Special Talents Put Women on the Case

After establishing a successful series block on Sunday night with the female-driven dramas “Strong Medicine” and “The Division,” Lifetime is expanding its original dramatic programming to Saturday evenings with two new hourlong shows. And just as one would expect from the cable network for women, both new series revolve around strong female characters.

“Wild Card,” which kicks off the new night of programming, stars Joely Fisher as Zoe Busiek, a larger-than-life, free-spirited Las Vegas casino card dealer who has never made a commitment to anything or anybody in her life, save for her pet rabbit. But when her sister is killed in a car crash, Zoe must return to her hometown of Chicago to take care of two nieces and a nephew. Searching for a job, Zoe pesters the two agents (Chris Potter and Rae Dawn Chong) working at a special investigations unit to find out what really happened to her sister. As she begins to delve into her sister’s case herself, Zoe discovers she has a Sherlock Holmes ability to sleuth out the truth and ends up working for the agency.

Following “Wild Card” is “1-800-Missing,” which casts Gloria Reuben (“ER”) as Brooke Haslett, a by-the-book FBI agent who is teamed against her will with Jess (Caterina Scorsone), a 21-year-old whose psychic abilities help find missing people. The series is based on the “1-800-Where-R-You” novels by Meg Cabot (“The Princess Diaries”).

“Wild Card” is the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Lynn Marie Latham and Bernard Lechowick (“That’s Life,” “Homefront”), who serve as executive producers and series writers.

“We had had this idea for quite some time and thought it would make a great Lifetime show,” Latham says. “In this business, everyone you meet says, ‘My life would make a great TV show,’ and you just get used to it. But we met a man when our kids were in kindergarten together; he is an attorney and prosecutes fraud. He would tell us these cases, and they were just jaw-dropping.”

They didn’t make the lead a female to appeal to Lifetime. Lechowick points out they always envisioned a female protagonist.

“It happens that there are more women fraud investigators in the special investigators units in the country than there are men,” he says. “For whatever gender-bias reason, women can more easily get information from people than men can.”

Zoe, adds Latham, “is a woman with a lot on her plate and a very full life and trying to juggle her personal life with her work life, which is what we all try to do, but for this person, it’s brand new.”

Because Fisher (“Baby Bob,” “Ellen”) had filmed only two episodes of the series, “I am still learning who Zoe is,” she confesses. “She’s going to be constantly evolving. I am in every single scene and work 16-hour days.”

But she welcomes the challenge. “When I read the script and found out who was involved, I immediately called them,” says Fisher, the daughter of Connie Stevens and Eddie Fisher. “The play is the thing, and it’s a fantastic part.”

Reuben is also enthusiastic about her character. “She’s independent, strong and very focused in her job and committed,” the actress says.

Besides starring in “1-800-Missing,” Reuben is an associate producer and sings the theme song, “This Dream Is Real.” Reuben, who worked as a backup singer for Tina Turner after leaving “ER,” also co-wrote the lyrics to the song.

As associate producer, Reuben says, she is involved in her character’s development, story lines and director selection. Wearing a producer’s hat “wasn’t really anything I had particularly set out to do. It was brought up in part of the deal-making process, and I thought that it sounded good.”

Executive producer Debra Martin Chase became good friends with novelist Cabot when she produced the hit film version of “The Princess Diaries.”

“I actually have several of her properties set up, and from the first time I read this, I said this will make a terrific series.”

The series, though, has a different focus than the novels. “In the book series,” says Chase, “it’s much more of a young-adult novel. It really focuses on Jess and her friends and family. But as we did with ‘The Princess Diaries,’ we realized if we elevated one of the adult characters and paired the two, it opens up the demographics of the material. We pitched it to Lifetime, and they loved it immediately.”

“Wild Card” can be seen at 9 p.m. Saturdays. The network has rated it TVPG-L (may be unsuitable for young children, with an advisory for language). “1-800-Missing” can be seen at 10 p.m. Saturdays. The network has rated it TVPG L-V (may be unsuitable for young children, with an advisory for language and violence). Both series air on Lifetime.

Cover photo courtesy of Lifetime Entertainment.