Miracle Worker

Heartthrob Billy Campbell will be Moses when NBC brings the
Old Testament into homes with 'In the Beginning.'

The Bible and Aaron Spelling received equal promotional pushes from NBC on the wackiest day yet on the television critics' summer tour.

Spelling's over-the-top brand of sexy shenanigans had critics guffawing at clips of Titans, a new prime-time soap. A session on the biblical miniseries In the Beginning prompted the new Moses to make some surprising admissions.

Yes, NBC, the network that gave us the laughable Noah's Ark, has returned to the Old Testament. In the new four-hour miniseries for November, NBC will depict Abraham (Oscar winner Martin Landau), Joseph (Eddie Cibrian of Third Watch) and Moses (Billy Campbell of Once and Again).

A large photograph of heartthrob Campbell sporting what he called "a big, fat, old beard" looked mighty odd.

"I have to admit I had reservations, mostly having to do with whether or not I was fit to be Moses," Campbell said. "I figured there are other people smarter than me who are casting the movie."

He said he tried not to think about Charlton Heston's famous portrayal of Moses in 1956's The Ten Commandments. Campbell's doubts about his casting eased on the set.

"Once I got to Morocco and once they stuck the raccoon on my face, and once we were in wardrobe I didn't feel as unsure of myself," he said. "That may change when I see the movie."

NBC executives and director Kevin Connor promised that In the Beginning was a serious production, unlike Noah's Ark. "We stuck with the Bible, we stuck with the way it was written, we didn't change it," Connor said. "That's very dangerous to do in America."

The intent was to tell the biblical stories in involving, realistic terms. Biblical scholars reviewed the script, which goes from creation to the Ten Commandments, but omits Noah's ark, Sodom and Gomorrah and the Tower of Babel.

Connor, who directed last season's Mary, Mother of Jesus on NBC, described the dialogue as economical and "not particularly biblical." The miniseries moves quickly to keep viewers from clicking away, he added.

"It's very colorful, almost like a pop-up book," he said. "All of the characters are well defined. You get right to the meat of what they're about."

The cast also includes Diana Rigg, Alan Bates, Christopher Lee, David Warner, Amanda Donohoe, Geraldine Chaplin and Jacqueline Bisset as Abraham's wife, Sarah.

The actors described a shoot complicated by the wind, sand and heat. Beards tended to pop off. The miniseries contains 350 special effects shots -- 125 alone for the parting of the Red Sea. Campbell described that scene as an arduous undertaking.

"I was standing on top of a really big rock with lots of space between me and the ground, with a wind machine behind me," he said. He added he was just "hoping I wasn't going to fall off the rock."

The In the Beginning session came shortly after NBC executives discussed their pursuit of reality programming. One possibility may be Chains of Love, about a woman actually chained to four men she's considering dating. Definite for fall is the campy, steamy drama Titans.

(discussion of Titans "snipped")__Orlando Sentinel (July 20, 2000)