The Great Pretender

Movie-TV Credits

Earle Brattigan gets his new assignment

(1991 made-for-tv-movie; originally aired 4/14/91 on NBC)

Bruce Greenwood stars as Earle Brattigan, a brash but decidedly likeable journalist in this made-for-TV movie that was planned as the pilot for a projected TV series. Greenwood’s Brattigan is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter who prevails in a law suit to get his job back on a prominent newspaper, only to find the defeated editor bitter enough to saddle him with a basement office and the dead end files for assignments. Determined to find a great story somewhere in all those dormant pages, Brattigan sets off to prove an eccentric scientist’s suicide was actually murder. He finds a reluctant ally in the young female reporter who first covered the story, while comic relief is offered by his odd ball assistant, played with great gusto by real life buddy, Gregg Henry.
Although the plot disappears (along with Earle’s engaging mutt Zsa Zsa) about half way through, this is a truly entertaining piece and would have made a great series. The supporting cast was especially well developed, and the role of ingenuous newspaperman suited Greenwood perfectly, who’s cocky but endearing. He also gets to employ his penchant for accents as he re-creates numerous personae in quest of that important story: among them the Southern hick, the British diplomat, the blind food reporter and - best of all - the earnest (and bespectacled) conservation lobbyist. Created and produced as Dead End Brattigan in 1989, the project was inexplicably held back for over two years before finally appearing as this re-titled TV movie in 1991. Jessica Steen (who played his sister in Striker's Mountain) co-stars as his reluctant love interest with Donald Moffat as his embittered boss. The stories were detailed in amusing voiceovers by Brattigan’s ne’er-do-well friend, Wilson Leer (Henry).

Created and produced by the highly successful Stephen Cannell, the series was intended for NBC and may have simply fallen through the cracks, since the prolific Cannell was juggling numerous other projects at the same time. It’s seldom repeated as a TV movie, but it was released as a video in Europe under its proposed series title Dead End Brattigan.

Stephen J. Cannell Productions, Inc.

A few of Earle Brattigan's Cast of Characters:

The Country Bumpkin
The Blind Food Columnist
The Conservation Lobbyist

Sound Files from The Great Pretender

Earle issues some orders to Kate 39 secs

Earle explains the rift with Milner 30 secs

Earle warns Kate and quizzes her about herself 1 min 6 secs

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