Jimmy Smits returns to network TV not as President, as he did at the end of “The West Wing,” but as a Supreme Court justice who up and quits.
The new “Outlaw,” he told reporters at the TV Critics Press Tour this summer, “was an opportunity to deal with legal matters and hot-button issues that are substantive in terms of a legal show but, at the same time, have a character that is outside the box in a lot of different ways.”
At a point when “we’re logger-jammed in terms of the political right and left,” Smits says, the show gives “an opportunity for us to tackle these hot-button issues in a new and kind of fresh way.”
Smits says he was attracted to the project from the writing by executive producer John Eisendrath, who previously wrote for “Alias” and “My Own Worst Enemy.”
“John’s created a really fascinating character that’s a challenge for an actor,” Smits says. “It’s a wonderful meal for an actor to play. And it’s something different than what I’ve done before.”
The calls his character “very substantive” but also “much more loose and comfortable than I’ve had a chance to play.”
“You haven’t seen me tackle that type of character before,” Smits says.
And that other character he played in the legal profession, Victor Sifuentes on “L.A. Law,” is quite different.
“They’re very far apart because there is that young idealism factor that the Sifuentes character had,” Smits says. “And this guy is more open and loose because he has been on both sides.”
One of the surprises about “Outlaw” comes in the credits: It’s produced in part by Conan O’Brien, who quite publically split with NBC last winter.
“Well,” says another producer, David Kissinger, “as you may have read, Conan is doing some other stuff right now, so he really isn’t actively involved in a day-to-day way. But this show, in many ways, is a product of the company that he put together. And, you know, he’s thrilled at the opportunity. So he’s not actively involved at this time.”
After a preview airing tonight at 10 p.m., “Outlaw” shows Fridays at 10 p.m. starting this week.