Last week, we got to meet Carter, and tonight at 10p on WGN we will get to know him even better as he works on his first real case.
Jerry O’Connell plays Harley Carter, who is an actor best known for playing Harley Carter a detective on television. After some life mishaps in Hollywood, he returns home to Canada and starts using his fake detective skills to be a real one with his two best childhood friends, one who is a real detective.
Last week he worked on his first case to prove his house caretaker did not commit murder. This week, a fan approaches him to solve his mother’s murder. For years, police have said her death in a fire was accidental, but her son thinks otherwise. Not only that, her son believes that someone is after him. He might be right.
Now, Harley, Sam (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) and Dave (Kristian Bruun) are doing everything in their power to find out who killed this guy’s mother and protect him from getting murdered himself. The only problem is the police chief hates Harley and believes this case has already been solved and does not want anyone in the force to work on it. Good thing Harley has the mayor on his side and she thinks Harley solving cases is good for the town’s image.
While it is good for the image, does Harley really know what he is doing? You just have to tune in for a police procedural that is unlike anything else on TV.
I was recently on a conference with O’Connell and he talked about working on Carter.
What attracted to Jerry O’Connell to Carter?
JC – It was really fun when I read Carter because it’s about a guy who plays a cop on TV who gets a little disillusioned with that life and then finds new life in helping out his high school sweetheart, who is a real-life detective, helping her solve crimes, and it sort of invigorates him. It really made me laugh. There’s a lot of inside jokes, like trying to explain to the real cops the five-act structure of television and how we’re getting close to finding out who the real killer is.
Admittedly, it’s a lot like Castle, except Castle was a novelist. It’s almost like Castle on steroids because this guy’s a TV actor, so if you’re a fan of the Law and Order’s and the Monk’s and the Castle’s, this is going to be your show because it sort of makes fun of that world.
Is O’Connell like Carter?
JC – Man, it’s so embarrassing to say, but a lot of Carter is like me. Thankfully, I’m not as vain as the character of Carter is. He’s always worried about how he looks in situations, or that could just be my version of Garry Shandling’s old joke, “How does my hair look?” Harley Carter is a television actor. I’m a TV actor. I like to think Carter is a little more obsessed with himself than I am. I’m not wearing makeup right now and I have a feeling that Carter is always wearing, not a lot, but some form of makeup when he leaves the house, at least concealer.
What does O’Connell think about his co-stars?
JC – First of all, Sydney is gorgeous, Sydney Poitier, and she is the most important character in the show because I can be goofy and talk about TV, and how everything works in TV, and how we find a killer in TV, and how Columbo would do it, and that’s fine. If there isn’t actual stakes, if you’re not actually really invested in the show, then it just doesn’t work. Sydney’s ability to ground our show, that’s everything. That’s what makes our show, so we’re all forever indebted to her and her ability to do that.
Kristian Bruun, for you Orphan Black fans, is just so fun to work with as well. Getting to work with those two is just a dream. We have a good old time on set. We approach every scene like, let’s have fun making this, and I think it really comes across. I don’t think we had one fight, and it’s crazy because all I do is fight with co-workers.
What is it like filming on location in Canada?
JC – I will say this, where we shot in Northern Ontario, oh, man, it was almost like rehab for my soul, it’s so gorgeous. It’s just lake country in Northern Ontario. It’s a town called North Bay. It’s super gorgeous and calming and soothing, and everyone was so happy that we were shooting there. I’m just not used to that. I’m used to shooting—not to call out cities, but I’m used to shooting in the city where people are always yelling at you for shooting in front of their store or blocking their driveway with a camera truck. It was just so refreshing to film in such a non-hostile environment. It really became sort of like a character in the show, the fact that we were shooting in a small town, and North Bay is just such a cute, quaint place.
Everyone is doing a reboot, what about Sliders?
JC – Yes. Hey, there might be a reboot. There’s been a couple of phone calls made. Yes. No phone calls returned, but a couple phone calls made.
