TELEVISION After failure of 'Tarzan,' actor Pileggi is left wary

The actor is back on the WB in a show called 'The Mountain.'
By TERRY MORROW
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Mitch Pileggi is a little gun-shy these days.
After finding success on "The X-Files" as assistant director Walter Skinner for eight years, he quickly leaped into his next series, the ill-fated WB version of "Tarzan." It tanked after less than a season.
Now, he has found yet another new home on "The Mountain" (9 p.m. Sundays, WB).
Like Skinner and Richard Clayton, the industrialist he played on "Tarzan," Colin Dowling, his character on "The Mountain," is a man of mystery.
Dowling would like nothing more than to take over the show's ice-capped real estate, but the proud and honest owners aren't willing to sell.
Though Pileggi is optimistic about the hourlong soap's chances of survival, the 52-year-old actor is savvy enough to know nothing's a guarantee on prime-time network television.
The network has moved "The Mountain" to Sunday nights.
"I'm sort of like, 'Let's just shoot this thing, get through it and go through it day by day,' you know?" he says.
About the show
"The Mountain" also stars Oliver Hudson, Barbara Hershey and Anson Mount. Hudson plays wayward son David Carver, who inherits his grandfather's prime real estate -- a ski resort.
David's family is surprised he's calling the shots now. Meanwhile, a powerful corporation wants to move in if David fails.
"The Mountain" returns Pileggi to Vancouver, where he shot "The X-Files" for several seasons. It's where he met his wife, and his daughter was born there.
Only this time out, the Los Angeles-based Pileggi isn't moving his clan there while he works. "When you move from one place to another, it's hard to get [a family] to move again," he says.
Pileggi admits he was adrift when "The X-Files" finally closed.
"I was anxious to see what was ahead for me, what roles were there for me," he recalls. "I played the same character for nine [seasons] and I wasn't sure what was out there." But he describes his post-"X-Files" life as "fortunate." "Even after what happened to 'Tarzan,' I have been very fortunate," he says. "It introduced me to the WB, which will now employ me, and I am digging that."