Rolling Right Along : Film Producers Gain Momentum

The telephone rings at Mike Tollin’s office. Big-time athletes and agents are calling, hoping to land a cameo role on “Arli$$,” the HBO series about an “ethically challenged” sports agent.

“It’s great,” Tollin says. “I get this call the other day, the voice says, ‘I’m calling on behalf of Julius Erving. You know, Dr. J?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know who Julius Erving is.’ ”

Tollin and his partner, Brian Robbins, are on a roll these days. The independent producers earned an Oscar nomination for last year’s documentary “Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream.” Their “Nickelodeon Sports Theater With Shaquille O’Neal” recently won a CableACE Award. And “Arli$$” got picked up for a second season.

“We love sports and we love to make films,” Robbins says. “When you combine two things you have a passion for, it’s fun and it’s easier to turn out good work.”

The two men met in 1990 while working on a syndicated television show called “Magic Johnson’s All-Star Slam ‘N Jam.” Tollin was a documentary filmmaker new to Los Angeles. Robbins had starred for five years on the ABC series “Head of the Class.” Together, they fell upon a formula for using sports to examine broader social issues.

Their first project together, a one-hour Fox documentary called “Hardwood Dreams,” examined the on- and off-court struggles facing members of the Morningside High basketball team. Then came the Aaron project, which focused on racial attitudes in major league baseball.

“Sports is just an easy way in,” Tollin said. “If you want to talk about civil rights, let them think they are watching a film about basketball or baseball.”

Eventually, the duo turned their talents to fictional stories. While some critics have not been overly enamored with “Arli$$,” which stars Robert Wuhl of “Bull Durham” fame, Variety praised its “cynically outlandish gusto” and a Chicago Sun-Times review called it “a champion of television satire.”

In addition to producing a second season of that series, look for Tollin and Robbins to make four more “Sports Theater” episodes for Nickelodeon as well as a full-length film about an Oakland community track club coach, a “To Sir, With Love” in spikes.

There is also talk of a documentary chronicling the intertwined careers of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. “That would be pretty much a dream project,” Tollin said. “We’re such big fans.”