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:Necessary
toughness
USA kicks off drama
series based on
Ll sports therapist

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BY IRAI{K TOVEG
Special to Newsdcy

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t may be filmed mostly in

Georgi4 but there are
reasons the lighthearted

'.1

drama series "Necessary

Roughness,"premiering
tonight at l0 on USA, takes
place on Long Island
- and
not iust because its real-life
inspiration, sports hlpnotherapist Donna Dannenfelsdr,
made her career here, working
with the New York fets. As
star Callie Thorne puts it, the
psychotherapist is "definitely
Long Island.,She has that incredible, gorgeous energy of
Long Island, that tough but
gorgeous energ,y, and that's got
to be in the show as well."
Which begs the question:
Why not shoot on Long Island?
"Fortunately or unfortunately,
Georgia is giving tax credits,"
says the real-life Dannenfelser,
whom Thorne portrays as Dr.
Danielle "Dani" Santino. Most
of the aerial shots were fiImed
here, says Kevin Dowling, an
executive producer and director of the pilot episode, who
assures that he'd have filmed
here if he could have. Aside
from anything else, the suburban-Philadelphia native spent
youthfirl summers in Sea Cliff
and had a weekend home in
Amagansett during the 20 years
he lived in New York City.

"But it became clear that for

financial and other reasons," he
says, "that we were to shoot in
Atlanta," at the EUE / Screen
Gems Studio Complex.

"Necessary Roughness," no

relation to the 1991 college

football fi.lm, follows a fictionalized Dannenfelser as in-house
therapist for the New York
Hawks football team. It takes
place in an dternate-world pro
league since, as Dannenfelser
notes, "You can't use the word

'NFL"' without paying dgarly

Sports psychotherapist Qonna

Dannenfelser grew up on L.l.

for the rights and obtaining a

host of approvals. Nor, she
'says, does the show take directly from her life. Unlike the
character, she's not divorced
(through she was separated for
two years before reconciling
with her husband of now 34
years), and she has thiee kids
instead of two. She also stresses she in no way slept with
anyone to get the real-life job.
A Long lslander (mostly)

The show also doesn't say

where on Long Island the

character lives. Dannenfelser,

who is "in my 50s," was born
in New fersey but reared in
Commack, then lived in Dix
Hills and'East Northport before moving to Los Angeles
five years ago. She attended
Dowling College and got her
master's degree and EdD in

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Callie Thorne plays Danielle Santino, a character based on

Dannenfelser, in "Necessary Roughness" on the USA channel.

specifics for confidentiality

Dannenfelser says, "and the

director, making conversation,
asked what I did for a living."
When she told him, "He said,
'Wow, there's a TV show!'And
I told my brother this and he
said,'Donna, everybody thinks

reasons, and went on to treat

their life is

psychology from Hofstra University. She later became the

mental-health clinician for the
|ets, she says, declining to give

pro athletes in

variety of

fields.
The seed of "Necessary
Roughness" sprouted on a trip
Dannenfelser made to L.A. to
visit her brother, foe Sabatino,
an actor who's played a milli6n
cops on TV, including Officer
Mackey on several episodes of
"\[YPD Blue." "I went with

him to the set of a show,"

TV show."'

A long trip to a show

Regardless, the siblings spent
sevenyears pitchingthe idea "It
started out as a half-hour comedy," she says, "then a one*hour
drama, and then a roller-coaster
ride [of screen formats] until we
ran into Kevin Dowling."
Or, more precisely, Dowling's wife, former "60 Min-

utes" associate producer

Marley Klaus. She was hunting
for an apartment for her parents, and Sabatino, in his other
iob as a real-estate agent, was
helping her. As director-producer Dowling recalls, "I had
directed him several times,
and he said to her,'Wait, I
know your husband. Do you
think he'd be interested in a
movie about my sister's life?"'
Dowling was. Another husband and wife, Liz Kruger and
Craig Shapiro, created the show.

Thorne, who's simultaneous-

ly staning in the final season of

FX's "Rescue Me," premiering

Iuly

13,

spent a long

lunchwith

Shooting on
home turf
A
A
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tlanta's Georgia
Dome stands in for
the New York

Hawks'Empire Dome.

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Otherwise, "when it came

time for the aerial shots,"
says Kevin Dowling, an
executive producer for
"Necessary Roughness,"
"l knew we'd have to
shoot on Long lsland. lt's
unique
- the relationship
between land and water,
the look of autunin there."
He hired the renowned
Al Cerullo, whose Syossetbased company, HoverViews Unlimited, has
shot New York City and
environs for movies from
"Saturday Night Fever" to
"Superman Returns." Last
fall, Dowling says, "We
shot over Sea Cliff and
Manhasset and the Five
Towns, along Long Beach
on the South Shore, and
mid-island near Hempstead. I asked him to stay
west of Hicksville."
The prize shots,
Dowling says, are those
of stadiums. "Since he
was flying on a Saturday,
there were college football games," allowing for
aerial crowd scenes, "and
he ajso found a bunch
that were empty," for
practice-day establishing
shots. "A few were college stadiums, but a few
were very substantial high
school fields." Look close,
and you may see your

town's. - FR lt{K IOVECE

rel.

Dannenfelser after being cast.

"I

rnting was nervous," says the actress,

par- "since that's no ioke, going to
other meet the woman you're quoteunquote playing. She was wait, was
pro- ing for me on the corner and
had . . . her aura just immediately
relaned me. She came to shake
]s,
I
myhand and I threw my arms
fou around her. . . We got along
na
like a house alire immediatelr,"
ife?'' Whether the show {Ll ''
rus- viewers will do likewise is up
and in the air. But fust as with
show.
reous-

of
:ring
rwith
son

football, wheie it's said that

any tearn can beat any other

team on:u-ry gtve.n Sunday, all

involved are hoping for a win
on any grveq.\Vednesday.