Source Entertainment Weekly
Date November 03, 2006
As it reaches its landmark 100th episode, CBS' under-the-radar
hit WITHOUT A TRACE tackles a national tragedy.
ENRIQUE MURCIANO AND Poppy Montgomery are busy doing what they do
best: trying to solve a mystery. And there's a particularly nasty
one unfolding here on the L.A. set of their hit CBS crime drama,
Without a Trace, one that will heretofore be known as the Case of
the Tighty Whities. Murciano has discovered a pair of cotton
briefsnot his ownthat are being used as set dressing on the
soundstage, and he's gleefully flinging them around. Eventually, the
soaring skivvies land on Montgomery's chair. "Are those worn?!" she
asks, laughing but clearly grossed out. Murciano chuckles and
graciously removes the questionable undergarments from Montgomery's
personal space.
From the looks of things, you'd think this was the last day of
schoolor maybe a raging party at the Sigma Nu house. But no,
Murciano and company are just letting off steam at the end of an
eight-day run spent filming Trace's emotional 100th episode (airing
Oct. 29 at 10 p.m.), which follows Aaron and Sherise Gibbs (guest
stars Eriq LaSalle and Lisa Gay Hamilton), a married couple who
lived through the horrors of Hurricane Katrina only to have Aaron go
missing a year later. Attempting to re-create the widespread
devastation in New Orleans for the episode's flashback scenes is an
incredibly ambitious undertaking, but nobody seems overwhelmed.
While Trace has never been a flashy watercooler hit, it does have
one of the most low-key working environments on TV: Production seems
to hum along without ego, tantrums, or on-set drama. So aside from
the ever-looming threat of underwear-related harassment, could
starring on this below-the-radar (but top 15) series possibly be one
of the best jobs in the industry? "The truth is, I love the show,"
says Montgomery. "I get to do work that I'm proud of."
When Without a Trace premiered in September 2002, it had prime
placement on CBS' schedule: 10 p.m. on Thursday nights, right after
ratings monster CSI. Created by Hank Steinberg (The Nine) and
boasting an executive producer named Jerry Bruckheimer, the show
revolves around gruff investigator Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia),
who leads a team of agentsSamantha Spade (Montgomery), Vivian
Johnson (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close),
Danny Taylor (Murciano), and Elena Delgado (Roselyn Sanchez)on the
hunt for missing persons. It's a solid formula, but in the beginning
not everyone was confident that Tracea slower, more solemn show than
most CBS procedurals at the timecould build a fan base. Says
LaPaglia: "I saw the pilot and thought we were dead."
But the series premiered to 16.2 million viewers, and by the end of
the 2004--05 seasonwhen everyone appeared to be more focused on
pratfalling housewives, horny surgery interns, and a country singer
named Carrie Underwoodit was quietly averaging a series high of 18.8
million viewers. Last year, it was TV's sixth-most-watched show,
beating time-slot competitor ER in both total viewers and the adults
18--49 demo. Nonetheless, credit for its successand most of the
media's attentionhas often gone to Trace's unstoppable former
lead-in. "It was always the perception that we were some kind of CSI
clone," says LaPaglia. "We lived in that shadow for a long time."
Adds exec producer Jan Nash: "Everybody [would love] to walk into a
bar and [have] people go, 'Hey! You're on that hot, sexy show on CBS
everybody's talking about!' But we've done very well, which is a
testament to the work." LaPaglia's disciplined demeanorhe's a study
in quiet concentration on the setand the cast's genuine affection
for their jobs help make this an enjoyably placid workplace. "We've
all realized how lucky we are," says Murciano. Alluding to the
recent onset blowup between Grey's Anatomy stars Patrick Dempsey and
Isaiah Washington, he adds, "We're on a hit showwhy would I get in a
fight with Eric?"
Speaking of Grey's, CBS swooped in to claim its Sundays-at-10 slot
this fall when ABC's hit medical drama moved to Thursdays. "We saw a
chance to move in and pick up viewers," explains CBS Entertainment
president Nina Tassler. "And the numbers that have already come in
have been great." That's a bit of an exaggeration: This season Trace
is averaging 15.6 million viewers, down 16 percent from last year,
due to tough competition from NBC's Sunday Night Football and ABC's
Calista Flockhart soap Brothers & Sisters. (Still, the show ranks
No. 2 in total viewers on Sunday nights, behind Desperate
Housewives.) LaPagliawho's refreshingly bluntwasn't exactly thrilled
with the schedule change, or with the way he heard about it. "I was
in France walking down the street," he recalls, "and some guy said,
'Your show has been changed to Sunday in America.' I was like,
'Really? Wow. Thanks for telling me.' I'm not going to lie. I was
not happy with the decision. Had we stayed on Thursday night, we
would have held strong. At the same time, I understand it. Kind of."
FOR THE LOYAL VIEWERS who have followed Trace to Sundays, the
landmark 100th episode promises to be the drama's boldest outing
yet. Warner Bros. gave the show a bigger budget to celebrate the
milestone (an episode typically costs $2--3 million to produce), and
the extra money went toward an elaborate and haunting sequence in
which LaSalle paddles through post-Katrina New Orleans. "We're
always drawn toward stories about loss and atonement," says exec
producer Greg Walker. "This seemed like a story that was rich."
Production designers built a series of roofs in a man-made lagoon on
a Warner Bros. backlot, while other scenes were shot on an L.A.
street with vintage buildings such as the dusty Gothic church seen
in the episode's climax. "It's important for the show to say
something," says Jean-Baptiste. "It's odd when TV shows set today
are supposed to deal with everyday issuesbut don't mention things
like Katrina."
The way things are going, Without a Trace could be around for
another 100 episodes' worth of smart, topical mysteries. LaPaglia is
committed through 2010 ("Beyond that," he says, "it would depend"),
while Montgomery can't imagine life without her detective pals: "Not
having [the show] to go to every day would be heart-wrenching for
me." Closea veteran of many short-lived series (Dark Skies, Now and
Again) firmly believes that Trace's appeal has no shelf life. "The
audience responds to a sense of hope," he says. "On our show,
there's hope that someone is going to be found." Or at least that
their underwear will be rightfully returned.