'Sunshine Boys' Finally Sees the Light of Day

By BRIAN LOWRY

Dec. 27, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Long before El Nin~o brought a steady dose of clouds to California, CBS apparently decided to save “The Sunshine Boys” for a rainy day.

What else can one assume when it has taken nearly three years for a TV movie version of Neil Simon’s play to see the light of day--and then during a week recognized as a ratings dead zone, surrounded by a plethora of reruns on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s Day?

CBS announced plans for the movie with considerable fanfare in January 1995. The intriguing team of Peter Falk and Woody Allen would star in roles played by Walter Matthau and George Burns in the 1975 film, and Neil Simon would tailor his play for the production.

Sarah Jessica Parker co-starred, with Whoopi Goldberg appearing in a (now uncredited) cameo. John Erman, fresh off CBS’ blockbuster miniseries “Scarlett,” would direct for that project’s producer, Robert Halmi Sr., and CBS said the project would air during the May 1995 ratings sweeps.

A network spokeswoman was vague regarding the delay but said various factors make this Sunday an ideal time to run the movie: “The Sunshine Boys” recently returned to Broadway--with “The Odd Couple’s” Tony Randall and Jack Klugman playing the leads--garnering rave reviews. The play itself just marked its 25th anniversary. And Allen’s latest movie, “Deconstructing Harry,” has premiered to some of the director’s best critical response in years.

Yet none of that explains why a project with prestigious auspices would collect dust and have its airdate pushed back on at least two occasions. In fact, the film sat so long that a last-minute change had to be made to remove a reference to the late Princess Diana.

In an interview, Falk expressed confusion as to why the movie hadn’t aired. “Nobody called me and explained it,” he said. “I don’t have any idea. They spent a lot of dough on this thing.”

Sources say the movie stayed in limbo due to network politics and personnel changes, a production some felt steered off course and poor ratings for similar fare--including other adaptations of Simon’s work for television.

CBS officials loved the idea at first. Simon wrote the teleplay, updating references to excise dated material. The plan was to make the Allen and Falk characters younger than in the original, playing comedians partnered in the 1950s and ‘60s instead of former vaudevillians. (“These guys could be from ‘Laugh-In,’ ” Halmi said in a 1995 interview.)

Falk said there were no problems during production, but as early footage came in, network executives were said to be upset about aspects of the movie, including his performance. They liked doing the story with younger characters but felt Falk played the role much older, including an accent.

“Those questions [about the characters’ ages] were all settled ahead of time,” Falk said, citing the rewrite by Simon, who was present for rehearsals. As for an accent, Falk (who hasn’t seen the completed film) said he simply talked “like an old Jew.”

Erman didn’t return phone calls, but sources say CBS officials felt he hadn’t been clear in conveying the network’s misgivings to Falk. CBS postponed airing the movie, pushing the airdate from May to the fall of 1995.

CBS then underwent a management change, with Leslie Moonves replacing Peter Tortorici as president of the entertainment division. Beyond doubts about the movie itself, a one-time network executive noted that most new regimes tend to view skeptically “the ‘not invented here’ part of anything left in inventory.”

Another possible factor was Halmi’s unusually public feud with the then-head of CBS’ movie operation. Moonves overhauled the staff not long after his arrival, but according to Halmi, the movie had already been labeled a dud.

After delaying “The Sunshine Boys,” CBS unveiled plans to revive “Playhouse 90” by airing a series of adapted plays, including a production from Francis Ford Coppola and a new version of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” starring Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin. “Streetcar” did run in October but bombed in the ratings, and the “Playhouse 90” concept quietly fizzled.

Other evidence also gradually emerged that Simon’s Tony-winning credentials might not carry much weight with TV audiences. Two Halmi productions of Simon plays drew mediocre ratings last year: “Jake’s Women,” starring Alan Alda, and NBC’s “Must-See TV”-studded “London Suite,” featuring Kelsey Grammer and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Halmi, a master showman who specializes in big-budget movies and miniseries such as “Gulliver’s Travels” and “The Odyssey” (his next NBC epic will be “Merlin,” starring Sam Neill), remains enthusiastic about “The Sunshine Boys.”

“This kind of wonderful storytelling should be revisited by every generation,” he said, adding that he still plans to bring more plays to television.

As for the press-shy Allen, Halmi maintains that he doesn’t mind that this rare TV performance has sat dormant long enough for three Allen-directed films to be released since its completion (the others being “Everyone Says I Love You” and “The Mighty Aphrodite”).

“Woody, of course, is a pragmatist. He said, ‘They’ll show it when they’re ready.’ . . . I was the only one who was worrying,” Halmi said.

In certain ways, the timing may indeed be fortuitous. CBS’ Sunday movie--playing after the hit drama “Touched by an Angel”--has been on a roll this season, dominating competing fare on NBC and ABC.

Thanks to the air date, competition that night will also be less than fierce. NBC and ABC will run the feature films “The River Wild” and “I Love Trouble,” respectively, while Fox serves up a rerun of “The X-Files.”

Finally, despite reports about negative reaction at the network, some early reviews have been positive. People magazine, for example, said Falk and Allen “give Burns and Matthau a serious run for the funny bone.”

Having acknowledged his own doubts about the movie’s fate while it languished on the shelf, Halmi insists now that the scheduling couldn’t be better.

“Nobody’s going to travel that Sunday night,” he said. “The Northeast is going to be snowed in. It’s an ideal night for the family to gather around the television.”

And what about the holidays depressing TV viewing levels? Halmi answers like someone who can find sunshine in even the dimmest recesses of network decision-making.

“Good programming is good programming, and people are going to watch it,” he said. “People are going to tune in a good program no matter when it’s on and no matter what network it’s on.”

* “The Sunshine Boys” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS (Channel 2).

* ‘BOYS’ STRIKES OUT

Howard Rosenberg reviews a teaming out of time, F2