David Alan Grier

It all started when David Alan Grier signed a development deal for his own sitcom with the NBC Network 1 1/2 years ago. It started an endless round of meetings with writers/producers, none apparently above the age of 21.

"It was the usual song and dance," says Grier, 45, a gifted comedic actor who has waited a long time for the right vehicle to park in his garage.

"Everybody said the same thing - it`s like a ritualized courtship, `We think you`re great. We`re gonna think up something really great for you. It`ll be really great.`"

Nothing, of course, came of it. Close to despair in a wake of having his own series pitch turned down by NBC, Grier finally took a meeting - at the urging of a good friend - with writer/producers Eileen Conn and Andrew Gordon. He was intrigued by an idea about a Secret Service agent guarding an ex-first lady, a concept the duo had lobbed at NBC but never written. After many revisions, the network gave the green light to "The David Alan Grier Project," eventually known as "DAG."

But it was a "caution union," according to Grier, a battered veteran of such series as "In Living Color" (1990-94), "The Preston Episodes" (1995-96) and "Damon" (1997-98). "If I didn`t like the pilot as it was written, I could still back out and find something else," he says.

He portrays Secret Service agent Jerome Daggett, an acerbic individual with enough common sense to dive away from a bullet intended for President Whitman (David Rasche) during an assassination attempt. For his graceful effort, Daggett is demoted to the B-Team - guarding the obviously expendable flaky first lady, Judith (Delta Burke). Aided by a motley collection of bumbling and stumbling fellow Secret Service agents, he also has to provide protection for her rebellious daughter, Lenore (Lea Moreno Young).

A little older and much wiser, Grier has learned not to antagonize writers since his disastrous nine-week run on "The Preston Episodes" long ago. "I got on the bad side of those writers by saying things like, `This isn`t funny` and `I`m not saying it,`" he recalls. "Writers are weird and they get angry. All television writers think they write new jokes. No television writer writes a new joke, ever. So, the only way around it is to get on their side. I`ve done it now by actually liking them."

Grier`s last feature film - "Return to Me" with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver - came and went in a flash, leaving him to concentrate on "The Booga Bear." The comedy-love story motion picture, which he stars in, co-wrote and hopes to co-produce with the Zucker Brothers, is reportedly close to getting the go-ahead from a major film studio.

The youngest of three children born in Detroit to a kindergarten teacher and a psychiatrist (both now retired), Grier developed a strong taste for show business in high school and carried on majoring in radio, television and film at the University of Michigan. With the misguided notion of becoming a songwriter, he dropped out of school for a year at 19 and moved to New York City. As luck would have it, he immediately landed a job in an ice cream shop.

He didn`t sell a single song during his year-long sojourn, but stayed alive by eating a banana split every day and walking home "about 80 blocks" - which kept him trim and slim. "It was a wonderful deal at the time," he recalls, "but I haven`t eaten an ... ice cream cone or banana split since I quit the job. If you truly want to torture me, tie me up and force-feed me a banana split."

Fortunately, his interests gradually turned from songwriting to acting. But despite being accepted to New York`s famed Neighborhood Playhouse, he returned to the University of Michigan to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree and get his feet wet in a campus production of "Othello."

"Of course, I didn`t play Othello - I did the other black part," he says, laughing, "the messenger from the galley. One line." Greatly encouraged, he spent another three years obtaining his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1981. A few weeks later, he picked up a Tony Award nomination as baseball great Jackie Robinson in the Broadway musical "The First."

Off and running, Grier went on to star with Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson and Adolph Caesar in the high-profile off-Broadway production of "A Soldier`s Play" - then reprised his role in the 1984 feature film version. "During that play, Adolph Caesar gave me the nickname of DAG - for the initials of my name," he explains. "Denzel and Sam still call me that. When we were looking for the sitcom title, DAG came about because of the old nickname and the last name of my character, Jerome Daggett. We borrowed it from both sources."

Highly versatile, Grier also appeared in the Broadway productions of "Dreamgirls" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" while starring or co-starring in such movies as "Streamers," "Tales From the Hood," "The Player," "Blankman" and "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle." "I liked doing `Jumanji` a lot, but going through a divorce at the time made my life sort of suspended between heaven and hell," he recalls. "It could have been great."

Still single after the childless union, Grier now makes his home in Hollywood with a girlfriend "who unfortunately is in the business - I tried to drum her out, but she won`t go," he jokes. In his spare time, he enjoys foraging for new restaurants in the Los Angeles area and scouring art galleries in New York. "I`m into contemporary and abstract art, but I like spooky, scary stuff, too," he says. "And I collect strange photographs."

But the bulk of Grier`s attention is riveted on "DAG," his first shot on a "real" network. "I don`t have a producer credit on the show, but I have more power, more input and more creative control than I did with the BS title on `Preston` a few years ago," he says. "If they - the network, studio and writers - don`t like you, don`t respect you and don`t want to work with you, they are not going to work for you either. It`s a no-win situation."

The way to a creative person`s heart is not through a bouquet of red roses or a case of expensive champagne, according to the seasoned performer. "It`s about establishing a personal relationship early by sitting down and listening to them while pitching ideas," he says. "This way I actually agree with a lot of things the network says, at times. At times it can be absolutely idiotic, which is their right."

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: Eirik Knutzen