Hired Guns Variety Of Film Stars Contribute To Altman’s New Offering, An Unusual Drama That Uses A Wide Range Of Storylines To Produce Juicy Episodes

Robert Altman, director of films such as “Nashville,” “M-A-S-H” and “The Player,” disdains the prevalence of guns in American homes.

“I don’t think everybody should have a gun in their house,” he said. “I don’t care what the founding fathers said - they didn’t have a police force to call on.”

It might seem ironic, then, that Altman would take on a television anthology that revolves around a handgun.

“Gun,” airing Saturday nights on ABC for the next six weeks, is an unusual drama with the kinds of elements Altman is known to enjoy: a collection of different storylines using a variety of film stars.

“It seemed to me an opportunity to do a lot of things that couldn’t be done elsewhere,” Altman said. “There are no continuing characters except the gun, and that’s just a symbol.”

Throughout the series, the same high-caliber, semi-automatic, pearl-handled pistol passes from hand to hand. Sometimes the results - and episodes - are grim, sometimes farcical.

“Gun” is a group effort. The self-contained hours are directed by Altman, James Sadwith, Ted Demme, Peter Horton, James Foley or Jeremiah Chechik.

Each episode unfolds a juicy story with actors including Maria Conchita Alonso, Rosanna Arquette, Kathy Baker, Kirsten Dunst, Daryl Hannah, Edward James Olmos, Randy Quaid, Martin Sheen, Carrie Fisher, Daniel Stern, Jennifer Tilly, Fred Ward and Sean Young.

“I’ve always been interested in anthology stuff for television,” Altman explained. “It’s just the idea of being able to do short stories, those O. Henry, Roald Dahl kinds of things. What Hitchcock used to be. ‘Twilight Zone.’ That kind of form, you can’t do it in films. Too short.”

Altman’s own episode, scheduled to air last in the series, stars Hannah, Tilly, Young and Quaid. It concerns a womanizing golfer who gets his comeuppance.

Altman said he directed it during the eight days of Christmas vacation he had while making John Grisham’s “The Gingerbread Man” in Georgia. (That film, due out in the fall, also stars Hannah with Kenneth Branagh and Robert Duvall.) And, Altman pointed out, in his episode the gun never gets fired.

“There are several of them like that. I mean, the gun is the McGuffin, as Hitch would say. It’s the reason (for the story), and this gun doesn’t have to be in the same place every time. It kicks the story off. And it tells the audience what kind of material they’re going to see: melodrama. Shadows and light.”

Spoken like the film director he is.

Altman worked in television before film, he recalled, and has returned to it for occasional projects including “Tanner 88,” an HBO drama series that won him an Emmy in 1989. He called it “probably the best creative work I’ve ever done.”

Despite the talent “Gun” has drawn, Altman is aware of how hard it may be to stay on the air.

“Television is a terrific medium, but the problem is this terrible ratings race,” he said. ABC’s placement of the show on Saturday nights could make it dead on arrival.

But if “Gun” were to get a fall pickup, Altman said he would make time for it.

“We can get better casts who would like to do this format - but there’s no place for them (on series TV). And different directors, too.”