BUFFALO GEORGE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

Yeah, sure, Buffalo George Toomer is having a ball taking care of his new restaurant, Gen-aro’s Tropical, but no one-not even George himself-thought that this endeavor would merit his undivided attention (is there even such a thing with him?) As usual, Toomer has his hands in about 10 different projects. Two of his most promising projects aren’t in Dallas, though. They’re in Hollywood.

Toomer’s Hollywood connection is actor/producer/director Stuart Margolin, who recently got Toomer involved in a major television production company, which is now working on a pilot for a show Toomer wrote entitled Alex of Suburbia. The plot centers on Alex, who left his cushy junior executive position during the Sixties to become a plumber in a commune. (Yes, a plumber in a commune.) Alex is called back to reality to take care of his long-lost children when his ex-wife is killed in a freak accident (she’s a collector of strange statues, and, while hauling home a large concrete deer, she runs into a beer truck and is crushed by the stone deer). Dad then has to become reacquainted with his children-a punk-rock guitar-playing son and two daughters (one, a social butterfly; the other, a sports fanatic).

Toomer is working on six episodes to follow the pilot and says he will soon know whether or not one of the major networks will pick up the series. His other project is apparently being negotiated through the same studio and is rather serious. It’s a madefor-TV movie starring Eileen Brennan. The plot details the life of a photojournalist who’s injured in El Salvador and becomes a paraplegic. Toomer says that he originally wrote the script for a male lead, but when he found out that Brennan was looking for a script, he decided that the gender of the character could be changed.

Toomer says he’s also working on two other projects: a possible syndicated commentary for cable television-a sort of World According to Toomer series; and a book on neosocialist graphics, for which he will travel to Russia to research. In the meantime, you’ll find him at Genaro’s, mixing up mean servings of pez espada (swordfish kebabs) and potent margaritas.