“Homefront Star Hopes Spicy Love Can Save Show”
Boston Herald, Apr. 15, 1992
Today is D-Day for ABC’s Homefront and Wellesley native John Slattery, who recently has found his character on the primetime WWII drama moving to center stage.
The show faces cancellation because of consistently lackluster ratings. According to network executives, its fate rides almost entirely on tonight’s season finale.
“Any kind of support, we’ll take,” said Slattery, 29, who attended St. Sebastian’s High School in Newton and studied theater at Catholic University in Washington, D.C, before heading west to seek his fortunes as an actor.
Slattery seems slightly amused by the growing movement to keep the ABC period drama alive. A recent “Dear Abby” column filled with testimonials from die-hard fans resulted in 10,000 letters flooding ABC Entertainment President Robert Iger’s desk.
“I didn’t know we were an endangered species,” Slattery said. “But it looks as though we might have a chance at coming back.”
So how does a nice Catholic boy feel about playing a divorced Jewish labor organizer who has a love affair with a devout Catholic widow and gets her pregnant?
“When I first played the character, I loved it,” said Slattery, who began his acting career in the mid ‘80s in commercials for Levi’s 501 jeans (I was the guy at the end of the ad who burped”) and Sports Illustrated, as the rain-soaked customer who wanders into a store in search of a blooper video and winds up with a subscription.
“I’ve also played rats in the past, and Al Kahn is PC. And he is so convinced that what he is doing is the best thing to do.”
The “forbidden” romance between Al and Anne Metcalf (Wendy Phillips) came about by accident, according to Slattery.
“I was told I was going to be involved with the daughter, Linda (Jessica Steen), but her mother, Anne, warns Al to stay away from her daughter. When the writers saw we played well together,” he said, “they decided to write for the two of us.
“The thing about 1946 is that a Catholic woman who has grown children and who is pregnant by a stranger – who’s Jewish and divorced – well, she’s right on the road to hell,” Slattery said. “But I think the fact that these two people struggle through is what makes it attractive. They’re not backing down.”