CAPITAL NEWS
Episode Name - unknown

Capital News (April 1990) -- season only, episode? James Morrison guest-starred in this hour-long newspaper drama. Following a two-hour pilot (directed Mark Tinker) which aired April 9, ABC yelled "stop the presses!" after only three additional one-hour episodes, canceling its subscription to this noble effort on April 30th.

capnews1.jpg (37991 bytes)capnews2.jpg (37620 bytes)Heroic Editor-in-Chief Jonathan "Jo-Jo" Turner (Lloyd Bridges) ran The Washington Capital with a firm hand, alternately encouraging and admonishing his dedicated, hard-working reporters. The newsroom was divided into two very different worlds. Metro, headed by Clay Gibson (Michael Woods), explored the seamy underside of Washington, America’s "murder and drug capital." National, led by Edison King (Mark Blum) stalked the corridors of governmental power, uncovering scandals and abuse.

capnews3.jpg (31140 bytes)capnews4.jpg (38833 bytes)In the pilot episode, Helen Slater's character, Anne McKenna, arrived at the offices of the Washington Capital. An eager young reporter, she was assigned to the Metro desk where she was taken under the wing of hotshot reporter, Redmond Dunne (William Russ). On her first day on the job she shared a much-coveted byline on the front page by scooping the competition for a major story. By the second episode, she had entered into a personal relationship with Dunne.

capnews5.jpg (38398 bytes)capnews6.jpg (37592 bytes) Other cast included Miles Plato (Kurt Fuller) as a flamboyant syndicated gossip columnist. Most of the rest of the regular cast (Daniel Roebuck, Jenny Wright, Christian Clemenson, Wendell Pierce and Chelsea Field) were reporters chasing hot scoops while anguishing about current journalistic issues such as checkbook journalism and reporter objectivity.

capnews7.jpg (41463 bytes)capnews8.jpg (42225 bytes)David Milch, who co-created HILL STREET BLUES and NYPD BLUE, co-created this series with Christian Williams, who not coincidentally had worked for The Washington Post for 13 years. Although Milch said, "I’ll go to my grave denying that the series is based on The Washington Post," it seemed otherwise. Bridges looked and acted like the Post’s legendary editor Ben Bradlee, the giant newsroom looked like that of the Post, Post staffers were interviewed and their work habits studied in developing the series, and several of them actually worked behind the scenes on the show.

capnews9.jpg (41437 bytes)capnews10.jpg (40918 bytes) Guest actors on the four aired episodes included: Walter Addison, Leah Ayres, Lou Beatty, Jr., Jackie Cooper, Bryan Cranston, James Eckhouse, Andrea Evans, Michael Bryan French, Ray Girardin, William Glover, Kathryn Harrold, Andreas Katsulas, James Morrison, Beah Richards, Lee Richardson, Ken Page, Lee Weaver and Noble Willingham.

capnews11.jpg (39001 bytes) Synopsized from reviews in THE COMPLETE DIRECTORY TO PRIME TIME NETWORK AND CABLE TV SHOWS by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, TOTAL TELEVISION by Alex McNeil with additional information provided by Robert Armin.

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