Annie Gets Her Fun : THE COMEDY ACTRESS ADDS SOME SPICE TO ‘LOVE & WAR’

Something was missing last season from CBS’ “Love & War.”

Oomph.

Well, Annie Potts has added that and much more to the romantic sitcom as Dana Palladino, the sassy Blue Shamrock chef and new love interest of blue-collar newspaper columnist Jack Stein (Jay Thomas).

She’s even heated up interest among real chefs. “I’ve gotten a couple of letters saying that I’m not chopping properly,” Potts slyly admits. “I’ve got to work on that. Apparently, when I’m at home, I am not chopping for 150 people for the evening. Usually it’s no more than 12 or 15. That’s about my limit.”

Potts, who actually loves to cook, has gotten positive feedback, though, from her friend the chef in San Francisco. “Monday night is the big restaurants’ night off, so all the chefs watch,” she says. “They think the whole feeling in the restaurant is pretty authentic.”

Noshing on a pasta lunch in her trailer on the set, Potts, 41, is cheery and friendly. She confesses that she’s happy as a clam working on the comedy series, which was created by co-executive producer Diane English (“Murphy Brown”).

“I am having the best time,” she says with a smile. “It’s a wonderful company.”

But Potts had no desire to do a TV series after playing Mary Jo for seven seasons on the CBS comedy “Designing Women.”

“I thought, ‘I have been doing this for so long I want to rest,’ ” she explains. “I just wanted to do features, hopefully one or two a year. But then I started getting scripts and it was like, ‘This is kind of a nice role, but it’s three months on the other side of the country.’ ”

Potts immediately thought about her two sons: Clay, 13, and toddler Jake. “Do I really want to put my little one in a suitcase and drag him all over and worry about my teen-ager at home? I really thought about it. I had to say, ‘No. I didn’t want to do that.’ ”

Meanwhile, “Love & War” was without a leading lady at the conclusion of its first disappointing season. Susan Dey, who played Wally, Jack’s uptight love interest and owner of the Blue Shamrock, suddenly departed this spring in what was described as a “mutual decision” between the actress and English.

English, a longtime fan of Potts, gave the actress an offer she couldn’t refuse after “Designing Women” got its pink slip. After being part of an ensemble series for many years, Potts would get the chance to be “the girl.”

“That’s a welcome change,” acknowledges the Kentucky-born Potts. “I think Diane is such a great writer. I liked the sounds of the ideas she had for the character.”

Previously, English created a character and then cast the actor. “But in this case I came and then she built it,” Potts says. “I mean I talked some about the kind that I was interested in playing. I think in my telling her that and her observing the way that I am, she came up with a good way to use me.”

“In rethinking the series for the second season,” English says, “we knew we needed the character who could stand more toe to toe with Jack. I had some thoughts about what the character might be. But I didn’t want to start the specifics until I knew who was going to be the actress.”

It was CBS President Jeff Sagansky who called English to tell her Potts might be available. “I just jumped at it,” she says. “When you are looking to inject your show with energy, this is a great person to have. Annie has all the comedy chops and she is tremendously likable. She has a great following. She has real depth as an actress, too.”

English’s initial concept for the new character changed as soon as Potts’ name was bandied about. “I started to see a much more flamboyant character,” English says. “Then we had our first meeting. I gave her some idea of what the character might be and then we kind of fell in love and signed papers and started making shows.”

Potts says she had no problems fitting into the cast, which, besides Thomas, includes Charlie Robinson, Joel Murray, Joanna Gleason, Michael Nouri and Susie Plakson. “Actors are long accustomed to welcoming new people into their company. They made it very easy on me.”

But Potts made it difficult for herself.

“The first couple of shows there was a lot of pressure,” she confesses. “I put more pressure on myself than anyone else. Of course, I think their feeling, having made the changes that they made from last year, is that they hoped I was going to make some kind of chemical difference. You know what I mean? They were just waiting to see if the souffle was going to rise.”

“Let’s just say there was a lot of pressure on that first episode on everyone to really click it together,” English says. “You don’t often get a second chance like we got. ‘Love & War ‘ was the No. 13th show (last season), but we are real perfectionists and we felt as though we had a show that could go the distance. We really wanted to make a change that would click it together for us.”

English believes Potts was worried for the first few shows because “this is one of the few chances she’s had to star in something and carry it on her shoulders. After the first take of the first scene of the first episode, the response from the audience was tremendous. I went over to her and gave her a hug. She said to me, ‘Can you see the hives on my face?’ She was really, really nervous but she certainly since then has relaxed into it. It’s like she had been with us forever.”

With the new character has come a completely new look for Potts. Gone are the red, curly locks she sported as Mary Jo. Her new ‘do’ is short, sophisticated and dark brown. “Diane called me and said, ‘You know, we already have two redheads on the show,’ ” Potts recalls. “I told her, ‘I am not a real redhead anyway.’ Diane said, ‘Neither are the others, but they were here first.’ ”

Luckily, Potts was tired of her old hairstyle. “I said I’d like to go back to my dark hair and love to cut it off. She was thrilled.”

“We thought it was a good idea to change her look somewhat because we didn’t want people to expect her previous character to walk through the doors at the Blue Shamrock,” English says. “That’s always very dangerous because people bring expectations about the character. We thought we would really visually change the character (of Mary Jo Shively) so the audience would immediately drop their preconceived ideas of who this character is.”

Potts worked with the costume designer to develop Dana’s trendy look.

“We talked a little bit and I, like, walked into his shop,” she recalls. “He had pulled out a room twice this size,” she says, looking around the trailer, “loaded down with this character. Everything I pulled off the hangers was absolutely right. We came up with the idea of just a catsuit underneath with an apron as a dress and some kind of vintage jacket on top. We just came up with it.”

“I just love her clothes,” English says with affection.

Dana has become a more lovable, vulnerable character as the season’s progressed. In the first episode, Potts admits that Dana came on rather strong. “She just came in. Period. She had been thrown out from the other cafe she had been working in, so she sort of came in in a fury. I think a lot of people went, ‘Oooooooh, she’s really strong.’ But, it wasn’t an episode to see much of the other side. I think she’s very well-rounded and dimensional.”

“As the episodes have progressed we have allowed her to show a much more vulnerable side with Jack and vice versa,” English says.

Dana and Jack’s relationship also has evolved. “The relationship between Jack and Wally was very Hepburn-Tracy,” English says. “For whatever reason, it didn’t work. I don’t think Jack and Dana are Tracy-Hepburn.”

Jay Thomas agrees. He believes Dana and Jack are quite similar. “We are both tough and opinionated, but deep down inside we are fun to be with and are very romantic,” he explains. “We just sort of hide our feelings. For me, this is exactly where I thought this guy should be. He is exactly on line. Annie has caused that to happen.”

This time around, English is slowly building their relationship. The two finally had their first kiss on the Dec. 13 episode. Last year, Wally and Jack went to bed on the second episode. “The idea last season was, ‘Let’s get past all the courting stuff quickly,’ ” English says. But she soon discovered audiences missed the courtship phase.

“We don’t want to drag this out for years,” English says. “We did allow them to have a certain getting-to-know-you period that has been a lot of fun for us. To be perfectly honest, I am not quite sure where I will take them next season. But we are going to let the relationship guide us. I don’t think we feel like we have any guidelines.”

Both English and Thomas say that Potts has “pumped up” the show’s energy.

“The thing about Annie is that she was in an ensemble situation and this is different,” says Thomas. “This is two people who drive the show. She came to me and said, ‘Isn’t this great?’ and, ‘How wonderful it is that we get to play these two characters.’ This is how she talks. She doesn’t come in and say, ‘I’ve been doing this for nine years; let’s get this over with.’ As far as I am concerned, she’s cranked up the work ethic around here. It has affected the writers and producers and the supporting cast has been elevated to a tremendous level. I think she has helped me realize this is a great shot.”

“Love & War” airs Mondays at 9:30 p.m. on CBS; repeats of “Designing Women” air weekdays at noon and 4 p.m. on WGN and 2:30 p.m. on KMIR; weeknights at 7:30 and 11 on KUSI and 11:30 on KTLA; Saturdays at 6 p.m. on KADY, 7:30 p.m on KUSI and 11:30 p.m on WGN; and Sundays at 4 p.m. on KMIR, 4:30 p.m. on WGN, 7:30 p.m. on KUSI and 11:30 p.m. on KTLA.