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Sonny Grosso's got a mission. He's fed up, he says, with the bad rap taken by America's men in blue, from the fallout from the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles to Ice T's incendiary record "Cop Killer." Sitting at his regular table at Rao a century-old Italian restaurant in east Harlem, the former narcotics detective turned TV producer waves a forkful of chicken cacciatore in the air and rails against the press for stereotyping the cops as brutish, racist thugs. "When they dedicated a police memorial last year to 10,000 policemen killed in the line of duty, not one reporter gave a damn," he
Grosso's reflexive loyalty may rankle some sensibilities, but the TV networks couldn't be happier. This fall, seven reality-based police shows, from "Cops" to "Rescue 911" to "American Detective," will air in prime time-and two will come from the producing team of Sonny Grosso and Larry Jacobson. "Top Cops" on CBS, re-creating the heroic escapades of real-life police, and "Secret Service," a spinoff on NBC, are just the latest of a stream of police-related shows from Grosso-Jacobson Entertainment, America's No. 1 prime-time cop shop. Over the past few years it has produced such reality series as "Cop Talk" and "True Blue," and a dramatic series, "Counterstrike," that currently airs on the USA network. And the company is awaiting word on the fate of two pilots, "Gangsters," a low-rent "GoodFellas," and "Police File." Cheap to produce and solid in the ratings, the shows have proven irresistible to network executives confronting dwindling audiences and ad revenue.
Grosso-Jacobson programs, in particular, give new dimension to the term "no frills." Filmed exclusively in Toronto on abbreviated shooting schedules, their shows use no-name local actors, cheap Canadian unions and a bare minimum of props. "In 'Top Cops' we move one palm tree into the frame and we've got Miami," says Grosso. A one-hour episode of a typical American-filmed drama costs $1.3 million; budgets for "Secret Service," which began filming June 29, average just $750,000. Yet the programs' unpolished look is one source of their appeal. Accompanied by often quaky narration by real police, "Top Cops" and "Secret Service" re-create two or three true tales of police bravery or masterly detective work in one 60-minute episode. They blend graphic crime re-enactments, station-house banter, interrogations and dramatic captures or shoot-outs. "It's gritty, graphic stuff," said the Los Angeles Times.
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Raised in east Harlem, then an Italian neighborhood, Grosso joined the NYPD on a whim in 1956, after a friend handed him an application during a schoolyard basketball game. Grosso's 20-year police career peaked when he participated in the "French Connection" heroin busts (Roy Scheider played him in the 1971 movie), which launched him in show business. Grosso's personal style has changed little since his days as a narcotics detective. He wears a pinkie ring and a gold chain with a Madonna pendant (as in the Blessed Virgin, not the pop icon), speaks with a thick New Yawk accent and has a proclivity toward malapropisms ("those two things are diabolically opposed"). Old habits die hard: Grosso packs a .38 revolver, often sits with his back to the wall in restaurants and keeps his home phone number and address a secret from all but his closest cronies. "I always look forward to meeting Sonny, whether he's coming with his gun or not," says Steve Warner, an NBC vice president. Grosso's natural empathy has earned him the affection of officers around the country. Says ex-cop Peter Milo, whose slaying of a robber as a member of a 1960s stakeout team was reenacted on "Top Cops": "Sonny's given us a show that tells it like it really is."
Grosso and partner Jacobson earn about $75,000 for each episode they produce, plus a bundle from syndication. Their big winner: "Night Heat" which ran on CBS CBS for five years and a airs in about 40 countries. Grosso's chief gripe against the networks is that they schedule his shows in their weakest time slots. That's because their low cost makes it less painful to get beaten in the ratings. "Top Cops" airs opposite "Cosby" and "The Simpsons," while "Secret Service" will debut in NBC's blackest hole, against "60 Minutes." Says Grosso: "Who's gonna watch us against '60 Minutes'? Even I watch '60 Minutes'."
Grosso lives on the run these days, jetting between his Manhattan office and his production center in Toronto's Sky Dome. He tries to make sure he's on hand for three evenings out a week with his cronies: Monday Italian dinners at Rao in the old neighborhood, Tuesdays at Puglia in Little Italy and Thursday "Top Cops" feasts at Carlo and Adelina's restaurant in Toronto, with his production staff and the cops he flies in from across the United States to watch their lives re-created for TV. "I want to let these guys know people care about them," says Grosso, posing for snapshots with the top cops beneath framed photos of his late mother that adorn the restaurant's walls. Of course, reality police shows may go the way of the TV Western someday. But for now, Grosso's celebrations of the men in blue are keeping him happily in the black.
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