Barry Pepper quickly discovered that playing Dale Earnhardt in a made-for-TV movie is a task that's accompanied by the unbelievably high expectations of the man's fans.
"I stepped out of the airport (in North Carolina), and the first thing I saw was a bumper sticker that said, 'My idol is Jesus Christ, but my No. 1 hero is Dale Earnhardt,' " Pepper said. "And I realized I was in for it."
Even from Pepper's own family and friends back in Canada, who "started to come out of the woodwork" when they learned he was playing Earnhardt in the ESPN movie "3," which premieres Saturday at 7 and 10 p.m.
"They started handing me tapes that they had of races — endless race footage of Earnhardt," Pepper said. "And several people handed me the cassette of his final race, and with such emotion, too, attached to it. When they hand it to you, it's like they're handing you the Holy Grail.
"We knew we had our work cut out for us and we were going to be put under the microscope no matter what. There's going to be a lot of fans that, no matter how good the film is, will probably never like it."
And, while Pepper himself is very good playing the NASCAR legend who died in a wreck at the Daytona Speedway in 2001, "3" doesn't give fans a whole lot to like. It's a workmanlike, perfunctory TV movie that would have been on Lifetime if Earnhardt had been a woman.
It rushes through Earnhardt's life from the age of 16 until his death at 49, dwelling on his rocky relationship with his father, his failed marriages and his rocky relationship with his son, Dale Jr. It's more of a soap opera than a racing movie, with his on-the-track exploits (in car No. 3) taking a back seat to his personal life.
And the sometimes heavy-handed foreshadowing of his death is unbelievable and unpalatable.
There's obviously a reason Earnhardt had legions of devoted fans. But non-fans aren't going to be able to figure it out by watching "3."
TOO EARLY: ABC's "life as we know it" is arguably the most suggestive show on network television this season, what with its obsession with the sex lives of its main characters — teenage boys.
And you had to wonder what ABC was thinking when it scheduled the show on Thursdays at 8 p.m. Yeah, that's 9 p.m. on the East and West coasts, but 8 p.m. — when lots of kids are watching — in the Central and Mountain Time zones.
And you've really got to wonder what they're thinking at ABC now. As of Jan. 7, "life" trades places with "Extreme Makeover," moving up to Thursdays at 7 p.m. Call them irresponsible. . . .
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com