Mike Johnson pours a sample beer during a meeting of the Auburn Brew Club in Montgomery, Ala. That state is not among the 46 in which home brewing of beer is legal.

For years, Alabama beer aficionados have been trying to get home-brewing and the sale of high-alcohol brews legalized, but have failed.

Now the proposal’s startling transition from dead bill to potential law mirrors the transition of Free the Hops, the nonprofit, beer-loving statewide organization that brought up the legislation. During the past three years, Free the Hops has gone from a grass-roots group that believed it had ideas for good laws, to a more sophisticated organization with a plan on how to transform these ideas into laws.

Free the Hops emerged in 2004 because some of the state’s most dedicated beer connoisseurs believed Alabama’s beer laws were so outmoded that the state had become out of sync with the rest of the country.

Among other changes, the group wanted to reform Alabama’s restrictive laws on brew pubs, which required that they be in historic buildings in counties where beer was brewed before prohibition. That law limited the number of brew pubs in the state to three.

The group believed the changes would not only help beer drinkers enjoy exotic brews, but have a huge economic impact on Alabama, where the laws made it possible to sell only a handful of what were usually selected as the top 100 beers in the world.

The group knew its beer. When it initially tried to get the alcohol-content law passed in 2006, it didn’t know the Alabama Legislature.

Any bill in Alabama that deals with alcohol is controversial, and there were groups working hard to defeat “alcohol legislation” that they believed would only hurt the state.

Some opponents argued that the higher-alcohol beer would corrupt teenagers and lead to more drunken-driving arrests.

Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, a bill sponsor, said it was unlikely that teenagers would try a get drunk on beer that can cost about $40 a six-pack.

But a representative of Alabama Citizens Action Program, which opposes any expansion of alcoholic sales in Alabama, said if teenagers wanted the beer, they could find a way to get it – including by stealing it from their parents.

“The bottom line, is that the more alcohol there is, the more alcohol problems you’re going to have,” said Joe Godfrey, executive director-elect of Alabama Citizens Action.

Free the Hops faced another problem: Legislators had no real reason to listen to their arguments. At that time the group only had about 50 members.

Beer distributors, who have a lobby, would gain nothing from passage of a bill allowing independent beers and expensive imports into the state.

Faced with all these problems, the bill literally became a joke. Two years ago, the House presented it the Shroud Award for the “deadest bill” of the session.

“In the long run, I think (the award) helped us both because it got us publicity, and because it showed us some of the things we needed to do,” said Dan Roberts, Free the Hops’ legislative liaison, which like all the organization’s positions is unpaid.

In 2007, the organization used some of its limited funds to hire a lobbyist.

John Little is not only a Montgomery, Ala., attorney but also one of the South’s most talented home brewers who believes that Alabama should legalize home brewing like most of the rest of America. He knows many professionals who brew beer and have declined to come into Alabama from the 46 states where brewing is legal.

In 2007, the Free the Hops bill failed by only three votes.

The group then found something more important than a lobbyist – voters.

By having events throughout the state, the group increased its membership to more than 900 members this year. It also began mobilizing them.

The organization found members who lived in the districts of legislators who were unsure of how to vote – and had them make a call or write a letter, Roberts said.

And unlike last year, this time the organization has the facts to back up its argument and is making sure legislators hear them.

“I think Georgia changed its beer laws in 2004, North Carolina in 2005 and South Carolina just did it recently, in 2007,” Roberts said.

“So we can look at those states that have recently done it and then look at the drunk driving statistics and see that there has been no change. You can look at the underage drinking statistics, no change. The only major change you see is economic impact.”

By Kym Klass, Rick Harmon

William Sanderson doesn’t mind playing bad guy in ‘Deadwood’; he’s glad to be working

William Sanderson is thankful his role on "Deadwood" after a number of less notable projects and being typecast for his work on "Newhart."

He was innocent and beloved in the ’80s. Now everyone despises him, and that’s just fine with William Sanderson.

Sanderson was once one of the world’s most famous Larrys, playing Larry with his brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl from 1982-1990 on the TV hit “Newhart.”

Now he has gained fame again as conniving E.B. Farnum on the Emmy-winning HBO hit “Deadwood,” which returns for its third season Sunday.

“One side of me is thrilled that Larry was such an innocent and that this guy is such, well, a scumbag,” Sanderson says.

Have modern TV viewers started to confuse the actor with the treacherous innkeeper he plays?

“Started?” he says with a laugh. “They already do. I know it is a niche audience watching ‘Deadwood,’ but I can see them crossing the street or dropping their eyes. Forget getting on elevators with me, and women seem to clutch their purses tighter when I’m around.” But Sanderson has no complaints.

Even after being stereotyped as the famous Larry, he accomplished something few actors do. He worked – regularly.

Since taking the role of Larry, Sanderson has played more than 80 other characters – none like his current one.

“I am proud to be a journeyman and to have survived,” he says. “Thank you for pointing out that I’ve worked, and for not pointing out that some of the projects on which I’ve worked haven’t always been that notable.”

Sanderson says there are two types of actors: those like Harrison Ford, with whom he worked on “Blade Runner,” and those, well, like him.

“Harrison Ford has tremendous personal character, and he wouldn’t take lousy jobs or jobs he considers beneath him, but when you are a journeyman, you take the jobs you can,” he says.

And even journeymen get lucky. After “Newhart,” while performing in a seemingly endless cycle of TV character roles, he was offered the chance to play Farnum.

“When I was trying out for the series, I told my wife there must be a half-dozen different roles I could play in ‘Deadwood,’ and my wife said ‘No, this character is a suck-up, nervous, has clammy hands and he is greedy. This is the one for you,’ ” Sanderson says, laughing again.

There were parts of the show that the Southern-born Sanderson wasn’t thrilled about, particularly the almost continual adult expletives.

“Sometimes you have to just trust your boss,” he says. “He told me the people who settled on the East Coast . . . were kind of the upper- and middle-class people. They weren’t the ones who migrated to the badlands and to Deadwood. I read that in 1876 there were more than 300 murders there.”

Sanderson won’t say whether Farnum will be one of Deadwood’s casualties. He doesn’t know.

“Even though the show has wrapped, they haven’t told me I’m coming back yet. HBO can bring you back by exercising your option, but they don’t have to bring you back. Friends tell me I’m coming back, but I like to be a little pessimistic so that if something good happens I’m pleasantly surprised.

“My wife is a perfectly matched opposite to me. She is optimistic, upbeat and stable,” he adds, laughing again.

He does offer one plot hint.

“If people don’t like Farnum, they won’t want to miss the first episode because he gets himself into trouble, into a lot of trouble.”

On the Web: www.hbo.com/deadwood

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‘Deadwood’

Sundays, check listings

HBO

<strong>Josh Lucas</strong>

Josh Lucas is the star of “Poseidon,” the blockbuster disaster film that also stars Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss and Emmy Rossum. We asked the star of such films as “Glory Road” and “Sweet Home Alabama” a few questions about the movie that some predict will be one of this season’s biggest hits:

Question: How hard was it to follow Gene Hackman, who did such a great job in the 1972 original?

Answer: I play the role that people will see as the Gene Hackman role, but that doesn’t bother me. It’s more of an honor for me to do it. He’s a great actor, and I steal from him whenever I can. It wouldn’t surprise me if when you watch “Glory Road” you see a little bit of Hackman from “Hoosiers.”

The other part of it is, while people may see it as the role Gene Hackman played, it isn’t really the same character as Hackman’s. It is an absolute reinvention. When you see it, you will see that the character is very different. Yes, I am the one trying to lead the people off the ship, but my reasons are very different and more self-serving. It’s a different character.

Q: So how close is this film to the original?

A: I wouldn’t really say that “Poseidon” is a remake of “The Poseidon Adventure.” The movie is like my character – a reinvention of the original.

Q: Some of the scenes make it look like it would have been a tough shoot for the actors. Was it all special effects or was it tough to shoot?

A: It was a tough shoot, a very tough shoot. You had a lot of movement that you had to do in and around things on what was often a very tight set. I think I averaged about eight stitches a month.

Q: There was a TV movie that was just on a while ago called “The Poseidon Adventure” with Rutger Hauer, Adam Baldwin and Steve Guttenberg. Do you think having that released so close to “Poseidon” hitting the big screen will hurt the movie?

A: The TV movie? The TV movie was a piece of crap. I don’t know why TV does it, but when they find out there is a big movie coming out, they try to rush out some horrible movie with the same name. They did the same thing with “Titanic.” It didn’t hurt that film, and I can’t imagine it hurting this one either.