Fox Takes a Chance: The Hero’s a Bad Guy

Would “Macbeth” work as a TV series, with its title character heinously vanquishing new foes week in and week out? Could Richard III win a People’s Choice Award?

Bad guys worked wonders for Shakespeare. But that was on stage and only for a night. Fox is trying to make a bad guy--a Machiavellian, sociopathic bad guy--the centerpiece of a dramatic series for television, a medium where characters must be so warm, fuzzy and likable that millions of Americans will be comfortable inviting them into their living rooms each week.

“That is the conventional wisdom,” said Bob Greenblatt, Fox’s executive vice president for series development, who shepherded “Profit,” the network’s new show about an amoral business executive climbing the corporate ladder by any means necessary.

“What we’ve always tried to do is to be an alternative and break some rules,” Greenblatt said, “and this was another way to break some rules and get some attention--not just to break rules, but because there was merit to this idea. Yes, Profit is amoral, but there are enough ambiguities in him, enough curiosity in his behavior, that the audience will see beyond just the darkness and find him compelling. I think there is a little bit of Profit in all of us, and I think it’s a real thrill to see him actually pull some of this stuff off.”

Office politics is one thing. But what Profit does, through all kinds of ingenious computer deceit and smarmy charm, is shocking, especially for a great-looking heartthrob in $1,500 suits. In the first two episodes, he blackmailed a secretary, made time with the boss’ wife, slept with his stepmother, tracked down and murdered his father--albeit a father who abused him as a child, cooping him up in a cardboard box--and framed his boss for a murder that never happened.

The problem for the audience is: Do they root for Profit, played with infinite charisma by Adrian Pasdar, or do they watch to see whether he will ever receive his just punishment? Even the people responsible for the show aren’t sure.

Greenblatt said: “I love the character, and I’m rooting for him to succeed. He’s not like Ted Bundy, out to lure women into a van and mutilate them. The way to market the show is to set him up as a cool villain, but if he didn’t have more dimensions than that, then the show couldn’t succeed in the long run.”

But Stephen J. Cannell, one of the show’s executive producers and the man behind such hits as “The A-Team” and “The Rockford Files,” said just the opposite.

“If the audience starts to root for him to succeed in destroying everyone, then the show won’t work,” Cannell maintained. “The whole idea of the show is that you have to be seduced by him, but know he’s not someone we’re rooting for. You kind of root against him while being enthralled by him. It’s like falling in love with a bad-news woman: You know it’s going to be big trouble, but sometimes you just can’t stop yourself.”

History is certainly against “Profit.” Fred Silverman, a producer who is the former president of NBC and former programming chief at CBS and ABC, noted that “Dallas” had its J.R. and “Dynasty” its Alexis but that the rotten apples were always counterbalanced by a bunch of characters who were basically good.

“I can’t think of a show where you had the one main character who was the bad guy,” said Silverman, adding that the natural tendency for an audience, especially in a series, is to see the villains get theirs from the heroes.

“They may be interested in following an evil character or a killer in a one-shot [movie], but usually he gets his in the end. Clint Eastwood blows away the bad guy or Columbo gets his man, and good ultimately triumphs over evil. Here the character just goes on and on, and I can’t imagine a mass audience sticking around for it, even though it is very well made and well-produced.”

Greenblatt acknowledged that, despite glowing reviews, ratings have been disappointing. “Profit’s” first two outings drew only 9% of the available audience, and this week’s installment fell to 6%, prompting Fox to juggle its May schedule. The series will air the next two Mondays but isn’t currently in the lineup after that, although there will still be three episodes that haven’t aired.

CBS’ low-rated “American Gothic,” with Gary Cole at its center as an evil small-town sheriff, suffered similarly this season, and some critics thought ABC’s “Murder One” also was hurt by the lack of likable characters.

Cannell said that in coming weeks, Profit will suffer some setbacks, and some of the other characters will be developed more sympathetically so that viewers can relate on the side of good if they wish. But he and Greenblatt insisted that there will be no watering-down of the character to make him more conventionally nice.

“I don’t know if this will work,” Cannell said. “This was a deliberate attempt to turn the formula of the drama upside down and leave the audience with the confusing dilemma of how to respond to him. He is a very dangerous guy who possesses all of these qualities--good looks, intelligence, charm--that society says are valuable, and yet he uses it all as camouflage for someone who is pretty devastating. It’s like watching a cobra in a basket and if done well, it can be fascinating.

“And the point is that we have to take some chances with drama, especially as the network audience erodes and we as a business keep asking, ‘What is going to bring people back?’ Maybe it’s not ‘Profit,’ but ‘ER’ did it and ‘The X-Files’ did, and both of those were different kinds of drama.

“We’ve got to be bolder to try to reach that audience that feels that they have seen it all already--look at all the ‘Friends’ clones and this pilot season all the ‘ER’ rip-offs. They’d rather play tennis or watch ESPN than watch the same thing again and again. But Fox has to believe in the drama, believe in taking that chance and leave this show on long enough for people to find it.”

* “Profit” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Fox (Channel 11).