‘Going to California’: Series TV Hits the Road

Two twentysomething friends set out from a small town in New England to drive cross-country and find a friend in the series “Going to California,” premiering tonight on Showtime with a two-hour episode.

Newcomers Sam Trammell and Brad Henke star as the travelers. As they make their way west, they meet several interesting characters, including a transvestite played by former New York Giants football star Lawrence Taylor and a tragic, disfigured young man nicknamed “Rhino Boy.”

“Going to California” is the brainchild of executive producer Scott Rosenberg, who has written the screenplays for such films as “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead,” “Beautiful Girls,” “Con Air” and “Gone in 60 Seconds.” He loosely based the show on a novel he wrote several years ago. Rosenberg discussed the project--and his own journey in selling it--from Wilmington, N.C., which is the home base for the series.

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Question: First of all, how did you convince Lawrence Taylor to play a transvestite?

Answer: My casting director cast all the Oliver Stone movies. Her name is Mary Vernieu. She cast “Any Given Sunday” and he was in that. He’s actually quite good in it. She said, “What do you think about Lawrence Taylor [for the part]?” I said, “That’s ridiculous. [The character] is a transvestite. There is no way.” She said, “I’m telling you, he wants to put himself on tape.” He put himself on tape and I was blown away.

Obviously, he hasn’t done [acting] a lot. But his instincts were so good. I was really surprised. I had one conversation with L.T., and I think he had some concern. He didn’t want to play it very swishy. I said to him, “He’s just like you but he wears a dress and likes boys.” There was this beat and, all of a sudden, there was this cackle. He said, “All right, man. I’ve got you.” He came to play. He was walking around the set with his dress and wig on. He just had the best time.

Q: Did Showtime approach you about doing a series?

A: The long story is when [former ABC Entertainment President] Jamie Tarses was at ABC, she contacted [director] Ted Demme and I and said, “I want to do a show on ‘Beautiful Girls.”’ We were driving to the meeting and we realized we couldn’t do it without involving Miramax and Disney. It was too complicated, so she said, “Just pitch me anything.” So we pitched this sort of cop show and [ABC] said, “Great, we love it.” Then all of a sudden, Jamie was gone and the deal kind of went away. So we went to Fox.

In the meantime, I said, “I don’t want to do a cop show. If I am going to do a TV show and take time out from the movies, I want to do something that hasn’t been done for a while.” I was talking to this girlfriend of mine and she said what hasn’t been done in a while is a road show. I had written this novel, “Going to California.” I had driven across country a million times. When she said that, I [told her] I just so happen to have 600 pages of source material.

We went to Fox and Fox loved it, and then [former Fox Entertainment President] Doug Herzog came in and hated it. We went to the WB and the WB actually bought it, and we shot it last year. They didn’t pick up [the pilot]. ... I have a friend who works at Showtime, and [President] Jerry Offsay actually read the novel years ago. So they called us and said, “We want to do 20 [episodes].”

Q: Is it difficult to shoot this series on the road?

A: The best part of the Showtime thing is, if we had done it at the WB, we would be shooting it in Vancouver and we would take one week every five weeks to go get exteriors in Miami or Memphis. One of the things [Showtime] said was you can do it on the road. That has been the best thing in the world.

The great thing is that it’s affected the course of the show. About 31/2 weeks ago, my girlfriend came to visit and we were driving from Wilmington to Charlotte just to get away. We kept seeing these signs for this place called Nirvana. We stopped to get a drink and I said [to someone], “What is Nirvana?” And they said it’s a nudist camp. I said, “Oh my God, we must do a nudist camp episode.”

So I went back and wrote it. . . . Our boys follow these two really hot girls into a nudist camp and get caught up in a power struggle between the sort of real nudists and this insurgent group of Aryans who come to try to take over the nudist camp. It’s essentially “Animal Farm” set in a nudist camp. That [episode] never would have happened if I was in L.A. shooting the show. I never would have stumbled upon the camp.

Q: Are you writing the majority of the episodes?

A: Everything goes through my computer. People ask me all the time why I am doing this, because I am definitely taking a hit in the pocketbook. The difference [between features and TV] is that I came up with the nudist colony idea three weeks ago and now we are shooting it. Every time I sit at the computer, I know a week later some director is going to be putting it up. That’s amazing, because even the best-case scenario for features is a year from page to stage, so you just can’t beat it.

Q: The first two episodes of the series are basically comedic, but the third episode deals with abortion and several other serious subjects. Will the tone of the series change from episode to episode?

A: One of the things I said is, the only consistency I want in the show is its inconsistency.

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“Going to California” can be seen Thursdays at 10 p.m. on Showtime. The network has rated the premiere TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under age 17).