‘American Hostage’ Creators and Stars on How Jon Hamm’s Fred Heckman Became Part of the Story

Fred Heckman (Jon Hamm) is used to reporting the news, but in American Hostage, he quickly finds himself becoming part of it. Warning: This post contains spoilers for American Hostage Episodes 1 “My Town Indy” and Episode 2 “McMahon, Martinis and Madness” of American Hostage. 

Inspired by true events, the series begins in Indianapolis on February 8, 1977, the respected WIBC newsman is already facing a major career decision. CBS has come calling with an offer that would put him on a much bigger stage, and even his wife, Barbara (Mireille Enos), knows how tempting that is. “It’s a big stage, and I know you want that,” she tells him.

Before Fred can make a decision, however, something much bigger lands in his lap.

Across town, Tony Kiritsis (Giovanni Ribisi) meets with mortgage executive Dick Hall (Kristoffer Polaha), whose family Tony blames for destroying his plans to develop 17 acres of land into a shopping destination complete with a steakhouse. Facing foreclosure, Tony fakes a broken arm to get Dick alone, pulls out a sawed-off shotgun, and wires it to Dick’s neck with a dead man’s line around the trigger. If Tony is shot or loses control of the weapon, Dick dies with him.

Tony then does something unusual for a hostage taker: He calls the police himself.

As authorities surround Meridian Mortgage, Fred and his WIBC team begin covering the developing story. Reporter Ben Hairston (William Jackson Harper) starts digging into Tony, while Fred sends others looking for anything they can find on the man holding Dick hostage. Fred also has a personal connection to the story: He attends the same church as Dick.

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Then Tony asks for Fred by name.

“Fred Heckman respects the truth,” Tony says when he finally gets him on the phone. Tony believes Fred won’t “take the truth, and tickle its balls and rub its feet and pick his pockets on the way out the back door.” Instead, “Fred Heckman will give it to you straight.”

Actor Giovanni Ribisi explained to TV Insider why he believed Fred so completely trusted Fred and felt he could turn to him in his time of need. “I think Tony had an agenda. I think he wanted to rattle the cage and do something that was somewhat radical so that he could get the attention, and someone like Fred Heckman would give him a conduit to be able to tell his story.”

“Now, in the research that they did, Tony was a big fan of Fred Heckman, his radio show, and everything that he stood for, which was a contrast to today’s media, where it’s thumbing through TikTok or Instagram and seeing things that would almost be violent or pornographic or whatever that is. I think Fred Heckman represented an ideal, and I think that spoke to Tony. I think he was also a pillar of the community, and so a lot of people listened to him, and Tony knew that,” explained Ribisi.

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What Tony wants is a live, uncensored interview with Fred. He insists that Dick, his father, M.L. Hall, and his brothers are “cheats and liars” who spent years scheming to take his property. Tony wants Indianapolis to hear his side of the story and understand that he isn’t simply a lunatic. And if Fred doesn’t give him that opportunity, Tony makes the stakes clear: Dick Hall is a dead man.

That leaves Fred and the WIBC newsroom with a decision that goes far beyond normal journalism. Station chief Jerry Morris (Job Cobden) knows putting Tony live on the air could be a financial disaster. Tony’s language could bring FCC fines, sponsors could flee, and Ben raises an even more horrifying possibility: What happens if Tony kills Dick live on the air?

Meanwhile, Tony isn’t staying put. He marches Dick out of Meridian Mortgage at gunpoint, past police and news crews, before taking him to his booby-trapped apartment. When a pastor offers to take Dick’s place, Tony refuses, and when Tony slips on the ice, one wrong move from a police officer nearly brings the entire situation to a bloody end.

Eventually, Tony and Dick make it back to Tony’s apartment, and Fred makes his choice. WIBC puts Tony live and uncensored on the air. It’s a decision that pushes Fred beyond simply reporting the story and into the middle of it, but as coshowrunner, writer, and exec producer Shawn Ryan explains, Fred also understands almost immediately that Tony’s calls are about something much bigger.

“Well, Fred was really lionized in Indianapolis. He was the most trusted voice in news, and I think he was a great reporter. And when Tony first called, I think he realized there is a story here, and that he has something to tell that’s going to be important,” explained Ryan. “I think Fred sensed from the beginning that there was something extraordinarily newsworthy and something that the public, not out of prurient interest, but of real value that could be had from this conversation.”

“Of course, Tony was very unpredictable, very volatile, very profane, and it made for a very atypical interview. It was more a conversation than interviews that were happy in many ways, but I think Fred knew that this was the most important news story that was ever going to cross his desk, and he knew, as he states at one point in the show, this is more,” continued Ryan. “This is about more than just a hostage situation; this is about something else, and I think this series over eight episodes explores that.”

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By Episode 2, Tony is using that platform to lay out his case against the Halls, describing the family as a “three-headed monster” whose real estate, mortgage and construction businesses allowed them to profit from people like him. He claims they planned from the beginning to take his money and ultimately his land. “That’s the game!” he says.

But Fred isn’t simply handing Tony a microphone. He and his team start investigating whether any of it is true.

Ben digs into the Halls and a recent protest against them, while Ginny (June Laporte) and the rest of the newsroom investigate Tony himself. Some of his story immediately begins to fall apart. Despite Tony’s claims about West Point, Ginny can’t find any record of him being a cadet or instructor there, infuriating Tony when Fred confronts him with what they’ve found. At the same time, former Meridian employee Helen tells the team that Tony was kind and questions why anyone would have given him the mortgage in the first place — but also makes it clear that Dick and M.L. weren’t exactly well-liked.

Ibby Hall (Kat Cunning), meanwhile, has her own complicated connection to the family, with the episode flashing back to her meeting Dick on a blind date. Ginny also tracks down Tony’s sister, Effie, hoping to learn more about a family money dispute, only to be told that whatever happened was “a family matter.”

“There are a lot of tentacles to this story,” Fred realizes.

Tony’s demands are also growing. He wants immunity, lawyers John Ruckelshaus (Adam Arkin) and Johnny Wilson, and, most importantly, an apology from M.L. Hall. There’s just one problem: Nobody seems to know where M.L. is. Tony does. He’s gone fishing in Florida.

While Fred tries to reach him, Chief Gallagher (Mark McKinney) and law enforcement are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the entire arrangement. Fred is a civilian, not a trained hostage negotiator, and they want an expert handling Tony. At the same time, Fred’s journalism career is exploding. CBS wants to take the coverage national, and Fred, who has always loved hard news, feels more alive than ever.

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But that success comes with a major complication.

Fred finally tracks down M.L. Hall at Neptune’s Palace in Fort Lauderdale, only for him to refuse Tony’s demanded apology and hang up, his own son be damned. Fred is no longer standing safely on the other side of the microphone. Tony trusts him. Dick’s life could depend on him. The police need to account for him. CBS wants his coverage.

And as Fred is bluntly told, the story has gotten away from him.

He’s no longer the lead reporter. Fred is the story.

“So I believe he’s trying very hard to be both these things. He’s trying to be somebody who is a de facto hostage negotiator, but also the news director of WIBC News, which is what he defines himself as,” said director and EP Adam Arkin, who also plays Tony’s lawyer, John Ruckelshaus. “But that tension between those things becomes too much, and certainly over the second half of the season, he is asked to do things that go very much against his journalistic principles in order to save Dick Hall and perhaps even save Tony Kiritsis. And those are choices he has to make. They’re extraordinarily difficult for him, and I think that’s where good drama comes from.”

American Hostage, Sunday, 9/8c, MGM+