behind the scenes|FROM MICHAEL PILLER
Posted: 4/17/03
I know you've been curious about a lot of issues relating to the show. Much has been going on behind the scenes here - and I'd finally like to share some of it with you.
Perhaps the most important thing to tell you is...
The second season isn't over!
We've been asked to produce a handful of episodes to run in early summer. I'm sure a formal announcement will be made soon, because we're being rushed - and I mean rushed - back into production on May 5th, and we're scrambling to get scripts ready. Our goal is to create a "summer of fun" - a group of big, summer blockbuster, popcorn-munching episodes designed to put Johnny into some of the most amazing adventures he has yet encountered. (I'm about to put pen to paper to write a show about Johnny versus a tornado that seems to have a mind of its own.)
To meet the rush, we've hired a new head writer, Karl Schaefer, who will also serve as co-executive producer. Karl has a long history in quality television - he created the critically acclaimed series Strange Luck and Eerie, Indiana. Also, Mike Cassutt has joined the writing staff as a creative consultant. Mike is a fellow fugitive from CBS, where we worked together as censors 20 years ago. He's gone on to a fine writing career, specializing in genre television, including The Twilight Zone, Max Headroom, Beauty and the Beast, and Farscape.
The Dead Zone (USA, Sundays, July 6): Anthony Michael Hall stars as the psychic-powered protagonist of this series inspired by Stephen King's novel, returning for a seven-episode second season.
behind the scenes|FROM JOHN L. ADAMS
Posted May 21, 2003
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm baaaaaack! And glad to be bringing you yet another installment of Riffin'. When I last wrote you, I promised that I'd riff a lot harder... well, here goes!
Yes, we are back filming six new episodes, on again and poppin' with what has been tentatively titled "Season 2.5," or, as the producers like to call it, "The Sexy Summer Six."
First up on our list of six is an episode entitled "The Storm." Returning to the helm is Michael Robison (director of the first season's "Here There Be Monsters" and the season 2.0 finale "Zion," a.k.a. "da kid's" episode). In addition to Mr. Stillson and Little Johnny, the whole gang of cast regulars is in this episode, sharing stories of what they did this summer. Our special guests for "The Storm" include the very talented and uproariously hilarious Bob Picardo of Star Trek: Voyager fame and the deliciously delightful Jane Lynch from Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. I'll tell you right now that the scenes with them are funny, and I mean uptown funny.
"The Storm" kinda picks up where "Playing God" left off: finding Johnny trying to cope with the loss of his friend Kate (Ally Sheedy) and distancing himself from those who truly care about him by throwing wild parties and surrounding himself with strangers and hangers-on. Bruce and the rest of Johnny's true friends decide to hold an intervention at one of Faith Heritage's retreat locations. Bruce's job, as Purdy so delicately puts it, is "...to get him there, Bruce." Seems like I'm always drivin' someone somewhere...
On the way to the intervention, Johnny gets a vision (clue: triggered by a nice weather-related object) of a storm that's headed towards the Faith Heritage retreat (where Walt, Sarah, Purdy, and Dana are waiting for Bruce and Johnny to arrive). This storm resembles only one other in the recorded history of Maine (the one that caused Johnny's accident eight years earlier), so we're left with the question: is the storm coming back to finish the job?
This is, without a doubt, the most challenging script we've ever done. Sadly, I even lose something that is extremely dear to me in "The Storm"... but you gotta watch to find out what.
Some descriptions of three of the episodes can be found at http://www.visionsofjohnny.com/spoilers.html (however, there are spoilers, especially for PLAYING GOD in one of them).
THE STORM
Spoiler:
Purdy is holding an intervention for Johnny, who is depressed about Kate's death. Bruce is driving him to Faith Heritage when the same severe weather phenomena that caused his original accident seems to come back to finish the job, including a tornado.
DEJA VOODOO
Spoiler:
Johnny receives two visions: one within another.
THE MOUNTAIN HIGH
Spoiler:
Walt and Sara invited Johnny to go camping with them so he can get to know J.J. better. However, Walt, Johhny and a ranger must use Johnny's abilities to find the site of a plane crash.
I know Piller is getting ready to turn the series over to new Producers and perhaps a new writing team and I'm hoping the quality and tone of the series stays the same. This has been a big series for USA and can't see them not renewing it. But it's almost like these new episodes and a test for whether to renew the series, this is very strange, you would think they would have announced the series 3rd season in Jan already. I wonder if money is an issue. Damn you realitty series you're making original programming too difficult to produce, networks would rather have 10 crap reality shows.
I should have watched this show from the beginning. Now, the new writer sounds intriguing since the very short lived Strange Luck on Fox (an X-Files spin off) was quite an interesting concept, with some creativity missing from a lot of shows these days.
