IMAGES OF TV

Twenty-year-old Colleen Applegate died from a gunshot wound to the head after two years of cocaine abuse while becoming porno star “Shauna Grant” (Outtakes, by Pat H. Broeske, Feb. 22).

After I was hired to write “Images of Eileen” by CBS Television and Green/Epstein Productions (Outtakes, Nov. 3, 1985), I fought an 18-month battle to tell the true story of Colleen Applegate, her family and the people she knew and worked with. My aim was to scare the hell out of just one potential Colleen.

But network television is a tough place to attempt the truth about pornography and drug addiction. Standards and Practices (censors) wanted to smooth the ugly edges, and too many bosses insisted on making the sad, rebellious, vulnerable, angry, selfish, bitter young protagonist (she could hardly be called a heroine), “sympathetic” and “rootable.”

I suggested they go see “Vagabond.” I have since moved on to other assignments for CBS.

ROD BROWNING

Studio City