CULVER CITY, Calif. – Who is “The Guardian” in real life?
On television, he’s troubled lawyer “Nick Fallin” as played every Tuesday night on CBS by Australian actor Simon Baker.
In real life, he’s the invention of first- time TV producer David Hollander, who created Fallin as a hot-shot corporate lawyer, busted for drugs and forced into community service as a child advocate.
Hollander’s tale of this flawed, not-so-likable do-gooder not only survived a murderous time slot, but has flourished to become this season’s most watched new drama.
While no single person inspired “The Guardian,” the veteran screen writer Hollander said at least two real people touched his imagination for Nick Fallin: his brother, a Pittsburgh child advocate, and actor Charlie Sheen, the Hollywood bad boy whose immense popularity has been dogged by drugs and scandal.
“I’m hugely impressed with Charlie,” Hollander told The Post last week. “He’s a very talented actor and a very good soul who has had a pretty rough ride.”
Hollander co-wrote the 2000 movie “Rated X” – with Sheen and brother Emilio Estevez playing the roles of Artie and Jim Mitchell, the San Francisco brothers who built a fortune on strip clubs and porn, only to lose it all in a drug-induced spiral.
“I wrote a character for him that he took on during a hard time in his life. I thought a lot of about a guy like Charlie who find a new path and being brave enough to do it,” Hollander said. “And that helped in the creation of Nick.”
The capable cast of Baker, veteran Dabney Coleman as Fallin’s hard-driving dad and Alan Rosenberg as the show’s true-believer child advocate has captivated audiences with compelling stories that have been as heartbreaking and uplifting as they’ve been dark and morally ambiguous.
“I get repelled by attempted nice-ness,” a smiling Hollander said. “We’re not asking [viewers] to swallow that kind of fiction whole.”
The gritty CBS drama is No. 22 in overall ratings, beating perennial powerhouse “NYPD Blue” on ABC and holding its own against ratings-monster “Frasier” (No. 16) on NBC.
In an era where feel-good stories would seem to be the order of the day, CBS has developed a ratings winner with this moody look at human frailty.
“What got us here was a commitment to making something fresh and original,” said co-executive producer Michael Pressman, a veteran of “Picket Fences” and “Chicago Hope.” “It’s been a marriage between the kind of somberness and honesty and toughness that television viewers seem to want in this climate.”
For Baker, he’s relished the chance to play the deeply troubled Nick Fallin, who borders between kid-saving hero and drug addict depending on the scene or episode.
“It’s like working out a Rubik’s cube of how it goes together,” he said.
“I’m drawn to a character who has a hard time, as opposed to a character who is able to waltz through everything.”
“There was this whole generation of films in the ’80s where everyone was good people or bad people, and it was very clean cut.
“I feel like we live in a more complicated world than that,” Baker said. “Why not create something someone can identify with that isn’t superficial.”