A Double Play for Officer Renko

These days, Charles Haid is doing exactly what he wants.

“I stopped acting and decided I wanted to direct,” said Haid, best known as feisty Officer Andy Renko for seven seasons on NBC’s landmark cop series “Hill Street Blues.”

“Now I am doing it,” Haid, 49, said in a recent interview at his Burbank office. “I’m thrilled.”

His latest directorial effort, “Cooperstown,” premieres Tuesday on TNT. It is the third offering in the “TNT Screenworks” series, which presents films written by playwrights. The comedy-drama-fantasy is the first screenplay by Lee Blessing, who received a Tony nomination for “A Walk in the Woods.”

Haid wasn’t a novice at directing when he decided to make it his priority after “Hill Street” left the air in 1987. Before the series, the graduate of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech had directed regional theater. He was an associate producer of the long-running Broadway musical “Godspell” and the Emmy Award-winning TV documentary, “Who Are the De Bolts and Where Did They Get 19 Kids”? While on “Hill Street,” he produced TV movies and the feature film “Square Dance.”

Although he hasn’t completely abandoned acting--Haid has a cameo in “Cooperstown” and a starring part in an upcoming ABC movie--Haid wants to pursue directing as a career because, he said, he believes he needs to expand himself, “certainly just in terms of using my mind.”

“As an actor, you are given the color of red and green (to work with), and as a director, they give you the whole box of paints. You also have enough paints to make a big blob, so you can also screw it up. There is an element of risk, personal risk. (Directing) is about maximizing your own talents all the time. It also is difficult because when you fall, you fall harder. But when you hit the top, you hit it a lot harder.”

Like fellow “Hill Street” alum-turned-director Betty Thomas, Haid got his big directorial break from Steven Bochco, “Hill Street” co-creator and executive producer, who had him direct six episodes of his ABC series, “Doogie Howser, M.D.”

“I really learned,” Haid said. “I am very lucky in that episodic television is very much a producers’ medium, films are very much a directors’ medium and television films are more of a directors’ medium. You execute someone else’s game plan when you do episodic. It was the best training ground I could possibly have. I worked on ‘Cop Rock,’ which was a tremendous learning experience.”

“Cooperstown” is Haid’s third TV movie. His first, NBC’s 1992 thriller ‘The Nightman,” captured the attention of “Cooperstown” executive producer Michael Brandman.

“I had met Charlie three years ago or so,” Brandman said. “I liked him. There is something immensely likable about him. He is a Carnegie Tech-er just like me. Everyone said how smart he was and how talented he was. I saw ‘Nightman’ and thought how really stylish his direction was, much better than the screenplay. I was really impressed with it. As a result of that, I thought, ‘Gee, it would be interesting to see if Charlie would be interested in directing this.’ ”

“Cooperstown” stars Alan Arkin as an embittered retired baseball player who learns about himself and the meaning of friendship while traveling on the road to the annual induction ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The film also features Graham Greene (“Dances With Wolves”) and Hope Lange. Haid is a feisty retired baseball player who drinks and smokes too much.

Haid said he made “Cooperstown” for “everybody’s dad. ‘Cooperstown’ is for my dad. I had four brothers, and my dad would come home from work and he would be out there throwing the ball around. It was wonderful. Everybody’s dad did that. I am a father too, so I made it for myself.”

Like Arkin’s character, Haid’s father couldn’t adjust to retirement. “Guys who retire have a hard time,” Haid said. “They go around their whole lives being something to somebody. (The movie) couldn’t have come at a better time, because I had seen my father go through a very difficult period, which he is completely over now. He has turned into a great senior citizen guy.”

Arkin, an Oscar nominee for “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” and “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” considers “Cooperstown” one of his best films. “I don’t do terrible TV movies,” he said.

So what was it like working with Haid?

“He’s a maniac,” Arkin said, laughing. “Charlie is a complete raving lunatic, and I love him!”

“Cooperstown” premieres Tuesday at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. on TNT . It repeats Friday at 1 p.m. , Saturday at 5 p.m. and on other dates in February.