Recently, Daemon's TV took part in a conference call with NATALIE MORALES who plays Wendy Watson on ABC Family's original series, THE MIDDLEMAN.

Natalie Morales talked about what attracted her to the part of Wendy Watson, her fight with a fish, who she admires, and more.

Don't forget to watch The Middleman Mondays at 10pm on ABC Family.

For now, enjoy the interview below.

In real life, how are you with weird things? Are you jaded or do you usually freak out?

Natalie Morales: You know what? No, I grew up as an only child and so I've always kind of been curious and interested in a lot of stuff. In that, I think Wendy and I have a lot in common.

What do you enjoy most about playing her?

NM: I think, I get to have fun with her. They kind of let me have free range on the comedic styling's of Wendy Watson. I get to deliver lines in a crazy fashion if I feel like it. I love doing that. I love the fact that she's sort of the comedic relief of the show in a way, even though Ida pretty much steals the show. She's very funny.

What's the stunt work like?

NM: The stunt work is pretty interesting, actually. Greg Burnette, who's our stunt coordinator is just amazing. If you look him up, he has like 300,000 credits. He just rules. He teaches me stuff and I actually get to do a lot of my own stunts. I've done wire work and a bunch of things like that, a lot of falling and yes, I actually love the stunt work. I really do.

What drew you to the role of Wendy and made you want to play this character?

NM: I really like the fact that she was—that they wanted a Latina for the role and it wasn't your regular stereotypical Latina. I wasn't smoking hot and sexy and stealing men away from people. She's just a regular girl who is a lot like me and lot like my friends and that's just the really cool part of about her that turned me on to it the most.

You do a lot of weird things on the show or strange things. What's the strangest thing that you've got to do so far?

NM: As Wendy, punching a fish and getting into a fight with fish. As Natalie, getting into a fight with a fish that wasn't actually there, so that's the weirdest thing I've ever had to do, I think, so far.

Can you describe a typical day on the set? What do you do all day long?

NM: Well, I come in earlier than I've woken up in my life. I go into hair and makeup for about an hour, do rehearsal and then just scenes all day long, just work. And then I sleep during lunch and I go back to work, just scene after scene after scene and then I go home and fall in my bed. That's it.

It seems like the cast has a lot of fun together at least on the show. Do you all get along outside of the show?

NM: Yes, yes. We really do. And a lot of these things, the casting director cast sometimes for chemistry, but honestly, it's also off screen. All these people in this cast are just amazing and I'm friends will all of them. They're all really funny. Brit Morgan and Mary Pat Gleason are like my favorite people on the planet, along with Jake [Smollett] and Matt [Keesler]. Everybody is just so cool and it's just great. It's really an awesome job.

Can you tell us anything about Kevin Sorbo's guest role on the show?

NM: Well, he is awesome, let me just say. His guest role, he is a middleman that used to, came before Matt and he has kind of come back to help us out on something. It's a really interesting role and I love this script, so I'm really excited about it.

What you can tell us about "Quitters"?

NM: Oh, "Quitters" is a pilot that I produced late last year with—and the writer on the show is Bain Hanson, who is an incredibly talented man who produced it along with me and directed and he's in it. It came off of a sketch that we used to do in this company called Sitcoms Blow. It was a sketch company here in LA. We used to do this sketch that was just wildly popular called “Tape Recorder,” which is at the end of the pilot of "Quitters." So we kind of based it on that. I'm hoping that I get to do a lot more episodes of that as soon as I go on hiatus because I don't have time to do it now. It's great, I'm really proud of it. It just go into the LA TV, independent TV festival, so.

What monster haven't we seen yet? Can you give us a taste of who you're most excited for the audience to see?

NM: I thought we had a monster, but we also had a gorilla. I really don't know. The episodes to me just get better and better and better. The whole thing right now is episode nine. You heard earlier, it's with Kevin Sorbo. I think the villain in this is really, really awesome. And I think it's really cool. I don't know. It has kind of a James Bond feel, this episode, and I think the audience will really dig it. So I'm excited about that. Next week's episode I also really like, so.

A lot of people notice that sometimes you're in glasses and sometimes you're not. Is this some sort of like character trademark or does this represent something in the show for you?

NM: It's kind of like a Clark Kent kind of thing. Whenever I'm in the middleman outfit or doing middleman type work, I'm not in the glasses. Whenever I'm regular Wendy, I am in the glasses. It's not super strict. Sometimes I'm not in the glasses when I'm Wendy. It happens. But that's the general rule.

Are you excited about any of the characters hooking up and if so, who?

NM: Well, yes, we're actually adding a ton of, not adding a ton of people, but there's a lot of new people on the show. There's a character named Pipp who is one of our neighbors who I think is great. All of the people who are guest star and our costars, I don't know, the casting on this show is just ridiculously awesome and everybody is good. I know I sound like I'm just praising everybody, but I'm dead serious. It's really, really cool.

Can you talk a little bit about what we can expect for Wendy this season as far as the character goes?

NM: Well, I think you can expect to see a few more layers of Wendy. There's a lot of sides to her. There's the sarcastic cynical side and then there's the sweet side. There's the side that's a friend to Lacy. There's a side that's a coworker to the middleman. There's a side of her that's creative and artistic and there's also the romantic side of her. You'll all get to see a lot of all that. I love it. It kind of a different angle than one character and you don't often get to play that.

How did you initially prepare for the part?

NM: I kind of just put my sides in a Ziploc bag and took them in the shower with me and slept with them next to me and just did as much work as I could on it. Eventually you kind of get the flow of it.

Do you find it easier to learn them, now?

NM: I do, surprisingly enough, I do. But, yes, it's an insane amount of dialog and very fast paced. So in the beginning, it was a little difficult, but I think finally episode nine, I've gotten the hang of it.

Did you actually read the comic book?

NM: Of course, I have, yes. It's really great. I'm actually sad that there probably won't be any more. I don't know if there's going to be any more, but I love the comic book. A lot of our scripts are directly from the comic book.

Is there anybody you admire and seek to emulate in your own career as an actor?

NM: That's always a tough question for me because there are just so many people in this business that are so incredibly talented. I always answer with people that no one would expect me to answer with. I think Alan Rickman is my favorite person in all of Hollywood. No one ever expects me to say, but he's unbelievable. As far as someone who I admire, John Leguizamo is someone who is really overlooked and underappreciated. He's unbelievable. He started out doing comedy and then has just done everything from playing a transvestite to playing a French little person. He's just great. I really would love to be able to be that versatile.

What are your thoughts on how Latinas are portrayed in the current television landscape? Do you feel it's improved recently?

NM: Definitely, it has. I think it really has. I think America Ferrera has a big part to do with that and Salma Hayek doing "Frida" and stuff like that. I think it's good to be a Hispanic woman in Hollywood today. We're definitely getting better roles. Originally in the comic book, Wendy is a Caucasian red head. So not only because I got the part, that's not why I'm saying it. I just think that it's cool that she's just a regular girl and she just happens to be Hispanic.

Are we going to get to see Sensei Ping in the future?

NM: You are, you're actually going to see him next week. He rules. Mark Dacascos is like the coolest dude ever. Wait until you see him fighting. You're going to just flip out, he's amazing.

Matt Keelser previously mentioned an episode about zombie trout or something. Can you explain a little bit about that?

NM: Well, okay, the episode is about a guy who, or a company, that makes an energy drink that puts both the venom and the cure to being a trout zombie in their energy drink, so that you become addicted to it. So if you don't have more of these drinks, you eventually become a trout zombie.

Where is the series shot?

NM: It's shot in LA. We shot the pilot in Vancouver and then we moved to LA.

Who do you think is the target audience for this show?

NM: I know there has to be a target audience officially, but I would say it's probably anywhere from eight to 45, although one of our directors, Norman Buckley, showed it to his 82 year old mother and she loved it.

Do you know anything about the time slot change, moving to later, why that was done?

NM: You know, yes, we all just found out about that. I think they're just trying to test out different markets. I asked my producer, John Ziffran, he's just like so great to have on set, I couldn't even tell you. I said, “Hey, what's up with the change? Little kids won't be able to watch this if it's at 10 o'clock.” And he said, “Well, the little kids who can't stay up past ten aren't watching us anyway. They're watching the Disney Channel. So the little kids that can stay up past ten, think we're way cooler for being on at ten.” I was like, “I'll take that answer. That's fine.”

You were talking about "Quitters" earlier. Can you talk about how that came about?

NM: Brit [Morgan] and I just totally completely hit it off the day that we met. And so after I came back from Vancouver from shooting the pilot, I had one week to shoot "Quitters" before I went to Miami to spend Christmas with my family. I asked Brit if she would be in it and she said yes and so that's how that happened.

Are you going to Comic Con? The show is going there, but is the whole cast going to go or is there anything big planned for that?

NM: Hell, yes, I'm going to be at Comic Con. I'm so excited about that. I'm totally going to be there. So far I'm going to be there the Thursday and Saturday and Matt [Keesler] and I and Javier [Grillo-Marxuach] are going.

Can you give us a little bit of your comedic background, where did you start to doing the funny?

NM: Well, I don't know. Obviously, I tell people that I think being Cuban, you're kind of born with a need to entertain. I guess it helps that I'm an only child. You just start with that need to get attention. I started doing magic tricks for my family when I was like five. I had this whole magic box set up and I was really awful at it, so to cover, I would just make jokes. So I guess that's where it got started. And then I got a little bit older and I started doing a little bit of stand-up, which was awful. Then I did a little bit of improv and a little bit of sketch and I wrote and I did some stuff in college. I got out here and I did sitcoms, and Sitcoms Blow, a sketch company.

Wendy is a little bit of a geek girl. She has a very specific list of comic books that she likes and very specific Xbox games that she likes to play. Do you have any similar traits?

NM: I do like video games. I have to say that. I just got the "WALL-E" Game for the Wii and I am really excited about it, but I don't want to play it until "WALL-E" comes out this weekend because I don't want it to give away anything. While I was filming in Vancouver, I was known to at like midnight when I couldn't sleep after working, play Wii golf in my underwear in my hotel room. I do like video games and I guess I'm kind of similar. I'm such a nerd, I am very similar to Wendy. I can't lie about that.

Are there comic books that you do read, other than "The Middleman" for research purposes?

NM: I read a little bit of "Dead at 17", which is awesome. I wish I had more time to read stuff. I used to read to like "Batman" and "Superman" when I was a kid. But all I read these days are just scripts and scripts and scripts, so.

What are your plans after "The Middleman" wraps here in a few weeks? Are you going to start looking for other stuff right away or take a vacation?

NM: Well, I definitely need a vacation, at least a little bit of a week. I probably head to Miami and see my family. And then hopefully I can start on some other projects, maybe do another episode of "Quitters" and get that on the road and we'll see what happens, what comes along.

This show seems prime to become a cult hit or show that could keep going. Have you given any thought to that or what that might mean for you?

NM: Someone said the other day that, someone asked me what Wendy Watson would be like when she was 30 and I was like, “Whoa!, that's so scary!” I don't know. I have given thoughts on the fact that I might be doing this for a while, which really doesn't bother me in any way. It's the kind of show that really doesn't stay the same at all. There's no formula to this show, not really and we can do whatever we want.

A big part of your back story involves your father and what happened to him. I know that it was dealt with in the comic, but is that going to be resolved this season on the show do you know?

NM: I hope so. I think that would be one of those things that are kind of season finale cliffhanger type things. I don't know anything yet, so we'll see. There's more mention of her father as the show goes along, but you'll never know.

Is there any chance for a love interest for Wendy?

NM: Yes, Wendy is a very passionate, loving girl. Actually you'll meet sort of a love interest for her in the next episode, the one that airs on Monday.

So after The Middleman does its critically acclaimed seven to ten year run, what do you want to do?

NM: What do I want to do? I would love to direct, maybe do some film. I don't have a plan for myself. I like to just see where things go, so I would love to do film, I would love to direct. I would love to produce stuff. So I hope all that gets to happen, we'll see.

How you see "The Middleman" fitting into the ABC Family lineup?

NM: Well, it's actually, I'm sure you know it's very different from what they have currently. I think it's really different from anything that's on TV at all. So hopefully it will do good things for the network. They're trying to expand and go into different directions and I definitely think "The Middleman" will do that. I'd say it's a good fit in that way. They were looking for something I think that was different and they definitely got it.

Did you know of Matt Keeslar's work beforehand?

NM: I had seen him in a few movies. "Waiting for Guffman" is actually an amazing movie that I had seen him in. So yes, I knew about him before I worked with him.

This is a post from Daemon's TV.

Interview: NATALIE MORALES from THE MIDDLEMAN

Recently, Daemon’s TV took part in a conference call with MATT KEESLAR who plays The Middleman on ABC Family’s original series, THE MIDDLEMAN.

Matt Keeslar shared his thoughts about the difficulty of learning his lines, the evolution of his character in the show, how he originally got into acting, and more.

Don’t forget to watch The Middleman Mondays at 10pm on ABC Family.

For now, enjoy the interview below.

As you know, Matt plays the role of The Middleman on ABC Family’s new series, “The Middleman,” which premiered last night.

What is your favorite part about working on the show so far?

Matt Keeslar: My favorite part about working on the show is the great group of people that Javier [Grillo-Marxuach], the creator, has assembled for us. It’s an amazing crew, a really terrific cast. Natalie Morales plays Wendy, the lead in the show, and she’s a very talented newcomer, along with Brit Morgan and Jake Smollett, who are also young and very talented actors. We have Mary Pat Gleason, who is playing my android assistant, Ida, and she is a really fun, terrific actress to work with, much more experienced than probably any of us on set. The writing team has been really terrific too. They’ve put together what I think are progressively better scripts. Even though I was much enamored with the original pilot script, I think that the script has gotten better as they’ve taken more chances and looked at new and interesting ways of spinning the iconic comic book hero.

Since the comic book fan base is so passionate; did you feel any pressure playing a comic book character?

MK: The short answer to that is no. I didn’t feel a lot of pressure coming from the comic book fan base. I think that, like all fan bases, some people will love “The Middleman” and some people will have difficulties with it. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, this comic book super hero, so, it is, in a way, both an ironic statement about comic heroes in general, and also a really passionate and loving look at comics and all of their multi-facets. It’s a loving portrayal, but also a lampoon at the same time. We’re taking a look at it through the eyes of Wendy Watson, your average, everyday art school graduate and how she sees the iconic comic book character played by myself, “The Middleman.”

In another interview, Javier Grillo-Marxuach talked about how he knew you from “The Last Days of Disco” and you’re the one that he wanted for this role. Can you talk a little bit about how you were approached for this and what your initial thoughts were?

MK: I was sent a script that my manager said you have to read, because it’s great. I sat down as soon as I got it, read it that night, called my manager and said okay, I want to play this part, and I didn’t really care that much about what channel it was going to be on, or any of the other details involved. All I knew was that this was a great part and a great part for me to play. So I think the next day, they set up a breakfast with Javier and I met him for coffee and he basically said we really want you to play this part. That you’re going to have to go through the whole audition process so that ABC Family can feel like they’re participants in this process, but basically, you’re the guy that we want to do this. I felt very confident going into the audition, even though it was quite a strenuous audition. I had to learn a lot of dialogue, but I felt, from the get-go, that this was a part that I could really play and I could do justice to.

You’ve had a lot of eclectic roles in the past. Is that something that led you to really enjoy auditions for this role, and how is it different from other things that you’ve played so far?

MK: This character is very different from other things that I’ve played and that’s by design, in a way. I like to look for different and challenging roles to play, just because it keeps my interest and it keeps me excited about doing something new, and I think that, in a way, the various and eclectic roles that you mentioned from my past have helped, because “The Middleman” is kind of a jack-of-all-trades. He knows a little bit about everything. So, being able to do stunt work was important, and that’s something that I had experienced in the past. Being able to do a large amount of dialogue and learn it relatively quickly was something that I had experienced on “The Last Days of Disco,” as one of the other interviewers mentioned. Learning how to play a comic character who takes himself seriously was something that I’ve also been working on with other characters in another project.
I think that the eclectic characters that I’ve played in the past have helped me to put together “The Middleman” and, even though he isn’t a character all in and of himself, he kind of knows a little bit of everything.

With the quick wit and the dialogue, do you have a favorite male/female crime fighting, crime solving duo that inspired you to want to work this project?

MK: I have to say that it’s odd that it happens to be that they have a movie coming out on it, but “Get Smart” was a huge favorite of mine growing up as a kid and I always had a crush on Agent 99. I always thought that that was the epitome of the comic crime fighting duo when I was a kid growing up, so I suppose that would be it, the “Get Smart” duo I would hold up as the watermark for all crime fighting male/female duos.
I think this owes a lot to “The Avengers” and to “Moonlighting” and to many other shows where the male/female characters had a repartee, a banter that they kept going throughout the series that gave them some conflict, but also showed how closely they were connected to one another.

Can you talk a little bit about how your character evolves this season?

MK: The evolution of “The Middleman” throughout the series is kind of tricky, because he starts off to be so enigmatic and the man of mystery. There are a lot of things about his back-story, his history that you don’t really get to know about throughout the course of the series, but, as the series progresses, you see how “The Middleman” is kind of trapped by his job. That he has a hard time having a life outside of fighting comic book evil, and is hemmed in by the impractical life of constantly having to save the world. So, when relationships develop, he often has to cut them short, because he can’t really devote his attention to anything other than his work, which is, I guess, a difficulty that many superheroes would face.
“The Middleman,” in particular, sees himself as one of the rugged individualists, sort of like a Randolph Scott character from a western, and has chosen a life of solitude. That is explored more and more throughout the course of the series and the difficulties that would ensue from somebody making those choices, so there’s a loneliness that he would ultimately experience, although we never get too much into the melodrama of that, but it is a part of who “The Middleman” is. The fact that his real family is Ida, his android, a dominating schoolmarm android, and his sidekick, Wendy, who is the only one who is really able to have a life outside of “The Middleman” organization.

What have you found the most difficult part of the translation from the comic book to actually acting it in real people?

MK: A lot of those difficulties are handled by the writers, the writing team, but just as an actor, I think that when I read a comic book and I see the picture of the person there and the comic book artist has already made the person’s not only what they look like, but how they express themselves and their different gestures and looks in the comic book. They work well for exactly that medium. They work well for pictures in a book, but when you actually translate that to humanity, to a real living, breathing human, you have to be much more subtle with your choices as an actor, because otherwise, it would look all eye-popping, manic acting, more like pantomime than actual acting like a human.
That was difficult for me to say okay, this is the way that Les McClaine and Javier [Grillo-Marxuach] saw the comics and saw the hero in the comic book, but I, Matt Keeslar, am not that person at all, and my interpretation is going to be that of an actor and using an actor’s imagination to come up with the way that “The Middleman” would react to a certain situation, or the way that he would express himself, and that’s always a difficulty. It’s not as difficult when you have a novel. I did an interpretation of “Dune” where I played a character that was in the novel, and you get an idea. Although they do give a character description, you get more of the thoughts and feelings of the character, the internal monologue, which is actually very helpful as an actor to get an idea of what the person is thinking in their heads. But to actually see the character in a picture can sometimes be distracting and lead an actor to making bad choices, choices of playing heroic rather than playing a human. That was my initial challenge was to make “The Middleman” less comic book and more human.

In a recent interview, you said that your Julliard education was focused on classic theater and not necessarily the television and the film, which has been your career. How has that classic training affected how you approach your role as “The Middleman?”

MK: In a way, “The Middleman” and the character of the middleman is kind of perfect for a classically trained actor, because it’s so focused on the verbal, on the way that he uses language, and a big part of the Julliard training is looking at language rich plays like Shaw, Shakespeare, or Moliere where the characters express themselves through very long thoughts with their language rather than a specifically emotional place. Although there’s always emotion behind the language, it always has to be the language and the emotion has to be married to one another.
The big part of classical training is following the thought, the living thought of the character that you’re thinking as you’re speaking, which is different from other types of acting styles. A lot of times, in movies and television, and even in modern theatre, the style is about the thought and the emotion coming before the line or after the line, but not necessarily on the line. Classical training is more about the thought and the emotion occurring as you’re speaking, because otherwise, a production of “Hamlet” would be seven hours long if you took the time to emote prior to each of your utterances.
In that way, “The Middleman” is very much like a classical theater character or a character from a language rich play. There, of course, are differences as well. Obviously, this person is dealing with people who aren’t necessarily as involved in language as he is, so there has to be a fair amount of modern acting, acting off of the lines, as well as acting on the lines. But, so far as following the thought and being able to articulate and have enough breath control to get through these long monologues, I think that the classical training was very helpful.

Who do you see as the audience for "The Middleman"? Is this a kid’s show, a tweens show, a family show, who do you think is going to watch it?

MK: I’m not sure, and frankly, this is speaking for myself, but I don’t really think about the demographic when choosing a role necessarily. I choose a role based on whether or not I like it and whether or not it seems like it would be a fun thing to do. It’s only an afterthought of well, what would this actually appeal to, or who would this actually appeal to. Having watched it myself, I could see this being something that a tween audience, both male and female, would enjoy, but, at the same time, I think there are enough references to television shows like “The Avengers” and movies like “Planet of the Apes” and “Scarface” that it would also appeal to the parents of those tweens.
I think also the emotional relationships that will develop throughout the course of the series, although you didn’t see it as much in the pilot, the emotional relationships between Wendy and her paramours, between Lacey and Noser, the two roommates, and also ultimately between “The Middleman” and the rest of the cast. You’ll see that those are more focused on the ABC Family demographic of the 18 to 35 year old female that it’s more about the relationships and the emotional relationships between the characters as the series progresses, not just about the monsters.
I guess, to answer your question, it should appeal to everyone from tween to adult. Obviously there are monsters and special effects that are more focused on the kids’ side of the equation, and there are more emotional relationships that would focus more on the 18 to 35 year old range, and there are a lot of pop culture references that come from the ‘60s and ‘70s that would obviously be more focused on the adults watching the show.

In the first episode, we see you tackling a talking ape who is targeting the Mafia. What is some of the craziest stuff that you’ve had to do on the show so far?

MK: In one of the episodes we battle trout craving zombies, people who have been bitten by Peruvian flying pike and have turned into zombies who crave the flesh of trout. Natalie and I were covered in fish gore and then tracked down by these trout zombies, so that was an odd thing.
I had a scene where I had to fight 100 Mexican wrestlers in a sandy Aztec pyramid set, which was a lot of fun, kind of hard work, but also pretty silly. The fighting styles ranged everywhere from WWF to Kung Fu. In general, “The Middleman’s” naiveté also beats him to make a lot of unintentional double entendre about sex, sexuality, and his own lifestyle choices, and those have been probably some of my sillier utterances throughout the show.

What has been your favorite thing that you’ve done so far in the show, either favorite role or favorite thing you filmed?

MK: I think that my favorite moment comes actually quite late in the series. It was like episode 107 or something, where a relationship develops between myself and Wendy’s roommate, Lacey, and we go to see a movie together. It was a great opportunity for me to show that “The Middleman” isn’t just Mr. Perfect all the time, that he doesn’t have all of the answers to everything, that he actually has an emotional side to him and a shy little boy side to him, as well as the tough guy persona that he puts on all the time.
I think that was my favorite in a way because, in that episode, we have this relationship that goes all the way through until we take a trip on a yacht that’s supposed to be like a copy of “The Titanic” and we called it “Our Titanic Episode.” It gives a real 1950s sort of emotional journey for “The Middleman” that, at once, is modern in the sense that it’s taking place in the present day, but also, it’s a throwback to the screwball comedies of the 1920s and ‘30s and the innocent emotional scenes of those old films as well, which I really enjoyed playing.

In today’s world, what does it take to be an effective hero?

MK: In today’s world, I think that a hero has to be savvy of the world’s events and the fact that the world is getting smaller. That a hero in the present day has to be able to draw from many areas, and you’ll see that in “The Middleman.” The reason that he is effective is because he can speak Hebrew and Chinese, he can fight in a Kung Fu style, yet is very interested in art and artists and is offended when somebody is plagiarizing Wendy’s paintings. He’s a person who takes in the full picture, the big picture of what’s going on in the world, and I think that that’s what makes an effective hero, someone who understands the interrelatedness of humanity and the fact that our global world is getting smaller and smaller.

Could you talk a little bit about some of the changes and some of the differences you’re experiencing from doing a guest spot or doing a role in a movie to being the lead actor and carrying the show?

MK: First of all, the workload is different when you’re playing a major part on a television series. I spend most of my time either there on set, or learning my lines at home, so it’s pretty much a 24/7 job that I don’t really get a lot of opportunities to take time off. That’s a difficulty that I didn’t necessarily have when going from guest spot to guest spot. But, at the same time, that amount of work also makes the job very satisfying, because I get to connect all of the dots of the character.
That the character I can work on for a longer period of time. I think we’ve been doing it now for ten or twelve weeks, or something like that and it’s rare that I get an opportunity, as an actor, to look at the many facets of a different character and see how he reacts in many different situations. That’s the wonderful thing about getting to play a part on a series is that you really get to explore the many facets of the character. You get to look at the full person, and we haven’t even scratched the surface. There’s so much more to discover, because “The Middleman” is so enigmatic.
That’s a pretty great thing about playing a large role on a television show. I think there is also something kind of nice about being one of the people on-set who creates the tone of the working environment. Generally, on a film, or on a guest spot, the tone of the working environment has already been set prior to you arriving, or prior to me arriving I should say.
This is nice in a way, because I’ve been there from the inception, from the pilot, and I’ve been talking to and working with Javier [Grillo-Marxuach], the creator, since I guess September of last year. So I have an opportunity, a very rare opportunity for me, to be able to say this is the way that I want to work. I want to be somebody who is very professional and comes to work prepared everyday, and is ready to go when they ask me to go, and all of the things that I’ve always wanted to bring to a working environment and a set that I haven’t been able to in the past, just because of the small parts that I’ve played.
That’s another great thing about playing a larger role is that you really get to have an influence on the set as part of one of the creators of the show, and a very small part of the show, but still, one of the creators of the entire working experience.

Can you talk specifically about the relationship between “The Middleman” and Wendy, how it’s going to develop in the future, and what kind of dynamic develops between the two characters?

MK: The relationship between Wendy and “The Middleman” starts off as a boss and employee. I think that you see that early on in the pilot. I’m the head of this phony temp agency and the head of “The Middleman” Organization, and I’m convincing Wendy to sign up as one of our employees.
As the series progresses and Wendy starts to become more of a middleman herself, as her training progresses, the relationship first goes from an older brother, younger sister relationship to more of a brother, sister, peer relationship, and that’s as far as we’ve gotten as far as shooting is concerned.
Now we’re in episode eight, or whatever, it’s getting to the point where we’re more like peers and more on an even footing, rather than my character being the one who knows everything and Wendy’s character being the one who is left out. That’s something that actually the writers have worked on creating is this idea that we become soldiers in arms, like our lives are intertwined in a way that generally only happens in battle, partners. We’re crime fighting partners.
Aside from that, whatever underlying relationships or whatever will develop in the future, I don’t think anyone really knows. The creator, Javier, might know, but he’s not letting us in on it. Not yet anyway. So we’ll have to see how it develops from there, but certainly, it does not stay boss and employee, or boss and assistant, or whatever it is in the pilot. It changes throughout the course of it for us to be more peers and more equals as we continue.

How difficult are the lines to learn week-to-week, especially now since you’re in episode eight?

MK: Learning difficult dialogue like that is something that anyone can do, actor or non-actor. It just depends on how much time you’re willing to put into it and that’s really the part of the equation that makes it, I guess, difficult, is having the amount of discipline it takes to sit down for a couple of hours on my day off and just drill the lines and just go over it and over it until it becomes second nature. Then, as soon as you deliver lines, you have to forget them, because if you start thinking about oh, my gosh, what did I do last week, or what did I say last week, or whatever, then it becomes all confused into a big mash of word salad.
It’s not that it’s a particularly difficult task. I think anyone could do it. It’s just that the difficulty comes from having the discipline to actually sit down and make yourself learn the dialogue, which is a challenge. Particularly a challenge when, after working a 12 or 14 hour day and coming home and knowing that you have another couple of hours to go with learning the dialogue for the next day.

Is there a major difference between a feature film and a TV series in terms of ad lib versus sticking strictly to the script dialogue?

MK: Different feature film directors have different ways of working. Some directors are very insistent upon sticking to the script. Other directors are a little bit more liberal with the way that they approach the script. For example, Whit Stillman, a director that I worked with, who was also the writer, and this is generally what happens with writer/directors. He made sure that we said every single word, right down to the punctuation, that everything was exactly as he had written it.
But I’ve worked with a lot of other directors who really just want to get the idea of the scene. They want to tell the story and whatever words you use to tell the story are the words they’ll use. For example, like working with Christopher Guest, there wasn’t a script at all. We had an outline of the movie “Waiting for Guffman” and we just made up all of the dialogue, so there weren’t any lines.

However, on a television show, at least from the experience that I’ve had, particularly on “The Middleman,” you have to be verbatim, exact words that the writers had written every single time, and you can’t change anything, not an article or a preposition. It all has to be exactly as they’ve written it. Particularly on “The Middleman” because Javier, the Writer/Executive Producer, has put a lot of care and thought into the words that he has written and the words that he wants us to say. That makes it a little bit more challenging in a way, because you can’t just learn the general idea of what your character is saying. You have to learn the very specific verbiage that your character uses, and that is definitely a challenge, but when you have, in television in general, the writer takes precedence over the director and in feature films, many times the director will take precedence over the writer. Film is more of a director’s medium and television ends up, at least in my experience, in being more of a writer/creator’s medium.

If you ever had the opportunity would you be interested in writing or directing for the show?

MK: I would. I would really love to direct an episode maybe in season three or four, once we really know our characters and maybe there was an episode that “The Middleman” didn’t have quite so much dialogue. But yes, I would really love to direct one, and I would also love to write one. They seem, right now, to be writing mostly like a committee in the writer’s room, but I think that as the series progresses and we all become more familiar with the characters and the way they speak, and they way that a plot line could go, as the series becomes more procedural, I think that I wouldn’t mind taking a crack at writing one of these. I think that it would be a lot of fun.
Basically, there’s no holds barred when it comes to the situations that you could come up with. As long as they’re ABC Family friendly, you could pretty much do whatever you wanted, so it would be an interesting challenge and I think it would be a lot of fun.
I would love to direct something too. I just think it would be a great opportunity to get on the other side of the camera and see how things are done that way.

What advice would you give to a young actor who wants to pursue a career in film and television?

MK: I think, first and foremost, and, of course, take it with a grain of salt, because this is coming from a person who has his first series, but I think that, first and foremost, training is important, so working with an acting teacher, understanding the basic techniques of acting I think is very important for a young actor. That it can help give you something to rely upon when things aren't just coming naturally, when you have to actually technically create something. Then it’s nice to have some kind of training or technique to fall back on. I think that’s probably it.

What got you started in acting in the first place?

MK: My first full-scale production play was in high school doing a play called “Arsenic and Old Lace,” and I auditioned for it because the girl that I was dating was auditioning for it, and she thought that we could do the play together. As it turned out, she didn’t get the part in the play, but I did. And I learned from doing that, and then community theater in high school, and then eventually doing summer stock. The theater was a great family of people who all had the similar ideas, or similar attitudes about the theater and a life, the more artistic groups. It was a group that I fell into rather than into being on the football team or the basketball team. The theater was the family that I was drawn into and that I felt more of an affinity for.

Can tell us who your personal heroes might be, whether in acting or who have maybe otherwise affected your life?

MK: As an actor, I’m a huge fan of Marlon Brando. I think that’s a pretty cliché thing for an actor to say, but it’s true. Also, William Hurt and Kevin Kline, two of the actors who actually went to Julliard, and probably the main reason that I went to Julliard was being inspired by their performances.
In life, Kurt Vonnegut is one of my heroes, as a writer, as a storyteller. He also has been a big influence on my love of science fiction, which also is directly related to “The Middleman”.
A lot of other writers have been influences through the way that I work and my imagination, but I would say that those are some of my big heroes of my working world.

Can you tell us anything about your latest project, “Deadly Suspicion?”

MK: “Deadly Suspicion” is a TV movie that I made with Mary Lou Henner where she plays my domineering mother who is determined to make me the Governor of California. The show owes a lot to “Manchurian Candidate” or one of those other movies where the main character is really the mother and she’s pushing her son to be this public figure. The ways that she goes about achieving those goals are nefarious and end up being the drama of the piece.
In this particular show, Mary Lou Henner is the evil, domineering mother, and Emily Burgle, who plays my girlfriend, is the only one who sees her for who she truly is. The rest of the cast is blind to her scheming ways.
It eventually devolves into quite a crazy blood fest, but, at least in the inception, it’s about a domineering mom.

This is a post from Daemon's TV.

Interview: MATT KEESLAR from THE MIDDLEMAN

In celebration of ABC Family's new show, THE MIDDLEMAN, which airs Mondays at 8pm, we are offering you the chance to win a signed comic book (on which the show is based) by the creator and executive producer, Javier Grillo-Marxuach.

Want to win it? It's an easy 2 step process:

• First, email us at contest@daemonstv.com and tell us you are entering the "The Middleman giveaway."
• Second, subscribe to our daily email newsletter. (Click here to subscribe).

Note: You will need to activate your email subscription and make sure you use the same email for both steps. You do not have to remain a subscriber and may unsubscribe at anytime after the giveaway is over (in this case anytime after July 5th).

The winners will be picked randomly and we will check the winners' email against our newsletter subscription. Those without a subscription will be disqualified.

The giveaway is open until July 5th 2008. Good Luck!

More Rules:

This is a post from Daemon's TV.

Giveaway: THE MIDDLEMAN - Signed Comic Book

It seems that ABC Family is unstoppable. After great shows like Kyle XY and Greek, they bring us a new original series, THE MIDDLEMAN, which premieres Monday, June 16, at 8pm.

Based on the comic book of the creator, Javier Grillo-Marxuach (you can read our interview with him here), The Middleman is a funny, witty, original show. It tells the story of The Middleman (Matt Keeslar), a man who "takes care of exotic problems." In the first episode, The Middleman finds a new partner, Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales), an art school graduate in desperate need of a job. Together they fight comic book-like evil characters.

Having already read the comic book it was expected that I would compare the two. I will admit that my idea of Wendy Watson was totally different than the way she is portrayed in the show. Was it a problem at first? Yes, because I had to adjust. Will it bother me in the future? No. I think you just have to see both medium as separate at this point, since the show will most likely not follow the comic book in the future (especially since there are only three volumes of the comic book). And by the end of the pilot, I could already tell that I was going to warm up to "TV Wendy."

As for the Middleman himself, well although I also had a different image and idea in my mind, Matt Keeslar has totally won me over. He is a great Middleman and he even made me laugh quite a few times. I don't think I ever saw him in anything else, but I am sold. In fact I liked him so much that I cannot wait to see more of the show. And I really have to give it up to him because the Middleman is not an easy character to play.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the pilot. I don't think it's like anything I've seen on TV before. It's very stylized, the dialogue is very fast-paced and full of references (which I don't get half of the time... shame on me, but it doesn't prevent me from enjoying it none the less), as well as very original. I think that people are either going to love it or hate. I personally really liked it and I think there is great potential for it. Plus ABC Family is a great channel to launch a show like that.

I would recommend you give it a try this summer and see how you like it.

Don't forget to tune in Monday, June 16, at 8pm on ABC Family.

This is a post from Daemon's TV.

Review: THE MIDDLEMAN "The Pilot Episode Sanction" (S01E01)

Recently, Daemon's TV took part in a conference call with JAVIER GRILLO-MARXUACH, creator and executive producer of the new ABC Family original series THE MIDDLEMAN.

We actually talked to Javier Grillo-Marxuach back during the writers strike. Back then, he had only finished filming the pilot for The Middleman. You can read that interview here.

In this interview, Javier Grillo-Marxuach talked about how he came up with the idea for The Middleman, what the format of the show will be, and more.

Don't forget to watch The Middleman Monday, June 16, at 8pm on ABC Family.

For now, enjoy the interview below. (Note: The interview has 2 pages)

Can you explain what the Javi-centric worldview is?

Javier Grillo-Marxuach: I believe it was something that was written by somebody who wrote on my Wikipedia entry.
No, you know what, honestly, it reads a little more arrogant than I probably originally intended it to sound. When I first wrote this pilot, I was trying to define my own voice as a writer. And I had worked on a number of shows at that point. I mean, I wrote this pilot in '98, I was on Charmed, I had worked on SeaQuest and The Pretender and a few other series. I was really trying to define myself, and a lot of the dialogues and stability for this thing came out of that effort more than anything else.
There's a combination of weirdness, but also kind of earnestness to the show. The show is very unabashed and it's very much what it is and the characters don't really apologize for being who they are, and they talk the way they talk because that's the way that I would like reality to be. So it's really about those two qualities, this sort of earnestness and weirdness, and if I were to throw a third one in it would be optimism, that I think make up what the show is about.
If you asked what the Javi-centric worldview is, it's pretty much about that. I think, tonally, Middleman is different from a lot of science fiction shows that exist today because it is so lighthearted and it is so optimistic, rather than being as tragic as so many shows are right now.

You're used to writing and working with other people's characters. How does it feel to finally be creating your own ideas up there with your own characters?

JGM: I mean, obviously it's the best thing ever. I've had a lot of fun working in other peoples' universes, you know. I mean I've had a really great ride and I've worked on a lot of really fantastic TV shows. But to be able to finally see this come to life has been immensely -not just gratifying, because it's gratifying to write on something like Lost obviously -but it's like there's a real sort of validation to it. Especially because the show has been in my head for so long and I wrote the pilot so long ago, and the initial response to it -people always thought it was just too quirky, too weird, too out there, just not televisual and mainstream and broad enough to really work. So to finally see it get on the air and so closely to what I originally wrote is a tremendous validation for me.
TV writers tend to be very over-validated anyway, so for validation to be that size is actually quite a thing. So more than anything else I just feel relieved that it works. I sort of sat on this project for so long that finally seeing it up is just one of those things where I go okay, I kind of marvel at the existence of this thing and I'm really happy that we're getting a chance to do it so true to the original vision.

"The Middleman" is based on a Viper comic series you created. Can you tell us about some of the adjustments with characters and storylines you had to make to bring it to life?

JGM: What's interesting is that the Viper comic book series is based on a pilot that I wrote in '98 or '99. Really, the comic book followed the idea to make it a TV series. So if you've read the comic book and you look at the pilot, you'll notice that the pilot is tremendously true to the comic book and the comic book was written from the pilot script that I wrote originally. There's not a lot of difference.

I mean, there are a couple of things we did. Like, for example, when I wrote the pilot back in '98 and '99 it was Wendy and her peer group were a little more Gen-X in terms of their attitude. I was still dangerously close to my years of slackerdom and school and all that, so I think the characters had a little bit more of that attitude. One of the notes that came from ABC Family when they bought the pilot was that they really wanted the characters to have more of a millennial sensibility, which makes sense because it's been ten years since I wrote the thing.

So I think in updating the characters to sort of be more like today's 21, 22-year-olds, as opposed to the ones from my experience, the biggest change is that the character of Lacy became, you know, she was always a confrontational spoken-word performance artist and she was always going to be somebody who took up causes and all that, but we really focused that into sort of a political agenda that her art is really art that is politically active and engaged and it's about environmental causes and things like that. And that really came from the network; the network wanted Lacy to be engaged that way, because that's the truth about this generation that is not necessarily true of mine. So that's a huge change in terms of the character. And it's really the only major character adjustment that we made from the comic book.

Pretty much, I would say, 75% to 85% of what's in the comic book is in the pilot, and the other things that changed are things that we did for budget or for other reasons. For example, the apes in the comic book were originally chimps, and we found out that first of all ABC will not use chimps in any of their programming for ethical reasons. They actually have a relationship with Jane Goodall and it was very important that we portray the apes with dignity and that we show certain things about the apes and send a certain message about that, so that was important to do to begin with. And for ethical reasons we really couldn't use trained chimps to do this, and CGI chimps were cost-prohibitive, so we wound up changing that to a gorilla and it's one gorilla as opposed to 20, and the Jim Henson Creature Shop did the gorilla.

There's a lot of smaller changes like that that are sort of budget changes, things that we did to fit the comic book into the scope of the pilot that we had to make and the money we had to make the pilot. Actually, the other big change was that originally the gangster gorilla was hiding out in a home, a kind of Tony Montana home. We couldn't fit that in the shooting day and I was trying to figure out what to do, and that's when we came up with the idea of the strip club, and it was about 500 million times funnier than it was in the comic book, so we totally had to do that. That's what led to the ape being in a tracksuit.

But honestly, this isn't one of those comic book adaptations where you watch it and there's nothing there except for like the name of the character and maybe some piece of the costume. This is straight up the Middleman that Les McClaine and I put in the comic book and that is the pilot that I wrote ten years ago.

With you being so invested in these characters for quite some time, were you pretty particular with what you were looking for in the casting?

JGM: The writing was particular for me. And this is not to toot my horn as a writer or whatever, it's just simply that as all of you are finding out the hard way, and especially those of you who might be transcribing, I cram a lot of words in a sentence and I say a lot. And the characters, in this specifically because I wasn't writing somebody else's characters, are very much that way. They all have a very specific cadence and there's a very specific sensibility to the dialogue. So the scenes themselves kind of chewed up a lot of people in the audition process.

With Wendy, the part played by Natalie Morales: Wendy Watson originally was white -and ABC Family, the idea to make her Latina came from them. I don't know, for whatever reason, that wasn't part of my original conception of it. And, obviously, being Puerto Rican and thinking that it's a pretty swell thing to have Latinos in television in heroic and featured positions, I embraced that and went along with it.

So the casting search was immediately determined by certain things like can we find somebody who can actually get through this dialogue without wanting to kill me and find somebody who is also going to portray the warmth and character of Wendy and, at the same time, give us a certain number of things and as well be Latina. So, already the parameters sort of drew themselves around the project.

In the case of Matt Kesslar, there really wasn't a tremendously protracted audition process because, since I conceived of this thing, my wife and I have sort of played the game of who could be the Middleman. The Middleman is one of those characters who is so specific in how he speaks and how he carries himself and what he does. I remember I had seen this movie "The Last Days of Disco," my wife and I had seen it together and then we catch it on cable every once in awhile. It's one of those movies that every time it was on, we would watch the whole thing. And Matt in that film gives a monologue about Lady & the Tramp and his character gets very wound up in this speech. It was one of those things where I remember seeing that and going, “You know, that's him.” And when the pilot got bought up by ABC Family we kept talking about, “Who do you think would be a good prototype for the Middleman,” and I kept going “Matt Kesslar. Matt Kesslar. Matt Kesslar,” and finally somebody said, “Why don't you just make Matt Keeslar an offer and see if he'll do it?”

Honestly, in the case of the Middleman, I always thought that Matt was pretty much our guy. In the case of Wendy, it was a pretty long audition process in terms of finding this actress who was perfect for the role. We're pretty lucky that Natalie came across our doorstep.

To be frank with you, when you've had characters in your mind for as long as I've had these characters in my mind, it's almost a relief when you find actors. When you start auditioning people, you start hearing the words up on their feet and you start kind of getting it and you start realizing, “Yes, people can actually do this, it's good; human beings who actually match these characters.” So there's a profound relief to taking something to audition and finding out that there are two people out there who can play these roles.

You said this was initially conceived for television before you took it down the comics road. So what has changed? Why is now the right time to bring "The Middleman" to the television landscape?

JGM: I think I've changed. And I don't mean that to sound as horrifically narcissistic as it does, but when I first wrote this pilot I was, I think, executive story editor on a show. And, to sell a pilot and to run a show and to do it well and to sort of stick true to one individual vision and all that, you need to have a certain amount of experience and you need to have a certain amount of seasoning in the world. Because even in a place as wonderful and nurturing as ABC Family has been to me, it's still a pretty dense thicket to see a show through. What I've been through since has been just a tremendous amount of formative experiences that have sort of educated me in how to run a show. So there's that. I think it was the right time for me to come in and actually be able to be the show runner on this thing without having to give up things that I wouldn't have wanted to.
The other thing is that I don't think that there are still shows out there that are similar to this. Obviously you've got "Smallville" and you've got "Doctor Who" on the SciFi Channel and things like that. But I think that where this show and sort of the sensibility of ABC Family have dovetailed very well is I think ABC Family is trying very hard to create themselves as a network that has smart, very individual shows that represent a certain point of view. And I think there was a very good confluence of this show and that point of view.
I think this is a lighthearted show, I think it's an optimistic show, I think it's a show that is sort of unabashed about itself and it doesn't make apologies for being -you know, a show that isn't tragic, isn't dark, isn't reflecting that kind of a reality. And I think that ABC Family was sort of the right network at the right time for it as well.

Also, when you're looking at a show that's this -you know, in addition to being a sci-fi show, it's a sci-fi show where everybody talks funny, in this sort of patter kind of banter thing; it's a show that's very self-consciously weird. We have a kind of tentacled butt monster in the first show and we've got gangster apes and we've got fish zombies and fashion models who are succubi. It's not your traditional monster-of-the-week show.

I think that, in addition to all those things, ABC Family was also just the people who were willing to take a chance on the show and say, “We understand that you have a very individual perception of what this show needs to be, and we'll go with it.” I couldn't believe that, even after the comic book -and the comic book had a fair amount of attention -I'm being allowed to do the things I'm doing on the show. And I remember doing the pilot I would call the executives at ABC Family and say, “Guys, there is an ape in the show,” and they'd be like, ‘Yes, we know,” and I'm like, “It's not a metaphorical ape; it's an actual ape with a machine gun and in a tracksuit, who runs a mafia,” and they're like, “Yes, we know.”

So I think it's really that perfect storm of a network looking to define itself by having shows that are specific and shows that are quirky and shows that really kind of are brand defining. I think it was finally being in a place in my career where I could really say, “This is the show. This is how I would run it. This is how we would do this.” And then it's sort of the stars aligning in the right place.

But I'll tell you a story. I was working on "Medium" when we sold the pilot and my agents, I had prevailed on my agents to send this out, that it's really what I wanted to do and it was the right time. There were a couple of networks who had looked at it -and ABC Family had expressed a strong interest and we were sort of in that last moment before making the deal. And I walked out of the writer's offices for "Medium" and I looked up in the sky and a plane was writing the words “Kyle XY” above me. I thought, “You know what; it's fate.” And that's kind of what closed it.

People have heard that there's going to be a robot character in the show. Should they be expecting Vicki from "Small Wonder" or Six from "Battlestar Galactica"?

JGM: I'm proud to say neither. No, you know what, I think that Tricia Helfer has proven herself in that Narcisco Rodriguez gown. I don't think we need to try to go up against that. I think she pretty much owns that. And it's strictly because of my wife that I know the name of the person who designed that red dress.
But no, we have this character, Ida, who is played by Mary Pat Gleason, who is spectacular and a tremendously sort or prolific actor. She's one of those people that the moment you see her you recognize from any number of things that she's been in and this sort of range of roles. Yes, I don't think she's like any other robot on TV right now, I can tell you that. And if you've read the comic book you know that she is sort of Wendy's foil and a tremendously sort of salty character who really makes our lives very difficult. So this isn't C3PO and it sure as hell isn't Grace Park.

We've been getting quite a few updates on "The Middleman" blog, there are pictures and everything of the set as it has progressed. Will you continue to do that as the show goes on?

JGM: Yes. Actually there's a gentleman working on the crew named Ralph King, who is our digital image technician, who is one of the people in the camera department. We were shooting this with these HD cameras, so the camera department includes the sort of digital technical area. We have this black tent where Ralph and the director of photography sit and look at it in these beautiful HD monitors. And he also takes pictures on occasion, so I've been posting a lot of -I mean many of the photos you see on that are just like Greg Edgar, our prop guy, will bring in something for me to look at and it's like, “Oh my God, I get to put the helmet on!” And we did. So we've got those kinds of photos. Ralph on occasion will bust out his SLR camera and take some beautiful pictures of stuff on the sets. I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't put them up. I think that there's a lot of really great blogs, like Jane Espenson and John Rogers and Lisa Klink and Lee Goldberg all have have blogs where they write about sort of the process of writing in TV and all that. So I feel that mine should be the same thing, sort of really talk about the process.

I don't feel a great burden to sort of write about what it's like in the writer's room and things like that, but I think the things that would be cool to the fans are the things that are frankly cool to me, because I was a fan long before I was a writer. So I think just the fun that we're having in here in terms of looking at the helmets and playing with the fish puppets and doing all of these things is just sort of something that I'm trying to translate through that blog. Actually, the best day was when they had the Harrier jet here. They had like half a jet in the stage and we were climbing in it and doing all that. Yes, it was good. I'm sure that there are other shows where people have a ton of fun and all that, but I'm sure that they don't have this kind of fun on "Law & Order," you know; I can tell you that right now.

Because it was based on a pilot, did you find it hard to shop the pilot and then all of a sudden it became a comic book? Or were you simultaneously shopping the two of them together?

JGM: No, what happened was my agent read it -this was in the late ‘90s and Buffy was a maturing show at the time and there were a lot of these kinds of shows out there. And I think that his feeling about where my career needed to go was, I kind of went off to do things like "Boomtown" and "Lost." But I also did "The Chronicle" and "Jake 2.0," so it's not like I ever lost touch with my sci-fi roots.

It's weird, until in the pre-sort of Joss Whedon era sci-fi, even if you're on one of the really top-flight sci-fi shows, on "Star Trek" and things like that, the genre was still getting a little bit of a bum rap and it was hard to define yourself as a writer -sci-fi was something that you went and did after you had done some “serious” 10:00 cop show type of things, and then you could go to genre and you could say, “But I can do the heavy drama stuff,” and people would take you seriously.

Coming out of that school, and again, the "X-Files" had been around for a few years and kind of was reaching its own peak and all that, but it was one of those things where what my agents really wanted for me was to do a show like "Boomtown" and all that and really kind of get that kind of traction in my career. So I took the pilot and sort of put it aside and I could never quite get it out of my mind. Like I said, my wife and I were constantly like, “He could be the Middleman. She could be Wendy.” And we sort of went through that for a long time. Then, in 2004, I went to work on "Lost" and I was working with Paul Dini, whom I have widely credited as the godfather of "The Middleman." And Paul has this comic book called "Jingle Bell" and he's got this other one called "Mutant Texas," and he's sort of a guy who, in addition to his work with DC and his work in animation and his work in primetime, really has kind of fostered his own identity as a comic book writer and as a comic book creator. Of course, I was a huge comic book fan already, but something about talking to Paul and realizing here's a guy who's doing it sort of inspired me to say, “Here I have a property that, in a comic book, without the constraints of budget, would be spectacular. So why not go in that direction and try to fulfill this creative need that I have to see this thing made?”

And I think it came really at the right time in my career, because even though I was working on a lot of successful shows and I worked on a lot of shows that -I mean you can't complain about working on "Lost" obviously; it was a fantastic, famous show. It's the reason I have an Emmy. But, at the same time, after you've done it for a while you want to write your own thing, and the comic book really gave me a window to do that.

I think that if I had sold the show four years ago I don't know that the pilot would be as successful, at least in my eyes, creatively as it is. I think that a lot of science fiction shows and a lot of fantasy shows, and I say this with tremendous admiration for them, but the big theme in a lot of these kinds of shows has been the tragedy of heroism, you know.

I think if you look at "Buffy" and "Angel" and "(Battlestar) Galactica," they're very dark shows that really sort of follow the very dark ramifications of kind of sacrificing your own welfare in order to be a hero. And especially if you look at sort of the end of "Angel;" you know, Angel was sort of a perennially tortured character who ultimately, with his minions, they go off into this sort of ongoing fight against evil, that's what they have.

With "The Middleman," the point of view is a little bit lighter. In a way, I think it's a reflection of the demographic that it's pitched at. There's a third kind of let's accentuate the positive in the show and see what happens.

This is a post from Daemon's TV.

Interview: JAVIER GRILLO-MARXUACH from THE MIDDLEMAN

This might be too good to be true, but it's not. The firs episode of THE MIDDLEMAN, "The Pilot Episode Sanction," can be downloaded on iTunes for FREE.

Click here to go to the iTunes The Middleman page and get the episode.

Don't forget that The Middleman premieres on ABC Family on June 16 at 8pm (Yes, that means you would not only get to see the episode commercial-free, but it would also be before it premieres on TV). I'm heading over there myself!

You can view pictures from the episode here and videos here.

Read all our coverage of The Middleman here.

(Source: The Middleblog)

This is a post from Daemon's TV.

Watch THE MIDDLEMAN Pilot Free on iTunes

ABC Family's new original show, THE MIDDLEMAN is right around the corner. On June 16, the comic book based series by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, will make its premiere on TV, and we are excited. I read all three volumes of the comic book and I really loved it, it's funny, original, and I think the perfect match for an ABC Family show.

You can watch two promo videos from The Middleman here.

Don't forget to watch The Middleman "The Pilot Episode Sanction" on Monday, June 16, at 8pm on ABC Family.

For now check out a promo and more pictures for The Middleman "The Pilot Episode Sanction" below.

Read all our The Middleman coverage here.

(Photos: Courtesy of ABC Family)

This is a post from Daemon's TV.

THE MIDDLEMAN - "The Pilot Episode Sanction" (S01E01) Pictures

This summer, ABC Family will premiere a new show based on the comic book of the same name, THE MIDDLEMAN, on June 16 at 8pm.

There are the strange occurrences that can never be explained…incidents with creatures that couldn’t possibly be real…evil forces lurking in the dark, out of the sight of ordinary people…but there is one man out there who fights such evil every day so you don’t have to: The Middleman.

The Middleman stars Matt Keeslar (“Snowglobe”), Natalie Morales (“CSI: Miami”), Mary Pat Gleason (“I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry”), Brit Morgan (“Buried Alive”) and Jake Smollett (“Eve’s Bayou”).

I actually interviewed Javier Grillo-Marxuach, creator of the show and writer of the comic book, back in February during the strike. Since then I had time to read the comic book and really enjoyed it. The tone is sort of a mix between Doctor Who and secret agent-type story.

I am definitely looking forward to watching the show, but until it premieres, check out two promo videos below for The Middleman.

This is a post from Daemon's TV.

ABC Family's THE MIDDLEMAN - Promo Videos

On June 8 at 8pm, ABC Family will premiere a new original movie, THE CIRCUIT, starring Michelle Trachtenberg (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Drew Fuller (“Army Wives”) and Billy Campbell (The 4400”).

The Circuit tells the story of an estranged father and daughter, Al (Campbell) and Kylie Shines (Trachtenberg), who both compete on the stock car race circuit. While Kylie’s star is on a sizzling rise, Al’s once legendary career is on the decline. But Kylie’s father isn’t her only competition as the circuit’s top racer Kid Walker (Fuller) makes his own advances — both on and off the track.

Check out two promo videos for The Circuit below in anticipation to the premiere.

This is a post from Daemon's TV.

ABC Family's THE CIRCUIT - Promo Videos