Date and Issue: August 3, 1984.

Pages: 2 pages.

Pictures: 1 color photo.

Article: Article about the Partners In Crime series.

Author: Tom McMahon.

Country: Canada.

With two bounteous beauties like Loni Anderson and Lynda Carter it is inevita­ble that questions about their new series at least touch on their obvious physical attributes. "We've both said no to T and A," says Anderson who co-stars in NBC's new detective-comedy series, Partners In Crime.

Of course, as former poster queens, Anderson and Carter didn't always shun the sexy image. However, Carter, who turned in her push-up bra after Wonder Woman went off the air, chooses to forget that period. Anderson is a little more forthright. "I think when you are begin­ning your career, you do a lot of things to get exposure," she says.

Anderson, who is in her late 30s, has always known how to sell herself. She had enough gump­tion to pick up her life in her native St. Paul, Minn., when she was a high school divorcee with a child. She eventually earned a teaching certificate from the University of Minnesota where she majored in art and drama, and she tried teaching, but acting won out.

Although she followed her heart in her career decision, she was realistic enough to reach for the dye bottle when she was considered a serious brunette with a theatrical background, after she arrived in Hollywood. The blonde hair instantly transformed her into a commodity who won an audition for the Suzanne Somers part in Three's Company. Later she won the role of Jennifer for a four-year run on WKRP In Cincinnati.

However, under her influence Jennifer was a blonde with something extra - intelligence and competence. That doesn't mean Anderson flinches when­ever anyone says she is sexy. "It is very flattering. I think it is a nice compli­ment. I think glamor and sex intertwine."

Carter and Anderson are decidedly more elegant than Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly who play Cagney And Lace y on CBS. It was their down-to-earth quality that helped pave the way for a series about strong women. Yet Anderson sees their allure as positive. "What I have tried to do ever since I started in my career is to say glamor can be wonderful. Everybody seems to be striving for it. Women are not out there trying to play themselves down. You can be glamorous and attractive and still be intelligent."

In Partners, Anderson and Carter play two women who are reluctant co-owners of a San Francisco detec­tive agency they inherit when their former husband is murdered. Carter plays his first wife, Anderson his second. Their first case in the two-hour opening episode is to solve his murder. Regulars on the series include Eileen Heckert, Steve Levitt and Walter Olkewicz.

Anderson plays a street-wise femme named Sydney Kovak whose talents include speaking Chinese and picking pockets. Of the characters she and Carter play, she says: "We both have other professions. We've just been thrown together into this so we are not totally adept at what we are doing. It is more in The Thin Man vein where there is a lot of witty repartee and fun." The Thin Man was a series of sophisticated mystery­comedy movies that began in the 1930s. They featured William Powell and Myrna Loy as the husband and wife detectives Nick and Nora Charles. Mere mention of the name puts Partners In Crime in classy company, but then, stars and producers rarely evoke the names of Curly, Larry and Moe or Abbott and Costello when looking for a comparison.

The project originated by sheer accident. Anderson and Carter spent a fun day together shop­ping. They have the same agent. Anderson said she really enjoyed being with Carter and before you could say `let's take a lunch' the agent had sold NBC on a deal with Johnny Carson's company producing. NBC obviously felt the two actresses were the key element in selling the series and even now, after production problems which have seen the replace­ment of the executive producer, line producer and director, the network is still enthusiastic about the project. Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC entertain­ment says: "If we fail with Loni Anderson and Lynda Carter, somebody should make a-citizen's arrest."

Loni Anderson, who has been divorced twice and lives in the San Fernando Valley with her 19-year-old daughter Diedra, gravitated towards the series when her daughter enrolled at UCLA. "I didn't want to do a series after WKRP. Then I realized I missed it and having a place to go every day. When my daughter went to college, it was the perfect time. I was a little lost Mom."

Because they are opposites with different looks and tastes, they play off of each other, and as Carter says, it is more interest­ing when both of them are in a scene. "Luckily enough," adds Anderson, "we are so totally different looking and our characters are so different. We don't even like the same men (on or off the job)." Anderson still dates Burt Reynolds, while Carter recently married a Washington, D.C. lawyer.

There can only be pluses to working with someone as attractive as the dark­haired Carter, according to Anderson. "Someone asked me what I thought about working with such a beautiful woman and I said it just makes me look better. How can that be bad?" Audiences will know come September.

© 1984 by Calgary Times.

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