A look at New Orleans through turbulent years starting in the late 1950s is about to debut this weekend at the Prytania Theater. It’s the first glimpse of an intricate project that ends with the assassination of President Kennedy.
Remember that cartoon “Mr. Bill” from Saturday Night Live? That scary, whiny “No!” that went on for several seconds – always denoting disaster for the little guy.
Poor Mr. Bill is the creation of New Orleans native Walter Williams. It debuted in 1976.
More recently, he’s been busy working on five seasons of a series about New Orleans that begins in 1958. It’s called “Crescent City,” and Dr. John scored the theme.
It sets the scene for storylines that converged in New Orleans in substantial ways – and includes crime bosses, rock and roll, civil rights, the Cuban revolution, and the rise of John F. Kennedy. It’s tied together through one character, called Kevin.
Williams sat in his living room, which is sometimes used as a set in filming, and explained the concept.
“I started this process about five years ago. I got the idea that it would be really interesting and entertaining to do a show about the Kennedy assassination in New Orleans because I’m from here," he says. "I witnessed the whole event, which changed my life. Lee Harvey Oswald lived down the street.”
But the production system in place back in the “Mr. Bill” days has transformed. Williams is no longer bound to seek backing from only three networks. And there’s the digital option for on-demand distribution.
“Today, there’s obviously more than three (networks). In fact, cable is on the way out. And most young people these days don’t even buy cable. They buy internet, high-speed internet.”
And it’s tough to sell a series that costs tens of millions of dollars to produce.
“Hollywood’s quite compartmentalized, and I’m the Mr. Bill guy at best. Why even bring this stuff up? It doesn’t fit into their pattern. I realized early on that this was not a viable option to go to a network because they would not let me do the show, number one. If they liked the show, their first job would be how to get rid of me.”
So the theater showing is for the actors, crew and supporters to see the 25 minutes of what’s been done. And maybe a network could finance the much-reduced rate to finish season one.
And there’s another benefit.
“If you keep watching this, you might figure out who killed Kennedy. Tune in to episode 50.”
The segment of episode one of “Crescent City” debuts Saturday at 10 a.m. It’s free and open to the public.
