|
CLASSIC INTERVIEW! Conducted
in March 1996 by Matt Combes (TheNando@aol.com) - Originally
published in Krypton Club Newsletter #162 (4/19/97)
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.). 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!
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?
TIM:
Oh, yes, that's what I think of myself, the saviour of Lois
& Clark. 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. 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.
MATT:
Well that's about all. Thanks for taking the time to sit down
for an interview.
TIM:
No problem.
Interview conducted by phone in April 1997 by Matt
Combes (TheNando@aol.com) -
Read more interviews
|
