Interviews
Scare Tactics Season 4 Interview with Creator Scott Hallock
Oct 12th
I took part in a conference call with Scott Hallock, one of the creators of SCARE TACTICS, which just started it’s new season on SyFy Network. Great guy, really nice, and he had some great things to say about the show…one good piece of information I got from him was that the hilarious Jon Dore will definitely be a regular on season 4, so keep an eye out for that.
New episodes on SyFy on Monday nights! Check out the transcript for my part of the call below. Full transcript coming soon…
Operator:
Our next question comes from the line of (Josh Boseman). Please proceed.
(Josh Bozeman): Hi guys. Thanks for taking the call. I love the show. I’m a big fan.
Scott Hallock:
Thanks (Josh).
(Josh Bozeman): I have to ask, how did you score John Doerr and is he going to be on a regular
basis? The guy is hilarious. I love him.
Scott Hallock:
We love John Doerr and yes, he is going to be on, on a regular basis. Several
people on our crew had worked with John before and apparently John was a
fan of the show. And so we approached him about doing some bits. And
luckily he was amenable.
And he is on next week’s show and the week after that. And he brings
something different and hilarious to every role he played. He wasn’t always
playing – sometimes he’s playing kind of a straightforward scientist.
Other times – a lot of times he got to play kind of a really creepy guy if you
saw this week’s episode, he was the bad guy. He brought a poisoned cake to
the party. And I love the way he read that line, “The cake is poisoned idiots.” I
win. You lose. I love the way he said that.
And then coming up in two weeks on the 18th he’s in a bit where he’s
brandishing a cleaver and, the woman says to him, “Oh my God, you have a
knife.” And he yells back at her, “It’s a cleaver,” and it’s just very, it’s a funny
moment in a very tense situation.
And so John will be back on a semi regular basis throughout the fourth season.
(Josh Bozeman): Great. That’s good to hear. Also I’m curious, you probably get this question a
lot, but how do you think – so like how do you know you’ve gone too far? Is
there a point where you think that you can go too far in a scare?
Because I know some of the scares they’re over pretty quickly and I’m sitting
there at home and I’m watching and I’m thinking oh, keep it going, keep it
going. This is great.
Scott Hallock:
Right.
(Josh Bozeman): And then sometimes they drag out and you’re like wait a minute, this is
getting really crazy. Do you think there’s a point where as long as you don’t
scar the person or physically hurt them, you know…
Scott Hallock:
Right.
(Josh Bozeman): …where do you draw the line at?
Scott Hallock:
Well the goal is to – is for everyone to have a good time. We compare our
show to a roller coaster. We want it to be a thrill for people but when they get
off the ride at the end we want them to go wow, that was fun. Let’s do it
again. So you definitely can go too far and we’re cognizant of that.
And I don’t think we have ever. Because people bounce back at the end and
they do say to us, “Oh my God, that was fun. Let’s do it again.” And the way
they do it again is they give us the names of a bunch of their friends that they
want to scare.
And so we’re very careful about monitoring the situation. The friend or family
member who has set the person up is watching the bit as it goes along. And if
they ever feel like it is going too far they can tell us and we’ll stop
immediately.
(Josh Bozeman): Oh okay.
Scott Hallock:
So we do take that very seriously and we want people to have a good time. So,
if someone’s deathly afraid of spiders we won’t put them in a room full of
spiders. We don’t want them to face their real fears.
We want them to – we want to confront them with something that’s hopefully
ridiculous and have them believe in it and then at the end of it go oh my God,
I can’t believe I bought that.
Because we had – that’s another big reaction we got this season is people after
it was over going oh my God, I watch that show all the time and I look at
those people and I say how can they believe that? And now I’m one of those
people. I can’t believe it. I thought these shows were fake and now I know
they’re real.
(Josh Bozeman): Brilliant. All right. Thanks. I’m going to keep watching definitely and I
appreciate you…
Scott Hallock:
Great.
(Josh Bozeman): …taking the time out today.
Scott Hallock:
Thanks (Josh).
Donnie Wahlberg In Plain Site (USA Network) Interview Transcript Added
Mar 31st
UPDATE: I must mention, I haven’t watched this episode yet. In fact, I have the series waiting for me, so I haven’t watched any of them yet (so much school work!) Do be sure to check out Donnie in one of my favorite series, BOOMTOWN…the first season of that show is available on DVD. He’s fantastic in it.
I’ve attached the transcript from the chat we had with Donnie Wahlberg who guest starred on tonight’s season 3 premiere of In Plain Sight on USA.
They cut off some of my banter with Donnie, which sucked, as it had to do with the question I asked him…Click the link for the full transcript. Here’s my question:
Moderator: Our next question is from Josh Bozeman, The Bluesite.com. Please go ahead.
J. Bozeman I’ve actually been going through the Boom Town on DVD the first and second season, great work there. I wondered is it hard for you to transition, you do two seasons a show or three seasons here or a movie there, and there are gaps in between it. Is it hard for you to transition between character to character?
D. Wahlberg It depends. It’s always easier if you like the material. If I read a character that just jumps of the page at me, then that usually gets my juices flowing and gets me really excited about wanting to do it. Sometimes I can read a script and just really ideas and idiosyncratic behaviors are just popping in my mind about a character.
But the reality is we work in a business where we’re at the mercy of a lot of outside factors. With Boom Town, I had a great time. I loved going to work every day. I loved my character, I loved the show. I loved the people I worked with. But there’s an audience that has certain demands. There’s a network and sponsors and all these different people who have certain demands. If we can’t meet them, which is really beyond my control, then the show stops.
I think I do a pretty good job of letting go of that which I cannot control in this business. It’s my obligation and responsibility is to bring as much realness to whatever character I play, to be as committed as possible to the project and the character. That’s why I gravitate towards material that I like. If I read a script and I don’t like it or I don’t find something that I think would be fun or challenging in a character, I generally walk away from it. I think giving my all to what I do is really the only thing I can control and what’s what I try to focus on.
It’s easy to change gears and go from character to character if I’m committed and focus. It’s not easy if I don’t care about what I’m doing. It becomes a burden and a drag. So I try not to do that.
Interview: Donnie Wahlberg (Guest Star) In Plain Sight (USA)
Mar 26th
I’ll be talking to Donnie Wahlberg today. Wahlberg will guest star on the hit USA Network series, In Plain Sight, which is starting it’s 3rd season March 31. Wahlberg will play a criminal who is ready to give up the life of crime to look out for his teenaged son.
Not sure what I’m going to ask him yet, as I’ve never had a chance to check this series out (felt like after I missed the first season, I was too far behind!), but it should be fun…Will update later with a new post and a transcript of the call.
MORE INFO ON IN PLAIN SIGHT BELOW:
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IN PLAIN SIGHT, USA Network’s hit original scripted series starring Mary McCormack, will return for season three on its new night, Wednesday, March 31 at 10/9c. This year, showrunner John McNamara (“The Fugitive,” “Eyes”) joins as writer/executive producer, further elevating the show’s narrative drive, production value and design. IN PLAIN SIGHT is shot entirely on location in and around Albuquerque, NM.
IN PLAIN SIGHT was the most watched series on basic cable Sundays in 2009, drawing 2.43 million P25-54, 2.07 million P18-49, 5 million total viewers and 3.72 million households. IN PLAIN SIGHT debuted as the #1 new series on cable in 2008 and continues its significant ratings role in USA’s success as the #1 cable network. The show stars McCormack as Mary Shannon, a U.S. Marshal working in the highly secretive branch of the witness protection program (WITSEC) who relocates Federal Witnesses, most of whom fall into three categories: career criminals, whistle-blowers or innocents who had the misfortune of witnessing a crime. They all have one thing in common – someone wants them dead. Mary’s job is to see that doesn’t happen, while at the same time attempting to manage her own dysfunctional family. IN PLAIN SIGHT also stars Frederick Weller, Nichole Hiltz and Paul Ben-Victor.
Returning guest-stars for season three include Lesley Ann Warren as Mary’s mother Jinx, Cristian de la Fuente as Mary’s fiancé Raph and Joshua Malina as Brandi’s boyfriend Peter who she met at an AA meeting. Emmy winner Allison Janney (“The West Wing,” “Juno”); Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winner Rita Moreno (“Cane,” “The Guardian”), Steven Weber (“Wings,” “Studio 60”), Tess Harper (“No Country for Old Men,” “Breaking Bad”), Josh Cooke (“Committed,” “Four Kings”) and Donnie Wahlberg (“Boomtown,” “The Sixth Sense”) have also been cast to guest star.
This season kicks off in dramatic fashion as Mary (McCormack) and Marshall (Weller) search for the person who nearly killed Mary in the season two cliffhanger. We will also flashback to when Mary first joined WITSEC after a break-in threatens the security of the first witness she and Marshall handled together, see the struggle of a former thief as he tries to give up crime for the sake of his teenage son, and experience a witness who has been in a coma for three years suddenly awake to find he is the only eyewitness who can put a prolific weapons trafficker behind bars. In addition, when a hardened bank robber who’s been in WITSEC in prison for decades is finally paroled, it falls to Mary to help him acclimate to life on the outside and keep him from falling back into a life of crime. Meanwhile, when one of Mary’s other witnesses becomes the victim of a revenge plot, Marshall steps in to help out — only to find himself in a predicament when the witness prefers him to Mary. On the personal front, Mary and Raph (de la Fuente) continue to plan their wedding as Jinx (Warren) searches for a purpose in her life and Brandi (Hiltz) begins to act suspiciously, forcing Mary to question whether her sister is up to her old tricks.
On another creative front, two-time Grammy winner Liz Phair (“90210,” “Swingtown”) brings a whole new artistic element to an already strong creative team as the hit show’s music composer. The singer/songwriter’s debut album, Exile in Guyville, was enthusiastically praised upon its 1993 release. Phair went on to release multiple award-winning albums including whitechocolatespaceegg, Whip-smart and the self-titled Liz Phair.
IN PLAIN SIGHT is from Universal Cable Productions.
IN PLAIN SIGHT’s online extension will continue to engage and delight fans, by taking them further than ever before into the life and world of a US Marshal and the WITSEC witness protection program through new elements such as a fake back-story generator and the US Marshal interactive office experience. This season, fan-favorite “Marshall’s Minutiae” is back with all new trivia questions and new abilities to find out obscure Marshall facts straight from the Facebook fan-page. Additionally, fans should brush up on their US Marshal skills for the return of IN PLAIN SIGHT Academy with all new challenges and levels of play. This season the action isn’t just on the screen, but comes alive online as well.
For photos of IN PLAIN SIGHT, as well as all USA Network projects, please log on to the NBC Universal Media Village at http://www.nbcumv.com/.
USA Network is the #1 network in all of basic cable and is seen in over 98.5 million U.S. homes. A division of NBC Universal, USA is the cable television leader in original series and home to the best in blockbuster theatrical films, acquired television series and entertainment events. The award-winning USA website is located at usanetwork.com. Characters Welcome.
USA Network is a program service of NBC Universal Cable a division of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.
Tony Shalhoub/Bitty Shram Interview (Monk)
Oct 20th
UPDATED: The full transcript has been added to the end of this post.
Talked to Tony Shalhoub and Bitty Shram today. They gave us some insight on what it has been like working on MONK for 8 years, and what we should expect of them in the future. They didn’t really reveal anything about what happens in the last few episodes of the series- Tony was very hush hush on any information, saying he wasn’t at liberty to reveal anything really.
We did learn that, at some point in the final episodes, there is a wedding between a man and a woman. Anything more than that is a mystery. We will, as Shalhoub mentioned in another interview I was part of, learn all the details of Trudy’s death and that all the major plot points will be tied up quite nicely.
In fact, Shalhoub said that he thinks the last few episodes are some of the best stuff of the entire series as far as the storylines go.
We also learned that Tony visited a Los Angeles psychiatrist before starting the role to learn all he could about OCD and mental health issues. This was basically just normal research, he said.
I asked the duo what was the most important thing they took away from the series in regards to people who deal with mental health problems. Bitty sat the question out, but Tony said that the biggest thing he took away was that sometimes we all have problems, we all have our own idiosyncrasies, but often these so-called negatives turn into positives. Monk’s obsessive attention to detail was what made him a brilliant detective. His problem was turned into an asset, and that happens with a lot of people.
Bitty mentioned she’s written a pilot that she’s trying to get off the air, and Shalhoub joked that he would stalk her now that Monk has ended for a big role in the series.
They talked more about the series and what it meant to them, and to expect everything to be wrapped up. The fans of the show should be happy once the series finale comes around.
It’s been a pleasure to watch Shalhoub as one of the greatest characters ever written for television. It’s been an interesting run, and the characters and the show itself will be sorely missed.
A full transcript of this interview will be posted once that arrives.
TRANSCRIPT CAN BE FOUND BELOW….CLICK THE LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THIS ENTRY!
Destination Truth (SyFy Series) Interview [Josh Gates]
Aug 26th
UPDATE: Josh was a pleasure to talk to, and he gave us all some really great information on his background, the series as a whole, and a good look at what to expect for this new season starting September 9! If you click “read the rest of the entry” at the bottom, I’ve attached the transcript from his conference call. I will hopefully be able to write up a bit more about the show in the next few days.
I will be talking to Josh Gates, the host and lead investigator on the SyFy series, Destination Truth. Gates travels around the globe in search of answers to some of the world’s biggest mysteries. The third season of the series begins September 9 at 10/9CT on SyFy.
Here is some more information on the series and Josh Gates:
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Destination Truth
Season 3
World traveler and intrepid explorer Josh Gates returns to host all-new quests in season 3 of Destination Truth – each an off-the-map adventure in search of the answers to some of the world’s most intriguing unexplained mysteries.
This season, Josh will travel to some of the most extreme locations on earth, including the isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and the heart of the world’s worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Viewers will also ride along on unprecedented investigations, including the world’s first overnight exploration of King Tut’s cursed tomb and pitch-black dives in ancient Caribbean caves.
Josh Gates
Host, Destination Truth
Explorer, adventurer, and photographer Josh Gates hails from the small town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. A graduate of Boston’s renowned Tufts University, Josh holds degrees in archaeology and drama. His work and travels have taken him to more than 75 countries around the world.
An avid scuba diver, he has participated in sub-sea archaeological excavations in the Mediterranean, and his work as a photographer has taken him from sweltering African villages to the icy heights of the Himalayas. In addition, he has scaled “the roof of Africa” on Mt. Kilimanjaro, climbed Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Americas, and set foot in more than 75 countries around the world. Josh holds degrees from Tufts University in archaeology and drama, and was recently inducted into The Explorers Club, a prestigious global organization dedicated to the advancement of exploration and field research.
Josh currently resides in Los Angeles.
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Come back here after the conference call for more information on the new season and see what Josh has to say about his adventures!
Bruce Campbell/Sharon Gless Interview (Transcript)
Aug 5th
Bruce Campbell from USA Network's Burn Notice
Sharon Gless from Burn Notice on USA
Here is the full transcript from the Burn Notice conference call the other day. I talked to Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless about Burn Notice. They talked to media for about an hour, and they gave some details on the run of the series, their characters, and what it’s like working on a hit cable series. Check it out below.
Remember to enter my Burn Notice giveaway and win the DVD box sets and more!
Final Transcript
NEW MEDIA STRATEGIES: Burn Notice – Bruce Campbell and
Sharon Gless Q&A Session
August 4, 2009/12:00 p.m. EDT
PRESENTATION
Moderator And we will begin with the line of Jennifer Iaccino with MediaBlvd Magazine. Please go ahead.
J. Iaccino Hello there.
B. Campbell Greetings, how are you doing?
J. Iaccino I’m very good. Hello, so wonderful to speak to both of you. I know I’ve spoken to Bruce, but it’s an honor to speak to you, too, Sharon.
S. Gless Thank you.
J. Iaccino Alright, my question is Bruce, I know that you played in Xena and Hercules as sort of a rogue who helped out the good guys as well. And Sharon, obviously you played Cagney, a bad-ass cop and she also knew her way around bad guys. So I was curious how these roles and others may have helped to cultivate the characters that you play on Burn Notice.
B. Campbell Go ahead, Sharon.
S. Gless Well, the only bad guys I have to find my way around are Jeffrey and Bruce. I mean, my job on the show is the mother from hell. I don’t get involved in the heavy stuff like they do.
B. Campbell Sharon, your character is scarier than some of the bad guys.
J. Iaccino You helped out in that case when Bruce got captured and you were sort of interrogating the one guy.
S. Gless That’s right, I think that’s when Michael was captured.
J. Iaccino Yes, that’s when Michael was captured.
S. Gless Right, that was very, very funny. It’s not often that I get to do one-upsmanship on Bruce Campbell.
B. Campbell What’s amazing is she turned out to be a very good interrogator and then who knew. I actually think we’re going to see in the scenes that come – because Sharon, you were also on a stakeout and you had to spot somebody. You had to be a lookout.
S. Gless At the bingo game.
B. Campbell Right. So don’t kid yourself. You’re going to be an operative before too long maybe.
S. Gless Okay, look out.
J. Iaccino How about you, Bruce?
B. Campbell Well, I mean, I’ve always enjoyed playing a little left of center characters. Otherwise I’d be on a soap opera, you know. What’s attractive to me was that these are real characters. These are characters who drink and smoke and make mistakes and have foibles in love and try to fix their mother’s garbage disposal. That’s what’s attractive to me. That’s what got me into this show and knowing that I’m with four, three other kind of seasoned adult actors. That’s always attractive when you know you’re going to be working with people that it’s going to be worth showing up for.
S. Gless It’s true.
B. Campbell It’s made a big difference. And this show, I can’t speak for Sharon, but this show came out of nowhere.
S. Gless Yes.
B. Campbell The things that I plan never happen. Things that I don’t plan do.
S. Gless Exactly. That’s how I thought. I think that when Bruce and I first – we were interviewed together. Do you remember that, in Pasadena or somewhere?
B. Campbell Yes.
S. Gless And I was actually sitting in the fat farm and this script arrived and I was sitting all alone in my room and it made me laugh out loud and I was all by myself. And I thought, this is funny. This is fun, I like this. It had substance to it, too.
B. Campbell It probably didn’t hurt that you live in Miami, too.
S. Gless I forgot about that, but I didn’t tell them that during the interview.
B. Campbell Exactly.
S. Gless I wanted to live in a hotel like you guys. And then when it sold, I had to ‘fess up.
B. Campbell Right.
S. Gless Yes, I do, though, I do live here in Miami.
More >
Bruce Campbell/Sharon Gless Interview Today
Aug 4th
UPDATE 2 (Aug 5, 2009): You can view the complete transcript of this call at the bottom of this post. As I explain above that, I won’t be doing a more complete writeup. I will do a review of the summer finale of Burn Notice with some comments, and I will be updating on Psych and Monk with reviews of the season premieres for those two shows as well. Stay tuned here for all of that as well as a Psych and Monk giveaway for this week!
UPDATE:
I won’t be doing a true write up for today’s conference call with Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless.
Go to the bottom of this post and click READ MORE for further details.
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I will soon be talking to Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless from USA Network’s hottest series, Burn Notice. The mid-season finale is this Thursday, and the show will take a break until January 2010 when the second part of season 3 will return!
I’ll have more soon with full transcript and maybe some info. on the summer finale! Check back this week for the full Psych= James Roday/Dule Hill interview transcript which should arrive anytime. I will do a more complete writeup based on that as well.
Psych Interview: James Roday and Dule Hill
Jul 31st
UPDATE 2 (7:30PM AUG 2, 2009): Thanks so much to WidescreenWarrior.com and their podcast. They gave me a shoutout for my Psych question and were nice enough to link the site here. Thanks again. Be sure to check out their very entertaining weekly podcast on movies, tv, and more.
UPDATE (12:50PM): My question for today’s call? I decided to go weird with it- “If Shawn and Gus went camping and ran into a clan of hungry zombie cannibals, what would the plan be to fight them off. Would Gus’ wicked dance moves or random knowledge come into play somehow?”
Dule said that Shawn would probably try to make a psychic intervention of sorts and that Gus would probably use his vast (useless?) knowledge to go on about how unhealthy it would be to eat them. Roday chimed in saying that Shawn would probably tell them how dark meat is better than white meat then run as fast as his legs would carry him. Very funny answer.
Thanks to the official Psych_USA twitter feed for the follow suggestion and the compliment naming my question most original question of the day. 
The transcript will be posted when I get it, and I will write a bit of what they said during the call later tonight sometime…they said the transcript would be here early this next week.
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Shaw and Gus from Psych
I will be taking part in the Psych conference call today. I will update this post here with the information they have for us on the characters, their careers, and the upcoming 4th season which begins August 7! I’ll post a full transcript when I receive it.
I’m trying to think of an interesting question they’ve never been asked before. I’m learning toward, “If Shawn and Gus went camping and ran into a bear, would they formulate a plan to fight off the bear, or would they both run away weeping…if they do formulate a plan, what would it entail, and would Gus’ wicked dance moves come into play somehow?”
It’s just what I’m working on as of this moment…who knows.
More soon!
Upcoming Interviews- James Roday/Dule Hill (Psych), Bruce Campbell/Sharon Gless (Burn Notice)
Jul 31st
Just a reminder, I will take part in two interviews week and next. I will be talking to James Roday and Dule Hill from PSYCH tomorrow afternoon, and I will be chatting with Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless from Burn Notice Tuesday. If you have any suggestions for questions to ask either duo, be sure to post them in the comments section here or post a message to me on my twitter account (use the sidebar tweetdeck for that).
Tony Shaloub July 28 Interview Part 2 (Complete Transcript)
Jul 30th
Read my previous write up for more information on the conference call I took part in with Tony Shalhoub from Monk. He talked about the 8th and final season as well as what to expect in the wrap up of the storylines.
Moderator: The next question comes from the line of Josh Bozeman with TheBlueSite.com.
J. Bozeman Tony, it’s an honor to talk to you. Thanks for taking the time today.
T. Shalhoub Thank you.
J. Bozeman I think the character of Monk has been portrayed very respectful. What was the process you went into in the research to try to make sure you didn’t go over the top and play it maybe possibly offensive?
T. Shalhoub The process was really one of – it’s a process that I use and have used in approaching other characters, which is to find out – you know, knowing that it’s a comedy and to find out what – in any comedy, what I try to do is I try and find out what are the more serious aspects of the character. And, conversely, when I do a serious role, I try and find out what’s funny about the character. And the beauty of this particular character is that I’ve had the opportunity to do both comedy and drama within one series, one character.
So I guess to answer your question, it’s really digging out the – when you’re doing the comedic moments, digging out what’s really, really at stake and what is the most important and most serious thing to the character, which I believe informs the comedy. And then conversely, you know, when the moments are really dark and poignant, trying to infuse those with an unexpected and sometimes inappropriate or seemingly inappropriate comedic flash, you know, a little spark of something absurd or comedic. That’s been my approach.
READ THROUGH FOR ENTIRE TRANSCRIPT:
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