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First the Yankees,
now the Mafia
by Peter Galuszka
Virginia Business
June 2003
Richmond
may have its problems with drug-related violence, but
portraying the city as a hotbed of organized crime is
a bit of a stretch.
Not
if Hollywood has its way, however. ABC-TV plans on launching
a television show, “Lines of Duty,” next fall
which features FBI agents chasing Richmond mobsters,
according to published reports. The model is HBO’s
highly successful “The Sopranos,” set, of
course, in the more believable Mafia city of Newark,
N.J.
Just
how accurate would the depiction be of the former Capital
of the Confederacy as a gangland haven? Not very, says
Detective Ronald Brown, a spokesman for the Richmond
Police Department. “We don’t know of one organized
crime family. We’ve got drug problems, yeah. But
either ABC knows more than we do or we are behind the
times,” he says.
A
source at Touchstone Pictures in Burbank, Calif., which
is producing the show for ABC, says she doesn’t
know why Richmond was picked as the show’s locale.
A pilot was shot in the city early this year. “It
does have a mob-syndicate family. After all, this is
just a TV show. We don’t have anything to do creatively
with it.” The head mobster will be played by actor
David Paymer. Actress Leslie Bibb will be one of several
newly minted FBI agents out of the academy in Quantico
to battle Richmond’s would-be underworld.
Regardless
of whether Richmond gets a fair shake in its primetime
portrayal, ABC’s programming does need a boost.
The network lost $500 million last year and its entertainment
ratings are running behind its competition.
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