Jesse Stone is police chief of a small New England coastal town where mostly nothing happens.
Stuck in Paradise, Mass., Stone is just about bored to death, which gives him ample time to brood about the ex- wife he still loves. Otherwise, he subsists on Scotch whisky, coffee, scowling and impatient sighs.
All in all, he’s not a very pleasant guy to know.
Except he’s played by Tom Selleck, who, of course, is always good company. Selleck is playing Jesse Stone for a fourth time in “Sea Change,” his new TV movie airing at 8 p.m. Tuesday on KCNC-Channel 4.
As before, he makes Stone someone worth rooting for, particularly when a pair of crises arise that make Paradise even less of a paradise.
Based on the best-selling novels by Robert B. Parker, the “Jesse Stone” franchise began two years ago with “Stone Cold,” followed in 2006 by “Night Passage” and “Death in Paradise.”
“This guy Jesse is a bit of a mess,” says Selleck with a chuckle, his own affable manner in marked contrast to Stone’s. “Jesse doesn’t say how he’s feeling. He doesn’t say what he’s doing. He’s very withholding. So the mystery of each movie, until the plot kicks in, is Jesse.”
There’s a challenge to playing this character, especially for an actor who used his natural charm to great benefit in his breakthrough role as Thomas Magnum, the Vietnam vet who became a private eye in Hawaii.
“Self-pity isn’t a good color to choose if you’re playing a lead who you want people to identify with,” Selleck says.
“I did an episode of ‘Magnum’ where, for once, he was feeling down and sorry for himself. It was a totally justifiable emotion, but a lousy episode,” Selleck says. By now, he has learned some different shades. He infuses Stone, however glum, with an endearing trace of irony, a wisp of wry amusement at his life.
“Nice car,” says Stone as an attractive stranger dashes up to him beside a sports car double-parked.
The woman will figure into one of the film’s pair of mysteries (an alleged rape aboard an out-of-towner’s yacht during the annual regatta).
Meanwhile, Stone reopens a cold case involving the murder of a local bank teller. Stone, a former Los Angeles homicide detective who lost his job for drinking too much, really needs this case to give him something to do.
Selleck, on the other hand, has plenty going on. Continuing to serve as an executive producer, he already has a fifth “Jesse Stone” in development.
Then this fall he joins the cast of NBC’s “Las Vegas” as that rollicking drama, set in a lavish casino-resort, starts its fifth season with the departure of cast member James Caan.
Though best-known for the title character of the 1980s hit “Magnum, P.I.,” Selleck’s roles have ranged from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 2004 A&E film “Ike: Countdown to D-Day,” to his comedic turn as an openly gay TV reporter in the 1997 feature “In & Out.” He was a recurring guest star on “Friends” as Monica’s boyfriend, starred in several Western yarns for TNT, and made his Broadway debut in 2001 in the revival of “A Thousand Clowns.”
If there’s a common thread in his performances, he says, it’s his effort “to find the everyman in my characters.” Everyman?! At age 62, Selleck has retained good looks unlike most any man: strapping, dimple-cheeked and handsome.
“I’ve tried to work against it,” he insists. “If you’re trivialized and made fun of for it in your early career, like I was, you desperately want to be taken seriously. How I looked lost me more jobs than I got.”
After a long career, Selleck now looks ahead with a sense of readiness.
“In this business you can get used up,” he notes. “And you never know when you’re used up TILL you’re used up.”
