Going Into "Sunset" New Start for Singer
Author: Mark Lorando
Publication: Times-Picayune
Date: October 27, 1993
Abstract: Glenn talks about South of Sunset and why acting is a good gig.
He was the lead singer for the Eagles during their heyday, penning and performing such pop-rock classics as "Hotel California" and "Desperado."
But that was then. This is "South of Sunset," a new prime-time private-eye series for CBS that finds Glenn Frey trying to prove himself in a new medium - television - for an audience that won't care as much about his rockin' as his role.
It premieres at 8 tonight on Channel 4.
"Who the hell is Glenn Frey?" was the reaction of Aries Spears, his 18-year-old co-star, to the news of the casting.
"When this man was hot," Spears said in Hollywood recently, "I was an embryo."
Frey will play the straight guy, Spears the sidekick, and Maria ("Middle Ages") Pitillo the off-center secretary. Together, they will do the typical TV detective thing, with lots of wisecracks and an eclectic clientele from the boulevards of Beverly Hills to the mean streets of South Central L.A. - anyone who'll pay.
"This is basically 'Hotel California' on film," Frey said. "In 'Hotel California,' our phrase was 'the tarnished elegance.' "
That is the L.A. they hope to convey on "Sunset," a once-glittering metropolis showing signs of decay, with Frey as the last of the good guys. Of the series theme song that he wrote, Frey remarks, "It doesn't say, 'I'm a shoot-em-up, kick-butt private eye, don't mess with me.' The refrain is, 'When everybody else has turned you down, baby, you can call on me.' I'm sort of the guy that people call up and ask for help."
Frey's first acting job came as a guest star in an episode of "Miami Vice" that was inspired by the video for his hit single "Smuggler's Blues." But he said he's considered himself an actor of sorts since the arrival of MTV forever fused music and film.
"When I made my first couple of music videos in the early '80s, the directors mentioned that they thought the camera liked me," he said. "I just filed it in the back of my mind as a nice compliment. But when the opportunity came along to do 'Miami Vice,' I jumped."
He jumped again when "South of Sunset" creator Stan Rogow ("Shannon's Deal," "Middle Ages") called.
"It was the chance to sleep at home every night instead of going on the road," he said. And having recently completed an East Coast concert tour, Frey said he'll take the "grind" of series work anytime.
"I'll tell you, this is not a bad job," he said. "They pick you up in the morning - you don't have to drive to work. They drive you to the set. You get out of the car and some kid with a walkie-talkie says, 'Hi, Glenn, what do you want for breakfast?' You walk into an air-conditioned Winnebago with a television, VCR and stereo, and all your clothes are laid out. If you're having a bad hair day, you go to make up. Even if you haven't slept, they pat you and primp you and get you fixed up. And then the rest of the day, everybody's working for you.
"Things could be a lot worse. Like that bus ride from Rochester to New Haven."
