Christopher Meloni uses his machismo to comic advantage in the new Fox series “Surviving Jack.” Based on Justin Halpern’s memoir, “I Suck at Girls,” the series has a clever conceit: What if the tough father figure was played by the quintessential tough guy? The casting of Meloni, who will forever be known as Detective Elliot Stabler on “Law & Order: SVU,” was a no-brainer.
“Someone who looks like me is not supposed to be funny,” he says by phone from Los Angeles, where he moved after finishing his “SVU” run a few years ago. “So when you get that relief, someone who makes you laugh, maybe you like them even more because you thought they were going to be either an a–hole or a bully.”
Jack is neither, but he’s definitely not the sort of dad a kid wants to piss off. Set in the early ’90s (cue awesome soundtrack featuring Jane’s Addiction), “Surviving Jack” revolves around the teenage son, Frankie (Connor Buckley) and his popular blond sister, Rachel (Claudia Lee) as they struggle through the trials of peer pressure in high school. With their mom (Rachael Harris) off to law school, Jack is in charge and the kids are a bit terrified of their new full-time guardian, who attacks their problems with the delicacy of a Doberman.
To toughen up Frankie, who chokes under pressure during baseball practice, Jack fires a shotgun to scare him when he’s about to catch what should be an easy fly ball. “Rattled!” he yells at the cowering teen.
Meloni, who is married to production designer Sherman Williams, sees Jack as a modern day Archie Bunker — minus the racism, of course. “He’s just a little bit more educated, he’s far more tolerant, far less bigoted. He’s more open-minded about things as far as his full commitment, right or wrong, to his view of the world,” he says.
Meloni’s Jack is a hybrid of Halpern’s father, his own parenting style, and that of his father — a doctor — who was a rare but reserved and strong presence. “He was a man of few words and because of that, when he spoke it carried an inordinate amount of weight. I would call him ‘stern’ I think,” Meloni says.
And, as the father to Sophia, 13, and Dante, 10, the actor has his own work cut out for him learning how to manage two kids on the brink of their teen years. He thinks he’s figured out one way to keep them in line.
“I was staring at my son and he started laughing. I didn’t break my stare, I just kept staring at him. And he kind of laughed a little more but kind of died down and then it faded to a smile, where he finally went, ‘Ah, okay. I don’t know if you’re serious or not,’” said the actor. “I’m like, ‘That’s a perfect parenting skill. You keep ’em guessing.’ Keep them off balance, keep them on their toes.”