|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click here for more info!
|
|
 |
|
Sun 2 Mar 2008 | 18h00 GMT+1
Info: www.motherofalldestiny.com
Setting the record straight on Season 1
|
|
|
Erika Blake, Chief Correspondent of MotherOfAllDestiny, has had an interesting conference call with Josh Friedman
about the season 1 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. What did Josh forsee about the series when he started
writing it? What repercussions has the writers-strike had on the show? What is the future of the TV-series franchise?
How many years of scripts (thus seasons) have he and his team of writers planned ahead? Will we see the light of day
on those painted doors in the highschool footage? Will season 1 end with or without a cliff-hanger?
Erika has all the answers in this comprehensive interview. All Hail The King (or Queen) of all things T:SCC, Mother Of
All Destiny! Full acknowledgement for the following entirely copied article goes out to the #1 T:SCC fansite!
MotherOfAllDestiny reports
Motherofalldestiny.com gets the whole truth from Josh Friedman about Season 1, ratings, and the status of TERMINATOR
getting renewed for a second season.
This past week Motherofalldestiny was invited in on a conference call with Executive Producer Josh Friedman and got
some of the lowdown from Josh on the status of the show and some behind the scenes info!
There've been mixed reports over how the ratings have been doing for the show along with worries that the show has an
over-inflated huge budget. Josh addressed both of these concerns. "As to the ratings, you know I don't know what to
make of it, really. I think that the show has done well for a new show and for a new drama. There are not many that
do very well or haven't been doing very well, certainly in the last strike era. And we do very well in certain
demographics. We do very well in DVR. We do very well on downloads. I think for our type of show that is a big chunk.
We were one of the top five shows being TiVo'd right now, which is how I watch the show because otherwise no one would
know that I'm watching." Regarding the show's budget he said, "You know it's not actually an expensive show to produce.
In fact, I think we're below the budget of many action shows that are on TV right now. In fact, our budget is much more
in line with your basic drama that you would find on any network. So I don't think that cost at this point plays much
of a factor."
Josh also gave an insight into what we can expect for a timeline on when we might learn if we'll get a season 2 for the
show, and what he thinks the chances for renewal. "I hope so. Everyone's sort of—the first year show is sort of the
ritual for first year shows is to come back into the network and tell them what season two is. Things are just a little
weird this year because of having the strike so we have to readjust what our season two plans are. We're going to go in
and sit down with the network and we'll do a post-game on season one and talk about season two. They'll make the decision.
FOX, they haven't made a decision on any shows yet. So I fully expect to get in there with them pretty soon and hopefully
have an answer pretty soon because we need to start writing."
|
|
|
With the season coming to an end, Josh was very candid over some of things that seemed to be left hanging during the
season. Most of these he attributed to the disruption of the strike and his not being at the studio to watch over the
show's editing and the severed line of communication with FOX during that time. When asked about the finale for this
season at episode nine, he had this to say about it being left as a cliff-hanger, "Well, you know it's serendipitous.
I wasn't there. I was on strike and so this is the number of episodes that we had reached; we had only written up to
this number and produced up to this number when I went out on strike. So it happens that a lot of stuff locks in and
comes together during these last two episodes and frankly, that's just dumb luck. If we would have gone one episode
more or one episode less I think it would be probably less satisfying."
With a season 2 in mind, Josh is focused on planning out a full 22 episode arc for next year, he just needs to wait
and see what FOX wants. "I don't know. Last year I had 22 planned and we switched it to 13 and we did nine. So I'm
always—when I sit down and plan a season out, until someone tells me otherwise, I plan for 22, and if it's not going to
be 22 I make adjustments. But I always plan for 22. I've had ideas for probably the first three or four years. I've got
arcs for them. Sometimes it just a matter of moving things up or moving things back or seeing where it goes."
Then asked if his writing team plan to pick up next season at episode 10, he replied, "I'm kind of thinking about that
all right now. Again, the strike is such a weird situation, but the school of thought is, well, you could start next year
picking up almost where you left off, but sometimes what the next episode, episode ten isn't necessarily right for a
season-two premier. So I think you have to rethink how much continuity, not continuity, but how much carryover you're
going to have from where you plan or it gives you a chance to sit back and say, alright, what can we do for season two?
I have a plan going forward. It's just how we integrate that into the beginning of season two. He went on further to
explain, "Well, that's what I've been sitting around and I've been thinking about. Some of those episodes were—I can't
tell you what episode ten is, but episode ten was a fantastic episode ten and an absolutely horrible season premier for
a season two. "...", it is heartbreaking for me. I just wish I'd gotten—I really, really wanted to do episode ten, it was
like one of my favorite ideas and I can't do it. I really can't do it because it would've been a terrible season premiere.
Yes it's going to take some re-jiggering but I think there are ideas and beats from those episodes that we had planned and
hadn't filmed that will definitely be making their way in. It's nice to—I've got a little perspective on the show and when
we were working on episodes 10, 11, 12, 13, we had yet to air episode one. So it's nice to actually now have seen the show
and sort of educate yourself on your own show on what works and what doesn't work. It's like you have a second chance with
a look at it.
At WonderCon this past weekend, Josh admited that what surprised him most about the series was how funny it became. In the
call he said, "In the pilot there's absolutely no humor at all and I say that having written it. And then I sat down and
wrote the second episode and I put a lot of jokes in it and most of them were Cameron's. Everyone ... the table read and
when read, it was like, I was really funny. And everyone's laughing; it was like we had a sitcom taping. And it was like,
God, first of all no one thinks that I'm ever funny and I know for a fact that I'm hysterical. They wouldn't—everyone was
like, wow, that's really funny, it's really funny and I remember Lena came up to me and she's like, Josh, this is really
funny, I've got to do comedy in here. Now you never told me I was going to do comedy. I was like, well, let's go for it.
Every time people just put on the boots and the leather jackets it just seems people get pretty serious. I'm going to try
to get more comedy next season. It's one of my vows, is that we explore more of the dark humor of the situation. I think
there are shows—Buffy did a great job with that many moons ago. I always thought it was a great balance. So if it's not
funny, that's really just my fault for not getting there. Every time I sit down to do it just comes out the other way." When
some of the physical comedy in the show was brought up like Cromartie getting smacked by the truck, he laughed, "It's always
funny when somebody gets hit with something but you end up with Three Stooges humor or Cameron says something odd." He
promised for season 2, "There's just not a lot of ha-ha. But I'm going to work on it, I promise everybody."
Josh was asked to further extrapolate on how he initially plannned on bringing Kyle Reese back into the franchise and his
view of time-travel. " I'm not going to say how I was going to do it but I had an idea but it was one of those things that
probably worked really well on paper, and I could easily explain it to you if we sit down for ten minutes. But I think if
it was probably something that was a bit of bridge too far for an audience, and again, Kyle is sort of a sacred cow and I
think one thing to see him in the future and it's another to see him in the present. I don't know, I still hold out hope
that somehow I'll figure out to get him back, but every time I ever brought it up everyone looked at me like I was completely
insane. I listen to everyone every once in a while when it's unanimous."
|
|
|
"I try not to abuse the time travel too much. I think we think about it all the time. I've been in the writer's room and
there will be points, it happens at least once a day where all of a sudden we just go quiet and everyone stares at each
other because we completely tilted like a pinball machine because we can't wrap our brain around what we're trying to do.
I think that I have a pretty specific idea as to what I believe the rules of our universe are and I try not to violate them.
I think that chaos theory abounds and that's always my argument, a specific geek argument, why doesn't Skynet just send—well
they can't send a nuclear bomb back. I think even Skynet probably at this point understands that the causality is so complicated
that it's unclear as to what any one thing might do. So I think to do something en masse is a very—they might end up destroying
themselves, when they need the humans as much as the humans need them to kind of—well, they need the humans more right now,
until later, once they're created, then who knows." Josh who admits to trolling online discussion boards to see what fans are
saying about the show, added, " I think it's great to argue it out. When it's the movies, there's that sense of refrigerator
logic where you sit down, you watch the movie, it's a big chase, it's adrenaline and it hits you when you're driving home or
later, you're like, "wait, wait, he just sent his best friend back to birth himself"—you can go crazy just off the first movie
and with a series obviously there's much more time. One, there's more time to analyze it, and two, over time we have to introduce
more elements so it becomes more complicated and it starts to fold in on itself. I just try to keep it clear and I think stay
true to the basic ideas of the movies. It's a lot to wrangle."
Josh discussed the dangling plotline of the painted doors at the High School, to which he replied, " I hope so. I know. So I
hope that you know. I don't know if anybody can tell by the way that we put the show together but I really do try to plant
things and pay them off and I really hate television shows that abandon ideas; whether it's sort of carryover emotionally from
episode to episode. That's one of the reason the show is so serialized is I just feel compelled to constantly track these things
through. That story line—that's it, that story line is part of the story line that was certainly supposed to be resolved and I
was going to continue with it and resolve it in the first season. There's been some high school stuff that we shot that actually
explored that stuff more that ended up on the cutting room floor. High school is one of those weird things where it's like either
there's fans that they don't want any high school stuff and there's fans that like the high school stuff and I kind of have my
own opinions about high school and what it's there for. So whenever I go to high school stuff I kind of want it to be important
so I definitely had this whole big story that I was working on. Some of it got dropped for time during editing and I wasn't
around to edit, so it happened. I don't even know that I disagree with it. So the answer to that is a very longwinded way of
saying I don't know. But I haven't forgotten about it and there was a plan. There's always a plan. Executing the plan is a whole
different matter."
Finally he admitted, "I'm a fascist about spoilers. I'm the biggest pain in the ass to the marketing and promotion department,
and I think they were very happy that I was on strike for 14 weeks.Whatever they want to do and since I've gotten back I get
these little e-mails and they say, "Can we show this?' And I say, "No." If I had my way the commercials would be 30 seconds of
black with the words "Sarah Connor" on them."
Uh yeah, we're glad that you're NOT in charge of the marketing for the show Josh! Thanks for taking the time to talk to us -
we'll be on pins and needles waiting along with you to find out when you all can begin on Season 2!
Click top link for new the best T:SCC fansite!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| HOT STUFF |
» T4 rumours and gossip
» T:SCC Podcasts
» Shopping page
» Updates to our site
» FanProjects
|
|
| SEARCH THE WEB / OUR SITE |
Powered by 
|
|
| LATEST COLLECTIBLE OFFERS |
New deals coming!
We are in talks with several new dealers for some cool exclusive items! More info coming asap!
|
|
| INTERACT WITH OTHER FANS |
To comment on this, or just to sound off in lots of Terminator topics, visit our
forums!
Lurk around or register and
meet fans from around the
world discussing their, your
(and our) favorite subject!
|
|
| TERMINATOR SHOPPING |
Check our shopping
page for cool offers and special deals!
Or do a targeted search at...
Find those Terminator books, dvds, gaming, progams, music, toys and vhs related products!
|
|
| DISCLAIMER |
TerminatorFiles contains items of interest from lots of different sources. Though reproduced here, there is no
copyright
infringement intended. This is purely for the interest of fellow Terminator fans.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The opinions expressed in this website
aren't necessarily those of the editors. This site is in no way connected to any official film studio.
Read our full disclaimer here.
|
|
| STATISTICS |
Last modified: Mar 02 2008
|
|
|
