The Official Blog for ABC's The Forgotten
Creator Mark Friedman welcomes you to "Footprints" the blog for ABC's the forgotten Creator Mark Friedman welcomes you to "Footprints" the blog for ABC's the forgotten
November 13th, 2009
Hey there this is Mark Friedman the Executive Producer and Creator of the forgotten. And this is the first entry in our "Footprints" blog for the show... which is great for me because I don't have enough writing to do. Just kidding.
Thanks to everyone for watching! This is the first TV show I have ever worked on and it's been pretty crazy. This all started for me back in May of 2008 when I was approached by Bruckheimer television (or JBTV as we call them) to develop a show about John and Jane Does. I was a happily employed and infrequently produced feature writer at the time. I lived happily in Northern California, traveled a lot, and drank a lot of wine. But I jumped at the opportunity and we've been working on this together ever since. (And I still drink a lot of wine.)
There's a lot to write about (since this is the first entry) but I'll cut to the breaking news first: we just got our "back five" from ABC -- five additional episodes. We're all excited and relieved. The hardest part is waiting to find out, not just for me and the writers but for all the actors and crew. I'm thrilled for them because I want them to go through Christmas knowing they have jobs to come back to. This will keep us in production and give a lot more people a chance to fall in love with the show. So this is very cool. Everyone has been coming up to me and saying "congratulations" but I say it right back to them -- it's their hard work that makes all of us look good.
We are all proud of the show but it's also about the "R" word -- ratings. Every morning at around 8:10AM I get an email with the overnight ratings. Most days I just read them quickly... but Wednesday mornings are very stressful! I usually wake up at 5 or 6 and then I can't get back to sleep. I sit and stare at the computer waiting for the email. Our ratings have been pretty consistent, but you're always nervous. And hopeful. For our show, after the first couple of episodes, they've always been pretty much the same. It's frustrating because it feels so out of your control. All we can do is make the best episodes and tell the best stories possible.
Right now we are looking to the future. With these five new episodes we really want to push the boundaries of the show, not only in the Doe stories but in what we learn about the lives of our characters. Today we spent a lot of time in the writers' room just talking about our team. Especially Alex. I feel like so much of Alex's story so far has been about his daughter. Obviously that is important and tells us a lot about who he is... but I want to dig deeper. What about his social life? We need to get into that. Also today I was thinking about his police pension. Maybe that needs to be threatened and he has to moonlight or get a "real" job. I think we really need to push our characters into interesting places and then go along for the ride. What do you think?
I'm happy to answer any questions you have in future postings, so don't hesitate to ask! And you can look forward to weekly postings here from other writers, some of our cast, and maybe some other folks behind the scenes. Let us know who you want to hear from -- I know, I know, you want to hear from Christian. Everyone loves Christian. It gets very annoying...
And now I'll hand it over to the "other" Mark... our writers assistant Mark Bruner. He'll take you the rest of the way and I'll speak to you again soon.
You can reply here: abc.go.com/shows/the-forgotten/footprint
November 13th, 2009
Hey there this is Mark Friedman the Executive Producer and Creator of the forgotten. And this is the first entry in our "Footprints" blog for the show... which is great for me because I don't have enough writing to do. Just kidding.
Thanks to everyone for watching! This is the first TV show I have ever worked on and it's been pretty crazy. This all started for me back in May of 2008 when I was approached by Bruckheimer television (or JBTV as we call them) to develop a show about John and Jane Does. I was a happily employed and infrequently produced feature writer at the time. I lived happily in Northern California, traveled a lot, and drank a lot of wine. But I jumped at the opportunity and we've been working on this together ever since. (And I still drink a lot of wine.)
There's a lot to write about (since this is the first entry) but I'll cut to the breaking news first: we just got our "back five" from ABC -- five additional episodes. We're all excited and relieved. The hardest part is waiting to find out, not just for me and the writers but for all the actors and crew. I'm thrilled for them because I want them to go through Christmas knowing they have jobs to come back to. This will keep us in production and give a lot more people a chance to fall in love with the show. So this is very cool. Everyone has been coming up to me and saying "congratulations" but I say it right back to them -- it's their hard work that makes all of us look good.
We are all proud of the show but it's also about the "R" word -- ratings. Every morning at around 8:10AM I get an email with the overnight ratings. Most days I just read them quickly... but Wednesday mornings are very stressful! I usually wake up at 5 or 6 and then I can't get back to sleep. I sit and stare at the computer waiting for the email. Our ratings have been pretty consistent, but you're always nervous. And hopeful. For our show, after the first couple of episodes, they've always been pretty much the same. It's frustrating because it feels so out of your control. All we can do is make the best episodes and tell the best stories possible.
Right now we are looking to the future. With these five new episodes we really want to push the boundaries of the show, not only in the Doe stories but in what we learn about the lives of our characters. Today we spent a lot of time in the writers' room just talking about our team. Especially Alex. I feel like so much of Alex's story so far has been about his daughter. Obviously that is important and tells us a lot about who he is... but I want to dig deeper. What about his social life? We need to get into that. Also today I was thinking about his police pension. Maybe that needs to be threatened and he has to moonlight or get a "real" job. I think we really need to push our characters into interesting places and then go along for the ride. What do you think?
I'm happy to answer any questions you have in future postings, so don't hesitate to ask! And you can look forward to weekly postings here from other writers, some of our cast, and maybe some other folks behind the scenes. Let us know who you want to hear from -- I know, I know, you want to hear from Christian. Everyone loves Christian. It gets very annoying...
And now I'll hand it over to the "other" Mark... our writers assistant Mark Bruner. He'll take you the rest of the way and I'll speak to you again soon.
You can reply here: abc.go.com/shows/the-forgotten/footprint