'The Beast' is overshadowed by Swayze's cancer battle

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — There's a huge cloud hanging over the new A&E series "The Beast." A cloud that threatens to obscure the show itself.

Patrick Swayze plays the lead in this police drama/action show, and he was battling pancreatic cancer while the show was in production.

Just days ago, Swayze was scheduled to appear here before members of the Television Critics Association, but he had to check himself into the hospital to be treated for pneumonia, which is related to his cancer treatments.

"Patrick did want me to tell you that he is very sorry for being unable to attend this morning," said A&E Network president Bob DeBitetto, "but he plans to get back to promoting "The Beast" as soon as he is back on his feet and feeling well again."

And, of course, everyone wishes Swayze the best.

"The Beast" itself, which premieres Thursday at 11 p.m. on A&E, is, well, not as good as we might have hoped. It's OK … but that's about the best there is to say about it.

Swayze stars as Charles Barker, an undercover FBI agent who's tough, smart, action-oriented and determined to fight "The Beast" — which "is our catch term for the evil in the world," said executive producer John Romano. Barker battles the worst of the worst criminals on the mean streets of Chicago.

As the series begins, Barker takes on a rookie partner, Ellis Dove (Travis Fimmel), and trains him with sort of tough love. And it's tough for both of them to have anything like a normal life when you're an undercover operative.

And then, thrown into the mix, is an element within the FBI that believes that Barker has been seduced to the dark side.

Hanging over the production was Swayze's health. The pilot was filmed in December 2007; it was picked up for a series in January 2008, and within hours Swayze told producers about his diagnosis.

"We shot the pilot before Patrick found out of his illness. … And then it was up to the powers that be to decide to leap forward and take this leap of faith that he was going to be able to fight through this and do the show," Vincent Angell said. Angell and William Rotko are the show's co-creators.

A&E and Sony, which produces the show, decided to go ahead with Swayze in the lead, assuming the risk because the production could not be insured as most are.

"There were multiple conversations between us and our partners at Sony about how we could do this without the typical cast insurance," DeBitetto said. "And we, together, decided to do just that. … We both knew that we were taking a potentially unusual amount of risk given the situation. … Patrick and his representatives were great about keeping all of us posted about his treatment, and at a certain point we were given the opportunity to have some very honest conversations with his treating physicians."

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