PHILLY CAN 'HACK' IT

By PATRICK WALTERS

September 1, 2003 -- IT'S sweltering and he's wearing a buttoned-down shirt and blue jeans. But David Morse appears cool as he hops out of his cab and saunters up the steps of a row house on the set of Hack in West Philadelphia.

The actor chats easily with a neighbor working in her garden, flashes a quick grin, then heads inside the house as though it were his own.

But the scene is more than just slick acting - it's almost reality for Morse, who lives in the city with his family.

The show's locale is also a rarity for network TV series, almost all of which are filmed in the entertainment hubs of New York and Los Angeles, or across the border in Canada, where lower fees and the friendly exchange rate help cut costs.

Hack, which airs at 9 p.m. Saturday on CBS, stars Morse as Mike Olshansky, a decorated Philadelphia cop who was booted off the force after pocketing drug money from a crime scene. So, to make ends meet, he's forced to drive a cab.

The series was originally going to be set in New York, but producer Nan Bernstein said that Morse felt so strongly about filming the show near his home in Philadelphia that the producers decided it was worth the extra $40,000 to $70,000 an episode to film in the City of Brotherly Love.

"It became more of a wish to have David in the show," said Bernstein, who added that despite the hassles generated by bringing in crew and equipment, the city has been very accommodating.

"The city was not selected as much as David Morse very, very much wanted to be in the show."

So the show was moved to Philadelphia, where virtually all filming is done.

Morse said he thinks it's refreshing to film outside New York and Los Angeles. He's one to know, having starred in the 1980s series St. Elsewhere which was set in Boston, but filmed mostly in Los Angeles.

"They're able to fake it," Morse said. "But it feels fake. It doesn't feel genuine."

Other cities in the country have also gotten boosts from major TV series, but they're still the exception to the rule.

The WB series Dawson's Creek was filmed in Wilmington, N.C., for six seasons starting in 1997

It's tough to attract film crews away from New York and Los Angeles, says Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission.

"It's cheaper to stay there," Griffin said. "Actors want to stay there, they don't want to leave home."

The networks traditionally hate to shoot outside New York and L.A. because it adds millions to a show's annual budget.

And if Hack had not been so popular in its first season, it would likely have been cancelled quickly - rather the than spend the extra money while waiting for an audience to warm to the series.

Philadelphia has hosted several major films, including the Rocky movies in the 1970s and 1980s, Trading Places in 1983 and Philadelphia and Twelve Monkeys in the 1990s.

And filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan has reinforced Philadelphia's reputation for movies by shooting his movies - including The Sixth Sense and Signs - almost exclusively in the city and its suburbs.

But major network TV series just haven't become big business in the city.

For smaller cities to draw in TV series, it's often the intangibles that make it happen - like Morse's desire to stay near home while he makes Hack.

- Post wire services