What about Bob, anyway?
Well, Bob is a monster. A “monster of the week,” in fact. And it’s about time. What exactly do we mean by this? For the answer, we have to turn back the clock to 2005…
“Eureka” Co-Creators Jaime Paglia and Andrew Cosby have just sold “Eureka” as a series and are writing the pilot script. Their first version, which everyone loves, centers around a funny monster-of-the-week story about Bigfoot. Then the script goes up the food chain and marching orders come back from the Network saying, “No monster-of-the-week” stories, especially not for the pilot.” Their reasoning was that viewers would tune in and think that “Eureka” was an “X-Files” rip-off, and that each week audiences would be treated to yet-another creepy creation of some sort.
So Jaime and Andy rewrote the pilot script again.
From scratch.
The story they came up with the second time around is the pilot you know and love. (BTW: That Bigfoot story ended up becoming the basis for the Eureka Webisode series, “Hide and Seek.”) But the unintended consequences of that scenario have been and continue to be a singular mantra: “No monster stories on Eureka!”
That is, until now.
Episode 302 – “What About Bob?” – represents our show’s first full-blown foray into monster territory. Yup, when the Network finally said it was okay to do a monster tale, your faithful writing staff pounced on the opportunity like there was no tomorrow.
And just how did we settle on our snake man? One of our main inspirations for a story involving human mutagenics was David Cronenberg’s brilliant movie, THE FLY. Of course, we also love comic books and comic book movies, so The Lizard, one of SPIDER-MAN’s grooviest villains, also inspired us. Throw in some comedy and juicy character conflict—Carter and the newly engaged Allison stuck together underground, getting naked together (briefly), and potentially changing into monsters themselves—and we suddenly had a great story.
There was also the trick of how to get Henry into the story. We couldn’t just leave him in jail all season. That’s how the idea of “holographic Henry” was born. This way we could have him in two places at once. BTW, do you really think it’s a coincidence that Eva Throne had Henry pardoned? That she did it simply to “restore Eureka’s balance” or out of the goodness of her heart?
If so, we have some real estate you’d be interested in…
As for the actual breaking process, believe it or not, 302 was a breeze.
Usually it takes a long time to come up with a workable “Eureka” concept. Most of our ideas are usually too expensive given our already stretched production budget. Other ideas are too outrageous (even for our show!). When we all do finally manage to agree on something we like and can actually afford to pull off, there’s still tons of debate over what form the proposed story will take. All of this leads to a Network pitch that then gets tweaked further before getting approved by the powers that be. Then, and only then, is the approved story broken by the entire staff, a process that can last anywhere from one to two weeks, and features some very heated debates amongst the staff over every little story detail.
“What About Bob?” came about in record time, the break lasting mere days and with little or no arguments. For once, we all got to go home early…
Oh, and what’s up with the film Eva was watching? For now, we’ll only say that her secret is just a phone call away…
So.
Now that the floodgates have been opened, don’t be surprised if a few more ghosts and other monsters turn up in Eurekaville.
Really. You’ve been warned.
