Fieger, ABC sign deal for TV show
Fieger says he'll star in reality-based show about law firm

Geoffrey Fieger, star of local TV, syndicated TV and TV news is eying another world to conquer: Prime-time TV.

Fieger said that he has signed a deal with ABC Television to star in a reality-based legal show called "Fieger and Associates" in which he will try actual cases.  Tthe hourlong show would air in prime time on a weeknight, Fieger added.

"I'm going to be caught in the act of being myself," Fieger said. "I'm the head of a law firm in California.  In his series, Fieger will head up a new law firm that fights civil cases against another law firm.  We'll have real lawyers trying any number of cases at one time.  It's not 100 percent reality, but close." 

Other sources call the show a legal reality show, described as a real-life ``L.A. Law.''  Cameras will follow both the firm's court cases and also the personal relationships among lawyers.

Fieger will handle cases in which litigants agree to surrender their privacy rights so they can be filmed. They also agree to binding arbitration instead of going through the courts. 

Fieger already appears on "Power of Attorney," and as of now, he plans to continue on the syndicated weekday program. 

"I may have to up my fees," he said, then added, "I did build into my contract the right to do this."

However, he did have a word of caution, saying, "What they tell me is that I won't want to do a syndicated show, too. It's like how movie actors don't go back to television. That's what the Hollywood types say." 
But he said he likes doing "Power of Attorney," and there shouldn't be a problem with doing both shows if he wants to, especially since the shows won't be in competition with each other.

As for the new show, Fieger said filming should start in early spring.

"The biggest problem is that it's a semi-reality show," he said. "I know the editing time is huge - 11 to 12 weeks for one show. There's a huge lead time to film the show."

Fieger said ABC has guaranteed six episodes, and there are no plans to shoot a pilot episode.

While a law film will be the setting for the show, Fieger said some action will also take place at the "health club, the bar, after work. It will cover interoffice romances that I'll later find out about and have to fire the interlopers."

What about his real-life law practice?

"My law firm is the No. 1 law firm in the country," Fieger said. "I won't sacrifice anything for that." 

But, Fieger said, "I'm in the lucky position of being able to choose what I want to do and what I like to do."

Right now, that evidently means Fieger will be adding more TV time to his already full schedule. Of course, Fieger said, his pay scale falls when he's on TV.   "I think I'm the only one in prime time to take a pay cut to be on television," he said. "I'm serious."

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Fieger follies coming to TV - 3/21/01
By Neal Rubin / The Detroit News

Exactly 1,143,574 Michiganians voted for Geoffrey Fieger when he ran for governor. Don't any of them like him? 

His name came up a few weeks ago after The News' Laura Berman noted that he's looking pretty darned good for a 50-year-old lawyer. Aw, shucks, Fieger said, he owes it all to vitamin B-12 shots, assorted pharmaceuticals, two personal trainers and genetics. 

"I don't care how many spas he goes to," responded sweet-natured caller Edie Barton, "he still looks like the back end of a horse to me!" 

Other correspondents weren't so gentle. But there was a curious postscript to many of the messages. "All he wants is publicity. Why should I care?" asked one e-mailer. Then, in the next sentence, came a complaint: "Why didn't you tell more about his TV show?" 

Hey, all I need is a little direction. Fieger and Associates is part L.A. Law and part Big Brother, with perhaps a hint of Temptation Island. 

*** 

THE IDEA is that Fieger goes to Los Angeles, opens a law firm, hires people and tries cases while the cameras roll nonstop. Human dynamics and clever editing then combine for one riveting hour of television per week. 

ABC has commissioned six episodes, and they stand a reasonable chance of getting on the air by late summer or fall, especially if Hollywood gets whacked with a screenwriters strike, at which point a show with no writers becomes as good as Golden Girls. 

The keys, Fieger concedes, are good cases and a good lead actor -- himself. "The producers have come to me and said, It's a huge, huge burden," he says. "I like to have that challenge." 

As for the trials, they will be what's known as alternative dispute resolutions, meaning participants agree to abide by the outcome but Fieger doesn't have to get licensed in California. It's the same shtick they use on Judge Judy, but the producers need to somehow drum up bigger, sexier cases. Six weeks of Fieger and Associates suing bad dry cleaners isn't going to get the job done. 

As attorney Geoffrey Fieger, attorney Geoffrey Fieger will play a character very much modeled on himself. "They're going to see the real Geoff in terms of how I interact with people," he says, which means viewers should probably keep one hand on the volume control. 

There will be drama, he says. Conflict. Romance. 

Romance? 

"That stuff," he promises, "will not involve me. The term is reality-based." 

*** 

YOU KNOW how your brain plays connect-the-dots sometimes and you wind up about six mental time zones away from where you started? 

Jim Black of Winter Park, Fla., was reading an article about Mt. Everest the same day Fieger was in the paper doing a little verbal surgery on somebody's backside. 

That led Black to an old Clint Eastwood movie based on a novel by Trevanian, and when his synapses finally stopped firing, he had come up with a term for those Fieger eruptions that wind up on the 11 o'clock news: 

"The Fieger Sanction." 

*** 

MEANTIME, FIEGER'S most famous ex-client marks the two-year anniversary of his conviction tomorrow at the Egeler Correctional Facility in Jackson. As far as I know, no special celebration is planned. 

Jack Kevorkian, 72, was representing himself when he was convicted of second-degree murder. His new lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, is trying to get him released on bond while he appeals. The state has until April 2 to respond to their motion. 

When last the subject came up, Morganroth said Kevorkian's principal complaint is that the prison system won't let him use Wite-Out. Thanks to an alert reader, they now know about a product called the Correction Pen, which should be usable in the state pen. 

One problem down, several others to go. "Being in a 6-by-10 cell and falling down and cracking two ribs and having high blood pressure," Morganroth says, "that sort of bothers him, too."