‘Juarez,’ Shelved Earlier by ABC, to Be Aired

“Juarez,” a dramatic series about a Latino sheriff’s detective that was shelved by ABC earlier this year, will get a one-shot airing on May 28. But a spokesman said that a Latino letter-writing campaign protesting the earlier decision not to air the series had no effect on the scheduling.

“It was just a normal programming decision,” said the ABC spokesman, Jim Brochu.

“I hope that ABC’s decision to air the ‘Juarez’ episode indicates that we succeeded in getting the word out during our letter-writing campaign to ABC and Columbia,” said Richard Yniguez, veteran actor and president of Nosotros, a Latino arts organization that spearheaded the protest effort along with the Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences and the Hispanic Media Coalition.

But he acknowledged there probably were more pressing factors in ABC’s decision.

“I think ABC’s decision to air the episode has a lot more to do with what’s going on with the (writers) strike now,” he said. “They’re bringing more material off the shelf now. And that’s good for us. I’m just sorry they didn’t make it (‘Juarez’) a two-hour episode--as a movie, which would have given us more of a shot. . . .”

Originally, Columbia Pictures Television produced “Juarez” in hopes of reaching the same audience that made last year’s “La Bamba” a huge crossover hit. Six episodes of the series about life in a town along the Texas-Mexico border were ordered and initially were set to air in January. Later, that air date was pushed back until after the Winter Olympics in February.

Then in late January, ABC, apparently dissatisfied with the series, shelved it indefinitely due to what were termed “creative differences.” Two one-hour episodes had been completed.

Asked why ABC had now decided to air “Juarez,” Brochu said: “We never said we would not air what was done. We’re still considering redeveloping the project.”

Jeffrey Bloom, the “Juarez” creator, writer and producer, expressed no pleasure in the scheduling decision.

“I guess the network is looking for filler,” he said. Bloom has already negotiated to keep his name off of it.

“The episode is a mess,” he said. “They reshot some of it, they added a lot of optical zooms, establishing shots, stuff I don’t like at all. They’ve taken out scenes from the pilot episode and put them in the second one and vice-versa. They didn’t want to spend any more to fix it up or let me complete it. At this point, I blame the Columbia executives who have taken over the show without consultation; the end result is bad.”

Executives at Columbia could not immediately be reached for comment.

Despite his criticism, Bloom said that the actors in the episode are interesting to watch, but he doubted that they could be induced to return to the series if it is revived. Benjamin Bratt, who played the title character, is already committed to another ABC series, “Knights of the City,” and Ada Maris, who played Marielena Juarez, is developing a series with producer Stephen J. Cannell.

What effect will the airing of the episode have on the Latino community now?

“It will show what could have been possible if the network had had faith in originally airing it,” Yniguez said. “The difference that it’s going to make is that ‘Juarez’ is unique. Jeffrey Bloom took it upon himself to do a TV show that goes beyond what any other network television show has done, in that 95% of the people on camera are Hispanic. And you’ll probably never see that again.”