodes of “Sunday Dinner” last winter. “It’s like yesterday’s bubble gum right now. I have gone on and shot other projects. I am not really all that involved any more.”

And as much as he loves “Sunday Dinner,” one gets the feeling Loggia won’t be that heartbroken if it isn’t picked up by CBS for a full run.

“I love the life of an itinerant movie actor because you go to different countries and different locations and see different people,” he said. “Life is not boring. My wife and I get (plane) tickets and first-class treatment. We take the dogs and it’s kind of fun and it makes for an interesting life because we are not encumbered with children.”