   | July 2007 |  | Jaime Paglia is the co-creator and executive producer of Sci-Fi's top-rated show for 2006, premiering its second season tonight! He graciously agreed to a phone interview during the busiest time of the season, and we truly appreciate this.
Jaime Paglia began his career at MGM Pictures in feature film publicity. He became director of development for a studio-based producer before shifting to screenwriting and producing full-time. He sold his first spec script, Bombshell, (written with David Draffin) to Team Todd (Austin Powers I, II, III, Memento) at New Line Cinema. Working with current writing/producing partner Andrew Cosby, he sold the feature film pitch Kringle to Oscar-winning screenwriter/producer Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, Memoirs of a Geisha, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) of Weed Road Productions and producer Mark Canton (Lethal Weapon, Batman) of The Canton Company. Paglia and Cosby went on to co-create Eureka for SCI FI Channel and NBC Universal Television Studio. Paglia is also developing several feature film and television projects, including an interactive/animated children's program with his original writing partner (and wife) Kristen Greer-Paglia.
VisitEureka.net's Co-Editor, Robin Nason talked with Jaime over the course of two days and shares this interview in three segments.
VisitEureka.net - Thank you again for taking your time to speak with us! Is there anything you would like to say to the people who read the site; about the premiere episode, about the season?
Jaime Paglia - It's fantastic - they must watch every minute! (laughs) We felt very fortunate that people embraced the show last season and overall, everybody that is a part of Eureka, from the writing staff, to our production staff, to the network and studio, managed to find a unique tone; there's something for just about everybody. We wanted to build upon that this season and to explore our characters in greater depth and find more personal story lines as well as the greater threads we touch upon every once in a while. So I think we have managed to take Season Two and raise the bar from Season One.
VE.net - Would you say that your excitement level is rising, or should I say your stress level is rising right about this time?
Jaime - I think it's mostly excitement; there's obviously just the stress of getting the shows finished; making sure everyone is happy with them. We just did the mix on the season premiere yesterday (June 20) and I was finally able to see it with almost all of the final visual effects and the final scoring by our new composer, Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica) who's done a fantastic job. It looks great; I think it's really a strong opening to Season Two. We're going to be answering a lot of the questions that were posed last season but not necessarily explored in as great a depth as I would have liked; we are going to be finding out more about the Artifact, what it is and where it comes from and why the Consortium and Beverly are interested in it. A lot of the mythology from the show is going to be addressed this season.
VE.net - Good. I know that one of those questions that have been asked is the scene in the pilot where Jack and Zoe pass themselves on their way into Eureka. Are we going to get an answer to that?
Jaime - It is interesting to see how things change as you are editing. The idea of that was there was a bookend to the scene that was actually in the original cut of the pilot where, as they were leaving town at the end, they passed each other again (but from the opposite side). So we had that closed-ended moment of them passing each other. That didn't end up making it into the final cut because we were concerned that maybe it begged more questions than it answered. It ended up being just a space-time anomaly happening because of the tachyon accelerator that Walter Perkins had created. That was them seeing themselves leaving town. We won't be following through on that particular thing any more than we have.
VE.net - You said that more personal development of the characters is going into the second season; do you feel that there is still a good balance between the character development and the scientific aspects of the show?
Jaime - Definitely. We wanted to maintain the tone of our show, certainly. This is ultimately an episodic series. Anybody, whether they are a past viewer or a new viewer, can come into this show at any point in the season and enjoy it. (It's going to have) the characters, it's going to have the story line; it's going to have a beginning, a middle and an end that will wrap up within that episode. But we also wanted to allow for greater character growth and some of the mythology growth over the course of the series. Last season, we were presented with what I consider to be one of the biggest challenges and problems; the network wanted to shuffle the air order of our episodes. I understood why they wanted to do that because there was the perception that certain episodes might be more viewer friendly in the first six since you are trying to find an audience as a new series. But when you craft a season based on a particular order, and characters growing over the course of that season, then you start to pull things forward, you have to cut things away. We ended up having a lot less Beverly Barlowe in the season than I wanted. There were certain things with the Artifact and certain relationships; those story lines ended up having to be lifted out because they didn't make sense out of order. This season we have made a much more concerted effort to, in some ways, make it impossible to shift things around without having to really hack things out of it that we don't want to lose. I would love for our episodes to air in the order intended, and I think we have successfully managed to justify that so far.
VE.net - That is good. Blink definitely looked like it was Zoe's first day at school.
Jaime - And that was what it was supposed to be. Blink was originally conceived to be Episode Three. It is the week after she has arrived in town, and for people who are interested, we are releasing the DVD boxed set for the first season July 3rd. Andy and I made an effort to go back and ask for deleted scenes and footage, from that episode in particular, and many episodes, so that you saw what the original intention was. This was Zoe's first day at school; and it was Carter being introduced to the town on the PDA broadcast in the Café that morning. Getting dropped off to school was a much different scene because she was embarrassed that her first day at school, she was being dropped off by her police officer dad. I think that this episode definitely was hurt by having to shuffle the order.
VE.net - I think it worked out because of course the fan base understood that you had to shuffle. The podcasts really helped.
Jaime - (laughs) Great. We definitely vented a little bit during our podcasts.
VE.net - The podcasts were wonderful. You saved yourself probably millions of questions by having them and you were able to keep things together very well considering that it was rather out of place. It still worked and is still one of my favorite episodes.
Jaime - It's funny because that has been the case I think frequently; the episodes that either in the concept phase, or the first draft of the script phase, or the first cut phase that some people at production, network or studio had concerns about ultimately after you get done with it turned out to be some of the fan favorites. But you can't judge these things until you have the chance to really take them out, polish them, and that process goes on until a couple of days before it airs.
VE.net - Really? That close?
Jaime - It can be when you're getting toward the end. We're in post production, obviously. For the producers, we have three different jobs, any one of which would be a full-time job. Our other executive producer, Charlie Craig, and co-executive producer, Thania St. John; we all have to divide and conquer, and you end up with someone focused mostly on the writing and someone focused mostly on post-production and someone who gets to divide time being in the writers room. Any of these is a full-time job in and of itself and you try to remain involved with all aspects of it. That doesn't include being on set. Luckily, we have Grant Rosenberg as our on-set supervising producer this season, so that's been largely covered. So when you are getting down to the crunch period; you start to air these things and you only have a few days to make sure you get the final visual effects in and the music done and color timed and scored and all of that; it can come down to a few days before you air as you are making the final tweaks.
VE.net - So that is where the excitement comes in.
Jaime - It gets a little exciting. And that is one of the reasons I so enjoy doing the podcasts and I know Colin does too; it gives us a chance to really explore the process and explain to people what goes into making the show and some of those questions (as you pointed out) get answered along the way.
VE.net - And it definitely lets us be a part of it, which we appreciate.
Jaime - If there was ever a thing that I considered to be a team effort, it was the creation and the ongoing making of this show. Everybody brings their field of expertise and passion to it, and all of it enhances what we ultimately get to watch. Ideally, if we can include the audience in that, it's a good thing.
VE.net - I have heard so many people come up with varied and great ideas for the show.
Jaime - Unfortunately, we are not allowed to take those great ideas. I would be happy to take them, but the studio has some pretty strict rules about that.
Part Two of this interview will appear next Tuesday, July 17 - right here, exclusively, at VisitEureka.net! | |
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 | 301 - Bad to the Drone
Written by Robin Nason
You know, I understand why they have to show scenes from previous episodes. What with the way each episode builds on another, it only makes sense. But I have to confess that being a vigilant Eureka fan, I wish they could can those. Now to the premiere episode!
Jack is openly having angst about his little girl growing up. Waitressing at Café Diem is a big step in his opinion, and he doesn't hesitate to hash this out with Zoe. He contends that the Café isn't safe. The ... READ MORE |
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 | 109 - Primal
Written by Robin Nason
Jack and Jo are walking through Global Dynamics with an injured LoJack. Jo is carrying the dog and they assure the dog that he is going to be fixed up. Apparently his tendency to run in front of cars has finally caused him to get hurt.
Dr. Stark is in his office with Fargo. Fargo has created the "Mental Mouse," a device that transmits thoughts directly to the computer. Its only evidence is a small glowing button behind Stark's ear. Stark comments that it looks like a melanoma. S... READ MORE |
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 | 309 - Welcome Back Carter
Written by Ian Mullen
TEASER
FADE IN
EXT-LOS ANGELES, CAL., USA
[We see an aerial shot of the Los Angeles office of the Department of Homeland Security]
DHS MAN: This is a very impressive resume, Mr Carter.
INT-DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
[Carter is in a job interview]
DHS MAN C'TND: You've had a long career in law enforcement.
CA... READ MORE |
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