Vixen’s Time Leads to Violent Crime

Jamie Luner was filming a movie in Alabama when she heard about the chance to become the title character in the NBC drama “Profiler.” Unable to fly back to Los Angeles to meet the show’s producers, the one-time “Melrose Place” vixen went to a local video outlet and shot an audition tape, asking one of the store’s employees to feed her lines.

“I actually got it to Federal Express in the nick of time,” Luner says.

Having sufficiently impressed the producers and NBC, Luner is replacing Ally Walker in the program’s central role--that of an FBI profiler working for the bureau’s Violent Crimes Task Force. Walker, who had asked to leave the show, appears in the first two episodes to set up the switch.

Luner plays Rachel Burke, a former prosecutor who moves to the FBI. Her first assignment is to try to locate Waters, who disappeared in last season’s cliffhanger finale.

Though few series successfully have changed leads in this manner, executive producer Stephen Kronish is hoping fans of the show accustomed to Walker’s character of Samantha Waters will continue tuning in because they enjoy the program’s format and storytelling, not just its star.

“There’s no question any time you make a change like this it carries with it some risks,” he says. “[But] Ally has been very cooperative in making this transition. We can do it in a way that feels organic to the show.”

Because Burke isn’t burdened by the same emotional baggage as her predecessor--whose husband was slain by a serial killer she was hunting--Kronish thinks the producers can lighten the show’s overall tone. He also intends to offer more detail regarding the characters, which include Robert Davi, Roma Maffia, Julian McMahon and George Fraley as the task force members.

“Look, it’s never going to be ‘thirtysomething,’ ” he says. “We do hope to be able to explore more aspects of the other characters’ lives. If it’s unremittingly grim, you’re asking the audience to work too hard.”

As for Luner, her new on-screen persona provides a vehicle allowing her to “diversify a little bit in the public eye,” she says, after playing back-to-back femme fatales in two Aaron Spelling soaps: Peyton in the short-lived WB network series “Savannah,” followed by her stint as “Melrose’s” scheming Lexi.

After being part of those large ensemble casts, Luner finds herself adjusting to the rigors of standing center stage. “It’s amazing the hours you pull when you’re the lead of a show,” she says.

The WB had sought to develop its own new program around Luner, but that deal fell through; still, the actress had no qualms about joining “Profiler” under less than ideal circumstances--in essence, trying to “ board a moving train.

“You just go where the work takes you,” she says, conceding that the rapid pace of events has left her little time to research her role or gain a clear fix on where it’s heading. Asked about the series’ path this year, she says, “I don’t know much, actually. They’re sort of figuring it out as they go along.”

A Los Angeles native, Luner grew up around show business, deciding she wanted to act early on. Her mother and former manager, Susan, currently works as a talent coordinator on the syndicated “Donny & Marie” show. Luner appeared in the sitcoms “Growing Pains” and “Just the Ten of Us” while still attending Beverly Hills High.

“Profiler” has never been a major hit. The series averaged 8.9 million viewers last season, compared to 14.4 million for the time-period champ, “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

Even so, the program and its Saturday-night running mate, “The Pretender,” remain modest successes for NBC, which has a hand in producing both shows and thus selling the rights abroad. In addition, by surviving to a fourth season, the show outlasted Fox’s similarly themed “Millennium,” which premiered with more fanfare in 1996.

“Profiler” has cleared other hurdles, including the wrench thrown into the production schedule its first year when Walker became pregnant, having a son in August 1997. The father, John Landgraf, was NBC’s vice president responsible for overseeing the series at the time. (Landgraf and Walker are now married, and he’s moved to Danny DeVito’s production company, Jersey Films.)

According to Kronish, Luner has proven a good fit thus far, able to project the strength and intelligence necessary to pull off her character. As for those who might question whether many FBI agents chasing serial killers look quite as fetching in a negligee--the attire Luner frequently sported on “Melrose” and “Savannah”--the actress just laughs.

“Oh come on,” she says. “It’s television.”

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“Profiler” begins its fourth season Saturday at 10 p.m. on NBC.