EUREKA unscripted

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHARLIE!

What do you get the showrunner who has everything?

Fart cards and faux scripts!

Yes, it was Executive Producer Charlie Craig’s birthday yesterday, so the entire staff chipped in for his gifts.  Following a long-standing Hollywood tradition, no expense was spared!  Which meant Charlie received the following:

1. Recycled scripts with fake titles.
2. A tasteless “South Park” card, complete with farting envelope.
3. A pair of powder blue flip-flops.

So now you aspiring writers know what you can look forward to on your special day! I’m sure Charlie can’t wait until next year…

THE LATEST FROM JAIME...

Having now aired the first eight episodes of Season Three, we are madly at work writing and shooting the back 13.  You may recall that as a result of the Writers’ Strike, NBC/Universal increased our episode order from 13 to 21, which was a win-win.  We’re employed for a longer period of time (and believe me, in this rapidly failing economy, we’re grateful) and you get more “Eureka” to enjoy (my assumption is if you’re reading this, you’re a fan). 

But how we air those episodes gets tricky.  It’s all about budget ”amortization.”  The studio and network have to figure out a way to make our show profitable.  You don’t do that by producing fewer episodes.  A lot of the costs of making a show have to do with starting up production: hiring crews, leasing sound-stages, re-building permanent sets, etc.  Once all of the infrastructure and people are in place, the relative costs of continuing production go down the more episodes you make. Given the calendar, we only had time to produce eight episodes in order to air in our usual July time slot.  Thus, the decision to make 21 instead of 13, and break them into two blocks of eight and thirteen.  We don’t yet know our airdate for the second half, but look for it sometime in early to mid ‘09.  Sorry we can’t be more specific.  But the good news is we finished Season Three with our highest average ratings since the series premiere two years ago.  So, hopefully, thanks to you, we’ll be around a little while longer.  Thanks for keeping us on the air.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, back to the writers’ room.

After a six-week production hiatus while we caught up on scripts, we began production last week on my next episode, “Your Face or Mine?” with Colin Ferguson making his directorial debut.  This is the third time that we’ve shot episodes out of order at the beginning of a season, and for unique reasons.  In order for Colin to have time to prep the episode, he couldn’t be in the middle of production as our lead actor.  By shooting what is slated as episode 10 first, he has time to focus solely on directing.  The plot of the episode is also purposely Carter-light to allow Colin maximum time behind the camera, which presented its own challenges in the story-breaking and writing.  The good news is that it gave us a chance to focus on some of our other lovable characters.  The central story of this episode rests on Jo Lupo’s shoulders as she essentially gets to be Carter for the day.  The concept is fun and emotional and Erica Cerra has really stepped up to the challenge.  And Colin’s doing a great job in the director’s chair (but we’re still not letting him out of his acting contract).

Bruce Miller is now polishing what will be episode nine and it’s going to be a great one.  You may recall that Carter was fired at the end of the ”mid-season finale.”  Our premiere picks up with him dealing with the aftermath and having to figure out what he’s going to do next.  Of course, there’s another unique problem that arises in the midst of his redaction and you know Carter can’t resist getting involved.  It’s a great season opener and will allow new viewers to be introduced to our town in a uniquely Eurekan way.

So, two down, only eleven more to go.

J. 

COLIN FERGUSON... DIRECTOR