 Josh
Friedman & Brian Austin Green Conference Call: February 28,
2008
The two-hour first season finale of Terminator: The Sarah
Connor Chronicles begins on Monday, March 3 at 8PM (note the
special time), FOX allowed several websites and members of the press
to participate in a telephone press conference with T:SCC
creator and executive producer Josh Friedman as well as Brian
Austin Green (Derek Reese).
TerminatorSite's Craig Byrne was one of those who participated
in the conference call; here are some highlights...
Josh Friedman addressed the concerns about the ratings and the
possibility of a second season, especially in light of the show's
budget. "You know, it’s not actually an expensive show
to produce. In fact, I think we’re below the budget of many
action shows that are on TV right now," Friedman reveals.
"Our budget is much more in line with your basic drama that
you would find on any network. So I don’t think that cost at
this point plays much of a factor," he continues. "As
to the ratings, you know, I don’t know what to make of it,
really. I think that the show has done well for a new show and for
a new drama. There are not many that do very well or haven’t
been doing very well, certainly in the last strike era. And we do
very well in certain demographics. We do very well in DVR. We do
very well on downloads. I think for our type of show that is a big
chunk. We were one of the top five shows being TiVo’d right
now, which is how I watch the show because otherwise no one would
know that I’m watching."
"The first year show is sort of the ritual for first year
shows is to come back into the network and tell them what season
two is. Things are just a little weird this year because of having
the strike so we have to readjust what our season two plans are.
We’re going to go in and sit down with the network and we’ll
do a post-game on season one and talk about season two. They’ll
make the decision. FOX, they haven’t made a decision on any
shows yet. So I fully expect to get in there with them pretty soon
and hopefully have an answer pretty soon because we need to start
writing," Friedman reveals.
The strike taking the season from 13 episodes to nine did change
some plans. "The [original] episode ten was a fantastic episode
ten and an absolutely horrible season premier for a season two,"
Friedman reveals. "I really, really wanted to do episode ten,
it was like one of my favorite ideas and I can’t do it. I really
can’t do it because it would’ve been a terrible season
premiere. "
"The strike is such a weird situation, but the school of thought
is, well, you could start next year picking up almost where you
left off, but sometimes what the next episode is, isn’t necessarily
right for a season-two premier. So I think you have to rethink how
much continuity, not continuity, but how much carryover you’re
going to have from where you plan or it gives you a chance to sit
back and say, alright, what can we do for season two? I have a plan
going forward. It’s just how we integrate that into the beginning
of season two," he continues.
Friedman and Green both admitted to surfing the net, and they are
well aware of what the fans are saying. One thing that frequently
comes up is the matter of time travel. "I try not to abuse
the time travel too much," Friedman says. "I think we
think about it all the time. I’ve been in the writer’s
room and there will be points, it happens at least once a day where
all of a sudden we just go quiet and everyone stares at each other
because we completely tilted like a pinball machine because we can’t
wrap our brain around what we’re trying to do. I think that
I have a pretty specific idea as to what I believe the rules of
our universe are and I try not to violate them. I think that chaos
theory abounds and that’s always my argument, a specific geek
argument, why doesn’t Skynet just send—well they can’t
send a nuclear bomb back. I think even Skynet probably at this point
understands that the causality is so complicated that it’s
unclear as to what any one thing might do. So I think to do something
en masse is a very—they might end up destroying themselves,
when they need the humans as much as the humans need them to kind
of—well, they need the humans more right now, until later,
once they’re created, then who knows."
"I think it’s great to argue it out," he says. "When
it’s the movies, there’s that sense of refrigerator logic
where you sit down, you watch the movie, it’s a big chase,
it’s adrenaline and it hits you when you’re driving home
or later, you’re like, 'wait, wait, he just sent his best friend
back to birth himself' — you can go crazy just off the first
movie and with a series obviously there’s much more time. One,
there’s more time to analyze it, and two, over time we have
to introduce more elements so it becomes more complicated and it
starts to fold in on itself. I just try to keep it clear and I think
stay true to the basic ideas of the movies. It’s a lot to wrangle."
Green told Friedman during the conference call that he does not
feel the time travel is abused. "We had the conversation, of
the possibility of bringing Kyle Reese onto the show instead of
Derek. But then within that was the whole concept of, okay well
then at what point are people actually dead and at what point do
we have to realize that a character is gone. It’s a weird,
confusing line. I don’t know how specific you can really get
with any of it because at the end of the day it’s something
that’s completely nonexistent at this point. So who knows how
one thing can overlap into another and how one decision can affect
another? It will probably be an argument we’ll be having until
the end of time."
"I was really worried about how people would respond to me
playing this character [of Derek Reese]," Brian Austin Green
reveals. "I was a huge fan of the films and I was a huge fan
of Michael Biehn and Kyle Reese as a character. So I knew I was
kind of holding a heavy weight in taking it on."
"The the hardest thing for me as an actor is trying to make
sure that I have enough back-story to really understand what Derek
is doing and what his thought process is. Development wise he went
from living in the future where he was fighting every day to survive
to now being in a world with a blue sky and grass, and fighting
for a different reason. It’s at times just a huge rollercoaster
for him. He still really has no grasp of it. I mean, he’s just
coming out of nearly dying. So he’s got a lot of growing to
do, I would say," Green continues.
One big revelation to come from the conference call was the idea
that it was considered to bring Kyle Reese into the show for more
than his brief appearance in "Dungeons & Dragons."
Friedman was asked how he may have fit into the picture. "I’m
not going to say how I was going to do it but I had an idea but
it was one of those things that probably worked really well on paper,
and I could easily explain it to you if we sit down for ten minutes,"
Friedman says. "But I think if it was probably something that
was a bit of bridge too far for an audience, and again, Kyle is
sort of a sacred cow and I think one thing to see him in the future
and it’s another to see him in the present. I don’t know,
I still hold out hope that somehow I’ll figure out to get him
back, but every time I ever brought it up everyone looked at me
like I was completely insane. I listen to everyone every once in
a while when it’s unanimous," he laughs.
Be sure to watch two hours of all-new Terminator: The Sarah
Connor Chronicles starting on Monday at 8PM on FOX! Here are
some extras to tie in to finale night:
Image Gallery
- Spoilers
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