HOLLYWOOD — Where, exactly, "Jonny Zero" ends and Franky G begins — and vice versa — is a little hard to tell.
The title character of the new Fox series depends on the actor who plays him. The series about an ex-con who returns to his home in New York and tries to rebuild his life — while getting involved in some big-time adventures — needed the right actor in that role before executive producer John Wells ("ER," "Third Watch," "The West Wing") was even willing to pitch it to a network.
"Jonny Zero" began as a theatrical screenplay that Wells' company optioned "six or seven years ago."
"And the concern was — who would actually be the character? So we sat on the screenplay for a number of years until we found the actor who could be the part," Wells said.
Then he saw Franky G in the movie "The Italian Job" and started asking about him. He then got a look at him in "Manito," an independent film that won a best-ensemble prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and was even more impressed.
"Have you seen him?" Wells said when asked what impressed him. "He's a wonderful actor."
But when Franky G was first approached about doing "Jonny Zero," he didn't exactly leap at the chance because "I didn't know who he was," said the actor, who was oblivious to one of TV's most successful and most-honored producers.
"But when I met with him and he told me the idea of the show, I really liked it and I was excited about it," Franky G said.
As we learn in Friday's premiere (7 p.m., Ch. 13), Johnny Calvo (Franky G) has just been released from prison after four years. His ex-wife won't see him or let him see his young son; his father has disowned him; the only job he can get is at a restaurant where he mops floors and dresses up like an octopus; his gangster boss wants him back on his team; and an FBI agent blackmails him into working for the government.
He's soon joined by a new pal he doesn't really want — hip-hop DJ wannabe Random (GQ). And he finds himself helping troubled ex-stripper, Danni (Brennan Hesser).
It's sort of stylishly gritty and has a saving-grace sense of humor that makes the whole thing pretty entertaining.
With Franky G attached, Wells pitched the show to Fox and they bought it at once. "If you don't have the right person, trying to sort of write it first and then cast it — I think it's always a mistake," Well said.
"Jonny Zero" isn't exactly an original idea. We've seen plenty of TV shows and movies about ex-cons trying to go straight. But it is quirky enough to work, in large part because Franky G is indeed perfectly cast.
He carries off a role that requires him to be tough, physical, comedic, caring and more than a bit put-upon by the world and his circumstances.
In Friday's pilot alone, he avoids gangsters, wears an octopus suit, saves a damsel in distress — and somehow does it believably.
Which is what "Jonny Zero" needs if it's going to have a chance.
WHAT'S IN A LETTER, er, uh, a name? And why, pray tell, does the star of "Johnny Zero" go by the name Franky G?
"It sounds cool," he said.
Yeah, well, there's more to it than that. Seems when he got his first real acting job — a guest role on the Fox series "New York Undercover" — he joined the Screen Actors Guild, which doesn't allow more than one actor with the same name, and several variations on Frank Gonzalez were already in use.
"I just told them to put down Franky G," he said. "A lot of my friends call me Franky G."
G AND GQ in the same series? Franky's co-star doesn't exactly have a first or last name — just a couple of letters.
Actually, GQ started out as a rapper and an emcee, where that's sort of required.
"I didn't really have a choice. It's my initials," said GQ (Gregory Quallum).
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com