Get into the 'Action' with Fox's latest show

Despite its landing on network television - and thank goodness it washed up on the shores of FOX as opposed to the warm fuzzy meadow of CBS - "Action" manages to retain all of the doberman-sharp bite and, happily, near-nudity and obscenities that are bleeped out so that you and I know they're there but the FCC can't do a damn thing.

REVIEW

So to speak.

Offering a satirical inside look at the behind-the-scenes world of a Hollywood producer that civilians only hear about in a whiff of a sex scandal here or a studio head ouster there, "Action" stars Jay Mohr as alternating ego-massaging and self-esteem-consuming producer Peter Dragon. Peter has an ex-wife, a little girl and a first-look deal with the studio that is constantly in jeopardy - or at least, that's what he fears.

He cuts the cojones off anybody who gets in his way, unless they get his first. He parks wherever he wants, does whatever and whomever he wants and generally acts like a first-class prick. In short, he's typical Hollywood sludge.

Don't believe for a second that he's an exaggeration. He exists. You may have even met him and been blinded by his oily charm.

When he crosses paths with a has-been child actress-turned-hooker named Wendy Ward (Illeana Douglas) at the premiere for his new flick ("Slow Torture," and, yes, the title is literal), something in Peter gives.

He takes her home. Granted, he has more nefarious motives than just using her for sex: he gets her reading scripts and recommending material for his production company, Dragonfire Films.

Sleaze or sweetheart? Hollywood may never know, at least until Peter puts his autobiography up on the big screen.

Then again, it probably wouldn't make as much money as his soon-to-be-produced blockbuster, "Beverly Hills Gun Club" (bought for way more than it was worth because two writers had the nearly the same name and nobody at Dragonfire knew the difference).

And so it goes around the Dragonfire offices: Agents pitch talent (O.J. Simpson), producers suck off A-listers to get them in their movie (okay, so not directly, but it sort of happens), Peter's uncle (Buddy Hackett), ostensibly the head of security, snores his life away on the waiting room couch. Somewhere in between, we can assume, movies get made.

Rounding out the "Action" ensemble are Jack Plotnick as Peter's sycophantic company president, Stuart Glazer, who likes to spend weekends at gay beach parties picking up well-oiled hotties; Jarrad Paul as Adam Rafkin, the lucky writer whose script is mistakenly purchased by Dragonfire; and Xanax as Peter's brain candy of choice.

Performances are top-notch across the board. Executive producers Joel Silver and Chris Thompson also pepper each episode with a cameo or two from the likes of Keanu Reeves.

Two episodes of "Action" play tonight before it settles into its regular half-hour timeslot. There's no slow torture here, unless we're talking about the week wait in between episodes. Take action and give Peter Dragon the hit he deserves.

FOX

Thursdays at 9:30 p.m.

HHHH

Action!

09-16-99