Press Releases
Dynamite in LA
By The Editor
July 22, 2005 - 21:10




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The harsh, unforgiving streets of Los Angeles are the scene of TNT’s latest original dramatic series WANTED, a gritty, edgy crime thriller that follows a specialized team of law enforcement officers as they track down the city’s 100 most wanted criminals. Gary Cole (The West Wing), Ryan Hurst (Taken), Rashida Jones (Little Black Book), Benjamin Benitez (Tru Calling), singer/musician Josey Scott of the rock group Saliva, Chris J. Kelly (Medical Investigation), Sasha Pieterse (Family Affair), Lee Tergesen (Oz) and Dedee Pfeiffer (For Your Love) star in the series set to air Sundays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), beginning July 31.
WANTED comes to TNT from Spelling Television, with Aaron Spelling, E. Duke Vincent and series creator Jorge Zamacona (Oz, Homicide: Life on the Street) serving as executive producers. Mel Efros is the producer, with Jonathan Levin and Louis St. Clair as consulting producers and Tony Palermo as associate producer.

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WANTED is a pumping, stylistic, no-holds-barred look at an elite team of crime fighters from various federal and local law enforcement agencies as they track down the city’s 100 most wanted fugitives. The show pulls no punches in its depiction of the team, as creator Zamacona points out. “I spent a lot of time with police officers, and a lot of police officers aren’t written the way they behave. They’re written a little too stiff,” he said. “These guys are vulgar, they’re irreverent, they’re professional and they’re heroic. I want this show to be authentic to the men and women who go out and do the job.”
Each individual officer in WANTED brings something unique to this strike force. Team leader Lt. Conrad Rose (Cole) is from L.A. Metro SWAT and is considered the moral center of the unit. Jimmy McGloin (Hurst) is an ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) officer and a bona fide card-carrying conservative. Carla Merced (Jones) is a former Naval Intelligence officer and one of the best hostage negotiators around. Although she wasn’t hand picked for the team by Rose, after being out in the field with her, the team realizes what a valuable asset she can be. Tommy Rodriquez (Benitez) is from the FBI and not above using his good looks and charm to stop any criminal. Rodney Gronbeck (Scott) is with the LAPD and a technical genius armed with state-of-the-art computer equipment to aid the team in catching the bad guy. Joe Vacco (Brendan Kelly) is a DEA officer who is currently living at the team’s warehouse headquarters after having getting kicked out of his own place. And Eddie Drake (Tergesen), an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Marshal Service and graduate of the L.A. Metro Police Academy, where Rose was his favorite training officer, is recruited after a death in the squad.

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At home, Rose is faced with his impending divorce from Lucinda (Pfeiffer). Even though they still love each other, they just can’t live together, which also puts a strain on their two children, older son Tony (Chris J. Kelly) and younger daughter Millie (Pieterse).
As the team tracks down criminals, often using unconventional (and legally questionable) methods, they discover there is a fine line between justice and the law. Every time they go out to get a bad guy, they must walk that line, all in an effort to make Los Angeles a safer place to live for every citizen.

In the premiere episode of WANTED, a death row inmate named Silvio Machado is allowed out of jail to attend his mother’s funeral, during which he escapes custody in a bloody shootout arranged by his former gang. After chasing him all over the city, Rose and his team eventually lure Machado to his girlfriend’s apartment, where a firefight ensues – leaving one of the team members dead.