He’s Pumped Over Plan for His Own Series

Who needs “Seinfeld” when you’ve got “Steinfeld”? That would be Jake--in the proposed action-comedy TV series--as opposed to Jerry in the most popular situation comedy of modern times, which departed the airwaves last season.

And in case there’s still some confusion, “of course I would be the more muscular Jewish guy from New York,” offers Steinfeld, better known as “Body by Jake,” bodybuilder to the stars, an image he’s been trying to shed for that of actor for years.

What Steinfeld is trying to do is basically what Jerry and George tried to do in a running story line on “Seinfeld” with their ongoing pitch for a show about nothing--use an unconventional approach to make the prime-time schedule. It’s an especially tricky proposition these days, considering the incredibly short life-span of so many sitcom pilots, many of which never make it out of a network screening room and into viewers’ living rooms.

Steinfeld decided that taking a different approach might at least get his concept noticed. It did. The pilot, which he describes as “ ‘McCloud’ backwards--ex-big-city cop goes to work as a sheriff in a small town,” now has the involvement of director-producer John Landis--the two tried to develop a similar series with Steinfeld as its star several years ago--and the writers of the Disney hit film “Toy Story” are refining a script.

The journey to prime time turned serious with Steinfeld’s decision to try to make and fund his own pilot last year. Over a dinner with a friend, commercial director Jay Silverman, Steinfeld committed to using his own money to create a finished pilot he could take to producers and network executives. The first incarnation was a 21-minute videotaped story, directed by Silverman and starring Steinfeld, called “Moving Mountains.”

Crafted from a 12-page concept and produced in 10 weeks, it was about a pro-football player who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, hangs up his cleats after an injury and decides to become a mentor to kids from his old neighborhood.

“It was a labor of love. There were no Winnebagos, no caterer on the set,” Steinfeld says. “We called in favors, and everybody worked three 18-hour days, a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For 10 weeks we were in control of our destiny.

“I knew I had to do this because I had had pitch meetings in the past and everybody was enthused, but in truth it never went anywhere,” he says. “That’s just the way this town is. Perception. At the end of the day they could only see me as Jake the fitness guy. I had to show them.”

*

The two shopped their prototype to about 33 former fitness clients of Steinfeld and “friends in the business.” They included Gary David Goldberg’s UBU Productions (“Spin City”); Steve Tisch, a movie producer (“The Truman Show” and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”); Roger Birnbaum (co-chairman of Spyglass Entertainment, an independent production company with ties to Disney); Landis (“Beverly Hills Cop” and “Trading Places,” among others); and ex-ABC programming chief Tony Thomopoulos, now an independent producer.

Steinfeld did have the advantage of being no stranger to television: One hundred episodes of his 1990 “Big Brother Jake,” a half-hour series about a guy who helps kids, appeared on the Family Channel. And he’s been a fitness show mainstay on cable since 1981. But he wanted to be given a chance to flex his acting talent. After all, if Arnold Schwarzenegger could become a $20-million player in Hollywood, why couldn’t a former theme park Incredible Hulk from Brooklyn, he wonders.

The response to “Moving Mountains” has been generally favorable. Goldberg’s UBU liked the concept but couldn’t develop it until next season. Landis liked it as a primer but wanted to alter it and combine it with a concept he and Steinfeld sold to Warner Bros. in 1995. Steinfeld, a charming and very aggressive guy who can’t stand to wait, seized the moment with Landis.

“We were definitely interested in working with him, but because we had so many projects in development, it couldn’t have happened until maybe next season,” said Alex Maggioni, UBU’s vice president of development. “He definitely had a novel approach. I can’t think of another time where I’ve seen someone actually self-finance their own pilot. It gets one noticed. It was Jake’s choice to push forward faster.”

As far as Steinfeld is concerned, now “everybody is in the zone. It’s for real. I’m playing major league baseball.”

Well, not yet.

“We’re basically updating what we did four years ago and adding in some elements of what Jake wanted to do with ‘Moving Mountains,’ ” says Landis. Both Landis and Steinfeld went back to the original writers of Landis’ earlier concept--Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen (“Toy Story”)--to revive the script, a process now underway. The two were unknowns at the time they penned the 1995 “Jake Project” for Landis. No dates have been set on when the revised pilot will be wrapped or ready to shop to networks, but Landis intends to direct.

What are the odds the TV veterans give Steinfeld’s show? Birnbaum believes the project could be a hit based on Steinfeld’s “boundless enthusiasm and self-belief. I’ve known him for 20 years and I can’t remember one day when he was down on himself.”

As Thomopoulos puts it: “[Jake] has no fear of failing. He won’t let lack of [network prime-time] experience prevent him from trying.”

For Tisch it is Steinfeld’s self-reliance. “Unlike 99% of the writers, directors and actors who walk into producers’ and executives’ offices asking what you can do for them, Jake walks in and asks will you take a shot with him. He does it himself,” says Tisch. “That comes down to believing in yourself. He doesn’t know how not to. And that’s the key.”

“Considering that I’m Jake’s one failure as a fitness client, I wouldn’t bet against him,” Landis says with a laugh. “Seriously, he is the true Horatio Alger story--a fat little kid from Brooklyn who literally rebuilt his body and turned himself into this mini-mogul who had guys like Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford flying him all around the world with them. When I met him, he was in green paint parading around as the Incredible Hulk at the Universal theme park. Since then he’s had bit parts in a few movies, and I actually had him do a nude scene in an episode of ‘Dream On’ I produced. He always wanted to be an actor.

“Like Arnold, who got noticed with ‘Pumping Iron,’ Jake is driven and ambitious, and he won’t take no for an answer,” Landis continues. “But he doesn’t smoke cigars [like Arnold], and who’s to say whether he’ll wind up being an action star? But if this takes off as we hope, I’m sure there will be plenty of comparisons in the future.”