© (C) 2007 NBC Universal Reed Diamond, Moon Bloodgood, Kevin McKidd and Gretchen Egolf of JOURNEYMAN

Television:

Exclusive Profile: 'JOURNEYMAN' CREATOR KEVIN FALLS HOPES TIME IS ON HIS SIDE - PART 2

Great drama, cool time travel, endearing love triangle and superb acting, so why hasn't the rest of the world discovered "the best damn TV show you're not watching"

By A.C. FERRANTE, Editor in Chief
Published 11/25/2007

It’s a given, every year there’s one absolutely phenomenal TV show that struggles in the ratings despite creative dominance and a large, loyal fan base. last year was JERICHO (and just when it looked like it was canceled, the fans came to the rescue and convinced CBS to give it an abbreviated second season) while this year the slot is filled by JOURNEYMAN. 

Hopefully cancellation won't befall NBC’s critically praised, but ratings challenged time travel series, but as optimistic as creator and executive producer Kevin Falls is about his series, he admits that the ratings on the last batch of episodes will be integral to the shows' survival.

The series follows San Francisco newspaper reporter Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd) who finds himself sent on missions to the past in order to correct the future. Of course the big problem: he’s screwing up his present with wife Katie (Gretchen Egolf) and as seen in last week’s episode "Emily," the repercussions are affecting his young son (Charles Henry Wyson) who thinks it’s cool his dad is a time traveler, but is troubled that he’s always gone. To make matters worse, Dan’s long-thought dead girlfriend Livia (Moon Bloodgood) is also a “journeywoman” who serves as Dan’s guide on his trips (something that doesn’t go over well with his wife mind you).

In last week’s episode, Dan goes off-mission to persecute the kidnapper of a young girl, only to have repercussions in the present when the man is now targeting Dan’s family in the present. It comes to a head in tonight’s episode conclusion.

To catch new viewers up to speed, Falls spoke with iF Magazine about what happened on series, what to expect in the coming weeks and how the last episode filmed can serve as a season or series ender, pending on how it’s edited.

iF MAGAZINE: How were the ratings last week? Did it continue to build. Was the network happy?

KEVIN FALLS: They slipped a bit. We were up against THE BACHELOR finale, so that hurt I've been told. I don't know, why. I don't see them as our audience. I expect us to do well tonight, though. It seems to be an eagerly awaited episode--the second of a two-parter. Last week Dan went off-mission to apprehend a kidnapper against Livia's advice and now there is going to be hell to pay. I guarantee you it will be thrilling. The promos show Dan being shot and Livia meeting Jack and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

iF: Will the ratings tonight determine the fate of the show?

FALLS: Ratings always determine the fate of a show, but if the questions is, “if we slip tomorrow night, will we be back on for episode 10 and 11?" The answer is yes, but then, nothing is in stone. I've been told we will air episodes 10 and 11 after a December 3rd preemption of LIFE and episode 12 is the one that doesn't have a home right now except for DVD or if we get a back nine. But the strike will determine that.

iF: NBC is happy with the show creatively, right? Since the numbers seem to be growing, isn't it in their best interest to nurture the show a little while longer?

FALLS: Well, yes, if they grow. Last week they didn't and that hurt, but it wasn't fatal. People have to get off the notion that Episode 8 and 9 determined our fate either way. I anticipate going up tonight, but the December shows will be a challenge, There's a traditionally lower viewing audience because people are busy shopping or traveling. But hopefully other shows will be in reruns. But I'm not going to sugar coat it -- we need to show the network there's a building audience. I think there is and our fans are starting to make some noise. The fact that we have a great season/series ender of a quality television show [Episode 12] that might not air during a strike season, has pissed off the fans and it does border on the insulting. This show and its fans deserve better.

iF: What do you think has been the biggest hurdle in bringing even more viewers to the show?

FALLS: Lack of promotion. [There’s been no] re-airing of the show on other nights or on SCI FI [Channel]  like they did with BIONIC [WOMAN], HEROES and CHUCK. Our time slot is too late, but that's all hindsight. A lot of shows would have loved the post-HEROES slot and initially I was very grateful that NBC put us there. I really wanted to do better for them and 20th [Century Fox]. so I'm not going to whine about that. I also think there was a misconception of what this show was going to be. Many viewers and critics dismissed it as a QUANTUM LEAP knock-off when it was much more layered than that. I just had coffee with McKidd this morning and we were talking about what we might have done different and maybe I would have introduced the Langley stuff earlier, but I don't have any regrets. We wanted this show to be entertaining, while rich in character that respected the audience's intelligence. That I believe we succeeded in doing.

iF: So for clarification, Dan can only back into his own past, he can’t travel beyond his own past.

FALLS: That is correct.

iF: And Livia can only travel into the future, now would that be only her future of where she’s living, so technically would she be living in Dan’s present as an old person.

FALLS: Correct, it’s a theory that’s very valid.

iF: Would we potentially see her as an old person.

FALLS: Yes, god willing. I would love nothing more than to do that. So that was the idea.

iF: This $20.00 bill. What does that mean for his brother, for pulling that out of evidence? Is he opening himself up to problems for taking it?

FALLS: The idea was, this money is worthless. He takes it, but without giving too much away, it’s a big reveal and I don’t want to spoil it, it won’t be an issue.

iF: Is Dan's brother (Reed Diamond) going to start believing?

FALLS: He’s going to come to believe him very soon. He has to. The character is bordering on being one note and we have to change it.

iF: If Dan is on this mission, and someone is overseeing this, how does he know what to change in the past to make the present right, when the present hasn’t happened to begin with.

FALLS: Our theory of what Dan is and who governs those issues go with what the master plan of the mythological experience is for these guys. I’m not going to address that. My feeling is that time is on a loop, which is one of Einstein’s theory. It just goes around and around. That’s what déjà vu is. “Oh wait, I remember this.” History kind of goes on and repeats itself. What happens is, some times things go off line and you need these bumpers to kind of bump people back on the path they’re supposed to be on, for something even bigger down the line. The idea is a number of [people] that [Dan has] saved will play into our climax at season’s end. If you’re saying it hasn’t happened, it actually has and they kind of know the result. If this thing gets off line, then everything is going to start to wobble. So these bumpers, which are Dan and Livia, bump people back on the path they’re supposed to be taking.

iF: Is the F.B.I. on to something that’s going on?

FALLS: Certainly that [Agent] Garrity [Paul Schulze] character is tripping on that.

iF: There are so many shows that have a second season after a phenomenal first season, but somehow drop the ball. Even HEROES struggled for a bit during its second year. Let’s assume JOURNEYMAN returns for a second season, what will you do to ensure it doesn’t lose its momentum?

FALLS: People want to know what’s causing the time travel. That’s the one we’re not sure about. I didn’t want to answer it until the series comes to an end. I felt that, once you know that, what kind of point is it. So we wanted to put that on the shelf and not address it and getting to more “why is Livia travelling,” “are there other time travellers?” and get into what’s causing it deeper. Now I’m not so sure. I was wondering at the end of the first season, do we answer that question? I think viewers initially wanted the answer right away, then they realized there was enough in the show to satisfy them. I don’t think people saw what was coming in what they find themselves enjoying [about the show] which is the impact that it has on Dan’s personal life in the present. There really hasn’t been a show that deals with the havoc that time travel creates. Most time travel [stories] live in wherever you’re going to in the past. On this, because he goes back and forth, it takes a heavier personal toll. Fans like what it’s doing with the brother, they’re very eager to have Jack believe him, which he will very soon. Now I don’t feel as much pressure to give the answer, but the fans are very intrigued by Elliot Langley (Tom Everett). They don't know by learning it, it may end up compromising a show they like. It’s just a question if we want to do it at the end of this year or next.

iF: Is it tricky figuring out which time periods work better for him to jump back to? Should it be more recent or should it be ‘70s, ‘80s?

FALLS: It’s still an inexact science for us. We’re still trying to make those procedurals compelling. What they have going for them, they’re in the past. The older they are, the more they resonate with people. When you do the ‘70s shows, just because people look so much different, it’s more of a nostalgic episode, where if you only go back ten years, they don’t get attached to those stories, so you better have a strong story in the present, when you have those other procedurals, because it’s just part of the alchemy of the show.

iF: The last couple of episodes, the time travel element stays in the same general era, as opposed to hopping around different decades. Was there a reason for this change?

FALLS: Around Episode 5, 6, 7 and 8, we were over-budget and the studio said you have to reel this in. 20th Century Fox has been very generous in supporting this show and even NBC kicked in a little bit too, on top of the licensing fee. But, our pattern number, is too low to produce the kind of cinema we do every week. We have a beautiful production value on our show, and unfortunately, it comes with a price. So we had to down scale that. So instead of travelling over three or four different decades, which adds quite a bit of expense to hair, make-up and hair, set design, we had to have fewer trips and stay within one or two years of the stories as opposed to jumping decades which gets more expensive. You’re right, there was a reason for making that choice.

iF: Your music license must be out of the stratosphere as well.

FALLS: We have one of the biggest music budgets on any show on TV and thanks to NBC and Fox, they ratcheted up how much they were going to give to the show, because they realized it was so important to the storytelling. Not to be just cute and clever, we needed to establish the time [with music] and they agreed.

iF: How will that affect the DVD’s?

FALLS: That’s a really good question, if you’re watching on closed-caption two weeks ago, it was closed caption with a Steve Winwood song and we had to go with Jefferson Starship “Miracles,” because the very last minute, we could not get that song [cleared] on multiple platforms. Fox will not put a song on a show and have to pay more money to put it on DVD. They want to make sure that song you see on TV, you can hear on the DVD.

iF: When you have a show like this that is mythology driven, some times when you see the writing on the wall that it might not survive a full season, but will live on DVD, do you consciously decide that “if this is going to end, we have this extra stuff we can put on there to explain it to the viewers with the last episode?”

FALLS: We knew we had a show that had a very loyal fan base, people who watch the show for more than two episodes, have hung around. It went up two weeks ago. I think there’s starting to be a buzz building, but the feeling is, we want this show to live. We knew we had a foreign commitment. This thing sold [in] foreign [territories], we had money, we had a commitment. Some shows get yanked and they can’t finish their run. Even if we had been taken off the air, we would have done thirteen episodes. It allows us to think, when the numbers were low, we thought, we should really plan maybe the twelfth episode is our last. The idea is we shot a script that has that ceiling of closure. It doesn’t answer everything. If we tried to do too much, it would be too confusing. We had to be true to what the show does, and feel at some level that it was satisfying. As opposed to shooting anything extra, you shoot this script, but at the editing process, you could cull out lines that felt definitive and closed and make it more ambiguous. We certainly try to answer a lot of questions in [Episode] 11 and 12 without saying everything. At the end of 12, you’re not going to know why they’re travelling, that feels like it would take more leg work, but you get an idea as to why they were.

iF: So if the show comes back, those lines would be pulled out of the episode?

FALLS: Fox and NBC love the show and Fox knows they have a DVD here they can sell. The important thing for me is that the show lives beyond our run here, in case anything happens. I think people are going to find the show who didn’t watch it before.

iF: There’s still not enough sexy stuff with the Livia character on the show. Any more plans for that?

FALLS: In Episode 11, it has to happen, Livia travels in her lingerie. That had to happen.

iF: With the Writer’s Strike, the show has to go on without you now, is that how it works?

FALLS: Fortunately we have at the steward, Alex Graves, who is executive producer and directed the pilot and several episodes including Episode 6, which is the one every one loved. So he’s there, able to do that. I really wanted there to be twelve scripts, so the cast and crew could work in December and I also wanted to have these last episodes. I am fortunate to have Sir Alex Graves, minding the store, and believe me, it’s in very good hands.
 
iF: Prior to the strike, what did NBC say to you about the future of the show?

FALLS: They’ve never said “you have to do this, and ratings will jump.” They know creatively, it’s a wonderful show. What they don’t love is the numbers. We wanted more promotion and they’ve giving it to us, but our time slot is a tough one. It’s a very surgical strike, when viewers watch HEROES, they only watch that show and they get out. I think we would benefit from an earlier time slot. No one has said anything, except we know it, we can't slip anymore. We have to build. I am inclined to think we will. We’re getting into a compelling part of our story and the word of mouth is good. Whether it’s enough, it’s up to the fans. There’s so many things that have to come in to play. It’s not because the show isn’t good. NBC is the first to tell you it’s quite the opposite. I’ve been doing this for a long time and they look at the numbers and the numbers have to get better and I hope they do.

iF: If you had to pitch the show to people who hadn't watched it to get them excited to watch it, how would you describe the show to them?

FALLS: A family man who travels through time is threatening his life and marriage in the present. I don't know, maybe that sounds lame. But then, I have trouble describing this show to people with a log line. And I find that some of the best movies and books can't be described in 25 words or less. You just have to experience them to appreciate what they're about. Oh no, now I'm just going to lay awake tonight thinking about a log line to describe the show that's better than the one I just gave you. How about: "The best damn TV show you're not watching." I like that. Let's go with that.

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Reader Comments

Triskana from Madison, Wisconsin sez....
Journeyman rocks. I can't understand why they haven't promoted it, from the beginning, as much as they promoted other much less amazing shows? This interview with Kevin really helps me to understand from the inside. It's all about the numbers. Too bad...because this show is the best show I have ever watched. I am totally waiting for Monday night to come around every week. Now that it has been cancelled, lets not give up on pummeling NBC with our requests to breathe new life into it. Perhaps for a teaser, as they reconsider and bring this wonderful show back next year, the promo can have Dan jumping back to the NBC decision making room, making some pleas, then travelling into the future to see the show back on the air. A miracle? Why sure! Think about this, NBC and others who make the decision for us. Journeyman is in a league of its own. It is astounding. BTW, I signed the petition. (Google "Journeyman Petition" to find it.) I posted at #1111.
12/1/2007 2:03:43 PM

Clare from Cherry Hill sez....
Love the show, love the idea, love the music, love Kevin McKidd! It's fresh, original, sexy and is chock full of redeeming deeds!
12/1/2007 7:28:38 AM

Wendy from New York sez....
Thanks for the interview! Really nice to hear directly from the Creator about the show. I started watching because I loved Kevin McKidd on "Rome". Journeyman had a slow start, but around the Dylan McCleen episode it's really found its feet. I hope NBC gives the show the promotion and time to find its audience - maybe on Scif Fi or USA like they have for other shows?
11/29/2007 4:19:27 PM

Warner Todd Huston from Chicago sez....
Journeyman is my favorite new show. I really encourage people to watch and the networks to continue supporting it. It is thoughtful and intricate in plot and story. Thumbs up for this great show.
11/28/2007 1:14:29 AM

jackie from KS sez....
I love this show-it is a great concept-can't wait to see it every week-my daughter and I love it-I have told alot of people about it and they watch it now every week and can't get enough of it-Thanks! Keep up the fantastic work-I do know it will be hard to wait 2 whole weeks for the next episode-I am so hooked on it! Thanks again for such a wonderful exciting show!
11/27/2007 5:08:31 PM

Michael from Greensboro sez....
This has become my absolute favorite show of the new season. Sure, I think it riffs on "The Time Traveler's Wife" a little, but that's ok. It's creative, well actied, and what really grounds it is the "present" scenes and the family conflict. I would hate to see it go so soon.
11/27/2007 6:41:33 AM

Scott Goodwin from CT sez....
On the first episode I was intrigued. That's grown steadily since then and it's now my favorite new show of the year. The questions it raises are fascinating, the characters are rich and the stories compelling. While the "case of the week" elements are the weakest point, they still provide a large setting for a love quadrangle(?) and thought-provoking stories (think about the end of T2 when the scientist realizes that a time-traveling robot has come back from the future to try to prevent its own existence).
11/26/2007 8:57:50 PM

Cindy from Los Angeles sez....
Thank you so much for this article!! I love Journeyman and everything about this show. I wish Kevin Falls the best and to thank him for creating a show that has been such a riveting ride so far. I pray for more viewers to tune in!!! I dont feel the same about any show that's on the tv right now.
11/26/2007 10:09:17 AM

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