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JANUARY 1998 TCA PRESS TOUR
January 18, 1998
"THANKS OF A GRATEFUL NATION"
TED DANSON
Star
MARG HELGENBERGER
Star
STEVEN WEBER
Star
ROD HOLCOMB
Director
JOHN SACRET YOUNG
Writer/Executive Producer
TRACEY ALEXANDER
Executive Producer
JERRY OFFSAY
President, Programming, Showtime Networks, Inc.
The Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel
Pasadena, California
All TCA Press Tour transcripts are prepared immediately following press conferences. They are provided for your convenience and are not intended as a substitute for attendance at press conferences. Due to the speed with which these transcripts are prepared, complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
JERRY OFFSAY : Our final panel of the day is an explosive, true story about our government's cover-up of the existence of Gulf War Syndrome. Executive produced by Tracey Alexander and Andy Adelson, the team who brought you the Humanitas Award-winning, Emmy-nominated "Hiroshima," "Thanks of a Grateful Nation" stars Ted Danson , Brian Dennehy, Marg Helgenberger, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Steven Weber.
And it's directed by Emmy winner Rod Holcomb from a script by John Sacret Young, who also serves as one of our exec producers.
This film powerfully and poignantly brings to light the human toll of Desert Storm. Let me show you a little bit of "Thanks of a Grateful Nation."
[CLIP SHOWN: "THANKS OF A GRATEFUL NATION"]
OFFSAY : It is with great pride and pleasure that I introduce to you the cast and filmmakers of "Thanks of a Grateful Nation": Ted Danson, , Marg Helgenberger, Steven Weber, Rod Holcomb, John Sacret Young and Tracey Alexander.
And I'll let them get miked up for a second, and then we'll throw it open to questions.
Okay, I think we're ready when you are. Anybody?
QUESTION :It's ironic that this comes a few sessions after the presentation on "The Wall," about the Vietnam Wall. Anyone have any thoughts on just why veterans are just discarded after they help their country?
JOHN SACRET YOUNG: We had a history in this country, I think, of liking to win wars and then liking not to think about them again or the consequences of what happens to men who serve. I think very much this is a film hopefully that will say, let's pay some attention.
QUESTION :Are the veterans being cared for now? Is there more open -- have the politicians acknowledged that there is something wrong with the veterans that have come back?
YOUNG: I think it's a little like a slow leak from a tire, you know, that they're trying to say isn't going flat. It's happening slowly. I mean, while we were shooting, there was a front page -- at least one front-page story in the New York Times, a lead editorial in New York Times about how the Pentagon has still not kind of fessing up to what really happened.
QUESTION :Ted, what's your opinion on what's happening?
TED DANSON : I got my opinion from John, so [laughter] I mean, we've got volumes -- we got the script, it was this big, and then we got something that was even bigger. It was interviews and research and quotes.
This is probably non-responsive, but the reason why -- what intrigued me -- I mean, the first thing that happened to me is I said this is not fair, this is not right, this does not seem right.
You don't get to go off to war, fight for 100 days, be victorious, kick their rear end gloriously and rightfully and then come back and have parades. And then put a period there. You don't get to do that. You've got to tell the whole story. You have to tell that there are 100,000 people that are sick and can't get rid of symptoms for years. That 10-15,000 or whatever the amount is people -- 26-year-old healthy kids are now dead as a result of -- I mean, you don't get to just tell half the story.
I guess part of your first question, you know, if you tell the whole story, it's probably much harder to enlist an army the next time. You know, you can dodge other bullets and you can be victorious. But five years later after you come home, your kids could be deformed, your wife could be sick and you could be dead.
QUESTION :I have a question for John. Was there any backlash by the government, or any attempt at all to silence this movie at all?
YOUNG: I think probably Tracey can answer that equally well. I would say that not officially, but you're certainly not going to see any cooperation from any government agency.
QUESTION :John, Frontline Tuesday night has an excellent report coming up -- I don't know if you've seen that or not -- called "The Last Battle of the Gulf War." But at any rate, they go in great depth into the continuing debate and the continuing information that has continued to come out through these years. How much do you go into all that? I mean, do you -- and at the end of it, they have no conclusion. Do you have a conclusion?
YOUNG: Well, one, I think we kind of start at the beginning of how this came about, which was really Tracey, to my left, and along the journey of this -- how many people do you think we talked to?
TRACEY ALEXANDER : We interviewed about 200 people. We read every congressional hearing, senatorial hearing that's been conducted over a five-year period. And we have depicted a number of those hearings. So we really are documenting the government's denial, the Pentagon's denial as well as the government's sort of lack of effort to really help the veterans, to even to an epidemiological study, for instance. There has not been a study done.
YOUNG: I think the conclusion that we probably have come to is that -- and you saw a little bit of it in what Brian Dennehy says, that we sent men to war without properly telling them what might happen, without properly protecting them, and then without properly caring for them when they came back.
QUESTION :When you say "we," who are you indicting here? Is it the military? Is it the--?
YOUNG: Well, you start at the military and then you move to the fact of what is the government's responsibility. And at some point, I think you go to what do we believe of ourselves as Americans. What is our -- what do we believe we should do for those who served us, who stood in front of us, you know, who went where we wanted them to go?
QUESTION :John and Rod, was Marg your first choice for the character of Jerrilinn, since you'd worked with her on "China Beach"? And then, Marg, I'll throw the question to you.
OFFSAY : Yes, yes, I'll take them off the hook. Yes, she was their first choice.
YOUNG: I think Marg is always our first choice.
MARG HELGENBERGER: Thank you, John.
QUESTION :Marg, what was it like working with Rod again? Has his directing style changed at all in the years since the years you worked on "China Beach"? [panel laughs]
HELGENBERGER: Has it changed at all? I got more used to it, I guess.
ROD HOLCOMB: Yeah, right. [laughs]
HELGENBERGER: No, it was a privilege to be back with John and Rod, and a thrill as well.
QUESTION :What communication had the three of you had over the years? I would imagine it may have been more between Rod and John than -- you, too, Marg, but you tell us.
HELGENBERGER: What sort of -- I'm sorry, what did you say?
QUESTION :Communication.
HELGENBERGER: Well, John I've kept in close touch with. In fact, we did something between "China Beach" and "Thanks of a Grateful Nation" together. But Rod I hadn't worked with since then.
ROD HOLCOMB: Not without trying, but it's been one of those things where it's so odd -- I mean, it's been since 1987, truly, since John and I have actually done something together. We did one small thing in between.
But I think one of the important things of my relationship with John is that out of our careers, we hope that we have some kind of spikes that make some difference, of what we're trying to do. And "China Beach" happened to be one of those. And I think "Grateful Nation" happens to be another one.
They all seem to kind of be unfortunately centered around war, which makes us all kind of angry that we have to be actually making this movie.
Without getting on a soapbox, I'm rather angry that we have to actually make it because I think that responsibility that you have for any man or woman who stands in front of a bullet for you to maintain your freedom, that it's truly inherent of the government or anybody else responsible for that individual to be responsible for them whether they have a hangnail or they have the flu or anything else.
Service-related disabilities is the basic crux of the problem here because nobody accepted that early on. If they had, there would simply not be a movie being made either at this time because this would not be a problem.
QUESTION :What type of screenings will you be having? At VA hospitals or for government officials?
OFFSAY : Well, we're going to screen this in Washington, you can be sure about that. And I think we'll probably try and have some roundtable discussions to precede it in Washington, D.C., or other forums. We'll see who we get to attend. We may only have people from one side of the issue there, but it'll be open to everybody who wants to discuss the issue to come in.
But we're going to bring it right to Washington and try and use it to make people have to deal with the situation. And as John said, it's slowly happening, but it hasn't happened yet.
QUESTION :Steven, I know these TV movies happen very quickly. But did you have an opportunity to talk personally with any people who were affected by this syndrome? How did you prepare for this role?
STEVEN WEBER: I myself did not, I'm sorry to say. I know Marg had extended contact with the person who she was really portraying. And we were playing real people. Our characters are based very closely on real people. And Marg and I talked a lot about it. But basically, I had to work from myself, assuming that this character was a person of simple faith in his country and in God and the process. I had to draw on my own beliefs and just kind of go with the beautifully-detailed script that John presented to us.
That's not to say that I couldn't have benefited from doing work or research. And also, not least, because I'm a lazy bastard. [laughter]
But, you know, they do happen rather quickly, these movies. But again, in many ways, your work is done for you. I mean the people who have researched it and written it and are producing it and designing the whole project. They're so intensive that a person like myself who didn't have the time to really address, again, the work was done for me.
OFFSAY : Marg, can you answer that question as well, because your character, as opposed to Steven's, is alive.
HELGENBERGER: Yes, I spoke with -- her name is Jerrilynn Folz and she lives in Waco, Texas. And her brother Jeran, played beautifully by Steven--
WEBER: Thank you.
DANSON: Even though he didn't research.
WEBER: I don't have to research beauty.
HELGENBERGER: He listened to the tape of a conversation. Anyway, I was able to certainly get a feel for what their beliefs are. And they were deeply religious people, and had also, I think, a great belief in America and the military and the government.
And I think that they were betrayed, deeply betrayed. And I think it was -- l don't think they had thought much about it before they had to cope with dealing with Jeran's death, the denial and the betrayal.
And in fact, that was one of the first things she said to me on the phone. She said, "People just can't believe the media. They just can't believe what they tell us."
And, you know, it was a horrible thing that she had to -- and her mother ended up dying, too, apparently because Jeran had sent clothes home from Kuwait, and they were covered with uranium dust, because one of his jobs was to load and unload bomb crates that were covered with uranium dust. And she, too, got cancer and died.
So she's living with a lot of grief and, I'm sure, a lot of anger. But she's getting by.
QUESTION :Ted and Marg and Steven, I wanted to ask you -- each of you have starred in long-running, successful series. And that will always be with you. And the American public will always remember those programs and your memorable characters.
Now, in 1998, ideally, would you like to do the occasional feature film or stage play and longform television programming? Or, even though you each have long-running series to your credits, do you still look at that as something you would like to pursue again, and do another five or six or seven year series?
Ted, let's start with you.
DANSON: Yes. No. [laughter] You know, I'm knocking on doors. We're actors. You're looking for the best material. I say never say never. At the moment, I think it's probably wise for me to do the former, to look towards films. But no absolutes, again.
QUESTION :I'm not saying that you would never turn down another offer for a series, but ideally, since you have starred in one of the more successful series.
DANSON: It's just so hard to say. It depends on your family, it depends on where you are at that point in your life. It depends on material. Right now, I'd be very happy to go off and make films for awhile. Yes.
QUESTION :Marg?
HELGENBERGER: Well, certainly I'd agree with Ted, it's the material. You're kind of attracted to whatever appeals to you the most. But I think at this point in my life I don't -- I have a seven-year-old boy, and my husband and I would like to have another child. And that certainly dictates where you want to spend the next few years. And it makes it a lot easier if you're in Los Angeles. And most series are shot here.
So if something terrific comes along, that seems highly appealing to me.
QUESTION :I liked your "Fallen Angels" installment.
HELGENBERGER: Oh, thanks. That was a while ago.
QUESTION :Steven?
WEBER: See above answers. [laughter]
QUESTION :We were talking about black comedy in the last session, "Sweeney Todd," but looking at the title, that's black irony. And I wondered if there was much discussion -- part one of the question -- was there much discussion among you all about the title of the film?
OFFSAY : John, you want to go first on this?
YOUNG: I haven't had much discussion about it. I mean, other people may be discussing it. I don't know. Do you want to discuss it?
QUESTION :Well, I just wondered -- you know, that was deliberately done. I mean, was it a question that you said -- I mean, hell, this is a pretty strange title. I mean, you're getting the message across. Did you discuss other ideas? I mean something like "Agent Orange" or whatever?
YOUNG: Well, I think titles are one of those things that sometimes you have endless discussions signifying nothing. I mean, I know when "China Beach" began, everyone said, well, what the hell does that mean? How can you call that show "China Beach"? Is it about China, is it about a beach, what is it? They probably did the same thing with "M*A*S*H, I don't know. I don't know about "Cheers."
So sometimes the title just ends up being what it is. And then, of course, if something does well or makes an impact, no one asks about it again.
It is, of course, a quote from a congressional hearing.
QUESTION :Okay, and the second part is, again, Ted mentioned, I think, 100,000 people suffering from this. I wondered what you feel needs to be done? I mean, obviously reparation to these people, medical treatment and acknowledgment that this was the case. I mean, this is sort of obviously a strong message film. What would you like?
YOUNG: Well, I think there's several things. But one is the character that Ted plays, Jim Tuite, says something about, you know, what the vets primarily want is just somebody to be honest with them and say this is what we think happened as opposed to saying nothing happened.
Where they feel it's -- I think my response to this is very much like -- I came out of the '60s, and what got into my marrow wasn't necessarily --and I've written a ton about Vietnam -- for example, this is the first time I worked with Brian Dennehy since I did a miniseries called "A Rumor of War," like 18 years ago -- is the credibility gap.
That you want your government and what we believe in this country is in kind of -- that it's mom or apple pie -- you want someone just to be straightforward with you rather than kind of deny and disappear and stonewall, or you start to lose faith in your government and all the things that supposedly the Declaration of Independence or what have you is about.
I think that was a primary thing for me. I think others can talk about other things they responded to. Obviously, you want to see the vets cared for. I don't think it's necessarily a blanket "they get anything they want." I don't think that's what they want. I don't think it's what we want.
It's also about the future of war. Tracey and I actually went to the Pentagon and heard about the future of war, and you start to go, wow, this is going to be interesting, because it's now almost an invisible war as possible, where something that you may not be able to smell, see, taste, can--[snaps fingers].
Driving over here, I heard something about is the story going to break about the fact that the Iraqis in the '80s dropped an anthrax bomb on the Iranian prisoners, and it's going to come out what happened to these guys. You know, I think it's an ongoing story, and we have to keep the awareness.
OFFSAY : Anybody else want to speak to that, because I think it's an important question. Trace?
ALEXANDER: Well, I just think that the future of war is about, as I think John says in the script, a bullet that you cannot see. And I think that we have to acknowledge the presence of biological and chemical warfare. And certainly there's been a lot of media attention surrounding it lately.
I would just like to see some epidemiological studies done on these vets so that we can ascertain what they might have. I think that would make me happy, to begin.
QUESTION :Ted's been very involved with the environment. Is that one of the reasons you got involved as well besides it being a fascinating story?
2; I don't know if that's why I did it. I think it was more of a sense of fair play. But I mean, it's the exact same issue. How much can our immune systems take before they break down? I mean, there's no smoking gun in Iraq. They did not fly over and bomb our troops with chemical warfare. But there were so many levels of toxins breaking down their immune systems.
And the same thing is happening today. I mean, you get -- it's an acceptable amount of toxins: this is acceptable for this and this is acceptable. But when you add everything up, it's the same issue. How much can we take before our immune systems break down?
QUESTION :Ted, a question. Your name came up quite a bit during the NBC portion of the tour in regard to "Seinfeld" as a show going off the air when it was at its peak or at its top.
DANSON: Who?
QUESTION :So, in reflection of what -- all the news that's broken about that series -- what do you think about it? What would you say to Jerry? It's okay to go out on top?
DANSON: My press agent said there might be this question, and I'm dumbfounded. It's like I have time to think of something intelligent to say? [laughter] I have no idea. Sorry. Total blank. He wants to do something else. Time to move on. Was there a question in there? I can't even remember the question. [laughs]
QUESTION :After you've done it, you would say to him, yeah, it's a good thing to do, everything worked out fine and to go out on top is the way to do it? That was the question.
DANSON: I don't know. I used to think -- I think going out while you're on top sounds noble. I'm for dragging things into the mud until--[laughter]--I'm sorry, obviously I have nothing intelligent to say. God bless them all. [panel laughs]
QUESTION :Tracey and John, I haven't seen the entire film, so I just wanted to ask you--
YOUNG: Neither have I. [laughter]
QUESTION :Oh. Of course, many women also served in this war, and I wanted to know if some of the subjects in the picture are female service people?
ALEXANDER: Yes, one character named Christy Sherman, who was present during one of the many-alarm attacks, Scud attacks, and she came back quite sick. And we follow her through the story. She's portrayed by a YOUNG Canadian actress.
QUESTION :Thank you.
ALEXANDER: Is there anyone else?
YOUNG: Amy West was one.
ALEXANDER: We're also going to be interviewing a number of veterans. We've got one section of the film that we have to complete which is that we're interviewing veterans, actual veterans who were there, and we're intercutting these interviews into the film as John and Rod did in "China Beach," and as Andy and I did in "Hiroshima." And so we will transition between stories with these veteran interviews.
OFFSAY : I think we have time for one or two more questions, if we have them. Any last statements from our panel? Mr. Holcomb, you've been uncharacteristically silent.
HOLCOMB: I have been, yes. I think it's all out on the set. I think it's really important for you to understand that I -- and I hope I speak for everyone here on the panel -- remain unbelievably and strongly patriotic about our country. And I think that some woman over here mentioned something "indictment." And I'm not certain that that was what we intended to do when we started off with this.
I don't think any one of us here are trying to indict our government, try to find some way of saying to them that, you know -- anything other than let's try to be responsible for those young men and women who went to war for us. And basically, let's not try to not have -- let it extend down like we did with Agent Orange, or extend down like it did with the nuclear testing, and let's come to grips with this as soon as possible.
There are some of these young men and women who are now homeless, are unable to serve in the military because they are too sick to do that, and have lost their jobs. And I think we need to be able to help some of these YOUNG men and women. And I believe that we should do that as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, there's also a set of other circumstances of national security where you actually don't want to, as a government, to admit that you are that vulnerable. And so we kind of have to be responsible here about what we're trying to say. And if we're saying let's be responsible for those who went out to try -- to die for us, for our freedom, I think we should do that.
QUESTION :Is it possible that, as a result of the making of this picture, that this will do something in some positive way with regards to any kind of movement on the government's part to acknowledge that these men and women are in fact suffering from this? Will it help in any way? Or has the evidence so overshadowed with medical documents, et cetera, that the film is an outgrowth of those documents? Or is there some kind of synergy that will help these people?
YOUNG: I think probably the last. I mean, I think our response to your first part of the question would be that would be good. "That be good," as they say in some parts. "That be good" if it helps with that. The story is slowly coming out, but there's still parts to come. Maybe this will help it get out there. If there's a synergy, that would be great.
OFFSAY : There was a cover story, I think, in the New York and L.A. Times that said that there was a recommendation going to be coming leaked or instigated by Ted's character, Jim Tuite, that perhaps the investigation of what's wrong with these people would be taken away from the VA, and the Department of Defense because there was an admission in this House report that in fact they had dragged their feet on this investigation.
I think that, hopefully, this will help nudge that along as well.
DANSON: I think if I were a vet who is suffering from this, I think I'd feel -- not better -- I'd feel good that my story was out there. I think it would make them feel better, I hope.
QUESTION :And Jerry, I have a follow-up. Given the seriousness of this particular subject, was the potential of impacting certain decisions and bringing this out into the open in any way, shape or form part of your decision to make this film? Or was it just purely on the story, it was a good story?
ALEXANDER: I would like to say that JERRY OFFSAY and Joan Boorstein were the only executives who would support this project four years ago. They believed in it. When we started the research, they funded the research. They took a risk. We spent two years of research. John was writing, too, and researching.
And there was only one person sick with the syndrome when we started researching this, and now there are 100,000.
QUESTION :Tracey, as a follow-up, who brought this project to you? Or was this a project that you spearheaded because you knew of the syndrome?
ALEXANDER: I read an article by David France in Redbook, an it was about the sexual transmission aspect of the syndrome. Certain vets were coming home and transmitting the disease to their loved ones. And I just couldn't believe it.
And so that led me actually to Jim Tuite, who TED DANSON plays. And at the time, he was working for Senator Riegle and was Senate investigator. And he then kind of opened up the story and introduced us to many, many other veterans.
OFFSAY : I think you addressed that first question to me. I think Ted said it best for me when he said, it's just not right. Something wrong was done. It's unfair. And it's a great dramatic story. These are true stories. It's an ongoing story. We'll probably have to edit the crawl five minutes before it goes on the air to be right up to date with what the latest results are. But if it can make any difference, that would be wonderful.
QUESTION :Air date? Do you have an air date?
OFFSAY : Air date, yes. The air date is the Sunday right after Memorial Day, when people will be paying attention to veterans, we hope.
Any other questions? I think we're going to wrap it up for today.
I want to thank this esteemed panel, award winners all, for being here with us, and for contributing to this project.
[applause]
And I want to thank all of you for being here today. Two last thanks to Spencer Proffer, who put together the music for most of the films that you saw here today, including bringing us Graham Nash. And finally to Robin McMillan and her staff for organizing everything and getting everyone here on time in the room. Thanks again.
And thank you all for coming.
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