ARE WE READY FOR `ACTION'? THOMPSON GIVES US HOLLYWOOD - WARTS, BLEEPED-OUT EXPLETIVES AND ALL - ON FOX.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

The new fall season hasn't even started, and already Chris Thompson has wearied of the controversy. He's been variously hailed and assailed for the same reason - he's created a sitcom on network TV expressly aimed at adults, a mildly bowdlerized version of what cable routinely has to offer. Children and the weak of heart need not apply. But contrary to the opinions of some, its very existence does not represent the fall of the republic.

``Action'' stars Jay Mohr as Peter Dragon, a brash, foulmouthed Hollywood power broker who has built his fortune and his reputation on duplicitous behavior and making big, noisy action movies - another type of entertainment that regularly comes under fire. Thompson's show vividly satirizes the bad behavior and back-stabbing rampant in Hollywood's power corridors, but what has upset folks is what you don't hear on the show - frank obscenities are bleeped out, just as on ``South Park.''

``It's not like I set out to say, `Let's shock,' '' Thompson says. ``I wasn't looking to be groundbreaking, except in the effort to portray the movie business in the most bitingly satirical way that I could.'' Thompson first pitched the series to HBO, with Oliver Platt in the lead role, before bringing it to the Fox network, which was looking for a provocative, hot-button series.

``So it started out as sort of a very small project that was just, `How entertaining can I be to myself,' really, and if they want to make it, fine, because nobody's expecting to really make any money at HBO,'' Thompson continues. ``But when it moved over to Fox, it sort of became something else, and suddenly I was dealing with all these questions about appropriateness and stuff, because it's broadcast television.''

On Tuesday, William Bennett, the former U.S. education secretary and self-appointed arbiter of national morality, singled out Thompson's ``Action'' as a ``purveyor of cultural filth.''

Political posturing of this nature is to be expected, to Thompson's mind. ``I don't believe any new people will come and be shocked by this and decry it than are shocked at and decry everything that they're supposed to be shocked at for the past 10 years,'' Thompson says with a shrug.

He adds, ``I said, `Hey, I'll write a warning:' This is inappropriate for children; it's also inappropriate for idiots.' '' A future episode of ``Action,'' coincidentally, finds Peter Dragon in Washington, testifying before the Senate on behalf of his life's work.

And it's not as if the Fox network has been pretending ``Action'' won't raise eyebrows or scorch some ears. Introducing the series in July, Fox president Doug Herzog said, ``If you're going to be offended - and, by the way, some people are; there's no question about it - please don't watch. Watch somebody else's network for that half-hour. You know, we'd rather not field the phone calls and the e-mails and the letters. But, rest assured, it's going to offend some people.''

Herzog's open-minded take is a long way from one of Thompson's first TV gigs, writing for ``Laverne & Shirley.'' ``If we got even one letter from someone complaining about something, we had to deal with the network - they didn't want to lose one viewer,'' Thompson remembers. ``Back then, the networks operated on the `Least-Objectionable Theory.' That's not the paradigm anymore.''

For his part, Mohr doesn't get the controversy. ``You'd think we were putting a (something extremely explicit and unpleasant - use your imagination, or, better, don't) on television. At 8 o'clock,'' Mohr grouses. ``Would you rather us not bleep it?'' A veteran observer of Hollywood's bad behavior, Mohr jokes, ``The only thing that's not realistic is I'm not Jewish.''

Thompson - who's no stranger to troublemaking, having spent much of his 16th year in the San Fernando Valley Juvenile Hall (``I was doing, you know, anything - give me a list'') - insists that future episodes are considerably tamer in the language department.

``I'm not a member of the Larry Flynt First-Amendment squad,'' he says. ``I'm not striking a blow for freedom by saying dirty words. It's gotten to the point where I've wondered, `Good God, is it worth all this trouble?' At first, I felt that it was important that the characters were talking like these people actually talk and not speak in euphemisms. But then I wondered, `Am I calling more attention to this than I want?' I don't want to draw more attention to it.''

What became equally obfuscating was the network's edict that viewers not see characters' mouths uttering bleepable words. ``It got to be too much trouble to disguise it - what was I getting away with?'' Thompson says philosophically. ``I was just smoking in the boys' room in high school. I was just a hood.''

Virtually lost in this uproar is the fact that Thompson is actually condemning this sort of behavior. ``What I like to write about is the arrogance of the town, the completely self-centered sensibility,'' Thompson explains. ``People don't understand the absurdity here,'' pointing to the scene in the first episode where an agent pitches O.J. Simpson for a movie role because of his recognition factor. ``(The agent) is so earnest in his pitch, and what's amazing is that people here don't have the scope; they never ask, `My God, what have I become?'

``In this world of privilege and money, people are oddly cloistered - for being so hip, they're are really out of touch,'' Thompson adds. ``They behave so badly in this cocoon. They have no concept of the effect of their behavior on others. This show is all about that arrogance. I'm punishing that - there's a little bit of the Calvinist in me. Peter Dragon is consistently being punished. He's an a------, and he doesn't get it.

``The oddest thing about this town,'' Thompson continues, explaining a ripe comic theme prevalent in his show, ``is that, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, people can still believe the opposite to be true. It's like, we're in the business of manufacturing make-believe, and you throw yourself into that same system. You believe whatever you want to believe, because movies can make it so: `If there isn't a big rock-candy mountain, build me one.' ''

Also lost in all the uproar is Thompson's other new fall series, ``Ladies Man,'' nestled snugly between ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' and ``King of Queens'' on CBS on Monday nights. While many TV executives will create a new series when they already have one or more firmly established, it's the rare show-runner who will try to get two new shows up and running simultaneously.

``Now I know why,'' Thompson sighs, making his exhaustion palpable. ``It's not something I tried to do; it was just serendipitous. CBS had the `Ladies Man' script for 2-1/2 years before they pulled the trigger. They loved the script and the premise, but we were having problems casting it.''

Both Tom Selleck and Ted Danson had turned it down, and Thompson had written another (failed) pilot for star Alfred Molina when CBS suggested putting Molina, who has appeared in such films as ``Boogie Nights,'' ``Species'' and ``Maverick,'' in that show.

``Quite frankly, I'll tell you, that was a harder pilot to make,'' Thompson says of ``Ladies Man.'' ``It's a more boilerplate and traditional show, but it had tons of troubles. I'm not saying that to make CBS look bad - what I went through was typical of any network series. But Fox made things so easy for us with ``Action'' - Doug Herzog came in, he had a mandate, and he's swinging with it.''

So Thompson is prepared to take his case before the highest court in the land - TV viewers. ``If this show comes on, and viewers are offended by it and find it inappropriate and don't find the grist for our humor to be a proper grist for humor, then they will have made that decision,'' Thompson declares. ``They will have made the decision that this show is inappropriate, and it will be another five years before somebody tries something like this again. It's as simple as that. Television is an imitative culture - it imitates what is successful. On the other hand, if the show succeeds, then you will probably see any kind of foulmouthed carjacker'll be executive producing a show.''

Least among Thompson's concerns is the fact that he's up against NBC's once-indomitable Thursday night lineup. He's not particularly sweating his 9:30 time-slot competition.

``Have you seen `Stark Raving Mad'? That's all I think I have to say,'' Thompson deadpans with an eat-your-enemies glee that wouldn't be out of place on his show, adding that when he saw the pilot episode of his competition, ``I skipped out of my office that day. It was a perfect Peter Dragon moment.''

He mimics his lead character rejoicing and burying his enemies in a sing-song voice: ``Mine may not be great, but this one really sucks!''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- cover -- color) It's time for `Action.' The most controversial new TV show bites into bleepin' show biz.

(2) Illeana Douglas and Jay Mohr star in ``Action,'' which presents a raw look behind the scenes in Hollywood. First pitched to HBO, the show found a home on Fox and is already drawing criticism for its content.

(3) Chris Thompson ``Action'' creator.