PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Everywhere Melina Kanakaredes turned, residents of this smitten city reached out for her, eager for a word, a smile, a wave, as if Kanakaredes were more than just the star of a television program, as if she were a civic heroine.
Which, in a way, she is, especially at a cultural moment when identification with a hit TV show or movie can reshape a community's image (how many "Cheers"-watchers still think of Boston as a friendly place "where everybody knows your name"?)This uncut gem of a city has long believed -- with ample justification -- that the wider world tends to look down on or ignore Providence. That got harder to do as Providence poured nearly $2 billion into an urban revival featuring a waterfront park, a new convention center with an attached hotel, and a massive shopping mall now nearing completion downtown.
Condescending to Rhode Island's capital has gotten even harder since NBC's "Providence" emerged as the hottest new network drama of the season. Every Friday night, more than 13 million viewers across the country see the city of Providence bathed in a golden light as a locale of romance and drama. Of course, the Providence of "Providence" has its share of social problems, but that only makes life more dramatically challenging for Dr. Sydney Hansen (Kanakaredes), a plastic surgeon who has forsaken the glamour of life in the Hollywood fast lane to return, as the character says, "back where I never thought I'd be, in Providence, my hometown."
As the cast and crew of "Providence" returned to the show's namesake for the first time since it began airing in January, Daniel Frageorgia Jr. felt he had to be there. "This show is what's putting Providence on the map," exulted Frageorgia, a 35-year-old chef who was among hundreds of onlookers watching "Providence" film scenes Wednesday on the banks of the Providence River.
Like many others, Frageorgia believes the show is perfectly timed because it spotlights Providence just as the city is in the middle of a renaissance. "Ten or 15 years ago, you didn't want to come to Providence," he said. "But now is the time to do this show. It's making Providence a tourist attraction."
Charlotte Briggs, a 64-year-old retiree who lives in the city, hastened to Waterplace Park with her friend Nancy DeAngelis as soon as she heard the show was in town. "I've watched every episode from the very start," said Briggs, as DeAngelis gave a me-too nod. "It shows the best of Providence."
The last time the cast and crew of "Providence" were here, to shoot the pilot show in October, Ohio-born Kanakaredes was a little-known actress from the daytime soap opera "The Guiding Light." But on Wednesday, as a newly minted prime-time star of a family drama that consistently ranks among the top 20-rated network programs each week, her every move was avidly watched by the show's fans.
And Kanakaredes was looking right back at Providence -- and marveling at the swiftly changing face of the city that has embraced her show as a symbol of its revitalization.
"You get that sense, when you come here, that it's coming into its rebirth," she said during a break in filming. Kanakaredes pointed across the street at Providence Place, a 150-store shopping mall slated to open in August, and remarked "That was just being talked about the first time we were here. Now, look at it."
"Providence" (which airs locally at 7 p.m. on KSL-Ch. 5) has been embraced by the city's colorful mayor, Vincent (Buddy) Cianci, who recently appeared on the show, and who hosted a party for the cast on Monday night. "The mayor tells us about the city, and he tells us about the people," said actress Concetta Tomei, who plays Sydney's mother on the show.
In an interview Thursday, Cianci gleefully recounted a conversation he had two weeks ago with Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke. According to Cianci, Schmoke praised "Providence" thusly to his fellow mayor: "Boy, the skyline looks terrific, with a good storyline about a woman coming home, helping her family, contributing to the community." The way Cianci tells it, Schmoke then added, presumably with a touch of rueful envy: "I've got a show too on television. It's called 'Homicide.' "
That story was already making the rounds among onlookers at Wednesday's filming. After feeling like underdogs for so long, Rhode Islanders are clearly savoring the heady feeling of being in, of being hot. With pleasure, they recall that it was Providence, not Boston, that was chosen by the National Football League as the host city for the AFC Conference Championship Game in 1997. Moreover, the entertainment industry has discovered Little Rhody in a big way. In the past few years, movies ranging from "Amistad" to "True Lies" to "There's Something About Mary" have been partly shot in Rhode Island. Movie star Jim Carrey will be coming to the state soon to film "Me, Myself and Irene," the latest effort by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the native Rhode Islanders behind "There's Something About Mary" and "Dumb and Dumber."
Besides, there's no business like show business. "Does it bring in money? Absolutely," said Cianci. "Does it bring in construction work? Yes." For instance, the mayor said Teamsters union members logged an estimated 138,000 hours of work last year on TV and film work in Providence.
But Providence the city has embraced "Providence" the TV show for reasons that go beyond jobs and money. Residents appear grateful that a national audience is being told something they already know, that this is a nice place to live and work, and that the show reflects the tight family bonds on which Rhode Islanders pride themselves.
And then there are those skyline shots. "I told the mayor that we were going to shoot postcards of the city, make it as beautiful as possible," said "Providence" creator and executive producer John Masius as he watched the set-up for one shot. "The fact is it is a beautiful city."
In the show, Sydney turns her back on a successful plastic surgery practice in Los Angeles and returns to Providence, where she goes to work at a health clinic serving mostly poor patients. Her love life is a complicated one, as is her family life. She becomes a kind of caretaker for her veterinarian father, who connects better with animals than humans; her sister Joanie, who is coping with being an unwed mother; a ne'er-do-well brother, Robbie; and a mother who, though she died at Joanie's (canceled) wedding, keeps reappearing in dream sequences, where she is every bit as commanding and difficult as she was in life.
There is one other character: Providence. "The city is one of the characters of the show," said Masius, in a theme immediately picked up by the show's co-executive producer, Bob DeLaurentis. "We love this city," said DeLaurentis. "It stands for that semimythical place we all feel we miss, where families are still close and people still look out for each other."
It doesn't hurt that the city bears such an evocative name, one whose meaning is not lost on the actors or producers involved in a show that revolves around themes of second chances and finding meaning in your own life by helping others.
The scenes shot Wednesday will air during the May ratings "sweeps" period. On hand for the filming were Tomei; Paula Cale, who plays Joanie; Seth Peterson, who plays Robbie; and Tom Verica, who plays Kyle, Sydney's love interest. (None of the scenes involved Mike Farrell of "MASH" fame, who plays the father, so he wasn't present.)
The actors cheerfully signed autographs and posed for pictures with their arms draped around fans. "I feel like we're the Beatles," remarked Cale, looking at the crowds gathered on stone steps at Waterplace Park. Tomei, whose character chain-smokes on the show, chatted with a youngster, emphasizing that she doesn't smoke in real life.
Onlookers got a glimpse at the tedium and repetitiveness involved in making a TV show, but were on balance patient and good-humored, and most obediently fell silent when crew members shushed them before each take. Most, but not all: "Kyle? Oh my God!" screamed one young woman just as cameras began to roll for a scene involving Sydney delivering some dismaying news to Kyle on a park bench.
For a day, the banks of the Providence River became a movie set, with klieg lights, crane-operated cameras, and scores of crew members. A dozen extras clustered hopefully on the grass, hoping for a walk-on role. Meanwhile, the city of Providence played its own part, complete with the sound effects of a booming city: the steady rat-a-tat-tat of building construction.
It didn't appear to bother Kanakaredes. "There is something quite divine about Providence," she said.