A conversation with Tim Daly

“Eyes” is ABC’s new mid-season drama about a high-tech company that handles cases for people of power and wealth. The company also offers the sort of discretion that can help keep the most fragile alliances intact and avoid consequences that, if we knew about them, we would consider unthinkable. In short, Judd Risk Management settles problems — but not for everyone. Just those that can (of course) pay for their services, and whose needs are quite extraordinary. The series stars Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon (“NYPD Blue”) as Nora Gage, a brilliant, efficient and, if need be, ruthless top member of Judd Risk Management, along with Rick Worthy (“Collateral Damage”) as Chris Didion, Laura Leighton (“Melrose Place”) as Leslie Town, Natalie Zea (“The Shield”) as Trish Agermeyer, A.J. Langer (“My So-Called Life”) as Meg Bardo, Eric Mabius (“The Job”) as Jeff McCann, and Tim Daly (“Wings”) as Harlan Judd, the man who created the company.

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The world has a lot of companies out there that handle high-stakes matters with, shall we say, efficiency and discretion,” Tim Daly says. “But Judd Risk Management goes beyond that. They’ll take on assignments that can reach deep into the world’s power structures, and what they do can often have far-reaching effects on many lives and institutions.”

So where was Judd Risk Management during the Enron rampage when the corporation caused people in California to pay outrageous power costs and destroyed its employees’ lives with their financial misdealings?

“Ah, well,” Daly says, “I’m sure if the company had been called in, they would have found a way to set things right sooner than later, especially because they caused so much pain for people who were so loyal to them. Harlan Judd may not be a choir boy,” Daly adds, “but he has a deep sense of justice, and seriously, if he had taken on Enron, he would have enjoyed making things right for those they hurt.”

Daly says that an organization like Judd Risk Management carries more than its founder’s name.

“It reflects Harlan Judd’s vision of what the world is, and what it can be,” he says. “He’s aware that he’s going to be dealing with people for whom the law isn’t a problem: They’ll steal, cheat, even kill to get what they want. And Harlan will do what he feels he must to prevail against them.”

Including breaking the law on the “end justifies the means” principle?

“Actually, no,” Daly says. “He may come close to the edge, but the challenge is stopping the bad guys by not going over, and becoming one of them.”

As the current season winds down and we head toward the fall premiere, there’s talk that we’re going to learn that some of the people around Harlan Judd are not quite who or what they seem to be, and that each has her or his own agenda for why they are where they are. True?

Tim Daly laughs. “Probably so.”

And while Daly wouldn’t elaborate, he didn’t deny that all things considered, we should be glad that Harlan Judd— and his people — are on our side.

In Focus

Amy Carlson stars as Assistant District Attorney Kelly Gaffney on NBC’s new “Law and Order” series, “Law and Order: Trial by Jury.” Others in the cast include Bebe Neuwirth (“Cheers”) as ADA Tracey Kibre, her immediate superior; Scott Cohen (“Streetsmart”) as DA Investigator Chris Ravell; and Fred Dalton Thompson (“Law and Order”) as District Attorney Arthur Branch.

Carlson, who previously played Alex Tyler on “Third Watch,” says one of the things she likes about the show is the way it opens the “process” for the audience. “You see everything that goes on from when the lawyers on both sides — prosecution and defense — prepare to go to trial, to the trial itself. You also see how tactics on one side are matched by the other.”

Carlson also appreciates how the women on the show are portrayed.

“The ‘Law and Order’ franchises have always shown their women lawyers as smart, professional people who have tough jobs in what was once (and for many, is still) considered a man’s world. But while there’s no mistaking (their abilities), there’s no mistaking the fact either that they are women. They don’t have to give up their femininity to do their jobs.”

Carlson says she also likes the way the Gaffney and Kibre work dynamic is shown.

“There’s always been this unfortunate myth that women are competitors and only men can be buddies and cooperate with each other. But what you see with Tracey and Kelly is closer to the truth: These are two people who respect each other and work together to make their cases as strong as possible.”

The “Law and Order” actors start working early in the morning, and often don’t finish until midnight or later. And often, that work takes place outside in the cold New York winter or on the sizzling streets of a Big Apple summer.

“They do work us hard,” Carlson says. “But we love it. We all do. There’s such a pride in doing it right that we’ll stay as long as we have to to make sure that what you’ll see on-screen will be the best we can give you.”