Details
Episode:
Episode 101 - My Town Indy
Union:
Union
Area of media:
TV Series
Network:
Limited Series - (8 Episodes)
Paid?:
Yes
Rates:
ACTRA
Deadline:
July 15, 2025
Auditions:
Date - To be confirmed
Shooting starts:
November 2025
Shooting locations:
Winnipeg and Area
Cities for response:
Winnipeg
Comments
FRED HECKMAN - JON HAMM
Storyline
Storyline: Based on a true story. In 1977, at a local radio news station in Indianapolis, beloved on-air broadcaster Fred Heckman (Jon Hamm) is facing a tough decision: stay with the home news station that's been his lifeblood the last twenty-two years, or move his family to New York City, where a big job at CBS awaits him. As he ponders his decision, a breaking news story captures the town's attention: volatile TONY KIRITSIS is holding DICK HALL, the president of a mortgage company, hostage with a gun rigged to his head, in protest of the mortgage company's upcoming foreclosure of Tony's commercial property. Tony wants to be heard live on air with Fred Heckman to tell his story. Fred is all for it -- it's the biggest breaking news story in town, maybe the country right now -- but he comes up against pressure from his GM and the FCC. Tony liberally uses of profanity, and there's also the possibility that he just might go ahead and shoot Dick during the live interview. Fred and his colleagues grapple with the dilemma of how to tell a vital news story and still maintain some responsibility to listeners -- and how much power the sponsors, the FCC, and a nervous station manager should have over the airing or dismissing of real news...
Roles
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Series Regular | TONY KIRITSIS | Male 40 - 50 Years old |
Description 40s-50s, White, unpredictable, temperamental, charming, his honesty is disarming. Tony is an unmarried, failed everyman at the end of his rope after his mortgage lender plans to foreclose on his property. Tony takes the head of the mortgage company, Dick Hall, hostage via a shotgun rigged to shoot Dick in the head if Tony is jostled or pulled. Tony informs the cops of his plan, but what he really wants is to tell his story, live, to beloved radio news anchor Fred Heckman (Jon Hamm) on local WIBC radio. As the public begins to hear the oddly charismatic Tony’s side of the story, he begins to become a folk hero, despite his criminal actions ...SERIES REGULAR; REFERENCE LINK TO THE REAL TONY KIRITSIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXXjC2JBTKo&t=207s | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Series Regular | DICK HALL | Male 40 - 45 Years old |
Description Male, 40s, White, a former football player, successful, proud, steady, the president of Meridian Mortgage. Dick has unfulfilled dreams of being a pilot -- he was forced to work at Meridian by his domineering father who he has a troubled relationship with. A functioning alcoholic in a crumbling marriage, Dick is not happy to see the volatile Tony Kiritsis in his office yet again, knowing that after four years, they're about to foreclose on Tony's commercial property. While calm in a crisis, Dick becomes terrified when the unhinged Tony fixes a shotgun to the back of his neck, rigged to shoot Dick in the head if Tony is jostled or pulled. Dick is forced to reckon with Tony’s character assassinations of him during Tony’s live interviews with Fred Heckman, interviews that cause the public to turn on Dick, even as he’s the one to be held hostage...SERIES REGULAR | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Series Regular | BARBARA HECKMAN | Female 40 - 50 Years old |
Description [BARBARA HECKMAN] Female, early 40s - early 50s, White. Barbara is Fred Heckman's (Jon Hamm) loyal wife and mother of four, but don’t let the good manners and midwestern niceness fool you. She is formidable in her own right, intelligent and perceptive. Throughout the crisis, her burgeoning friendship with the hostages’ wife (Ibby), challenges Barb’s usual sense of propriety and self-containment. Barbara has lived with a newsman long enough to know that breaking news trumps all else, but this story is different, revealing things about Fred, and privacy and assumptions about herself that she’s never questioned before -- creating a fissure in their marriage. For the first time, Barb has to decide what she wants instead of what they want. SERIES REGULAR | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Series Regular | BEN HAIRSTON | Male 30 - 40 Years old |
Description [BEN HAIRSTON] Male, 30s-40s, Black. Respected and liked, good at his job, clever. Ben is Fred’s mentee at WIBC news. After being a news reporter, he has finally found his work family at WIBC radio. This is a place where he is seen as a reporter's reporter. Through the course of the series, as Fred becomes more and more compromised in his role as a negotiator, Ben must intercede and decide whether he should dethrone his mentor in the name of journalistic integrity...SERIES REGULAR | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Recurring | CORMAC MCNALLY | Male 30 - 40 Years old |
Description [FBI SPECIAL AGENT CORMAC MCNALLY] Male, early 30s - early 40s, White. A criminal profiler with the Behavioral Science Unit when that was a new thing at the FBI. Very confident in his abilities and skeptical of the competency of local law enforcement, McNally’s odd hobbies and idiosyncratic behavior might just be real, or might just be a cover for his tendency to “profile” everyone around him – whether friend or foe ... HEAVY RECURRING | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Recurring | IBBY HALL | Female 30 - 36 Years old |
Description Female, 30s, White. Dick’s wife, cosmopolitan and beautiful, but stuck in Indianapolis through a weird twist of fate. She possesses a dry sense of humor and rebellious streak. Distrustful of most, through the series she develops a thorny but ultimately fulfilling relationship with Barbara Heckman. Ibby contends with the harrowing situation of her husband being held hostage, while also secretly grappling with the fact that their marriage is all but over… HEAVY RECURRING | ||