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Show PARDON MY PLANET Static Heather LocMear takes in NBC's 'LAX' off again Carina Chocano LOS ANGELES TIMES the new NBC drama Heather Lockkar a character called Harky Random. Harky is head of runways at Los Angeles International Airport, and at the start of the series, she's locked in a struggle for total airport dominance with Roger (Blair Underwood), head of terminals. Their boss recently committed suicide by putting himself in the path of a 747, and the two briefly battle it out Kke feudal chieftains in a medieval war of succession. Naturatty, Harley's rival is also a love interest. Blond hair is tossed and white teeth are flashed in pursuit of the coveted job, which in the end theyH share But watching this, I realized that none of it was as interesting to me as Harley's name, which, having been coined with her in mind, distills the classic Heather Lockkar character down to its purest, most irreducible essence. The name says everything we think of when we think of Heather Lockkar: She's strong. Capricious. She's unpredictable. She's a fast machine who keeps her motor clean. Watching Heather Lockkar sashay onto the screen, the camera trained on her hips, it occurred to me that Heather Lockkar has been sashaying ' across the screen since I was first allowed to watch the kinds of shows that starred Heather Lockkar. If, like mine, your coming of age intersected with the Lockkar ascendancy, you probably know more about her career and personal life than is strictly seemly. (She was married to Tommy Lee.) In your defense, the weBspring of data in your brain is mostly an accident of timing, geography and whatever pacts Aaron Spelling once made with the forces of darkness. More than a TV star, Heather Lockkar is a premium brand. There is no fictional rok that could overtake her in terms of sheer name recognition. (There was another Heather once, on another tough-gu- y show, but she was creamed by the competition.) Through some alchemy of hair, teeth, Bambi eyes, business d suits, cattiness, self mockery and toothsome force of will, Lockkar has remained on screen for more than two decades whik managn ing to avoid the purgatorial the successM TV actor, that is, being swallowed whole In next-in-Iin- es Lock-kar-relat- ed big-hair- good-nature- -- pit-fa- G)J " by some network's depressing idea of a lovable character. And for that, every time she sees a bus stamped with the thumb-flashin-g likeness of "Joey" on it, she must be gratefuL Instead, the Heather Lockkar character, which Lockkar reprises in "LAX," is a relatively static persona that has proved remarkably adaptive across TV genres. (This, admittedly, doesn't say much for TV genres.) She shilled shampoo and toothpaste in the late 1970s, landed a part as Krystle NASCAR niece Sammy Jo Dean on "Dynasty" in 198 L got the part of Officer Stacy Sheridan on J. Hooker" a year later, then returned to "Dynasty" for its third season, becoming first to star in two simultaneous hit prime-tim-e series. on back her career, Looking her resume contains more cultural artifacts than a tomb. She was softer and more cheesecake-- as a beat cop in the early 80s (a rok she'd never be cast in as a young actress today, at kast not with that hair) than she was as a miniskirted ad executive in the early '90s. Stacy Sheridan was nothing if not some painful notion of absurd a good daughthe "girl cop" ter and a loyal protege and junior 4evel employee with a sunny disposition along with a fondness for -short gym shorts and tight uniforms. Meanwhik, as the ambitious, conniving trafler park orphan Sammy 3a, she watfatamedto, explore the other side of her sex appeal She was the teen; trashy arid outrageous in a way to which weVe become inured, thanks to Britney , Christina, Paris, etaLTWs rare, viearty double shift saved her from being engulfed by a singte character. Instead, as if by e fiction, ft transmogrified her into a cross between a cream puff and an authority figure. By the early "90s, she was the goto girl for the part of the sexy, unattainabk termagant. m the past decade or so, following her florid turn as Amanda Woodward . on "Melrose Place" and a crafty campaign manager on "Spin City," Heather Lockkar has not messianic, aura in the minds of executives. What's interesting is not how long the Heather Lockkar character has lasted. It's how subtly it has shifted from latently dangerous object of desire to latently desirable object of fear. A to do v. en-ga- ge ' battle with the enemy.J I Lj J Jl ; ? " - . 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