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» Articles » New York Daily News: Missing Persons Drama Turns Up a Surprise Hit (May 1, 2003; by Donna Petrozzello)

Poppy Montgomery wasn't budging.

As camera crews set up for another shot on the CBS hit "Without a Trace," passersby attempted to distract the blond star. She didn't flinch.

"Normally I have tunnel vision when I'm working," Montgomery said recently, as filming for the show took place at locations around lower Manhattan.

Keeping a tight focus has helped Montgomery, along with castmates Anthony LaPaglia, Eric Close, Enrique Murciano and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, deal with the quiet success of their Thursday-night drama.

With the help of a strong word-of-mouth campaign, the show's audience has grown steadily this season.

"People thought we were going to be a kind of 'CSI' clone," said LaPaglia, referring to the CBS series, "because 'CSI' has been the show getting all of the attention. It didn't appear that anybody was particularly interested in us in the beginning."

"But I actually preferred that, because 'CSI Miami' came in with so much hype and heat," he added. "When that happens, I think it puts so much pressure on you to succeed that it can get in the way of the quality."

The show is built around agents in the FBI's missing-persons division who look into victims' pasts, using profiling to figure out where the victims are. Often, the agents are involved with cases initially handled by the NYPD. While not directly addressed, the implication is that the FBI has been asked to help.

"We have a consultant involved," said executive producer Hank Steinberg. "He keeps it honest. If the FBI wants to be involved ... we can be in the case."

Rather than get lumped in with other police procedurals, Steinberg chose to feature missing-persons cases.

"I thought using the premise of missing persons could be a launching pad to delve into such things as terrorism, dysfunctional marriages or pedophilia as the reasons why people go missing," he said.

The concept has worked. The show has averaged 15.2 million viewers this season, while the time-period winner, NBC's "ER," has averaged 19 million.

"It's pretty gratifying," Steinberg said. "I think we felt we were trying to make a good show, a show we wanted to watch that respects the audience. Obviously, 'ER' is a behemoth. I don't think we spent a lot of time predicting where we would be."

[source: nydailynews.com]

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