OKC Starring in TNT's "Grace"

[HOT ROD]

OUman, most Americans - no offense - are to self absorbed to care which city is really on the screen. Take for instance, Vancouver shoots many many films which are supposedly set in Seattle and New York. Vancouver is just that versatile of an urbanopolis, as you know since you've been there.

but hey, use Computer Graphics and insert the space needle in a pano of downtown Vancouver, and voila - it's Seattle. Or a CG of the Sear's Tower, and its Chicago. Or a CG of the Statue of Liberty in the burrard inlet of the Pacific Ocean and some NYC taxi's and American flags (change the Canadian ones) - and voila, Vancouver is now New York.

Personally, I think its great to have such a great city pose for OKC. This should bring people's impression of OKC up a knotch, just like the show "Dallas" did for the city of Dallas. I hope, like Dallas, that OKC adopts some of the urban ambiance that Grace (via Vancouver) will bring to people's minds.

Now that is really were we can capitalize, and possibly get some shows shot in OKC as well!!!

[animeGhost]

not sure if its related but ive noticed some construction on an abandoned gas station on 63rd? and sooner and today i drove by and saw a lot of trailers and a camera crew... dont know if its one of tnt's crews but its possible

[CCOKC]

According to the TNT website this series premieres next Monday the 23rd. I intend to be watching.

[John]

not sure if its related but ive noticed some construction on an abandoned gas station on 63rd? and sooner and today i drove by and saw a lot of trailers and a camera crew... dont know if its one of tnt's crews but its possible

I noticed that, too. This was my first thought. Not sure, though. If I had time, I'd have exited and tried to investigate...

[okcpulse]

but I don't see any story about urban lifestyles being set in Oklahoma any time soon, even if parts of it were to be filmed here.

BDP, I will soon begin work on writing a urban lifestyle screenplay set in OKC. No cows included. I've already written a draft.

[animeGhost]

I went by that spot again last night after work and all the roads for a square mile around the site were blocked off! i wonder if this could be the filming of the show if not they're definitely doing some sort of large film project!!!

[HOT ROD]

I suspect Saving Grace will be somewhat authentic Oklahoma City!!! Can't wait to catch the show.

by the way, the first episode comes on TNT again on Thursday and also will be TNT HD!!!! From the looks of it, the show will be on four times a week;

TNT HD first then regular TNT on Mondays, repeated on Thursdays. Everyone should be able to catch the shows.

Bookmark your TV's!!!!

City police play key role in ‘Grace'

By John Savage
Staff Writer

Oklahoma City native Nancy Miller is the writer, creator and executive producer of the new police drama "Saving Grace,” premiering at 9 p.m. Monday on TNT.

To ensure accuracy, she and the show's other writers have been involved with the Oklahoma City Police Department on an observation level, Master Sgt. Gary Knight said.

He said he was contacted about this show last year and started working with Hunter and Miller, answering questions and giving tours of the facilities.

Hunter was involved with car ride-along, weapons training, self-defense training and police driver training.

Knight said a couple of the other actors also visited, but neither of them went through the extensive training that Hunter completed.

He has also been answering questions on the telephone with the writers about procedures almost on a daily basis. "We discuss how we look, and how we would investigate certain crime scenes,” he said.

Knight said the other part of the detective's lives is all up to the writers.

"As far as personal life goes, that takes another path that's something for television,” Knight said.

He said the crew was polite and respectful and observed all the procedures the police department deals with on a daily basis.

"Anything we had to say about anything they were all ears; they didn't waste our time. They understood we have a job to do, and they didn't get in the way of that. But at the same time, they were able to observe what we do and how we do it,” Knight said.

He said Hunter was very involved, asking the right questions and taking notes often. "She was very detail-oriented about how she observed the roles of the police officers. It was interesting and a change from the everyday life around here.”

This is the first television series with which Knight has worked.

"There are documentaries that will come to town sometimes ... this is the first one I can remember as big role as we have played in,” Knight said. "We have never spent time like this on any type of program before.”

He said working with the crew and cast "has been interesting, and it's something new for us. The thing people have to keep in mind, even though they will appear to model themselves after the OCPD, viewers will have to realize its still television, and it's all make-believe.”

Knight said he has worked with Miller on a number of occasions, but mostly he works with other writers on the show who call him often.

"It's been a lot of fun; all of them have been very gracious. They have been very understanding ... they are very polite,” Knight said.

[HOT ROD]

Holly Hunter is ‘Grace' in new TNT series

By Brandy McDonnell
Entertainment Writer

After more than 20 years on the big screen, movie star Holly Hunter is forging new territory

The Oscar winner is starring for the first time in a television series, the Oklahoma City-set character drama and police procedural "Saving Grace,” which premieres at 9 p.m. Monday on TNT.

"One of the things I've always wanted in my career was to work with people that I like more than once. And you rarely get to. ... Through my entire career, and now that's been going on 20-odd years since "Raising Arizona” in 1986, you can really not run into the same people twice. And I've always wanted so badly to work with actors repeatedly, because the relationship, you know, the intimacy that you feel, and the safety that you feel and the comfort that you feel, with some actors, is something that you don't want to walk away from because you can only build on it,” Hunter said in a recent conference call.

"I really love these actors that share the show with me. It's dynamite to get to do a different story every week but with the same people.”

But Hunter, 49, said the true motivation for her switch to television was the character she plays, jaded Oklahoma City cop Grace Hanadarko. Scarred by her tragic past, Grace is on a self-destructive path of heavy drinking, reckless affairs and defying authority. But when she kills a man in a drunken driving accident, Grace uncharacteristically asks for God's help. She gets it, in the form of a tobacco-chewing angel named Earl.

"I wanted to play Grace, and I didn't want anybody else to play Grace. It was kind of that much of a private attraction that I had for the character, and that doesn't happen with me often. And I felt kind of privileged to feel it again, because I've felt it only a few times with characters,” Hunter said.

Series creator Nancy Miller, who grew up in Oklahoma City and graduated from the University of Oklahoma, said she wanted to set a show in her hometown for years, but never had the justification. But she thought "Saving Grace” needed a Bible Belt setting.

The series is set in the Sooner State, but the pilot was filmed in Canada [Vancouver to be exact], with one day of location shooting in Oklahoma City. The other episodes were made in Los Angeles.

"I like to write about taboo subjects. ‘Any Day Now' was about race. My series before that (‘Leaving L.A.') was about death. ... And for my next subject, I wanted to explore God and faith and religion and sin — those things we're not supposed to talk about — through the eyes of a character who has had a deep pain in her life and questions if there's even a God,” Miller said in a phone interview.

"I think a lot of times, television has portrayed angels and God in ways that I can't relate. I think God has a great sense of humor. I think God laughs at us when we do stuff, and He cries with us as well. And I had never really seen that. So I wanted an angel that I could relate to if I was ever gonna sit across from my angel.”

Hunter said she doesn't personally believe in angels, but her beliefs don't matter. She makes her living as a storyteller who embodies fictional stories.

Her lengthy career has included many memorable characters, from the cop desperate for a baby in "Raising Arizona” to her Oscar-winning turn as a mute woman married off to a New Zealand farmer in "The Piano.” She has won two Emmys and been nominated for three more — all for TV movies — but this is her first role in a series.

The Georgia native said accepting the lead role in an hourlong drama series is an ambitious commitment. She called Dylan McDermott, formerly of "The Practice,” to ask, "How do you do this?”

"He just said that the most exciting thing about it is that you have to be very spontaneous. You have to live, you know, a somewhat different life in front of the camera ... inside that you could find a life that you might never have anywhere else except for in the one-hour drama schedule,” she said. "And I think that that's true, you know. ... The day can take you, and the rhythm of the speed of the shooting can be really intoxicating.”

The Renaissance of Oklahoma City continues!!!

[HOT ROD]

OK people.

The show comes on tonite (repeated again on Thursdays).

Im watching it now (in Seattle) and it looks pretty good. Good scene shots of the OKC skyline (along with Vancouver's) and not tooo hickish. Nice OKC police car!

discuss further. ...

[OU Adonis]

I think they overdid some Oklahoma references but a good start. I wish they spent more time in the memorial.

[betts]

I'm not much of a television watcher, but I'm a long time Holly Hunter fan. I'm also unsure about these divine intervention shows, but at least Earl is amusing. I found myself enjoying the show and already getting kind of attached to Grace, who seems to have come by her personal demons honestly. It's a little seedier than most of the Oklahoma City I've spent time in, but a few sterotypes aren't the end of the world. They're a little out of date having a cattle rancher, rather than a natural gas entrepreneur as the rich guy. I can't remember the last time I was at a cattle auction either. But I can tell I'm going to keep watching this one faithfully.

[HOT ROD]

concurr Betts.

[Nixon7]

How many OKlahoma references were there?!?!! I heard OKC like 4 times in the first few minutes. And then the radio guy saying, wake up all you boomer sooners! Seemed overdone, but it was cool to see! This type of show isn't what I watch, but I will definately be watching this one. Now I want a chase scene through upper bricktown...

[bombermwc]

So it was on last night. I sort of liked it and didn't like it. Had it not been about OKC, I can safely say I wouldn't have watched it though. I'm annoyed that they made so many characters have that damned hick accent. Really....how many of us walk around in OKC and hear people talk like that? It won't add to the stereotype crap or anything. They made more a deal about the damned cows than anything else in the city.

So my first impression, we get a TV show that is supposed to be based in OKC and our hero is a drugged up drunk nympho atheist, with anything BUT OKC buildings and scenery. The only thing actually from OKC is that last 2 minute scene at the memorial. So somehow they had to throw in a character to tie that in??? why?

I'll keep watching to see if things improve, but I didn't exactlly have a high opinion of the first episode....very dissapointed actually. It's a very Hollywood picture of OKC instead of what it really is like here.

[BDP]

how many of us walk around in OKC and hear people talk like that?

Ummmm... Are we talking about the same Oklahoma here? Just watch the news.

[Pete]

I wish they had toned down the accents a little (they are always somewhat exaggerated in these shows) but I can't say they were too far off.

When I lived in OKC, I never noticed the twang unless it was really extreme. But after being away a couple of years and coming back to visit, the first thing I thought was "When did everyone get these thick accents??"

[Turanacus]

I thought that the OU flags and signs, the hick accents, the cowboy hats, the cattle yards, the country bar, it was all a stereotypical -- even the crazy teenager kid had a cowboy hat in his room.

how close was Dallas to a true reflection of Dallas...


the grace show was about what I expected... I think the angel aspect is poopy, a law and order format would be more entertaining.... I'm only watching because of the oklahoma aspect, not because it's a good show.

[NE Oasis]

Ummmm... Are we talking about the same Oklahoma here? Just watch the news.

Probably my biggest gripe about the show! The "local" news was not even local call letters, much less a local face. Certainly the producers could develop some type of rotation among Amy, Jessica, and Linda for face time. The three could record bits for the show just as easily as thier local promos. I'll stay for now but hope to see some character development in Grace.

[NikonNurse]

There is a Paul Valley, a paul michael valley that was on some of the soaps I watched...maybe he needs some work.

[bombermwc]

AMEN Turanacus.

Cowboy hats...really? I've lived here all my life, and I hardly ever see anyone in a cowboy hat (and thats usually only when I'm in a smaller town or it was Cowboy day at school or something). Maybe a truck pulling horses on the highway. But the accent...ok everyone has a little bit of one, but they WAY overdo it. The whole freaking police force wouldn't talk like they are small town sherrifs in say Dibble or whatever. And let's go ahead and round out the diversity by throwing in the random Native American cop. I don't want to sound like it bothers me or anything, I just can picture the roundtable discussion of the executives trying to find a way to throw one in there. Afterall, its Oklahoma so there must be one in there, right....hmm. I'll definitely give you that it's sort of like Dallas in that the TV show was nothing like the town.

NEOasis, I think that the local guys probably wouldn't want to be involved anyway. Can you imagine the licensing and royalties and payments you would have to fork out. I'm sure that pretty much any TV show like this doesn use the real local news...would just be a nightmare to manage.

[jbrown84]

I noticed the other day that I say "fer" instead of "for". But other than that, I don't think I really have an accent. I don't say y'all.

[JWil]

NEOasis, I think that the local guys probably wouldn't want to be involved anyway. Can you imagine the licensing and royalties and payments you would have to fork out. I'm sure that pretty much any TV show like this doesn use the real local news...would just be a nightmare to manage.

I imagine it would have to do with the fact that the anchors aren't in SAG. Some might be, but most aren't, especially here.

Just an FYI: Anyone you see on TV or film that has a speaking role means that they are SAG (Screen Actors Guild -- the acting union) or SAG-eligible. It's very tough to get into and requires a $1,300 initiation fee.

Other factors definitely come into play, such as affiliates not allowed to be shown because of networks not wanting it, etc.

Rarely, if ever, do real stations make it on TV or movies. Just consider it another universe.

[Drake]

I imagine it would have to do with the fact that the anchors aren't in SAG. Some might be, but most aren't, especially here.

Just an FYI: Anyone you see on TV or film that has a speaking role means that they are SAG (Screen Actors Guild -- the acting union) or SAG-eligible. It's very tough to get into and requires a $1,300 initiation fee.

Other factors definitely come into play, such as affiliates not allowed to be shown because of networks not wanting it, etc.

Rarely, if ever, do real stations make it on TV or movies. Just consider it another universe.

Gary England made into Twister. But I know what you mean.

[jbrown84]

A big budget movie is a little different. This show can't afford the red tape. If they aren't going to shoot the actual OKC skyline, they sure aren't going to use real OKC tv anchors.

[traxx]

I didn't get to see but the tail end because I was at Wal-Mart buying groceries (now that's Oklahoma), but from what I can tell, I just wish they'd do more actual shooting here for locations and then they could do the intereiors on soundstages in L.A.

Maybe they'll tone down the accents (or dialects, technically) over time. Remember how rediculous they were when Dallas first began.