Glamour hides secrets on new CW series
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
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"Hidden Palms" arrives Wednesday, offering beautiful places, beautiful people and ugly secrets.
The key people are teenagers, hard-bodied and strong-minded. That's true of most shows from Kevin Williamson, the creator of "Dawson's Creek" and "Scream."
And the places are around Palm Springs, Calif.
"It's very surreal in a lot of ways," Williamson says. "It's this man-made oasis and it's plopped down in the middle of the desert where there's a bit of a facade going on."
The characters also have facades with dark stories underneath. During the eight-week run, Williamson promises, a core mystery will be solved and new ones will be set up in case the CW network renews the show.
This centers on young Johnny Miller. "I view him as an anti-hero," says Taylor Handley, who plays him.
A year ago, his father committed suicide and Johnny descended into drugs and alcohol. Now his mother (Gail O'Grady) has a new husband (D.W. Moffett), a new home and a new start.
This won't be easy. Johnny promptly meets:
Cliff's mom, Tess, is the flashy one. "She's from Texas," says Sharon Lawrence, who plays her. "She's a pageant gal, (but) she's not just narcissistic. She also is actually a good friend." And she finds it easy — maybe too easy — to overlook her son's faults.
Johnny's mom, Karen (Gail O'Grady), is trying to rebuild her life. Her new husband, Bob, may be the most normal of the bunch.
"I think my relationship with (Karen) may be the moral compass at this point," says Moffett. "Hopefully at some point I will wind up being a huge drug dealer or something really exciting. But at this point, I'm just Bob."
The younger actors usually get to be the psychopaths. Handley describes his old "O.C." character, Oliver Trask, as "a psychotic, pill-popping crackhead." And he was an abused teen in CBS' "In From the Night," giving a layered performance opposite Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden.
All of that fictional turmoil contrasts with his own childhood in the comfort and beauty of Santa Barbara, Calif. "I love to surf," he says. "You have the mountains and the beach right there."
And you have Hollywood nearby, luring handsome teens. "On my third audition, I got a movie role," Handley says.
He was 13 then, playing the friend of the central kid in "Jack Frost," a Michael Keaton movie.
The show's first hour was filmed in Palm Springs. Other episodes have random footage from Palm Springs but were mainly filmed around Avondale, Ariz., near Phoenix. "If you've been to Scottsdale, you know how beautiful it is," Williamson says. "It's all palm trees and country clubs."
It also requires adjustment. "It was 125 degrees, the first day we shot," Thompson says. "I was just concentrating on not melting."
The actors may have been suffering, but the characters looked bright and sun-splashed. That's the world of "Hidden Palms."
