honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, October 16, 2006

Savvy is not crooks' strong suit in 'Knights'

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

ABC's "The Knights of Prosperity" features actors on familiar turf, with clockwise from top: Sofia Vergara as Esperanza Villalobos, Donal Logue as Eugene Gurkin, Maz Jobrani as Gourishankar "Gary" Subramaniam, Lenny Venito as Francis "Squatch" Squacieri, Josh Grisetti as Louis Plunk, Kevin Michael Richardson as Rockefeller Butts.

BOB D'AMICO | ABC

spacer spacer

'THE KNIGHTS OF PROSPERITY'

Season premiere

8 p.m. tomorrow

ABC

spacer spacer

Television seems to love the master criminal. From "Smith" to "Heist" to "Thief," it gives its crooks intelligence and savvy. Now it's time for the flip side.

Meet "The Knights of Prosperity," the final new-season network show to debut.

Its leader, played by Donal Logue, has more enthusiasm than brainpower.

"Have we ever played any other kind of character?" Logue asked, referring to him and his castmates. The other actors on the ABC series that debuts tomorrow are also on familiar turf. "I'm pretty stupid normally," dead-panned Lenny Venito.

Well, maybe their characters are simply in the wrong field. "They're innocent and they're naive in some ways," Logue said.

One, played by Maz Jobrani, was a lawyer in India. Now he's a cab driver, seduced by a big scheme.

These characters will spend the season trying to pull off a heist of rock star Mick Jagger's apartment in New York City. It's filmed on location with one camera, movie-style.

Burnett said it was Steve McPherson, the president of ABC Entertainment, who suggested the show's heist target.

"McPherson ... threw out the name Mick Jagger and we all were like, 'Yeah. Sure. Great.' "

All assumed Jagger would never return their calls, said Jon Beckerman, who created the show with Burnett.

Then they got the call. They could fly to New Zealand, where Jagger and the Rolling Stones had just finished a tour, and have about five hours filming odd bits for the pilot. "He seemed to have a fun time doing it," Burnett said.

That gives "Knights" an odd set of executive producers. There's Jagger and Victoria Pearman (his producing partner), plus Burnett and Beckerman and their boss, David Letterman.

The Jagger clips show an exaggerated form of his apartment. They're all stuffed into the first episode; beyond that, "Knights" leans on its less-than-savvy characters:

  • Eugene Gurkin, a janitor who dreams big. He's played by Logue, a Harvard grad who's usually given blue-collar roles. He did "Grounded for Life" for five seasons.

  • Francis "Squatch" Squacieri, a fellow janitor. He's played by Venito, who grew up in Brooklyn as a policeman's son. "I've always identified with blue-collar guys," Venito said.

  • Gourishankar "Gary" Subramaniam, the lawyer-turned-cabbie. He's played by Jobrani, who was the boss in Fox's "Life on a Stick."

  • Rockefeller Butts, a huge security guard. He's played by Kevin Michael Richardson, best known for voice work.

  • Louis Plunk, a recent college grad who somehow becomes the intern for a heist ring. He's played by Josh Grisetti, just two years out of college. "I am sort of a little bit of Louis Plunk," Grisetti said.

  • Esperanza Villalobos, a waitress. She's played by Sofia Vergara, who hosted a Spanish-language travel show, before doing ABC's "Hot Properties." The actress and the character are from Colombia. "I think I can copy the Latin accents very well," Vergara joked.