Show DEVOE LATEX MMOfMiridf ssrM o50 PAINT THINKER $2!9 ci the mm “I’m No 1 and I like being No 1” says Robert Loggia BY JON BURLINGAME in a tiny house On location north side of Hollywood on L AU American Spai fMu m m oxotk ncstioo m your mm btekyori Use Tetedyne Laars telestar gas rs (50000 BTU) & save! JK5 M 3214 Washington m mOgdon fmtmtmk bMm 421-199- tat 194 Bhrd 3 fMM tSffl m Dealer Pontiac Cadillac GMC Trucks Wells Cargo Trailers Full Selection Of Used Cars and Trucks Also Rent-A-Wre- PONTIAC CADILLAC 570 N MAIN 544-101- 0 2 ck LAYTON GMC UTAH di- rector Bradford May makes certain that Robert Loggia is satisfied with a take before moving on to the next shot Although this episode for the new NBC series ‘‘Mancuso FBI" is almost a full day behind schedule care must be taken On this show Loggia’s the boss This is not merely power Although the actor had rejected two proposed “Mancuso” pilot scripts NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff was so determined to put Loggia on the fall schedule that he returned a third time with what Loggia calls “an offer I could not refuse" “Mancuso" originated with last NBC miniseries season’s high-rate- d “Favorite Son” Loggia garnered so many critical raves for his performance as jaded character Nick Mancuso - and the audience reaction to the character was so' positive - that Tartikoff decided to exercise a series option That series is now airing on Friday nights “I was very dubious about it being a series” Loggia says during a break in shooting “They came up with a couple of scripts I didn’t like them or the avenue it was going and I said I was not going’ to do it” Several months later Tartikoff approached Loggia again with a new script “I didn’t like that either" Brandon Loggia admits “Finally said ‘You decide if you want to be on the air this fall No pilot no script no nothing Just the assurance that we will do everything and anything to make you happy' “It's truly like all the bets are on the table and I’ve got the dice” Loggia says “If I hit seven or 11 or even hit my point and it runs five years at the end of that time I am out of the working-stif- f position of having to do a' picture or a role I don't really want to do It’s an enviable position for an actor to be in That's why I’m doing it” Loggia first achieved recognition as the hero “El Gato” on "The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca" in the late s '60s But it wasn't until the when he achieved a real following FBI-age- nt Full Service the mid-’60- as the star of the stylish action show “THE Cat” noteworthy for being filmed entirely at night The series lasted only one season so Loggia spent most of the '60s and 70s toiling in episodic television caUnexpectedly his feature-filreer took off in the early '80s when he played memorable character roles in "SOB" “An Officer and a Gentleman" “Scarface" "Prizzi’s Honor" and “Big” and was no- - :nated for an Oscar for his role as Sam Ransom and savvy leg1 man for lawyer Glenn Close in the 1985 movie “Jagged Edge” ' But he sees opportunities in TV that he hasn’t been getting in movies “This is a shot back at the leading man like ‘THE Cat’ ” he says "I’m No 1 and I like being No 1 carrying the ball I’m shooting for a big hit” It won’t hurt that Loggia is playing a character very much like himself "We’re definitely a symbiotic couple” he says “We’re pretty much one and the same Ethnically e he’s right on” (Both and were born in New York of Italian descent Loggia is 59) There is action Loggia admits "but there is also an articulated passion Do you remember in ‘Favorite Son’ the speech about the shell game that Washington plays?” he asks "One year right is right the next year right is wrong We have a moment like that in pretty much evage-wis- ery script” STANDARD-EXAMINE- R |