Featuring...

Tim Minear Writer/Producer for ANGEL

Continued from previous page... THE ANGEL CONCEPT Angel started out darker, edgier, providing the viewer with what was promised, a more mature natured show than its predecessor Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yet towards mid-season it flattened out while it seemed the creators were trying to find their footing. Eventually the back half of the season returned to that original concept and has really jelled together forming a solid foundation for its new season. "It feels that way," considers Tim as he reflects back, "We were trying to figure it out for the first several episodes, in fact even before that. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors that we shut down for two weeks and there was actually a script written that we didn’t shoot. And that’s all true." "A show called Angel, about a guy who ate his parents and is a vampire, it’s gonna have its dark side!" The script was penned by Buffy writer David Fury, and it was never aired due to its slightly over-the-top nature though some of the script was revised and turned into the season one opener ‘City of . . .’ episode. "It was called ‘Corrupt’ and it was very, very, very, very dark," Tim admits. "And it’s funny because Greenwalt always says, ‘There’s this moment in the pilot, that to me, once we came upon this moment I knew we had a series.’ And also, ‘In the first episode I knew these two things were really important’, and all those things ended up being thrown out." (laugh) "Which it so often happens that way where the one thing that is the germ of your inspiration becomes the one thing in the end that just doesn’t fit." And just how dark was it? Well, Tim offers up this example from the pilot, "There was a moment where the girl doesn’t get saved half way through the episode." That was shocking. "That was shocking, but was actually more shocking and this was actually shot but we elected not to include it in the episode. When Angel comes in and finds her body he gets her blood on his hand and he puts it in her mouth. And it just seemed like, well, ‘the hero didn’t save the girl and now he’s tasting her blood’, probably not good. (laugh) It was just one step too much." Can I have a side of dark with that dark? "The hero didn’t save the girl and now he’s tasting her blood, probably not good," says Tim. "So, yeah, we were still kind of feeling it out and trying to figure out what the show was. And I think now, a show called Angel, about a guy who ate his parents and is a vampire and killed a bunch of people, you know it’s gonna have its dark side. And if you can’t do that dark side you don’t have a show." The back story of Angel, being as interesting as it is, becomes better with the inter-twining of his present day struggles that Tim gets to explore. "Yeah, it’s pretty interesting. I’ve noticed some criticism that, ‘oh this is like Forever Knight’ and ‘they’re using these flashbacks’. Well, I’ve never seen Forever Knight," Tim is quick to defend, "and I think I’ve written at least two of the flashback episodes and so it’s certainly not based on that. But it’s like, when you have a guy who’s 247 years old you get to go there, you know, there’s no reason not to go there." David Greenwalt may be more willing to let Tim go there as a writer where Joss is not as interested in Buffy’s history. Although this year he does promise that she will be exploring her Slayer roots. "Joss is very interested in Angel’s history. Actually, ‘Prodigal’ was something I pitched to him and said, ‘I know we want to do a story about Kate and her father, what if we do a story about Angel and his father in the same episode?’ Jeremy Renner as Penn, vampire protegee of Angelus And I pitched two things to him, and one was, ‘I want to see Angel claw his way out of the ground and I want to see him not invited into this guys house and not able to save him,’ and Joss was immediately on board, and David is absolutely. We don’t want to overdo the flashback stuff, but both David and Joss are very willing to let me go there." Angel’s cast of supporting players is outstanding and Tim actually get a say in who the final picks will be. Just going to show yet another aspect of the show that the writers get involved in and do an excellent job at. "Oh yeah, well we make the final decisions." But he’s always willing to give it up for the hard working people around him as well. "We have Amy Brit as our Casting Director and she pre-reads people and selects from those the people that will read for us. Then there’s a producer’s session where those actors come in and read and it’s usually David (Greenwalt) and myself and Joss. Or often it will be the writer/producer whose episode it is." Casting can be as difficult as it can be for the actors reading for the part. "It took forever to cast Penn for instance (‘Somnambulist’). We saw a jillion actors and Jeremy (Renner) came in at the last minute. He was the last guy to read and sort of an outside shot. Amy said, ‘I read a guy today and seemed really good.’ He came in and just nailed it! So we were lucky." (laugh) Go to Next Page >>