Nancy Everhard: Undoubtedly Enjoying ‘Untouchables’ Success

Nancy Everhard was caught off guard when her “Reasonable Doubts” character, Kay (bar operator and Mark Harmon’s love interest), was killed off. “I had no idea that I was not going to be back,” she says.

“I saw (NBC Entertainment President) Warren Littlefield at a party. He said he was very happy with what I’d been doing. The writers said, ‘We love you; we’re going to write more for you.’ . . . The producers said they’d build a new bar set.”

As things turned out for the “early 30s” strawberry blonde, “The Untouchables” executive producer Chris Crowe saw the Tuesday promo for Kay’s death last September. Casting his remake of the old ABC hit about Prohibition-era Chicago, he called Everhard in the very next day to read for a new role, Eliot Ness’ wife, Catherine. “I was signed at 5:15; on Friday I flew to (location in) Chicago, and Saturday I was filming.”

In its early weeks, her new series, which is syndicated by Paramount (airing Tuesday at 8 p.m. on KCOP Channel 13), is outperforming the network that fired her. When asked to comment, she responds with a knowing smile of satisfaction, “How do you think I feel?!”

Although she has done dozens of TV episodes and a handful of films, this latest is Everhard’s first period piece. She appreciates the attention to detail by Crowe’s staff and the look that filming in Chicago provides.

Everhard grew up in Wadsworth, Ohio. She ran off to Europe after a couple years at Wooster College. She moved to New York, where she did modeling before moving to Los Angeles eight years ago. A guest shot in “Remington Steele,” as the prostitute Steele “marries” to retains his residency, launched her TV acting career. In 1990, she was Gregory Harrison’s girlfriend in “The Family Man,” a short-lived CBS sitcom.

She was teamed, steamily, with Robert Wagner in a USA Network remake of “This Gun for Hire” and Tom Skerritt in “China Lake Murders,” another cable movie. She played Nick Nolte’s doctor in “Another 48 HRS.” Good-naturedly she says, “I’ve kissed ‘em all--all the good ones.”