My questions for Mr. Clark, if he's still up for them:
Did the mechanics of how the paper was supposed to work ever get in the way of stories you (collective you, Mr. Clark and the other writers) wanted to tell? I guess I'm interested in how much problem solving and brainstorming went into working with the 'rules' that had been created for the paper.
--oh, man, we used to wrestle with what we called the "physics" of the paper. Long discussions of cause/reaction -- chronology. there were a lot of days spent with the "rules" of the paper
Speaking of 'rules' you had to work with, was Marissa's blindness something most writers felt they had to work around/against, or did that make the character more interesting to write for?
--in the shake and bake world of tv story-telling, it probably limited us in using her more -- one early draft of a script actually has her driving a car -- upon b eing confronted, the writer simply shrugged and said she was the only character left he could use....we all went to a vision impaired training center in downtown LA to help out with her character...
When you come into a show after the main characters have been established, both by past scripts and by the contributions the actors themselves have made to defining the characters, is it more or less difficult to write for them?
--yes. more and less. chuck is too simplistic eventually but crumb demonstrates depths we didn't see at first....it's a little of everything -- for me slightly easier, but they I can grow what is there
(I'm trying to phrase this next question as openly as possible, so you have room to say whatever you feel pertains...) I've always loved the relationship between Gary and Marissa--it's so rare to see a friendship between male and female characters (on tv, anyway) that's deep but platonic.
In fact, the friendships among the main characters--Gary, Chuck, Marissa, even Crumb are what attracted me most to the show. Is there anything you want to share with us about writing those relationships-- what it was like, what were the challenges and joys?
---a lot of the relationships developed from the relationships of the writing staff and our conversations, fears doubts and happinesses...
And finally, just to follow up--I'm sure I'm not the only one here who would love to know how "Deadline" changed from your script to the version we saw on the screen. If you feel comfortable telling us what you'd envisioned, I'm sure we'd all love to hear it!
--in deadline, the world of lower wacker was more real to me and I wanted to spend more time down there and did on the first draft -- more of a mystery as to what happened. Also,--a lot more atmosphere-- to get into the prison, to meet the guy, I had Gary go to Polly Green at the paper and convince her to get him in -- it was ruled that she wouldn't so it was made coincidence that she was there when he waws trying to get in, but I never understood why he thought he could just show up at a prison and get in to see a condemned man...
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our (hopefully not too annoying) questions!
~peregrin anna
Hi Mr.Clark,
I have LOVED EE since it first aired. I have some questions about Cat. Doe he have a name,other then Cat? Did Lucius Snow name him? Is he a spirit cat and the SAME cat Snow had,or is Gary's cat decended from Snow's cat? (Talk
about a cat with nine lives!!!)
---no one knows. The cat was on the grassy knoll in Dallas --was it trying to help lucius snow? There were people involved in the show who hated Snow and the cat and the "mythology" of the paper. I loved it. In Deadline, I brought Snow back into the discussion on the show, and it was a fight to get to do so. I thought the bulk of the viewers wwere with me and that was my argument. Cat, by the way, was a rescue from a chicago animal shelter -- as was Marissa's dog (if you notice, it's definitely not a seeing eye dog...). My thought for Garyand the show was something I've long thought--a quote that I don't know the source of of: Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.