PROFIT REVIEWS

PHILADELPHIA, PA INQUIRER 7/11/96
In a discussion with Adrian Pasdar�s father, Dr. Homayoon Pasdar, talks about the canceled PROFIT. “I�d like the show to come back. We were all surprised when it was canceled. I thought the show was great. I didn�t like Adrian to be a bad guy, but I liked the way he did it. Adrian was very intense about acting as a youngster. Acting-wise, he�s pretty darn good, a real ham,” says his proud pop. In real life, “Adrian is an easygoing fellow, nothing like the character he plays.” As for his son�s sleeping in a cardboard box, “if it�s part of the plot, it�s intriguing,” Adrian�s father muses. “It has something to do with the way he looks at the world and what he wants from it.”

TIME MAGAZINE 4/22/96
“Profit�s played with a slippery chill by Adrian Pasdar. He also looks sexy in a suit.”

DAILY VARIETY 4/8/96
“Pasdar is sensational. Radiating boyish innocence as he backstabs his way up Gracen & Gracen.”

TV GUIDE 4/6-12/96
“Adrian Pasdar has the sawtooth voice of an edgy young Jack Palance, the manner and sickly smile of a captain in an overpriced restaurant, and the ethics of Eddie Haskell�s evil twin.”

PEOPLE MAGAZINE 5/6/96
“Several weeks ago, two recent business school grads came up to Adrian Pasdar at a Manhattan theater and began gushing about his star turn in the extravagantly praised new FOX series, PROFIT. �They said it was great to have somebody representing them on TV.� says Pasdar laughing. His character, Jim Profit, is an ultraslick young executive who rises to the top of the conglomerate Gracen & Gracen by any means necessary. �I don�t think Profit is devoid of morality,� Pasdar says. �He�s just on a different plane than the rest of us. Now I spend more time in suits than anyone in the corporate world.�”

LONDON FREE PRESS 4/6/96
“It�s a warm night in Pasadena, California, and the FOX network is cranking up its leg of the midwinter press tour with a casino party inside its luxurious two-story penthouse atop the lush Ritz-/Carlton Huntington Hotel. On the terrace, Adrian Pasdar seems mesmerized by the little white ball that is whirling around the roulette wheel in front of him. The tiny orb bounces to and fro, the fortunes of all its onlookers hanging on the sphere�s final resting place. Pasdar frowns. You win some, you lose some, he figures. It�s what gambling is all about. Not that the actor is exactly a seasoned gambler. In fact, in that weekly high-stakes game known as network TV, he�s still as green as they come. �I�ve never been involved in a series before,� says Pasdar . Still when FOX flagged him to play the sinister title character, Pasdar sensed the gamble might pay off big. �There�s a certain intrigue to playing this character,� Pasdar explains. �There are a lot of admirable traits that he has, if you can strip away what people would term as immoral acts. He wears his behavior on his sleeve. He doesn�t lie about it. He just goes and does his thing. A lot of the dysfunction that exists underneath the surface of a lot of big business corporations is really profound,� he reflects. �I think we portray that equally in our show. And I think it�s important to win.� Like Pasdar though, he�s always willing to gamble.”

TV GUIDE 4/13/96
“Sporting dark Ran-Bans and a five o�clock shadow as he sits in an outdoor cafe in New York City�s Greenwich Village, Adrian Pasdar looks like a man with something to hide. But unlike Jim Profit, Pasdar has no skeletons in his closet. �This is fun,� Adrian says. �It�s just short of nudge-nudge wink-wink to the camera, just this side of camp. There�s an element of soap to PROFIT. There�s nothing like this, I think, that�s been done on TV before successfully,� Pasdar reports.”

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 4/22/96
“Stephen Cannell executive produces PROFIT and admits the name Profit is a bit of homage to the crazed Mel Profitt character on his WISEGUY series. In fact Adrian Pasdar resembles a younger, more menacing Ken Wahl, star of WISEGUY, but with oiled-back hair and a whispering edge to his voice. Like Wahl, Pasdar exudes danger, compassion, and vulnerability on screen. �Yeah, I think there�s an attitude we share, although I�ve never been told that before,� Pasdar said of Wahl. �No seriously,� Pasdar continues, �I�ve got this scar, and these big old eyebrows, and my lips are lazy, and I slur sometimes. Our character may share an energy, but actually I think I�m a good Mr. Potatohead.� Pasdar was chosen from hundreds of actors who auditioned for the role of Profit.”

BOSTON GLOBE 6/7/96
�Profit�: why bad things happen to good shows “Perhaps the world simply wasn�t ready for Jim Profit. With his shellacked hair and crocodile smile, he all but slithered onto television screens when the Fox series “Profit” premiered April 8. As brilliantly played by Adrian Pasdar, he wasn�t an antihero, but an antichrist rustling the shadows and skeletons in everyone else�s closet. Of course, he had his own dark secrets - he murdered his father and had an affair with his drug-addled, conniving stepmother. And then there was the matter of his tortured childhood and the cardboard moving box where Profit still slept naked and curled in a fetal position. PROFIT was hailed as one of the best shows of the season. Critics scrambled for superlatives to praise the program, predicting wonderfully wicked doings for one of the most daringly original TV characters in recent years. But four episodes into its run, PROFIT proved a loss. With dismal ratings, the series was yanked off the air. In these highly competitive times, with so much at stake, even kudos from the critics was not a lifesaver for a program drowning in the depths of the Nielsens. The show�s cancellation was one of the biggest blows in a TV season full of dead spots. Especially disheartening was how quickly Fox dropped the ax on the promising series, which may have been too smart, too sinister and, ultimately, too tough to categorize for television�s taste. �PROFIT, I think, is one of the most obvious abuses of quick cancellation I�ve seen in a long time,� said Robert Thompson, associate professor of television at Syracuse University�s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. �It seemed like Fox really flew in the face of anybody who was writing or talking about that show,� he said. �The very weeks when it was getting these incredible reviews, they decided to take it off the schedule.� In the final season numbers, PROFIT ranked 138th out of 159 shows. Given the much-hyped competition, some say the final ratings of PROFIT were not an accurate assessment of the series� potential. �It was one of the more interesting and innovative, if not the most interesting and innovative, series of this new season, which had basically had nothing,� Swanson said. �The show was too good. Normally networks bleed for reviews like those PROFIT got, but here it made no difference,� said Michele Leponde, who is writing a book about television in the 1990s. �It�s almost as if the network had something special in their hands and they just didn�t know it.�”

SUN TIMES NEWS 5/2/96
“It�s a treat savoring his gravel-voiced narration, sharing in the devious plans his cold eyes guard masterfully. As good as the concept is, PROFIT would go belly-up without Adrian Pasdar in the lead role. Slick, grim, smooth and dangerous, a sinister monster who�s savagely delightful to watch, Pasdar makes PROFIT a worthy investment.

DALLES MORNING NEWS 5/8/96
“Why watch? Perhaps because PROFIT qualifies as good television in the sense that it�s different, daring and strangely compelling. Whether narrating or acting on his ruthless impulses, Adrian Pasdar is quietly addictive in the title role. Sounding a lot like Martin Sheen - and a little like Rod Sterling - he plots downfalls with the practiced skill and dispassion of a surgeon removing appendix no. 879. His allies are computer files, blackmailed accomplices and an ability to exude a little-boy sincerity and vulnerability. If anything, he�s all too believable. Following his heart, he methodically seduces the unsatisfied wife of a rival. It goes like this: “When you want someone to love you, open your heart. When you want someone obsessed with you, close it.” Episode three includes this memorable come-on from stepmother Bobbi (Lisa Blount), who knows what Profit likes. “Ya know,” she tells him, “ever since you were a little kid, there�s this real snotty sound you�ve got in your voice which made me just wanna grab a belt, yank your britches down and beat your ass to hamburger. So whaddya say?” Sorry to say, he�s agreeable. Mr. Pasdar�s performance is hard to resist, though. He�s a bad seed sprung from hell�s half-acre, a devil in a dark business suit by day and a birthday suit in the nighttime privacy of his oddly appointed apartment.

BUSINESS WEEKLY 4/8/96
“Actor Adrian Pasdar, who plays the main character, says Jim Profit is modeled on no one but acknowledges he studied for the role by following up-and-comers around corporate hallways to pick up their tics and hunger. Fox is headed by corporate pirate Rupert Murdoch, who knows a little bit about both profit and danger himself. �It�s his favorite [Fox] show,� claims Pasdar. �He likes it being hard-edged and aggressive, the element of the shark.�”

THE NEWS-TIMES 7/11/96
`Profit� may find new life on cable�s `Showtime� “Batten down the cardboard boxes, boys and girls. Jim Profit may live again. PROFIT-starring Adrian Pasdar - could find new life on cable�s Showtime network, if executive producer Stephen J. Cannell has his way. In an interview Tuesday during the TV critics� tour in Pasadena, Calif., Cannell said he�s shopping PROFIT around, and that Showtime has shown some interest. Pasdar�s primed to do new episodes, Cannell adds. Worst-case scenario, Cannell says, is that he�ll transfer the four remaining original segments to video and sell them.”

MONSTER IN A BOX
“Handsome, earnest, eager Profit (Adrian Pasdar) shows up for work one day as Junior Vice President of Acquisitions at Gracen & Gracen, the 15th largest corporation in the world, and proceeds to charm, lie, blackmail, intimidate and murder his way up through the ranks, while narrating his story in passages of motivational babble (”What you didn�t win today, you�ll win tomorrow,” “The important thing to remember in business is that what may seem like a calamity may turn out to be an opportunity”).”

PEOPLE MAGAZINE
“REFRESHINGLY CRUEL, FOX�S PROFIT, a prime-time soap about corporate skullduggery, is the most exciting new show I�ve seen so far this year. This hour-long series (launching with a special two-hour movie on Mon., April 8, at 8 p.m. ET, an hour before its regular slot) is perfect for an age of downsizing conglomerates and incredible shrinking employees. Watching Profit is like visiting a hive in crisis. The bees prowl the honeycombs of power, buzzing with anger, stingers at the ready. Adrian Pasdar plays Jim Profit, an ambitious young executive, newly hired at a fictional FORTUNE 100 company called Gracen & Gracen, the exact business of which is kept nebulous, almost abstract. Profit, who has his eye on the chief of acquisitions job, swings up the rungs of the corporate ladder with unnerving ease. He does this by scrupulously abandoning all principle. He breaks into computer files, blackmails his assistant, and discreetly murders one major obstacle. None of this is meant to be terribly plausible, but in the four hours I�ve seen, the complications click into place with satisfying precision. Adding a special, nasty kick is the damp perversion just beneath the gleaming office interiors. Why does Profit, padding around in the nude in his apartment at night, disappear into a secret compartment? We soon learn that this has something to do with his nightmarish childhood and that his drive for power is a case of psychological overcompensation. In fact most people in this show seem hardly more than a few baby steps from a breakdown. Joanne Meltzer (Lisa Zane), the corporate-security chief, intuits how dangerous Profit is after a single encounter, but her own traumatic memories keep burbling up and throwing her off track. Profit should make a star of Pasdar, a 30-year-old actor probably best known for his role as a grungy vampire in the 1987 cult movie NEAR DARK. There are times when his sexy, coldly robotic performance feels too familiar: It�s the same suave-creep number that�s Kyle MacLachlan�s specialty. What I like, though, is that Pasdar doesn�t play the role with the inner smile that lets you know he enjoys being bad. He�s nothing like Ian Richardson as Prime Minister Francis Urquhart in PBS�s The Final Cut. Urquhart destroyed careers with a chipper briskness that seemed recreational. Pasdar whispers his lines with a deadness that has none of the fun of deadpan. You don�t root for Profit. You don�t like him. Yet you watch. He has a sick integrity.”

NEWS-TIMES 5/6/96
“For a show with a uniquely intelligent sensibility that needed time to grow, this was hardly a level playing field. Not a smart move by Fox. �We certainly have come to an unexpected bump, PROFIT producer John McNamara said from Los Angeles on Thursday. McNamara created/executive produces PROFIT with partner David Greenwalt, and Steven Cannell. `Yeah, I won�t sugarcoat it - Adrian is really upset and depressed,�� McNamara said. `But he�s savvy, he knows that a 6 share (percentage of TV sets in use at the time, compared to a 30 share for `The Beast�) is bad.� In fact, McNamara and Greenwalt devised a five-year plan for PROFIT, much like a five-year corporate strategy. Now that five-year plan may already be passe, despite PROFIT�S� clear status as a really insider cult hit.`This show already has a weird life to it,�� McNamara said. �There�s this president at ABC - no, not (entertainment chief) Ted Harbert - who always asks me to slip him episodes he�s missed.� In the meantime, all those addicted to PROFIT�S savagely smart brand of intrigue and humor can support the series by writing John Matoian, Fox Broadcasting Company, P.O. Box 900, Beverly Hills Calif. 90213, or by e-mailing the Fox website at http://www.foxworld.com.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 4/12/96
“The drama, which airs Monday nights at 9 ET, stars Adrian Pasdar as an up-and-coming executive who will use any tactic - burglary, blackmail, incest or suicide - to get to the top. And amazingly, nearly all the Whos in Whoville think Profit is basically a caring, well-adjusted, harmless guy. �True,� says Pasdar, �Profit�s a villain. But he�s not a villain in the traditional sense. Watching Profit,�� the actor says, `is like peering into a fishbowl and watching a piranha at work.� And while Profit exudes evil on the screen, he isn�t violent - at least within camera range. `There�s really no violence to speak of,�� says Pasdar. `The show is more of a mental thriller, which I think audiences are kind of ready for - they�ve been talked down to for so many years, and just handed the base materials in terms of viewing pleasure. It�s really been slim pickings, and I think the time has arrived for an intelligent show that deals with the mind and the webs that it is capable of spinning.� Pasdar, a 30-year-old New Yorker, has so far carved his eclectic career from film - commercial and independent features - as well as public broadcasting and cable. Now, the question is, will PROFIT be something viewers find intriguing? Pasdar, for one, is anxious to find out. �I�m not saying our show is any better than anything else anybody�s put out there,� he says. `I personally find it much more interesting. But, I could be in my own little box on that one - so to speak.���

ENTERTAINMENT 4/25/97
Cancellation denied audiences the best episodes
LOS ANGELES - “When PROFIT was canceled last year, �everybody was set back about 10 paces,� says the series� star Adrian Pasdar. �Everybody around town was rooting for it to continue because it would have opened a new door for television,� he explains. Instead, three episodes barely gave audiences a taste of what the series was. �If you thought the first three were good, you should have seen the last four,� Pasdar says. �They were just phenomenal. Once it�s axed, there�s no way to reattach the head, you know?� Pasdar says. �Every single person who was on that show was essential. That�s what made it so special. Folks who didn�t normally watch network television tuned in to PROFIT,� Pasdar says. He got a ton of mail while the show was on. He continues to hear from those who �thought it was something most people weren�t ready for. They felt privileged. It was kind of a secular audience…an intelligent audience. You do the best you can do and you hope the people who are in charge get behind it,� Pasdar says. If that doesn�t happen no amount of critical acclaim can save a series. While the creative community may have mourned the series� passing, Pasdar had no problem getting other work. He signed for a role in CBS� “Feds” and commiserated with others who have had trouble keeping good shows on television - “Homefront�s” John Slattery, “Molly Dodd�s” Blair Brown and “Murder One�s” Dylan Baker. �We�ve all been in shows that could have gone, should have gone and didn�t go,� Pasdar says. The trick is finding a quality vehicle with an experienced driver at the wheel. Dick Wolf, who produces “Law & Order” and “New York Undercover,” among other shows, has considerable experience dealing with network executives. McNamara and David Greenwalt, PROFIT�S men, did not. Still, Pasdar says, they were the reason his series was so good. �The writing was so good all I had to do was put on a suit and smile a little bit. If you find something that is written so well, the less is more school of thought is best. The scripts were always tight, the atmosphere, the energy driving it was just so clear that there was no line between the producer and director. It was a very communal effort on every front.� Although Pasdar enjoys his work on FEDS, he knows it doesn�t come close to what he did on PROFIT. The Fox series “made audiences think a little bit. It put them on the edge of their seats and it was responsible television. �Nothing will ever be able to duplicate the experience I had on PROFIT. (With FEDS) �I didn�t expect or try to come close to that experience it was just so precious.� Still, that best work has yet to be seen. Until it�s released elsewhere, PROFIT languishes in an office somewhere, a testament to what television could have aired but didn�t. �You can question why it was canceled all you want,� Pasdar says. �But ultimately, you put your hands up in the air and chalk this one up to I don�t know what happens.� Sometimes, what happens in Hollywood defies explanation.”

CONTRA COSTA (CALIF.) TIMES 4/4/96
“On PROFIT, that role is played by Adrian Pasdar, as Jim Profit, cutthroat businessman. He�s about 10 crimes shy of Satan, and you get the feeling he�s heading south with each episode. It�s one of the juiciest, most outrageous characters to hit television in some time. Of course, Fox is gambling that evil personified, with a nice smile, athletic body and ultra good-guy demeanor, won�t turn people off. And the network is certainly rolling the dice with Mr. Jim Profit. There is no in-between here. You hate him or you love him. He is so patently nasty some people will surely snap off the set. Don�t. Wait him out. Pasdar (who has been in everything from TOP GUN to NEAR DARK, and CARLITO�S WAY), is excellent. He oozes charm and menace in equal parts. It�s a triumphant portrayal.”

PUBLIC NEWS
BY TODD WOLF
“An expert at evaluating and manipulating his fellow workers (he�s the people person from Hell), Profit senses weakness and knows how to exploit it. He�s also a “master of cyberspace,” which on this show means he has access to just about every person on Earth�s personal history from financial records to dental X-rays. Profit spends much of each episode in a secret room, completely naked and staring at a computer screen, wandering the virtual world in his relentless quest for information. While Profit�s ambition is naked and acknowledged, his true goals at G & G remain unclear. Is he on a quest to run the company or to bring it down? What is the source of his obsession? And, perhaps most intriguing, does his naked butt stick to his chair when he stands up?”

HOUSTON JOURNAL 4/5/96
“Every once in a while the audience is going to be taken aback and say, �Oh, my God, I don�t want to admire this guy,� McNamara says. �But then every once in a while they�re going to be seduced.� Adrian Pasdar, best known for work in STREETS OF GOLD and CARLITO�S WAY, plays Profit with a blend of oil and vinegar. �There�s a certain admirability to his actions,� Pasdar says. Say what you will about his methods but Profit �does show undying devotion to the company. There are a lot of admirable traits that he has - if you can strip away what people would term immoral acts. He wears his behavior on his sleeve. He doesn�t lie about it. He just goes and does his thing.� Pasdar compares Profit�s plight to that of a comic book character. �Just when you think he�s about to be flipped on his back, he comes through. The voice-overs provide an opportunity for wry comment on a situation. If it�s accepted as a cartoon, to a degree, there�s an element of fun that can be had between Profit and the audience. The fun,� Pasdar adds, �enters in when audiences relate to the activity.� PROFIT may not be a true picture of corporate America. But it�s everything a downsized nation fears it might be.”