- News Archive May 16 - 31 1999 -

SENTINEL CHAT TRANSCRIPTS - May 25

Richard Burgi and Garett Maggart joined fans online Monday May 24 prior to the screening of The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg. Read a transcript of the chat session.

Thursday May 20 fans chatted with Leigh Taylor Young (Naomi Sandburg) and you can read a transcript of the interesting chat Leigh had with fans of The Sentinel.

SENTINEL SEASON FINALE - May 24

TV REVIEWS
THE SENTINEL: THE SENTINEL BY BLAIR SANDBURG

(UPN) 9 tonight

What happens to poor Sentinel Jim Ellison (Richard Burgi) in the show's finale is what every superhero fears: The world finds out that he has special gift, thereby endangering his life and the lives of his friends and his ability to operate. It's an engaging idea, and there's plenty of action to make this an entertaining hour.

Directed by Danny Bilson and written by Bill Froehlich, this episode, "The Sentinel By Blair Sandburg," has some nifty manhunter moments and an exciting, energetic shootout scene.

The press learns about Ellison's super-senses. He never wanted to be thought of as a superhero, and now he can't function efficiently as a cop with the paparazzi flashing cameras in his face. Partner Blair Sandburg (Garrett Maggart) is apologetic that his mother e-mailed his tell-all manuscript about Ellison to a publisher, but mom Naomi (Leigh Taylor-Young) just wanted to help her son's writing career.

Now Ellison has to deal with the frantic press in his face as he tries to track down a hit man (the always marvelously villainous Udo Kier).

Of course, this is episodic TV and not a cliffhanger episode, so things work themselves out, more or less. 

From Detroit Free Press
By TV Writer, Mike Duffy

Duffy's Best Bets

The Sentinel (9 p.m., WKBD-TV, Channel 50, UPN). Season finale. Alas, it's now a series finale because The Sentinel didn't make the UPN fall schedule and has been canceled. So in this explosive adios, Blair Sandburg's (Garrett Maggart) meddling mother Naomi (Leigh Taylor-Young) blows the cover on Det. Jim Ellison's (Richard Burgi) supernatural abilities by secretly arranging for the publication of her son's thesis. Drat! 

THE SENTINEL FINALLY DEPARTS UPN - May 20

A long hiatus, followed by the purchase of only eight new episodes, meant that the series' run from January 18 this year was interspersed with endless reruns. The Sentinel lost its familiar Wednesday night timeslot to another Paramount drama, Seven Days, and instead was forced to battle it out among tough competition on Monday at 9pm, opposite the popular Ally McBeal and Everybody Loves Raymond.

In the Monday slot, following a variety of poorly rated lead-in programs, The Sentinel averaged a 1.7 national rating, and it soon became clear that the network would look unfavorably on this figure come renewal time in May 1999. Sentinel fans protested the tough Monday night slot (often pre-empted by affiliates for sports coverage) and the lack of adequate promotion from the network, but UPN was not disposed to move the show about the schedule in an effort to evaluate its performance in another slot.

In a recent vindication for fans, The Sentinel was pre-empted on April 26 for a highly promoted first run episode of the network's flagship, Star Trek: Voyager, which also managed only to produce a 1.7 national rating -- the lowest ratings performance in Voyager's five year history.

Nevertheless, after only 8 new episodes, UPN has finally decided to drop The Sentinel from its lineup.

However, almost simultanous to this announcement, is the news that The Sentinel has been picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel (part of the USA Network), who have announced the series will screen at 6pm, five nights a week from September 27, 1999. Undaunted, Sentinel fans are continuing the campaign to win new episodes or feature movies of The Sentinel on cable or in syndication. While the recent Dr Quinn Medicine Woman fan campaign failed to return the 6 year-old series to episodic production, the cast have reunited for a TV movie to screen during May sweeps.

Sentinel fans are continuing to target Paramount Television, who own The Sentinel, and The Sci-Fi Channel and USA Networks, Inc, who will be screening it. If you'd like to help the campaign to win new instalments of The Sentinel, visit our Targets page.

Following are reports in the wake of UPN's 1999 Fall Schedule announcement in New York on May 20 .

UPN COUNTS ON WRESTLING - May 21

UPN is dry-docking The Love Boat and bringing World Wrestling Federation action to a fall schedule obviously fashioned for teenage boys.

Announcing its schedule in New York yesterday, UPN said that, however anatomically weird, "pulse- pounding fists will fly and tempers will explode" on WWF Smackdown, from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursdays.

Pro wrestling has long been a ratings leader on cable and is enjoying a surge in popularity, but until now the broadcast networks have kept their distance. WWF Smackdown will feature performers such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, Sable and the Undertaker, UPN said.

Canceled, along with Love Boat: The Next Wave, were America's Greatest Pets, Clueless, The Sentinel, RedHanded and Between Brothers. The fate of the animated series Home Movies apparently is undecided.

ONE MORE SENTINEL - May 21

UPN unveiled its lineup Thursday, and The Sentinel was not on it. That means, as far as UPN is concerned, that Monday's episode will be the series finale.

But fans who need their SENTINEL fix will have someplace to go. Sci-fi will pick up the series and air it weekdays at 5 p.m. beginning Sept. 27. There had been rumors that Sci-Fi might put the series back into production, but that's not going to happen, a Sci-Fi spokeswoman said Thursday.

"There are five episodes of the show that haven't aired," she said, "and if its current carrier (UPN) doesn't air them, we will." [Note: This information is incorrect, all 65 episodes of The Sentinel will have been screened by UPN when the season finale The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg airs on May 24.]

One person who will miss the show is Leigh Taylor-Young, who had a recurring role on the series, playing Naomi, the sometimes-too-motherly mother of Blair Sandburg (series co-star Garett Maggart). In Monday's episode, she unwittingly sets off a series of events that expose the cover of the sharp-sensed Sentinel (star Richard Burgi).

"I think this is one of those shows that has so much - adventure, comedy, love interest," said Taylor-Young. "It's pretty male-dominated, but they started bringing women in with more interesting roles. My role is very eccentric and colorful and different."

And now Naomi is history.

"I had so much fun," said Taylor-Young. "She's such a free spirit, full of love and involvement with the things around her."

Life - and work - will no doubt go on for the actress. She's been down Cancellation Lane before, most recently with Picket Fences. Her other series work ranges from Peyton Place (1967) to Dallas (1988) to Sunset Beach (1996), and she has numerous film, theater and TV film credits, too.

"Doing Naomi is like dessert," she said. "You want to do more main courses - spicier, with more aspects to them. I would love to do roles that turn your insides out."

(Thanks Jamie and the Texas Tribe)

UPN ANNOUNCES FALL PLANS - May 21

Low-rated UPN has taken note of professional wrestling's hold on the cable TV audience and asked the World Wrestling Federation to produce a broadcast version. WWF Smackdown! will air at 8 p.m. Thursdays and will be tamer than the cable shows, UPN President Dean Valentine said.

"It will probably be toned down a bit in terms of language and the upraised finger -- you'll see a lot less of it," Valentine said.

UPN will spin off its most popular sitcom, Moesha with the comedy, Mo'Nique and shift its comedies that appeal to a black audience to Mondays. Its five new series also include The Grown Ups, starring former Family Matters actor Jaleel White.

Its other new series are Shasta McNasty, a modern-day version of the Monkees, and the spy drama Secret Agent Man.

In addition to Love Boat, the network is canceling Clueless, The Sentinel, and Between Brothers.

FOR THE NEW SEASON, FOX AND UPN HAVE SOME WARMED-OVER IDEAS - May 21

If it weren't already clear that the broadcast networks have run out of ideas, the following description of a "new" half-hour show that Fox yesterday told advertisers would be on its fall schedule should settle any doubts:

" Ally McBeal. . .normally weaves three or four main story lines together per episode. Each of these stories is told through a collection of various scenes. But because there is so much dialogue and action to fit into the time constraints of each week's broadcast, some filmed material isn't able to make it into the final cut of the one-hour version. But now, it can be seen in the half-hour episode of Ally."

Oh, goody.

Monday nights at 9, we'll still have a three-course Ally McBeal.

Tuesdays at 8? Leftovers.

That's not all, of course. Fox, in its first schedule under its new entertainment president, former Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog, is significantly drama-heavy, with five new hourlong shows and only two other new sitcoms. (With The PJs pushed back until midseason, Fox should have only four animated sitcoms this fall. But at least King of the Hill comes back to Sunday night.)

One show that should have Philadelphians doing reality checks is Ryan Caulfield, a drama about a 19-year-old (Sean Maher) who decides to join the Philadelphia Police Department but isn't sure he really belongs.

Missing in action are: Melrose Place, which retires Monday, Millennium and Brimstone, as well as a host of long-forgotten comedies Fox canceled shortly after they debuted last fall.

Besides the Ally outtakes and Ryan Caulfield, new shows include: Time of Your Life, a Party of Five spinoff starring Jennifer Love Hewitt in which her PO5 character searches for her birth father; Get Real, a family drama directed - but not created - by My So-Called Life veteran Scott Winant; Manchester Prep, billed as an "updated take" on Dangerous Liaisons but actually a Columbia TriStar repackaging of this spring's Cruel Intentions; Action, a behind-the-scenes comic look at the movie industry from producer Chris Thompson (The Larry Sanders Show) [Richard Burgi was a guest star in the series pilot]; Harsh Realm, an exploration of virtual reality based on the comic book of the same name and written by X-Files creator Chris Carter; and Malcolm in the Middle, a sitcom about a genius fourth-grader and his unconventional family (which, yes, sounds suspiciously like Smart Guy, a show the WB canceled on Tuesday).

Over at UPN, the idea cupboard's also looking bare, with a two-hour block of wrestling, WWF Smackdown! moving into the 8 p.m. Thursday lineup (replacing the Thursday movie, which moves to Friday). Three new sitcoms and a drama round out the schedule.

Missing in action are: The Sentinel, Guys Like Us, DiResta, Clueless, Legacy, Loveboat: The Next Wave and the long-ago canceled Mercy Point and Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer.

New next fall are: Mo'Nique, a spinoff of Moesha, starring Countess Vaughn and stand-up comic Mo'Nique as her mother; The Grown Ups, starring Jaleel White (Urkel from Family Matters) as a rising young manager; Shasta McNasty, a sitcom about three hip-hop singers; and Secret Agent Man, described as a spy series starring Costas Mandylor (Picket Fences) and Dondre T. Whitfield (Between Brothers).

UPN SINKS LOVE BOAT, ADDS PRO WRESTLING - May 20

The revamped Love Boat has been sunk by UPN. The seafaring show has been scuttled by the struggling network, along with Clueless (one of UPN's first shows) and The Sentinel.

UPN viewers can say hello, though, to pro wrestling, as UPN becomes the first broadcaster in five decades to air a regularly scheduled wrestling show in prime time.

Next fall, the network will shake up four of its current five nights of programming. The unchanged night is Wednesday, with its combination of 7 Days and Star Trek: Voyager.

Among the familiar faces the network will hitch its fortunes to are Jaleel White (nerd Steve Urkel of Family Matters) and Countess Vaughn (Moesha).

The network announced today that this fall it will add three comedies and a drama and shift its movie night to Friday. Wrestling's WWF Smackdown! will fill two hours on Thursdays.

UPN MALES IN ITS FALL SCHEDULE - May 21

NEW YORK -- UPN will try to be where the boys are with its 1999-2000 primetime schedule.

After a failed attempt at seeking a broad-based audience last season, the lineup UPN presented to the press and advertisers Thursday will take aim at young male viewers. UPN president Dean Valentine said seeking the group makes sense for the network, which saw staggering ratings declines last season, since it's the one most likely to seek out alternative programming.

"Our average channel position is 26," Valentine said. "For someone to get to 26 is a very long road. The people who tend to make their way to 26 are young guys."

Valentine said the group is already the core viewership on many of the stations owned by UPN partners Paramount and United Television. The commitment to the young male audience is best evidenced in the addition of a World Wrestling Federation product to its primetime lineup.

As expected, WWF Smackdown! will make up UPN's Thursday sked from 8-10 p.m. The program will continue the storylines that appear on other WWF shows that bring droves of young male viewers to USA Network during the week.

Since the WWF never rests, it will give UPN first-run programming every week throughout the year. Valentine said the content of Smackdown will be somewhat tamer than the raunchier WWF programs that appear on USA.

UPN will also keep targeting black viewers, who make up about 40% of its audience. The network's block of shows that aim at that audience will make up Monday night with Moesha starting its fifth season at 8 p.m. It will be followed by Mo'Nique a spin-off of Moesha featuring Countess Vaughn and stand-up comic Mo'Nique as a mother and daughter attending the same college. The Grown Ups, a new sitcom with former Family Matters star Jaleel White goes in at 9 p.m., followed by Malcolm & Eddie at 9:30 p.m.

Mid-season entry Dilbert moves to Tuesday at 8 p.m., followed by Shasta McNasty, a new comedy about three childhood friends who are roommates in Venice Beach -- which homes in on the male audience UPN is seeking. The clips of the series look like a cross between MTV and There's Something About Mary.

At 9 p.m., UPN will try Secret Agent Man, a retro-looking spy series from executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld that even uses the catchy theme song from the '60s series of the same name.

Sci-fi show 7 Days moves to Wednesday at 8 p.m., followed by Star Trek: Voyager. The movie night has been moved to Friday and will be called Blockbuster Video's Shockwave Cinema, and will feature male-oriented sci-fi, fantasy and action-adventure titles, 22 of which will be original telefilms.

UPN LOOKS TO WRESTLING - May 20

UPN brings professional wrestling back to network television this fall with the two-hour Thursday night WWF Smackdown! series. Smackdown pushes the network's movie franchise to Fridays. Meanwhile, UPN has moved its night of urban-skewed comedies to Monday and has moved Dilbert to Tuesdays.

In addition to wrestling, the network will pick up four new series: the Columbia TriStar drama Secret Agent Man, from Barry Sonnefeld and Barry Josephson; the Columbia TriStar sitcom Shasta McNasty; the Moesha spinoff Mo'Nique, from Big Ticket TV; and the Columbia TriStar sitcom The Grown Ups, starring Jaleel White. Midseason series include The Beat. UPN will not air any new shows from sibling studio Paramount this fall.

Gone are America's Greatest Pets, Between Brothers, Clueless, Love Boat: The Next Wave, Red Handed, The Sentinel, DiResta, Home Movies, Family Rules, Guys Like Us, Legacy, Mercy Point, Reunited and The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer.

UPN's new schedule is:

Mondays
8 p.m. Moesha
8:30 p.m. Mo'Nique - new comedy
9 p.m. The Grown Ups - new comedy
9:30 p.m. Malcolm & Eddie

Tuesdays
8 p.m. Dilbert
8:30 p.m. Shasta McNasty - new comedy
9 p.m. Secret Agent Man - new drama

Wednesdays
8 p.m. Seven Days
9p.m. Star Trek Voyager

Thursdays
8 p.m. WWF Wrestling

Fridays
8 p.m. UPN Friday Night Movie

(Thanks Lee Ann)

UPN PINS ITS HOPES ON WRESTLING - May 20

NEW YORK (Variety) - UPN is going after young men on Thursday with two hours of wrestling, while its ethnic comedy block shifts a day earlier to Monday and its movie a day later to Friday.

UPN, which announces its fall schedule Thursday, has ordered three new comedies: The Grown-Ups, starring Jaleel White, the hip-hop comedy Shasta McNasty and the Moesha spin-off Mo'Nique. It also ordered one new drama, the retro spy series Secret Agent Man.

The new Monday lineup will be led off by Moesha at 8 p.m., followed by Mo'Nique at 8:30, The Grown Ups at 9 and Malcolm & Eddie at 9:30.

Sensing an opportunity in the anticipated departure of Fox's King of the Hill from the time slot, Dilbert moves from Monday to Tuesday at 8 p.m. Following it is the new young, male-skewing comedy Shasta McNasty at 8:30 p.m. and Secret Agent Man at 9 p.m.

Wednesday will remain intact, with the drama Seven Days leading into Star Trek: Voyager. Thursday features two hours of WWF Smackdown! wrestling, which drew a large audience in UPN terms when it aired on Thursday as a special last month. The two-hour movie will air under a new name, The UPN Blockbuster Shockwave Cinema.

UPN's schedule clearly represents the shift away from middle-American programming that categorized last fall's schedule and back toward the original strategy of attracting young men.

Because UPN went with two hours of wrestling instead of one, the heavily touted drama pilot The Strip from Lethal Weapon producer Joel Silver did not make the fall cut, but it's expected to get a midseason pickup.

CHANGES TO SENTINEL CHAT SCHEDULE - May 19

The Monday May 24 chat schedule with Richard Burgi and Garett Maggart is unaffected and will commence at 8pmET/5pmPT.

The clock is constantly ticking for Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo, creators and executive producers of the popular UPN programme The Sentinel and the hit, syndicated Viper as they split their schedules between California and Vancouver where the shows are filmed. The gregarious duo recently took some time out to discuss their work as well as how they became writing partners.

action, sf and fantasy ...

The Sentinel, about a police detective with hyperactive senses, was born from an idea the two had while at Warner Bros in the Eighties. "We were trying to do a kind of Lethal Weapon-type action show on television that incorporated elements of Science Fiction and Fantasy, which we both like," explains Bilson.

"We mentioned it to CBS and they weren't really interested, so we put it on the shelf and became involved in a bunch of other things. Paul and I had also talked about it to Ron Taylor, an executive at Warner Brothers. Ultimate, he became an executive at UPN when they first started up. One day he called us and said, 'We're thinking about doing some kind of psychic detective series. I remembered that Sentinel idea you guys had years ago and I think that would be much better. Would you be interested in doing it?'

"At the time Paul and I were in the middle of writing two feature films and had kind of moved away from television. I said, 'You know, we'll do it if you guys give us a pilot deal,' because I didn't want to write just a script. So they did and 65 episodes later here we are, but I credit Ron a lot. It wasn't like we went out and pitched it. He remembered and called us."

"We'd pretty much put it on our shelf of good ideas that never went anywhere," adds DeMeo. "So it was a hugely satisfying element of the whole experience that it was something that we kind of had in our back catalogue that suddenly sprang to life."

planned location change

"It's especially difficult to write for the types of shows we do because in most cases they're cop stories plus one other big element," notes DeMeo. "There might be several individuals who can write a brilliant episode of Homicide: Life on the Street or NYPD Blue but they don't know how to give you something a little crazier that has some far out elements to it. They either go too far into cartoon land or simply don't know how to mix a contemporary cop show with the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres."

sentinel casting

"The person who read the best was John Wesley Shipp who had starred on another series Paul and I did, The Flash. John was terrific and we wanted him to be the Sentinel at that point and so did Paramount [the show's production company in association with Pet Fly Productions], but Lucy Salhaney, who was running UPN then, really wasn't sure and wanted to look further.

"A friend of mine suggested that we bring Richard back, so we did but this time he looked healthy and well rested and had done a lot of work on the character. He read for the part and just nailed it so he won the role. However, it felt strange at first, because I direct a lot of the episodes and I was already prepping for the pilot in Vancouver and visualizing John in all the scenes, but then it became Richard. Now, of course, Richard is the Sentinel."

first direction

"We were out int he woods in the middle of August and the first day it was pouring," he says. "Now, I had never filmed before in Canada. We'd always done every previous project in Los Angeles and if it rains down there you move inside to a set and carry on. Well, I came out of my trailer kind of scared and depressed and I saw all this equipment I'd never seen before. The crew just pulled all this stuff out, and bam, bam, bam, the cameras and everything else were waterproofed and we began shooting. So up there you learn to ignore the rain."

Although they tend to do a lot of things together Bilson and DeMeo realized over the years that in some cases a division of labour was needed to get the job done properly. Their system has developed naturally in response to their strengths and talents and lends itself perfectly to their positions as executive producers on The Sentinel and Viper.

split localities

"Well, the only way it worked out for me is that I fell in love, which helped a lot, otherwise I would have been asking, 'What the hell am I doing up here?'" jokes Bilson. "My fiancée is Heather Medway, the lead actress on Viper. We've been together for three years now and it makes it so much easier with me having to be in Canada because I have a second home up here. I handle the day-to-day running of things from a kind of senior perspective. Paul and I go over every script and cover every edit - we share those duties - but he spends more time in writers meetings while you can usually find me in production meetings with the producers."

The hard work and dedication of Bilson and DeMeo as well as The Sentinel's cast and crew paid off with three successful seasons as UPN's second highest rated programme. Viewers were left hanging at the end of the show's third season finale, Sentinel Too, in which Blair Sandburg apparently drowns.

With the words 'To be continued' on the screen, it seemed that the series would be back. However, in a last-minute move the network opted to not renew The Sentinel, in favour of new programming. Thanks in part to a huge campaign by fans to save the show, UPN had a change of heart and brought the series back as a midseason replacement in January 1999.

"We had the numbers [ratings], we had the history, we had the quality; it made no sense to us that the show was cancelled," says Bilson. "We shot a two-parter in which we supposedly killed of one of our main characters and then they cancelled us! It's obvious that we were completely caught by surprise or we wouldn't have prepared that kind of ending creatively," muses the producer.

"So there was that initial disappointment, frustration and confusion, especially when you looked at the ratings," adds DeMeo. "When a decision was finally made to bring us back and they gave us only eight episodes we aid, 'OK let's make the best episodes that we can.' All we could do was work as hard as we could to tell good stories and get the rating that would, hopefully, justify another season in somebody's mind."

viper

"When we went to syndication it was a completely different situation because we had 22 episodes that were going to be shot in Calgary [Alberta, Canada]," says Bilson. "There was no script and we had to film a promo reel, but no one wanted to come in and do it. Jim McCaffrey was already starring in another series, Swift Justice, and at the time Jeff Kaake was the only actor who came in with any experience so we cast him.

"A few months later we wanted a female lead and once we saw Heather she was the only choice for the part of Detective Cameron Westlake. Joe Nipote was coming back and J Downing, who had guest-starred as FBI Agent Sherman Catlett, came aboard as a semi-regular and we finally made him a regular.

"This [third] year we're in Vancouver and Jim McCaffrey has returned to replace Jeff Kaake and that was the most positive change we've had in the syndicated version. Jim is just a wonderful presence on the set and we've been able to develop a sort of quasi-romantic/friendly relationship between him character and Heather's. He's happy to be back and he's a lot of fun."

DeMeo adds, "It's also nice for the continuity of the show to have the original star back in the driver's seat, and the way we worked him back into the show was very natural, I thought. We've also had Dorian in three episodes this season, which was great. We'd actually like to get him as a regular for next season.

first meeting

"The first thing we wrote together was a Sherlock Holmes play that we produced in college and both acted in. Don't worry, we'll never perform again. It was before videotape, so there's no evidence," he laughs. "We've been writing together for over 20 years. There are times in our careers when we spend more time together than we do with our spouses. Luckily, Paul and I get along really well. If we had known each other as children I'm sure we would have been friends even back then."

Their first assignment was a comedy script they wrote back in 1980 about alligators in the New York sewers appropriately titled See You Later, Alligator. "It was never produced," says DeMeo, "but it actually got us into the Writers Guild." The duo went on to write and produce cult Science Fiction feature films Trancers, Zone Troopers, Eliminators and Arena and the 1988 comedy The Wrong Guys which was directed by Bilson. In 1991, five years of their work came to fruition with the release of The Rocketeer, a 1930's Science Fiction adventure tale starring Bill Campbell and Jennifer Connelly.

From 1990 to 1991, under and exclusive deal with Warner Bros Television, Bilson and DeMeo developed, wrote and executive produced The Human Target and The Flash. "God, I love that series," says DeMeo. "We were so ready to keep going. We had all these ideas for a second season and were just figuring out the series when they cancelled us."

Bilson concurs, "In intervening years there have been a-half dozen times when we've been at CBS pitching ideas and someone there has told us, 'You know, we never should have cancelled The Flash.' It was a major hit in Europe and we were so disappointed because it was our first series and we were cancelled. We learned so much doing that show, especially when it came to creating special effects. We're immensely proud of what we achieved with the programme and we still feel it's the best comic book adapted show ever done for television."

It is too early to tell yet whether The Sentinel and/or Viper will be back but Bilson and DeMeo are grateful for the loyalty the viewers have shown to both series. They enjoy hearing what people have to say and hope to keep the lines of communication open no matter what the project.

"If we were cave men we'd probably be the guys who sit around the campfire and tell stories and entertain people," chuckles Bilson. "It's great to be able to tell someone a story and then get their feedback. That, to me, is one of the most rewarding parts of my job. The other is just the process itself. Working with a group of people in a collaborative way and just being creative is terribly satisfying whether something succeeds or fails because even in a failure the process can still be enjoyable. The bottom line is, 'Am I having a good time?'"

Says DeMeo, "As a film or television writer, until your script is filmed it doesn't exist, do you know what I mean? If you write a feature film script you could wait a few years, like we did with The Rocketeer, before it makes it to the screen. With television, Danny and I can write a script and a week later we're in production and that's really satisfying to see your story come to life so quickly."

(Thanks Michelle)

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