Reynolds Does `Hard Time' -- Burt Reynolds Does `Hard Time' In Tnt Movie

It may seem familiar to his fans, but for Burt Reynolds, it signals a new beginning.

The veteran actor is both star and director of Sunday's new TNT drama "Hard Time" at 8 and 10 p.m., the first of three interconnected stories about a Miami police detective. (TNT is expected to run the others in 1999.) Reynolds displays his patented mix of toughness and charm as Logan McQueen, framed for the murder of a stakeout target after another felon uses the cop's stolen gun.

With an ambitious prosecutor (John D'Aquino) eager to put him behind bars, McQueen gets help from his partner (Charles Durning) and his defense attorney (Mia Sara) in trying to clear his name. Robert Loggia appears as a crime boss linked to the killing, and Billy Dee Williams portrays the district attorney.

As proven by "Sharky's Machine" and "Hustle," Reynolds is no stranger to tales like "Hard Time," but he saw a difference in the part of McQueen. "I wanted to play a character who was my age and took a real turn with his personality," he explains. "That plays out over the three movies, yet I wanted each of them to be able to stand on its own. I never looked at these as TV movies, but as `movie' movies, and TNT was very much in favor of that.

"McQueen starts out as a `Dirty Harry' kind of guy, crossing the line and favoring excessive violence. By the second movie, he's in a maximum-security prison. Because he's well-known, he has to be hidden for his own protection. That changes his feelings about such things as prejudice and capital punishment, and he has to face them. I'm not sure I was a good-enough actor to have this kind of arc 20 years ago."

Like Reynolds in some ways, McQueen ultimately will be starting over. "If I couldn't act or direct, I'd have to be a shepherd," says Reynolds, "and it's the same with this guy. The only thing he knows is how to be a cop, but he can't get his gun or his license back, so he can't even be a private eye. He'll be outside the law, as are some operatives for the FBI and other organizations. They have tremendous qualifications, but they've done something wrong."

Reynolds was pleased by his dealings with TNT's executives. He claims that at some studios today, "You go in front of committee members who aren't any older than sandwiches you've eaten. They go to another committee, then there's another committee, but it's great with Ted Turner. He says, `Let's do this,' and before you know it, you're actually making the movie."

After some lean years marked by financial troubles, Reynolds bounced back in 1997 as an adult-film director in "Boogie Nights." That performance earned him a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination, and he adds, "I think those were partially `survivor' awards or `He's still alive?' awards. I do realize it's about the work, too, and it was very satisfying." Reynolds returns to the big screen soon in the hockey story "Mystery Alaska," from "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice" mentor David E. Kelley.

One of Hollywood's top box-office draws from the 1970s into the '80s, Reynolds found much of his early work in TV. After stints on "Riverboat" and "Gunsmoke," he starred in "Hawk" and "Dan August" before his movie career skyrocketed. He returned to the home screen in the late 1980s as "B.L. Stryker," then had a successful run on the comedy "Evening Shade," for which he won an Emmy.

"Television is comfortable with characters that viewers get to know and like," Reynolds reasons, "but I'd like to think the audience still wants to be a little surprised. If you turn left when they thought you'd turn right, that hopefully keeps them from going to the refrigerator for 20 minutes, or from turning away completely."