Council to Grill Producers of New ABC Series

[Meddle]

Last Updated: July 24. 2010 1:00AM
City Council hearing is set on TV show
Tues. meeting will relay concerns about ABC's 'Detroit 1-8-7'
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News

Detroit --Detroit has gone Hollywood, and some City Council members are none too happy with the results.

Council members have scheduled a 2 p.m. Tuesday hearing to grill producers of the ABC cop drama "Detroit 1-8-7" about its representation of Motown. But it's unclear if anyone from the prime time series, which started filming in Highland Park this week, plans to appear.

The controversy is the latest in a week to mix politics with television, after Mayor Dave Bing ousted Police Chief Warren Evans on Wednesday in part because he allowed a reality TV crew to trail homicide detectives and shopped a show about himself.

Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said he plans to push a council resolution opposing the show, after viewing a trailer for the pilot that was posted online in May.

"We are happy to have Hollywood, but at what expense?" said Kenyatta, adding it was filled with "cheap shots." Councilman Andre Spivey said the trailer left him "flabbergasted."

It leads in with a female detective in front of a white-board full of names of homicide victims and her quip that they had to add columns because they'd "sort of hit capacity."

"We might be the last assembly line in Detroit," the detective says to the camera.

The show is filmed as a mock documentary following several Detroit homicide detectives.

Another scene shows two cops on a freeway overpass searching for a 9 mm bullet but finding two other bullet calibers instead.

"This is what happens when you look for bullets in Detroit," another detective tells the camera.

Detroit landmarks are featured, including the Joe Louis fist, the Renaissance Center and the abandoned Michigan Central Depot, in the original May trailer.

An updated version is now on ABC's website and is toned down, without the bullet or assembly line jokes. Instead of touting Detroit as the nation's murder capital, it brags of the "finest homicide detectives" in America.

A spokeswoman for ABC said Friday the show's staff is sensitive to how the city is portrayed.

"We have been working directly with the city of Detroit so that the characters are portrayed as heroes and so the city is portrayed in a similar light," said Erin Felentzer, an ABC spokeswoman. She said late Friday she wasn't sure if a producer would be attending the Tuesday council meeting.

Carrie Jones, the acting Michigan Film commissioner, said she's talked to the show's staff, and she's convinced they are mindful of concerns.

She said the pilot was made months ago in Atlanta, but producers wanted to film the show in Detroit to bring more authenticity to the series, Jones said. The crew has rehabbed a vacant Highland Park warehouse and created two sound stages. They have said they plan on spending $25 million in the area.

"We haven't even given it a chance to see what they are doing," Jones said. "I don't think they are looking to mock the city."

She said it's a coup for the state to have a major network drama filming and expects them to be here until the end of the year.

But Spivey said one of his biggest beefs is the name of the show and asked one of the producers to change it at a recent meeting he had to express his concerns. The "187" in the title is used by some police departments, primarily in California, as a code for murder. Section 187 of the California Penal Code defines murder.

"Essentially what they are saying is Detroit and murder," Spivey said. "I know we have challenges in Detroit. But that title is going to attract attention from across the nation."

Bing's office has talked with the show's producers recently to make sure its "entertainment value would not be realized at the expense of the city's image or assets," said spokesperson Karen Dumas in a written statement. The producers were "receptive to their concerns," Dumas said.

"The reality is that this is a television series, and not a documentary or reality show," Dumas wrote. "This is also a project that does not require our input or approval to film. They chose to film here in a cooperative manner. They could have done the same series -- title and all -- without our knowledge, input or approval in another location. We are working with them as needed. ..."

The show premieres at 10 p.m. Sept 21.

cmacdonald@detnews.com [[313) 222-2396

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100724/...#ixzz0ua7BYmNF