Behind the Glamour of 1930s Hollywood in ‘The Lot’

American Movie Classics’ first series, “Remember WENN,” was a sweet, affectionateportrait of the golden age of radio. But “The Lot,” the cable network’s latest nostalgia-tinged series, has a much harder edge.

In one case a studio executive gets a handsome young man hooked on morphine so he’ll stay under contract. An aging actress is forced to sell hosiery on the side in order to keep her house. A flamboyant gay actor is told to “straighten” up his act or he’ll be cut from the studio. The Jewish studio mogul gives in to the German government by cutting anti-Nazi scenes from a script to guarantee the release of the film in Germany.

“The Lot,” set in the late ‘30s at the fictional Sylver Screen Pictures, had a four-episode tryout in August 1999. The critical and audience reception was encouraging enough for AMC to bring the half-hour comedy-drama back for its first full season of 13 episodes. This time around, “The Lot,” which premieres Sunday, incorporates real Hollywood events with fictional composites of well-known celebrities.

AMC had a “very strong mandate” to base these episodes on fact, says Rick Mitz, who created “The Lot,” and serves as its head writer and executive producer. “Perhaps in the first four, I was a little more internalizing my fantasy world. These are based specifically on events of history. . . . I may have softened some of these stories so things don’t end as badly or as sadly as they did in real life.”

“The Lot” benefits from being filmed at the Culver Studios in Culver City. The venerable lot belonged to David O. Selznick and RKO--”Gone With the Wind” was filmed there. With several vintage sound stages and charming bungalows, the studio appears to be frozen in time.

“Being in Hollywood added so much,” says Mitz. “When we were looking at stages they had two stages for us. One was brand new and had air-conditioning and looked fabulous. The other one was falling apart. That is, of course, the one we used because that looked like an old sound stage.”

The denizens of Sylver Screen Studios are an eccentric, diverse group:

* Norma St. Claire (Sara Botsford): An aging actress and fading star.

* Mary Parker (Stephanie Faracy): Norma’s good friend, a former actress who is now a top hair and makeup artist at Sylver. Her illegitimate daughter is a starlet named June, played by Linda Cardellini.

* Fabian (Francois Giroday): An accomplished tailor who is a master at covering the flaws of the studio’s stars but has a deep dark secret of his own.

* Letitia Devine (Holland Taylor): A high-powered gossip columnist who is feared in Hollywood circles.

* Leo Sylver (Victor Raider-Wexler): The tightfisted studio chief.

* Jack Sweeney (Perry Stephens): An unscrupulous studio executive.

* Victor Mansfield (Victor Webster): A handsome extra, passing through Hollywood, who is literally drugged into signing a studio contract.

*

Relaxing on the set during one of the final days of filming last summer, Giroday was a tad wistful the series was wrapping up production. “This is the first time I have ever had a series,” he says. “I’m sorry to see it go.”

His character, Fabian, he explains, is a cross between noted designers Adrian and Edith Head. This season, Fabian “steps out of the closet, partially. People’s private lives were much more private then. Unless they were flaunting it. Most people were left alone--certainly people were not in front of the camera.”

Over lunch at the commissary, Botsford and Faracy have an easy camaraderie that reflects their on-screen relationship.

“We have made a family,” says Faracy. “As actors we have been sharing and the talent just keeps magnifying.”

No wonder the actresses have bonded. Each episode is shot in a quick 3 1/2 days. “We do two episodes in seven days,” says Botsford, who adds that Norma “isn’t based on anybody real but she is somewhere between Rosalind Russell and Bette Davis.”

Mitz, who wrote for “Remember WENN,” approached AMC with the idea for “The Lot.”

“AMC was looking for original programming. This seemed like a logical idea for them, a show for a movie channel about movies,” he says.

Initially, the series was set in 1939 “because that’s when all the great movies came out,” says Mitz. But while he was working on the concept, Mitz realized the making of the movies was more interesting, “so that is why the first one was set in 1937.”

Plus, Mitz says, it was a glamorous era in Hollywood. “For me as a writer and probably for every writer I know and certainly a lot of actors, the reason we came to Hollywood is love of movies of that certain period, the myth of show business and being discovered.”

Marc Juris, executive producer of “The Lot” for AMC, says the network took its time in bringing the series back for a full season. “Cable TV gives you the advantage of nurturing a show and then bringing it back at your leisure. We don’t have the same dynamic broadcast television has. It was really ‘what is the best time frame?’ ”

The network’s decision to base the series on real events stems from the fact that AMC fans “expect credible historical information,” says Juris. “When we talked to [focus groups] about ‘The Lot’ and said it would be based on Hollywood stories, it really changed the meaning of the show for them. It made it not only entertaining, but provided them with enriched context.”

Besides, Juris added, film and TV portraits of Hollywood’s heyday are generally all surface and glitz. “When they look at Hollywood historically, it’s Joan Crawford. It’s parties. It’s just everything is wonderful. But these were people and they had real human dramas and issues.”

* “The Lot” premieres Sunday at 7 and 11:30 p.m. on AMC. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).