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When the fourth season was airing, one writer generated more buzz than any of the others working on the show.
That writer was Tim Minear, who later got some attention for some excellent writing and producing for the WB series "Angel."
Then-Krypton Club Vice President Matt Combes interviewed Tim for issue #162 of the newsletter.
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KRYPTON CLUB NEWSLETTER**ISSUE #162**APRIL 19, 1997
**THE NEWSLETTER OF THE LOIS & CLARK KRYPTON CLUB**
"IT LOOKS LIKE HE'S FOUND HIMSELF A MATE."
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DON'T FORGET....
Don't forget to watch the new episode "Shadow of a
Doubt" TONIGHT at 8PM! It's got more Leslie Luckabee, more
Troll, and Dr. Klein too! Plus... you'll hear the voice of a
character long thought gone! Curious? Find out what happens
tonight on ABC!
By the way, for those of you who have written in asking where the
website is: We still haven't heard anything about the status of
the webspace. If worse comes to worse, we may have to relocate,
if we can find enough webspace to house the Krypton Club site.
We hope you enjoy this newsletter... inside we've got an
interview with "L&C" writer Tim Minear, the final
installment of the third "Assignment: Daily Planet,"
and more. Don't hesitate to write if you want to write anything
for the newsletter, or have any ideas of things we could do! See
you soon!
Craig & Matt
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KRYPTON CLUB INTERVIEW: TIM MINEAR
By Matt Combes
Well here's something we know you've been desperately wanting --
an interview with L&C's most praised and respected writer --
Tim Minear (and for the record, that's pronounced
"mine-ear" as opposed to "men-ear." Thanks
for correcting me, Tim.<g>). This interview took place the
first week of April, so some parts will seem like old news, but
there's a lot of stuff I bet you *didn't* know that you *won't*
know unless you read this interview! So sit back, relax, grab a
Pepsi and read this exclusive interview for the Krypton Club! By
the way, Tim really *is* a darn nice guy -- at least over the
phone! <g>
MATT: On what series did you get your start in writing.? What was
your big break?
TIM: Probably...the new adventures of Zorro on the Family
Channel.
MATT: When was that?
TIM: It was...oh...um...giving hard questions already, huh? It
was about...eight years ago. I was probably 24 or 25.
MATT: Did you just write a spec script for that? What did you do?
TIM: At the time I was doing features. Low budget features, for
very very very little money. Re-writing low-budget features and
writing spec features, and somebody approached me about writing
an outline for a feature version of Zorro. This was when Tim
Burton's Batman first came out. This woman wanted to be a
producer and her idea was to market a Zorro movie with the
"Z" the way they were marketing the Batman movie with
the bat.
So I wrote this outline, it was about 20 pages long, for a
feature version. She knew the guy who owned the character, and
she sent him the outline, and he ended up calling me the next day
and saying he thought it was really good. He never did use my
story. He actually ended selling the rights to Steven Spielberg,
and I think the movie is shooting this year with Antonio
Banderas. But he did mention a TV version of Zorro that was in
production at the time, and asked me to send my outline and also
any script samples I had to New World Television. I did that, and
I got in there, then I had to pitch ideas. They went for an idea,
and I wrote one and they really liked it and they just kept
hiring me to write more.
MATT: Who are your favorite characters of all time in the TV
medium?
TIM: My favorite characters are probably like Kirk and Spock, and
I like Mulder and Scully.
MATT: What characters on Lois and Clark do you find are the most
difficult to write?
TIM: Most difficult? Well, it all depends...I mean, the villains
are difficult to write. Villains are always difficult to write.
Actually, while Jimmy and Perry are not difficult to write,
sometimes it's difficult to service all the different characters.
So it's really easy to write Lois and Clark because generally
they're the two characters who are driving the story, but
sometimes it's difficult to remember to service the other
supporting characters.
MATT: What can you tell us about your upcoming episode? (ep #20,
"I've Got You Under My Skin")
TIM: Well, right on the heels of that last question, I made a
choice in the next episode to not service any of the other
characters, and it's *only* Lois and Clark. It actually takes
place on their day off, which as far as I know has never been
done on the show before. They're always at the Daily Planet in
some form or another. In fact I can't think of one where they
haven't been at the Daily Planet.
MATT: So this episode won't include the Daily Planet at *all*?
TIM: Right, it all takes place at their house and around
Metropolis, in one twenty four hour period, and it's their day
off, and *none* of the other characters are in it. It was a
conscious choice on my part. I knew I was going to get a lot of
flak for it.
MATT: How much negativity did you come up against when you
brought it up to everyone else?
TIM: Well there wasn't that much negativity...you see everyone on
the show gets paid whether they're in the show or not, so it's
not like we're saving them any money by not using some
characters. I figure the negativity's probably going to come more
from the fan base, who are going to be upset that their favorite
B-characters don't appear in the episode. Hopefully they won't
notice it, because it's Lois and Clark's day off and it's a
different approach. I wanted to show that their was life outside
of their jobs. But don't expect it to be an hour of them lounging
around the house...
MATT: What can you tell us about this upcoming three-episode arc;
the "Lex Files"?
TIM: What I will tell you is that so far as I know, there are no
To Be Continued's at the end of the episodes, so it's an arc in a
way that Season 1 was an arc, where there was an overall story
being told, but each episode was modular enough that it had its
own story going on. There was always something left at the end of
the episode that would propel you into next week. It's not like
someone's left hanging on the edge of a building as we fade out.
MATT: Did you or do you currently read the Superman comic books?
TIM: I did...and I do.
MATT: Is it true that your original vision for Mxy on the show
was different than what was on the screen, and if so, what were
the differences?
TIM: Well it was different, absolutely. If you just read the
script, it's just basically what's on the screen, although, as
always, there's always stuff cut out for time, and that was
certainly the case with that episode. I didn't envision him as
what he appeared as...it was really a casting thing that changed
the vision of him. I wrote him as "Mxy." I thought of
the comic book character.
MATT: Were you writing him as an imp? Like a *short* imp as
opposed to a *tall* imp?
TIM: Yeah, as a matter of fact, if you look at the scene where he
appears, he appears next to a bunch of elves. The idea was always
that he would be like this "psycho elf" that appears
next to two other elves. So what they ended up doing was casting
sort of normal guys in silly-looking elf costumes, and then Howie
Mandel appears. In my original vision, though, there would be
little people dressed as elves, and then Mxy would appear and the
contrast would be that these are little human beings dressed as
Santa's elves, but this character that just appeared is the real
deal. A leprechaun, an imp, or a gnome, or whatever you want to
call it.
But of course they ended up casting Howie. And then of course the
costume they ended up putting him in bared no resemblance
whatsoever to Mxy's costume in the comics. At first that sort of
annoyed me, but it was interesting to me that the fans reacted so
positively to it. They were glad he wasn't in a purple derby. So
the way it kind of turned out with Howie, not even looking like
you even think Howie Mandel looks, but slicker, with the tight
Jerry Curls, goatee, earrings, and almost looking like a pirate.
Kinda made him more like Q or something, which was interesting.
MATT: What do you think of guest heroes, like Batman or the
Flash, appearing on Lois & Clark?
TIM: I think that would be great. I would love to do that. I
would love to bring in Wonder Woman or something. Batman would be
great, but obviously that'll never happen. Particularly I think a
female superhero would be interesting. You always want to think
in terms of Lois and Clark's relationship, and how whatever
complication you introduce into their world is going to affect
them as a couple. I'm not saying you bring in Wonder Woman and
have Superman start dating her or something. But the possibility
or that threat would be looming by virtue of the fact that here's
a beautiful woman who has maybe more in common with Superman than
Lois Lane ever could.
MATT: Have you had any ideas for the show that were
"vetoed" because they were too strange, or too far from
the status quo, etc.?
TIM: Not as such...actually my next episode which Eugenie
Ross-Leming directed was about the first idea that I pitched, and
for whatever reason, that got vetoed, and they went with the next
thing that I pitched, which was Brutal Youth. By the time it was
time for me to pitch my last story, I pitched this again and they
went for it. I think that was because I had kind of proven myself
along the way and they trusted me.
MATT: What did you do to prepare for writing your first Tempus
episode?
TIM: I went back and watched the Tempus epsiodes. Actually, AKA
Superman was supposed to be episode #14 instead of Meet John Doe.
They wanted to cast Melissa Joan Hart. As you know, that never
happened. So we got postponed, and we had just finished working
on Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and they asked me to, instead of
writing episode #16 to write ep #14 and to do it quickly because
they had no script. John McNamara was actually going to write
MJD.
All we knew about that episode was that Tempus was going to be
the villain, and that initially we wanted him to kill Superman.
It was going to be the Death of Superman. And after Superman
died, H.G. Wells would bring in Alternate Superman, and somehow
they would rescue our Superman from death. So we all had a
meeting and WB kind of put the nix on the death idea and said
"No, you're not going to kill off Superman," for other
unsaid reasons. So we said fine, and just decided that we'd
banish Superman to the nether-regions of eternity, and that's
where the whole time window idea came in. We had a sit down, and
what we came up with was the idea of Tempus running for President
with the subliminator, and that's what I left the room with. I
watched the other Tempus episodes, and it was a little confusing,
but I realized that he must somehow be in prison in our
dimension, because that's the last time we saw him. That's why I
started it in the asylum, and just basically fashioned a story
around all that so it could lead in to part two.
MATT: I had always wondered why Tempus was in our dimension at
the end of Tempus, Anyone?.
TIM: He had been popping into our dimension to rob banks. The
point was that he fled into this dimension because his plan in
the other dimension didn't work. The thing about any Tempus
episode is that the closer you examine it, the less it holds up.
There's so many paradoxes with time travel that you're always
going to start to find some problems. The thing that Brad Kern
and I couldn't figure out was that Tempus knew who Superman was,
and he gets arrested at the end. We were trying to figure out why
he wouldn't just tell everyone that Clark Kent was Superman. That
was the reason I put him in an asylum. If everyone thinks he's
nuts, it wouldn't matter what he says.
MATT: Will we see Tempus or the Alternate Clark again, as far as
you know?
TIM: Not this season.
MATT: What about next season?
TIM: We haven't really started talking about season five yet. I
can personally tell you I would love to do a story in the
Alternate Universe without Lois and Clark.
MATT: With just the Alternate ones?
TIM: Right. Just the story of Alternate Clark searching for
Alternate Lois.
MATT: What are your thoughts on a Tempus spin-off? Kind of like
an anti-Quantum Leap, with Tempus jumping around time to time.
He's with Hitler, he's with Stalin, and then H.G. Wells follows
him trying to stop him.
TIM: My personal thoughts? Well, I think it's difficult because
he's a villain. That would make H.G. Wells the hero of the show.
I think if you watch MJD and LAC together, which I think are two
really good episodes, you find that a little Tempus goes a long
way. I don't know if he wouldn't become just "too much"
if it was a whole series.
MATT: Will we see Lex again? As in the John Shea Lex?
TIM: I think if you see Lex again, it will certainly be John. But
once again, I can't predict the future. We tried like crazy to
get him all year, and we always had things open for him. Soul
Mates was the first episode he was supposed to be in this year,
and he was all set right up until maybe less than a week before
it started shooting. Brad Kern then had to do a really quick
rewrite to make it available for Tempus, or we wouldn't have a
show. And he was also supposed to be in my episode, episode #20.
All throughout the season we tried to get him, but he was just
too busy.
MATT: How long have you watched the show?
TIM: I saw the pilot when it first aired, actually. Shortly after
that I moved to New Zealand for a year, and I don't think it
aired there at the time, so I kind of missed it for the first
year and a half. When I came back, I wasn't a real faithful
follower of the show. I think the show that I tuned in for was in
the second season when Mayson Drake got blown up. I think I
watched that episode and had no idea *what* was going on. So I
kind of stayed away from it at that point.
I'd be lying if I said I watched the show every week. I tried to
watch it because I try to watch a lot of different things since
that's the business I'm in. There was always talk from my agent
that I should send a spec script to Lois & Clark because I
would be really good for the show since I was writing a lot of
romantic comedy, and it's kind of a skill that's a little scarce
in a way. At least in hour TV. That's why we have trouble finding
people to do our show, because it's such a strange mixture of
romantic comedy, psuedo-science fiction, fantasy, action
adventure, and comic book.
MATT: What have been your favorite episodes or story ideas to
date?
TIM: Geez...I'll sound like a real pig if I say that they're all
my episodes.<g> I thought that the Pilot was great,
obviously. As far as ep ideas, I really like LAC. I thought it
was pretty neat to bring Alternate Clark back. Tempus, Anyone? is
a great idea. It's also a great episode. It's hard to figure out,
and if you examine that episode, what he's (Tempus) doing makes
no sense. I mean, he wants to be *mayor* of Metropolis? Why?
There's no Superman there, so he goes through all that trouble to
bring Lois Lane to an alternate dimension? It just doesn't make
any sense, but who *cares*? I mean it's such a great idea to
introduce Lois to this alternate reality where...well...she's
*dead*.
I really liked the Christmas show idea as well. It's interesting
because the whole "time loop" thing was put in at the
last minute. Originally it was just Mxy comes to Earth and steals
Christmas, sort of like the Grinch. And in essence, that's what
he does by causing the time loop, but I just like the idea of
repeating patterns, and Lois falling into a pattern, and her
mother in a certain pattern, and Perry in a pattern, and Jimmy in
his patterns. Even Mxy has a pattern. When he's talking to the
bartender, he explains how he's been here before, but every time
he shows up, he gets banished back to the fifth dimension, and
that's his pattern. And this time, he's going to break his
pattern. He's not going to get sent back. So everyone has a
pattern, and by the time Lois breaks her pattern, they end up
restoring hope to the world. I know it gets accused of being
Groundhog Day, but the time loop thing is not original with
Groundhog Day. The thing I like about what we did is that with
every loop, hope diminishes, and I think that's what sells it for
me.
MATT: What is your reaction to all the fans that have hailed you
as the best thing to happen to Lois & Clark's writing?
TIM: What's my reaction to that? Well it's great! I take total
pride in that. It's been a little stunning, really.
MATT: So do you think of yourself as this "saviour" to
Lois & Clark's writing?<g>
TIM: Oh, yes, that's what I think of myself, the saviour of Lois
& Clark.<g> Seriously, the way I respond to it is that
I think it's great because you always want to be appreciated for
what you do. I've never been on a show before that had such a big
Internet following, and in this day and age, it's almost like
instant feedback. Now that we have chat rooms and all, we can see
people's reactions to the show immediately.
It's really interesting, and the fact of the matter is, the
reason I do this show is for the audience. It's important to me,
because at the end of the day, that's who I'm writing the show
for. Even on episodes where my name doesn't appear as the writer,
but I know that I had a hand in doing some rewriting, even though
I know that I'm not going to be the one getting the credit for
that episode, I feel a certain responsibility to the audience.
And also, it's a team at Lois & Clark. Everyone had a hand in
shaping the episodes which bear my name.
MATT: What exactly is your job as Executive Story Editor?
TIM: Well in television those titles are really more based on
monetary value. You'll see "Co-Producer," or
"Producer," or "Executive Story Editor," or
"Supervising Producer," or "Co-Executive
Producer," or "Executive Producer." Those are all
different names for writers. The closer you get to Executive
Producer you get, the more money you make. That's a little
simplistic, because in fact the Executive Producer runs the show.
Brad and Eugenie are not just writers on the show. They run the
thing. They're the ones who have the vision for what direction
the season's gonna go. They're involved in every aspect of the
show, from casting to sets to costumes. They watch all the cuts
and make notes for the editors and get the show down to a good
running time.
So as Executive Story Editor, my job is that I'm one of the
writers on staff. We meet and talk about the season. We meet on
every script, every outline, every idea, and my job is to give
notes, to help other writers break their stories, they break
mine, and then also if a script comes in and it's not right, I
might be asked to rewrite it. It's really story editing and
trying to make things work from every different phase of the
process.
MATT: What, in your opinion, is the number one thing that Lois
& Clark could do to become a better television show?
TIM: That's a good question. My feeling is this -- I think some
of the episodes this year have been as good as any episodes the
show has produced. Individually. As individual episodes. I think
the challange this year has been sustaining forward motion
without the benefit of "the chase." For the first
couple of years, you had Lois not knowing the secret, we were
waiting for her to find out, we knew that Clark was in love with
Lois, she was in love with Superman, and we were waiting for her
to find out she was really in love with Clark. We were waiting
for them to admit their attraction to each other, we were waiting
for the first date, the first kiss, the proposal, the engagement,
the wedding, etc. That's really what the show's always been
about. Well, now they're married. What are we waiting for? I
think the one thing we could do to make the show better is give
it a new destination.
MATT: What is your opinion of the obvious lack of promotion for
Lois & Clark?
TIM: Oh, it's frustrating. Everyone's frustrated about that. It
wouldn't be so bad if they hadn't moved us. I don't think you
take a series that's been on in the same timeslot of the same
night for three and a half years and even move it to an hour
before and you don't *tell* anybody. And then what they did is
they moved the show and preempted it for a month. So if people
couldn't find it when they moved it to 7, they certainly couldn't
find it when it wasn't on! After that month went by, people
thought it was cancelled, they didn't know where it was, they
forgot about it, and my hope is they'll start promoting us on our
move to Saturday night. There's a lot of reason for them to do
that. We're gonna be the lead-in show for their Saturday night
lineup, Gun and Leaving LA. Two new big shows. So conceivably
that could really be a really big help for us.
MATT: Are there any other shows you'd love to write for some day?
TIM: There's lots of shows I'd love to write for. Well, actually,
there's lots of people I'd love to write for. I would love to
work for David Kelley, who's new show is The Practice. He's
written every single episode that's aired so far. He's also
married to Michelle Pfeiffer.
MATT: There's a job for you.
TIM: Yeah.<g> He created Picket Fences, I think he started
on L.A. Law...I just really like the way he writes. He's kind of
my style -- there's a sort of quirkiness to the way he writes.
There's a lot of humor, and just kind of a specific point of view
in his shows that I like. Chris Carter, I wouldn't mind working
for him. He's certainly one of a handful of visionaries working
in television. Certainly Steven Bochco or David Milch or people
like that. Of course I'm picking all the big Emmy winners
here.<g>
MATT: Well that's about all. Thanks for taking the time to sit
down for an interview. =)
TIM: No problem.
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TERI TO APPEAR AT THE NICKELODEON KIDS' CHOICE AWARDS TONIGHT!
Teri Hatcher will be presenting at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice
Awards, hosted by Rosie O'Donnell, TONIGHT at 8PM (EST) on (duh)
Nickelodeon. Since there is a very good program airing tonight
between 8PM and 9PM (some show called "Lois &
Clark"), you may want to tape it so you can catch her.
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ASSIGNMENT: DAILY PLANET: ASSIGNMENT #3!
From the offices of the Chief (PerWhite)
Welcome to "Assignment: Daily Planet," the column of
the Krypton Club Newsletter where "the Chief" hands out
his assignments and the one that is best wins a prize. The most
recent assignment asked was "what would you do if you were
in charge of producing 'Lois & Clark?' Include any plot
lines, new characters you would like to see, and guest
stars." Over the course of 10 issues we have printed a
response every week, and at the conclusion of the 10 responses
we'd like YOU, the readers, to pick the one you like best. The
winner receives a copy of the British "Infinity"
magazine with "Lois & Clark" on the cover. For
those of you who may have forgotten the other ten responses we
have received, look for Krypton Club Special #25 with all of them
reprinted sometime next week. The winner will be announced in
Newsletter #164, so you have time to choose.
So here's the last response... remember, opinions in this column
are the opinions of the writers and not the Krypton Club officers
or the Krypton Club in general.
This week's response came from Curly3s....
We all know that L&C has been dropping in the ratings
catagory for the past few weeks. If I were executive producer of
L&C, I think the best way to address this problem would be a
combination of a few great ideas.
First, I would go look at episodes from L&C past and see
which ones got great ratings, which ones are favorites among
FoLCs, which had amazing character growth/development, etc. By
looking at these episodes and compairing them with the present
episodes, maybe I could find out where L&C has changed for
the worse. [ Just a personal opinion: I would *never* have had
them get married, and probably would not have had Lois find out
you-know-what just yet, but as I would also never have them get
divorced and I don't feel like repeating Dallas history and
making the last season-and- a-half a dream, I can't do much about
that. I could also see what *didn't* work, in order to avoid
repeating it.
Secondly, I would start thinking up new plot ideas, not just for
the romance, but for the villians. Many FoLCs have been
complaining lately that the villians are getting dumb, and that
plot lines which didn't work the first time are being re-used.
Also, I would tone down the villians and their motives. While
destroying Metropolis can be a neat idea for a while, I would
really like to see some villians with bigger objectives. Lex
wanted Superman dead, not because that way he could rob a bank,
but because they were (are?) enemies and because Lex wanted Lois.
Tempus wanted Superman dead, not because that way he could get
ransom money from Metropolis, but because he wanted to destroy
Utopia, and wanted to do this by changing the past. I'm sick and
tired of being sick and tired, and I won't stand for it anymore.
*My* villians would have real motives, real ideas, and would get
real results. That's the way villians should be. And more
character development on the part of the villians would help with
this. Lex was developed, as was Tempus. These were (IMO) the two
best villians ever on L&C. We could stand to learn from them.
Third, I would move Third Rock to Tuesday nights before Fraiser
(hey, it's my world, I can do what I want. Oh, Mr. Littlefield...
<g>)
Fourth, I would get back that old romantic tension that used to
flavor L&C so nicely. Have you noticed that since they got
married, they have stopped saying "I love you", except
on perhaps one or two occasions? It's as if Clark doesn't have to
chase Lois anymore. In an article printed in TV Guide over the
summer between the second and third seasons titled "Should
Lois Marry Clark?" the writer (whose name escapes me) wrote,
"It's the yearning that's so sublime... the being wanted and
needed and absolutely died for." That is what made the
tension amazing, and we need to get back to that. To the idea
that Clark would do *anything* for Lois. And it doesn't have to
be as drastic as leaving earth forever. Clark's robbing a bank In
ATAI was just as effective when Lois found out. We don't always
have to go to the extreme.
Fifth (I know, I know, but I'm almost done <g>), I would
make L&C realistic again. For a while there I forgot that
there was no man in tights flying around NYC. I would bring back
organized crime. Maybe Intergang, maybe not. But something that
might actually happen (sort of).
I hope that you didn't get the impression that I don't like
L&C the way it is. I love the show more than almost anything
else, and I would only do these things to make it better. As an
executive producer (which I hope to be one day) of L&C, I
would bring back the L&C we all know and love. And I would
give it more promotion.
****************************************************************************
THIS WEEK'S TRIVIA!
Here is "L&C" trivia question for this week...
Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner created what popular 1980's
TV series?
The answer to #161's trivia: Tim Minear wrote for
"Zorro" for the Family Channel.
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NEXT ISSUE....
Reviews of "Shadow Of A Doubt!"
Craig "Blondes" Byrne
President of the L&C Krypton Club
Matt "Brunettes" Combes
Vice-President of the L&C Krypton Club
*****************************************************************************
The Krypton Club Newsletter is copyright (c) 1997 The L&C
Krypton Club. All rights reserved. Any material within is
property of the Krypton Club and/or respective individuals unless
otherwise noted as coming from elsewhere. Any opinions within
belong solely to the individuals who express them. Copying or any
unauthorized publication of material from the Krypton Club
newsletters without permission is illegal. This week's quote came
from "Faster Than A Speeding Vixen." You know, since
ABC isn't promoting "Lois & Clark" at all, why not
try and see what shows the other networks have on the air? For
example, there's a great movie airing this Friday at 8 on CBS...
why not check it out? [I'd better quit while I'm ahead, or Matt
will get on my case for plugging the Dukes of Hazzard again --
Craig]
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