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	Printed Articles & Interviews Times Leader TV Book August 27, 1995

NOWHERE MAN Greenwood's Known 'Nowhere" in UPN drama by Jay Bobbin Tribune Media Services

The Beatles did a classic song about the plight, but in a new drama series, the central character is living it.

Premiering Monday at 9 p.m., "Nowhere Man" is a cross between "The Fugitive," "The Twilight Zone" and the cult favorite "The Prisoner." Locally, UPN programs air on WWOR-TV Channel 9 with secondary broadcast options for WYOU-TV Channel 22.

Bruce Greenwood ("Hardball," "Knots Landing") stars as Thomas Veil, a documentary cameraman who's stunned to find virtually every trace of his existence suddenly erased. His credit cards have been cancelled, his keys no longer fit the locks they were made for, and even his wife (Megan Gallagher) acts as if she's never met him before. His quest to find out what's happening to him leads him to feign paranoia and enter a sanitarium, but even there, he's unable to get any clues as to who is behind the apparent plot to drive him insane.

Ultimately, Veil escapes from that facility and embarks on a lonely bid to discover the truth behind his troubling situation, sensing that whoever wanted him in that position intends to silence him for good. The only possible explanation Veil can find lies in a photograph he took, showing residents of a Third World country bring executed...so that picture, tellingly titled "Hidden Agenda," marks the starting point of his search. Tobe Hooper ("Poltergeist," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre") directed the pilot episode, which also features "L.A.Law" alumnus Michael Tucker as a doctor who provides Veil with more questions than answers.

"My background is pretty varied, but I've been a fan of this kind of show for a long time," says the Quebec-born Greenwood, who also has appeared in numerous TV-movies and miniseries (including last spring's NBC project about the Judds). "I like to have my psyche tickled and messed with, but that's a personal Achilles' heel of mine. What's so much fun about this is that I don't have to decide exactly who this guy is right now. I could decide who he WAS, but a lot of that doesn't apply anymore, because he has to redefine himself at the same time he's trying to figure out whether or not he's going nuts."

Though some actors prefer their characters' boundaries to be more specific, Greenwood claims to enjoy creating his "Nowhere Man" as he goes. "That makes it even more interesting," he maintains, and he credits that to series creator and executive producer Lawrence Hertzog ("Stingray," "seaQuest DSV"). However, Greenwood also realizes he's part of his new home bases's first-ever fall season.

"[UPN] is a new network, so almost all the stuff that applies here doesn't apply at the other networks," he reflects. "They're willing to take chances and to give us free rein, but of course, those reins will tighten as they get indications of what the people out there like and don't like. On this network, though, we couldn't ask for a better situation than we currently have in terms of getting on the air, getting promotion and getting a good lead-in," the already established "Star Trek: Voyager."

Acknowledging that last fall's Fox venture, "Hardball" had a much shorter run than the actual baseball strike, Greenwood states with a chuckle, "All I can tell you is that I'm a really funny guy in my private life, OK?"

In fact, "Nowhere Man" (which is being filmed in Portland, Ore.) will have its occasional flashes of humor, since Greenwood allows that his new alter ego "can't be continually freaked out, oppressed and squashed by this stuff. At some point, he's going to have to say, 'Well, here I am. You haven't killed me yet. Bring it on. I dare you.'

"I think he'll decide, 'I don't know who I was, but who I am now is invincible for some reason. I'm just going to take bigger chances.'"