Showtime Series Examines Life on Ressurection Blvd, Part 2

Editor's Note: This week we conclude our two-part series about the Showtime series RESURRECTION BLVD. Next week we bring you news and notes from the world of television, our television viewing recommendations for the week and our popular feature, "This Week in Television History." Enjoy.

RESURRECTION BLVD. focuses on the Santiagos, an East Los Angeles Latino family. It is the first series to predominantly feature Latinos both in front of and behind the camera.

What follows is a transcript of a press conference held by many of many of the creative people behind RESURRECTION BLVD. Included are stars Tony Plana, Michael DeLorenzo, Nicholas Gonzalez and Elizabeth Pena. Jerry Offsay, President of Programming at Showtime, series creator Dennis E. Leoni and series director Jesus Salvador Trevino are also featured.

QUESTION: I'm rather curious about what it looks like behind the scenes, is there a significant Latino presence on your crew and writing staff?

LEONI: Actually, our director of photography is a Latino, our customer is a Latina, help me if I forget anybody -

TREVINO: Casting.

LEONI: Our casting director is a Latino.

TREVINO: Security.

LEONI: Yeah, all our security is Latino. [laughter] The object that I want to do now is to give young Latino writers an opportunity because it's very tough to break in [to the business]. And so what I want to do is I want to try to bring some young writers in, mentor them, show them how it all works, get them comfortable - production people - help them along, and hopefully we can create a little infrastructure. I'm not really looking to change the landscape of television but I just want to plant one tree.

QUESTION: From the clips we saw, the show really looks like some good family drama that people across the board will be able to relate to and characters that we'll be able to enjoy spending time with. Can you tell us a little bit about the characters you play on the show?

DeLORENZO: It's a family with a heritage in boxing. Boxing has been in our family for generations and it's kind of like expected that the males in the family become boxers. I play Carlos, I'm headstrong, passionate, kind of myopic in certain degrees. Tony Plana is my dad and he really hits hard.

PLANA: When I have to.

GONZALES: Having a character like Alex Santiago, for me, I think, was very important that he's an intelligent Latino, yet very passionate, which is almost a given, but yet he has the intelligence that balances him off - he's a lot more logical, he's a medical student.

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