In
an interview at the NBC Summer Press Day, Jack Kenny the executive producer and
writer of the hit TV show Warehouse 13 talked about season 5 and much more.
“Question: How do you determine which stories you’ll explore with
the artifacts, and are there any particular stories that you’re saving for
later or avoiding?
JACK KENNY: No. My theory is that, if
it’s a good idea, we do it as soon as possible. I don’t save anything
because you never know what’s going to happen. You want to put everything
out there, as quickly as you have a good idea. There are some ideas that
might be over the top. We did do a Wizard
of Oz piece. Last season, Steve (Aaron Ashmore) walked by the red ruby
slippers in the dark vault. And being gay, I said to him, “Listen, there
is not a gay man in the world who could walk by the ruby slippers and not
notice them. It can’t be done.” We try to stay as accurate as
possible to history, and I feel like it’s a lot a fun. But, you should
also get some course credit for watching it because you learn a whole boatload
of stuff on our show, and you learn it through humor, action, excitement and fun. And
I think that’s a good plus side benefit of our show.
Question: At this point, is it better, in your estimation, to cater
towards your core audience or try to capture new viewers?
KENNY: Obviously, every network wants to
capture new viewers, but that’s up to the networks. It’s about promotion
and getting the name out there. The press controls so much of what we
watch these days. Every TV writer I know is saying, “Oh, my god, I don’t
have enough time to watch everything.” I know that Syfy is doing a lot
with the internet to reach new viewers. I don’t watch television
live. I binge watch. I watch on my DVR. So, we’re only
interested in telling good stories. I don’t reach for a
demographic. To me, if you tell a good story, people will watch. And
we tell it with humor, so even more people watch. Because I think anybody
watches something that’s funny, and our show is often very funny, thanks to our
incredibly talented cast who knows how to tell a joke, it helps reach out to a
lot of audience. I’ve never read a review from anybody that said, “I don’t
want to watch this anymore because it’s just too funny. I laughed too
much.” We just want to tell great stories that make good entertainment.
Question: What would you say to people who haven’t watched the show yet,
to get them to watch this season?
KENNY: This is your Syfy gateway drug.
I’m not a sci-fi guy. I love Star
Wars, Back to the Future and Raiders
of the Lost Ark. I’m into that stuff, but I’m not the guy that knows the Klingon
language. I found about this show through Eddie [McClintock]. I was
directing him in a sitcom and he said, “Oh, my pilot got picked up,” and he
told me about it. I read it and I thought, “I would watch this. This
is something cool. This is Indiana Jones meets Moonlighting, with real characters, real
lives and real emotions. It was my gateway drug into sci-fi. It
brought me into the whole world of sci-fi, Comic-Con and all this stuff, and
watching Firefly and Fringe, and shows that I wouldn’t have
normally. That’s why I call it a gateway drug.
Question: Is this
season going to be as heavily serialized as last season?
KENNY: That is a good question. We start
the arc in Episode 1, and it’s an arc that goes through the whole
season. It is not as heavy as last season because last season’s arc was
all Artie (Saul Rubinek). So, it’s hard for that not to land in a major
way, both on him and on everybody else. This season is an external
character arc, so it’s a little easier to just tap on it, once and a while,
like we do with HG. We tap on it, now and again. But, it is a solidly
followed arc, and it does land very squarely in everybody’s lap at the
end. We had Anthony Head come to join us, and our arc culminates in his
discovery, in Episodes 8, 9 and 10. It lands very heavily in the
characters’ laps. Myka (Joanne Kelly) goes through a very big
life-changing event in Episode 7, and she and Pete (Eddie McClintock) have to
deal with that. It’s very emotional. They keep it to
themselves. That also explodes into the finale, and it drives things a lot. We
are playing arcs, but we’re also doing the bag-and-tag of the week. We
like to keep that engine going because that’s where a lot of the fun lives.
Question: How do you approach writing for this cast, to keep the great
chemistry they have?
KENNY: We write them like family members. We
write them like brothers and sisters, and daughters and sons. Everybody
can relate to family. Everybody has a mother or father, or a brother or
sister that drives them crazy.
Question: How are you going to be splitting the season up?
KENNY: We have 10 episodes that are ready to
air now, and then we’re waiting for our Season 5 pick-up. The writers
have already started thinking of great new stories for Season 5. We’re
looking at hopefully another 13. A lot of it will depend on the viewership
numbers this season, how Defiance does, how do we do, how the other
shows do, and what they have in development. But, I’m hoping that we can
be around. This show could last forever because there’s an endless number
of artifacts and stories to tell.”
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