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Show COMICS Shooting for more heart on brainy ‘Numb3rs’ PARDON MY PLANET Bridget Byrne A THE ASSOCIATED PRE bullet hole joins the X's and Y’s and + and - sym- bols scrawled on the chalkboard. LEE Cromve tee dat oy kng Famers race ne 4-23 Narrowly missed by the gunshot, math genius Charlie Eppes is underthe table amid shards ofglass,his body curled THE BORN LOSER WAITRESS ! protectively aroundhis laptop 3 SOMETHIN WRONG WITH YOUR FOOD? FBI agent Don Eppes, who pushed his brotherto safety, has his pistol drawn as more gunfirerips through the FBI's Los Angeles headquarters. Perusual, “Numb3rs”is cutting betweenthe cerebral and theviolent — a successfulfor- nula for the CBS crime drama auing Fridaysat 10p.m. EDT, a2) REED SAXON/Associated Press Actor Rob Morrow, whoplays FBI agent Don Eppes, on the set of “Numb3rs.” Qj == THE WIZARD OFID wath the network recentlyre- newingthe series for a third. season. But a new'element has been iddedto the winning equation theEppes brothers, played by David Krumholtz and Rob Morrow, are nowbeing given morefeelings,evena little ro- mance. “Morethan most shows,this show hadto tell people what it wasabout little longer than most,” says co-creator and executive producer Cheryl Heuton. “It wasa different kind of premise, but now I think, and certainly at the beginning of next season, we canfinally say ‘OK,people know what it’s about.’ They get how math solves crimes,so let’s go on to see where the personal prob- Morrow,too,is delighting in a deeper exploration of his character's emotions. “I think wearestarting to How MUCH D0 YOU DRINK? ONE GLASS OF WINE BEFORE DINNER get into whatare the conflicts at the heart of our characters, aside from just solving the crime,” says the actor. “In termsof Don, I'm starting to get into how he kindofrationalizes not being in a relationship based on the burden that he ha onthe job.” Morrow also would like to see “moreconflict within the family,” both with the Eppes’s father, Alan (Judd Hirsch), and betweenthe others — the very brainy( harlie, who deals in theory and probability, and the morefactually-minded Don. “Don’s smart. He'sa smart character. He's intelligent, but, I think, no matter what, in his mindhe'sgota little chip on his as hewaits for the gunfire to erupt on the FBIoffice setat L.A. Center Studios. “What we are trying to do nowisattract more people and broaden the audience.” The series is the mostwatched show of the night, > thy Herald, Thursday, April 27, 2006 averaging11.6 million viewers this season. It skews morefe- voile than male — 60 percent to 4 percent — butthat’s still a fairly solid percentage of male viewers.not an easy group to pull in onFriday nights. Krumholtz’s Charlie has already flirted with romancethis ason — ina recent episode with a brainy British beauty. Charlie was very attracted +r mind (pause) and her ody. so hopefully she'll be sack. suys the highly verbal actor, who enjoys portraying < er racter’s “eagerous ¢ nd perfection: m shoulder because he'll never be that smart, compared to Charlie,” says Morrow. But smart has different _ ring to it when the bullets start flying. “The characters of Don and Charlie were always very strong, but we've got a lot moreout ofthe character of Larry. Wehadjust intended him as sort of spice and comic relief, but Peter has brought so much morethan that,” says Heuton. Just what happens in the big shoot-out scene, no one was telling, but Krumhotiz notes that the show’s not likely to _ take a “24” turn andstart kill ing off popular characters. “When you've established a great ensembleofactors, whydothat? .." we are trying to stick to what's good for us, what keeps our series operational,” says the actor.“Ifit ain't broke, don’t fix it.”* ORTH TO HIS OBITUARY, OL’ MAN JUST 14 YEARS OLDER THAN ME! % SWEAR, THIS TROUT JUST S0086) NEA emocom computer. ee TOLDYAIT WAS FRESH! 1] |