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When the fourth season was airing, one writer generated more buzz than any of the others working on the show.

That writer was Tim Minear, who later got some attention for some excellent writing and producing for the WB series "Angel."

Then-Krypton Club Vice President Matt Combes interviewed Tim for issue #162 of the newsletter.


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KRYPTON CLUB NEWSLETTER**ISSUE #162**APRIL 19, 1997
**THE NEWSLETTER OF THE LOIS & CLARK KRYPTON CLUB**
"IT LOOKS LIKE HE'S FOUND HIMSELF A MATE."
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DON'T FORGET....
Don't forget to watch the new episode "Shadow of a Doubt" TONIGHT at 8PM! It's got more Leslie Luckabee, more Troll, and Dr. Klein too! Plus... you'll hear the voice of a character long thought gone! Curious? Find out what happens tonight on ABC!

By the way, for those of you who have written in asking where the website is: We still haven't heard anything about the status of the webspace. If worse comes to worse, we may have to relocate, if we can find enough webspace to house the Krypton Club site.

We hope you enjoy this newsletter... inside we've got an interview with "L&C" writer Tim Minear, the final installment of the third "Assignment: Daily Planet," and more. Don't hesitate to write if you want to write anything for the newsletter, or have any ideas of things we could do! See you soon!

Craig & Matt
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KRYPTON CLUB INTERVIEW: TIM MINEAR
By Matt Combes

Well here's something we know you've been desperately wanting -- an interview with L&C's most praised and respected writer -- Tim Minear (and for the record, that's pronounced "mine-ear" as opposed to "men-ear." Thanks for correcting me, Tim.<g>). This interview took place the first week of April, so some parts will seem like old news, but there's a lot of stuff I bet you *didn't* know that you *won't* know unless you read this interview! So sit back, relax, grab a Pepsi and read this exclusive interview for the Krypton Club! By the way, Tim really *is* a darn nice guy -- at least over the phone! <g>

MATT: On what series did you get your start in writing.? What was your big break?

TIM: Probably...the new adventures of Zorro on the Family Channel.

MATT: When was that?

TIM: It was...oh...um...giving hard questions already, huh? It was about...eight years ago. I was probably 24 or 25.

MATT: Did you just write a spec script for that? What did you do?

TIM: At the time I was doing features. Low budget features, for very very very little money. Re-writing low-budget features and writing spec features, and somebody approached me about writing an outline for a feature version of Zorro. This was when Tim Burton's Batman first came out. This woman wanted to be a producer and her idea was to market a Zorro movie with the "Z" the way they were marketing the Batman movie with the bat.

So I wrote this outline, it was about 20 pages long, for a feature version. She knew the guy who owned the character, and she sent him the outline, and he ended up calling me the next day and saying he thought it was really good. He never did use my story. He actually ended selling the rights to Steven Spielberg, and I think the movie is shooting this year with Antonio Banderas. But he did mention a TV version of Zorro that was in production at the time, and asked me to send my outline and also any script samples I had to New World Television. I did that, and I got in there, then I had to pitch ideas. They went for an idea, and I wrote one and they really liked it and they just kept hiring me to write more.

MATT: Who are your favorite characters of all time in the TV medium?

TIM: My favorite characters are probably like Kirk and Spock, and I like Mulder and Scully.

MATT: What characters on Lois and Clark do you find are the most difficult to write?

TIM: Most difficult? Well, it all depends...I mean, the villains are difficult to write. Villains are always difficult to write. Actually, while Jimmy and Perry are not difficult to write, sometimes it's difficult to service all the different characters. So it's really easy to write Lois and Clark because generally they're the two characters who are driving the story, but sometimes it's difficult to remember to service the other supporting characters.

MATT: What can you tell us about your upcoming episode? (ep #20, "I've Got You Under My Skin")

TIM: Well, right on the heels of that last question, I made a choice in the next episode to not service any of the other characters, and it's *only* Lois and Clark. It actually takes place on their day off, which as far as I know has never been done on the show before. They're always at the Daily Planet in some form or another. In fact I can't think of one where they haven't been at the Daily Planet.

MATT: So this episode won't include the Daily Planet at *all*?

TIM: Right, it all takes place at their house and around Metropolis, in one twenty four hour period, and it's their day off, and *none* of the other characters are in it. It was a conscious choice on my part. I knew I was going to get a lot of flak for it.

MATT: How much negativity did you come up against when you brought it up to everyone else?

TIM: Well there wasn't that much negativity...you see everyone on the show gets paid whether they're in the show or not, so it's not like we're saving them any money by not using some characters. I figure the negativity's probably going to come more from the fan base, who are going to be upset that their favorite B-characters don't appear in the episode. Hopefully they won't notice it, because it's Lois and Clark's day off and it's a different approach. I wanted to show that their was life outside of their jobs. But don't expect it to be an hour of them lounging around the house...

MATT: What can you tell us about this upcoming three-episode arc; the "Lex Files"?

TIM: What I will tell you is that so far as I know, there are no To Be Continued's at the end of the episodes, so it's an arc in a way that Season 1 was an arc, where there was an overall story being told, but each episode was modular enough that it had its own story going on. There was always something left at the end of the episode that would propel you into next week. It's not like someone's left hanging on the edge of a building as we fade out.

MATT: Did you or do you currently read the Superman comic books?

TIM: I did...and I do.

MATT: Is it true that your original vision for Mxy on the show was different than what was on the screen, and if so, what were the differences?

TIM: Well it was different, absolutely. If you just read the script, it's just basically what's on the screen, although, as always, there's always stuff cut out for time, and that was certainly the case with that episode. I didn't envision him as what he appeared as...it was really a casting thing that changed the vision of him. I wrote him as "Mxy." I thought of the comic book character.

MATT: Were you writing him as an imp? Like a *short* imp as opposed to a *tall* imp?

TIM: Yeah, as a matter of fact, if you look at the scene where he appears, he appears next to a bunch of elves. The idea was always that he would be like this "psycho elf" that appears next to two other elves. So what they ended up doing was casting sort of normal guys in silly-looking elf costumes, and then Howie Mandel appears. In my original vision, though, there would be little people dressed as elves, and then Mxy would appear and the contrast would be that these are little human beings dressed as Santa's elves, but this character that just appeared is the real deal. A leprechaun, an imp, or a gnome, or whatever you want to call it.

But of course they ended up casting Howie. And then of course the costume they ended up putting him in bared no resemblance whatsoever to Mxy's costume in the comics. At first that sort of annoyed me, but it was interesting to me that the fans reacted so positively to it. They were glad he wasn't in a purple derby. So the way it kind of turned out with Howie, not even looking like you even think Howie Mandel looks, but slicker, with the tight Jerry Curls, goatee, earrings, and almost looking like a pirate. Kinda made him more like Q or something, which was interesting.

MATT: What do you think of guest heroes, like Batman or the Flash, appearing on Lois & Clark?

TIM: I think that would be great. I would love to do that. I would love to bring in Wonder Woman or something. Batman would be great, but obviously that'll never happen. Particularly I think a female superhero would be interesting. You always want to think in terms of Lois and Clark's relationship, and how whatever complication you introduce into their world is going to affect them as a couple. I'm not saying you bring in Wonder Woman and have Superman start dating her or something. But the possibility or that threat would be looming by virtue of the fact that here's a beautiful woman who has maybe more in common with Superman than Lois Lane ever could.

MATT: Have you had any ideas for the show that were "vetoed" because they were too strange, or too far from the status quo, etc.?

TIM: Not as such...actually my next episode which Eugenie Ross-Leming directed was about the first idea that I pitched, and for whatever reason, that got vetoed, and they went with the next thing that I pitched, which was Brutal Youth. By the time it was time for me to pitch my last story, I pitched this again and they went for it. I think that was because I had kind of proven myself along the way and they trusted me.

MATT: What did you do to prepare for writing your first Tempus episode?

TIM: I went back and watched the Tempus epsiodes. Actually, AKA Superman was supposed to be episode #14 instead of Meet John Doe. They wanted to cast Melissa Joan Hart. As you know, that never happened. So we got postponed, and we had just finished working on Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and they asked me to, instead of writing episode #16 to write ep #14 and to do it quickly because they had no script. John McNamara was actually going to write MJD.

All we knew about that episode was that Tempus was going to be the villain, and that initially we wanted him to kill Superman. It was going to be the Death of Superman. And after Superman died, H.G. Wells would bring in Alternate Superman, and somehow they would rescue our Superman from death. So we all had a meeting and WB kind of put the nix on the death idea and said "No, you're not going to kill off Superman," for other unsaid reasons. So we said fine, and just decided that we'd banish Superman to the nether-regions of eternity, and that's where the whole time window idea came in. We had a sit down, and what we came up with was the idea of Tempus running for President with the subliminator, and that's what I left the room with. I watched the other Tempus episodes, and it was a little confusing, but I realized that he must somehow be in prison in our dimension, because that's the last time we saw him. That's why I started it in the asylum, and just basically fashioned a story around all that so it could lead in to part two.

MATT: I had always wondered why Tempus was in our dimension at the end of Tempus, Anyone?.

TIM: He had been popping into our dimension to rob banks. The point was that he fled into this dimension because his plan in the other dimension didn't work. The thing about any Tempus episode is that the closer you examine it, the less it holds up. There's so many paradoxes with time travel that you're always going to start to find some problems. The thing that Brad Kern and I couldn't figure out was that Tempus knew who Superman was, and he gets arrested at the end. We were trying to figure out why he wouldn't just tell everyone that Clark Kent was Superman. That was the reason I put him in an asylum. If everyone thinks he's nuts, it wouldn't matter what he says.

MATT: Will we see Tempus or the Alternate Clark again, as far as you know?

TIM: Not this season.

MATT: What about next season?

TIM: We haven't really started talking about season five yet. I can personally tell you I would love to do a story in the Alternate Universe without Lois and Clark.

MATT: With just the Alternate ones?

TIM: Right. Just the story of Alternate Clark searching for Alternate Lois.

MATT: What are your thoughts on a Tempus spin-off? Kind of like an anti-Quantum Leap, with Tempus jumping around time to time. He's with Hitler, he's with Stalin, and then H.G. Wells follows him trying to stop him.

TIM: My personal thoughts? Well, I think it's difficult because he's a villain. That would make H.G. Wells the hero of the show. I think if you watch MJD and LAC together, which I think are two really good episodes, you find that a little Tempus goes a long way. I don't know if he wouldn't become just "too much" if it was a whole series.

MATT: Will we see Lex again? As in the John Shea Lex?

TIM: I think if you see Lex again, it will certainly be John. But once again, I can't predict the future. We tried like crazy to get him all year, and we always had things open for him. Soul Mates was the first episode he was supposed to be in this year, and he was all set right up until maybe less than a week before it started shooting. Brad Kern then had to do a really quick rewrite to make it available for Tempus, or we wouldn't have a show. And he was also supposed to be in my episode, episode #20. All throughout the season we tried to get him, but he was just too busy.

MATT: How long have you watched the show?

TIM: I saw the pilot when it first aired, actually. Shortly after that I moved to New Zealand for a year, and I don't think it aired there at the time, so I kind of missed it for the first year and a half. When I came back, I wasn't a real faithful follower of the show. I think the show that I tuned in for was in the second season when Mayson Drake got blown up. I think I watched that episode and had no idea *what* was going on. So I kind of stayed away from it at that point.

I'd be lying if I said I watched the show every week. I tried to watch it because I try to watch a lot of different things since that's the business I'm in. There was always talk from my agent that I should send a spec script to Lois & Clark because I would be really good for the show since I was writing a lot of romantic comedy, and it's kind of a skill that's a little scarce in a way. At least in hour TV. That's why we have trouble finding people to do our show, because it's such a strange mixture of romantic comedy, psuedo-science fiction, fantasy, action adventure, and comic book.

MATT: What have been your favorite episodes or story ideas to date?

TIM: Geez...I'll sound like a real pig if I say that they're all my episodes.<g> I thought that the Pilot was great, obviously. As far as ep ideas, I really like LAC. I thought it was pretty neat to bring Alternate Clark back. Tempus, Anyone? is a great idea. It's also a great episode. It's hard to figure out, and if you examine that episode, what he's (Tempus) doing makes no sense. I mean, he wants to be *mayor* of Metropolis? Why? There's no Superman there, so he goes through all that trouble to bring Lois Lane to an alternate dimension? It just doesn't make any sense, but who *cares*? I mean it's such a great idea to introduce Lois to this alternate reality where...well...she's *dead*.

I really liked the Christmas show idea as well. It's interesting because the whole "time loop" thing was put in at the last minute. Originally it was just Mxy comes to Earth and steals Christmas, sort of like the Grinch. And in essence, that's what he does by causing the time loop, but I just like the idea of repeating patterns, and Lois falling into a pattern, and her mother in a certain pattern, and Perry in a pattern, and Jimmy in his patterns. Even Mxy has a pattern. When he's talking to the bartender, he explains how he's been here before, but every time he shows up, he gets banished back to the fifth dimension, and that's his pattern. And this time, he's going to break his pattern. He's not going to get sent back. So everyone has a pattern, and by the time Lois breaks her pattern, they end up restoring hope to the world. I know it gets accused of being Groundhog Day, but the time loop thing is not original with Groundhog Day. The thing I like about what we did is that with every loop, hope diminishes, and I think that's what sells it for me.

MATT: What is your reaction to all the fans that have hailed you as the best thing to happen to Lois & Clark's writing?

TIM: What's my reaction to that? Well it's great! I take total pride in that. It's been a little stunning, really.

MATT: So do you think of yourself as this "saviour" to Lois & Clark's writing?<g>

TIM: Oh, yes, that's what I think of myself, the saviour of Lois & Clark.<g> Seriously, the way I respond to it is that I think it's great because you always want to be appreciated for what you do. I've never been on a show before that had such a big Internet following, and in this day and age, it's almost like instant feedback. Now that we have chat rooms and all, we can see people's reactions to the show immediately.

It's really interesting, and the fact of the matter is, the reason I do this show is for the audience. It's important to me, because at the end of the day, that's who I'm writing the show for. Even on episodes where my name doesn't appear as the writer, but I know that I had a hand in doing some rewriting, even though I know that I'm not going to be the one getting the credit for that episode, I feel a certain responsibility to the audience. And also, it's a team at Lois & Clark. Everyone had a hand in shaping the episodes which bear my name.

MATT: What exactly is your job as Executive Story Editor?

TIM: Well in television those titles are really more based on monetary value. You'll see "Co-Producer," or "Producer," or "Executive Story Editor," or "Supervising Producer," or "Co-Executive Producer," or "Executive Producer." Those are all different names for writers. The closer you get to Executive Producer you get, the more money you make. That's a little simplistic, because in fact the Executive Producer runs the show. Brad and Eugenie are not just writers on the show. They run the thing. They're the ones who have the vision for what direction the season's gonna go. They're involved in every aspect of the show, from casting to sets to costumes. They watch all the cuts and make notes for the editors and get the show down to a good running time.

So as Executive Story Editor, my job is that I'm one of the writers on staff. We meet and talk about the season. We meet on every script, every outline, every idea, and my job is to give notes, to help other writers break their stories, they break mine, and then also if a script comes in and it's not right, I might be asked to rewrite it. It's really story editing and trying to make things work from every different phase of the process.

MATT: What, in your opinion, is the number one thing that Lois & Clark could do to become a better television show?

TIM: That's a good question. My feeling is this -- I think some of the episodes this year have been as good as any episodes the show has produced. Individually. As individual episodes. I think the challange this year has been sustaining forward motion without the benefit of "the chase." For the first couple of years, you had Lois not knowing the secret, we were waiting for her to find out, we knew that Clark was in love with Lois, she was in love with Superman, and we were waiting for her to find out she was really in love with Clark. We were waiting for them to admit their attraction to each other, we were waiting for the first date, the first kiss, the proposal, the engagement, the wedding, etc. That's really what the show's always been about. Well, now they're married. What are we waiting for? I think the one thing we could do to make the show better is give it a new destination.

MATT: What is your opinion of the obvious lack of promotion for Lois & Clark?

TIM: Oh, it's frustrating. Everyone's frustrated about that. It wouldn't be so bad if they hadn't moved us. I don't think you take a series that's been on in the same timeslot of the same night for three and a half years and even move it to an hour before and you don't *tell* anybody. And then what they did is they moved the show and preempted it for a month. So if people couldn't find it when they moved it to 7, they certainly couldn't find it when it wasn't on! After that month went by, people thought it was cancelled, they didn't know where it was, they forgot about it, and my hope is they'll start promoting us on our move to Saturday night. There's a lot of reason for them to do that. We're gonna be the lead-in show for their Saturday night lineup, Gun and Leaving LA. Two new big shows. So conceivably that could really be a really big help for us.

MATT: Are there any other shows you'd love to write for some day?

TIM: There's lots of shows I'd love to write for. Well, actually, there's lots of people I'd love to write for. I would love to work for David Kelley, who's new show is The Practice. He's written every single episode that's aired so far. He's also married to Michelle Pfeiffer.

MATT: There's a job for you.

TIM: Yeah.<g> He created Picket Fences, I think he started on L.A. Law...I just really like the way he writes. He's kind of my style -- there's a sort of quirkiness to the way he writes. There's a lot of humor, and just kind of a specific point of view in his shows that I like. Chris Carter, I wouldn't mind working for him. He's certainly one of a handful of visionaries working in television. Certainly Steven Bochco or David Milch or people like that. Of course I'm picking all the big Emmy winners here.<g>

MATT: Well that's about all. Thanks for taking the time to sit down for an interview. =)

TIM: No problem.
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TERI TO APPEAR AT THE NICKELODEON KIDS' CHOICE AWARDS TONIGHT!
Teri Hatcher will be presenting at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, hosted by Rosie O'Donnell, TONIGHT at 8PM (EST) on (duh) Nickelodeon. Since there is a very good program airing tonight between 8PM and 9PM (some show called "Lois & Clark"), you may want to tape it so you can catch her.
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ASSIGNMENT: DAILY PLANET: ASSIGNMENT #3!
From the offices of the Chief (PerWhite)

Welcome to "Assignment: Daily Planet," the column of the Krypton Club Newsletter where "the Chief" hands out his assignments and the one that is best wins a prize. The most recent assignment asked was "what would you do if you were in charge of producing 'Lois & Clark?' Include any plot lines, new characters you would like to see, and guest stars." Over the course of 10 issues we have printed a response every week, and at the conclusion of the 10 responses we'd like YOU, the readers, to pick the one you like best. The winner receives a copy of the British "Infinity" magazine with "Lois & Clark" on the cover. For those of you who may have forgotten the other ten responses we have received, look for Krypton Club Special #25 with all of them reprinted sometime next week. The winner will be announced in Newsletter #164, so you have time to choose.

So here's the last response... remember, opinions in this column are the opinions of the writers and not the Krypton Club officers or the Krypton Club in general.

This week's response came from Curly3s....

We all know that L&C has been dropping in the ratings catagory for the past few weeks. If I were executive producer of L&C, I think the best way to address this problem would be a combination of a few great ideas.

First, I would go look at episodes from L&C past and see which ones got great ratings, which ones are favorites among FoLCs, which had amazing character growth/development, etc. By looking at these episodes and compairing them with the present episodes, maybe I could find out where L&C has changed for the worse. [ Just a personal opinion: I would *never* have had them get married, and probably would not have had Lois find out you-know-what just yet, but as I would also never have them get divorced and I don't feel like repeating Dallas history and making the last season-and- a-half a dream, I can't do much about that. I could also see what *didn't* work, in order to avoid repeating it.

Secondly, I would start thinking up new plot ideas, not just for the romance, but for the villians. Many FoLCs have been complaining lately that the villians are getting dumb, and that plot lines which didn't work the first time are being re-used. Also, I would tone down the villians and their motives. While destroying Metropolis can be a neat idea for a while, I would really like to see some villians with bigger objectives. Lex wanted Superman dead, not because that way he could rob a bank, but because they were (are?) enemies and because Lex wanted Lois. Tempus wanted Superman dead, not because that way he could get ransom money from Metropolis, but because he wanted to destroy Utopia, and wanted to do this by changing the past. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I won't stand for it anymore. *My* villians would have real motives, real ideas, and would get real results. That's the way villians should be. And more character development on the part of the villians would help with this. Lex was developed, as was Tempus. These were (IMO) the two best villians ever on L&C. We could stand to learn from them.

Third, I would move Third Rock to Tuesday nights before Fraiser (hey, it's my world, I can do what I want. Oh, Mr. Littlefield... <g>)

Fourth, I would get back that old romantic tension that used to flavor L&C so nicely. Have you noticed that since they got married, they have stopped saying "I love you", except on perhaps one or two occasions? It's as if Clark doesn't have to chase Lois anymore. In an article printed in TV Guide over the summer between the second and third seasons titled "Should Lois Marry Clark?" the writer (whose name escapes me) wrote, "It's the yearning that's so sublime... the being wanted and needed and absolutely died for." That is what made the tension amazing, and we need to get back to that. To the idea that Clark would do *anything* for Lois. And it doesn't have to be as drastic as leaving earth forever. Clark's robbing a bank In ATAI was just as effective when Lois found out. We don't always have to go to the extreme.

Fifth (I know, I know, but I'm almost done <g>), I would make L&C realistic again. For a while there I forgot that there was no man in tights flying around NYC. I would bring back organized crime. Maybe Intergang, maybe not. But something that might actually happen (sort of).

I hope that you didn't get the impression that I don't like L&C the way it is. I love the show more than almost anything else, and I would only do these things to make it better. As an executive producer (which I hope to be one day) of L&C, I would bring back the L&C we all know and love. And I would give it more promotion.
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THIS WEEK'S TRIVIA!
Here is "L&C" trivia question for this week...

Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner created what popular 1980's TV series?

The answer to #161's trivia: Tim Minear wrote for "Zorro" for the Family Channel.
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NEXT ISSUE....
Reviews of "Shadow Of A Doubt!"

Craig "Blondes" Byrne
President of the L&C Krypton Club

Matt "Brunettes" Combes
Vice-President of the L&C Krypton Club
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The Krypton Club Newsletter is copyright (c) 1997 The L&C Krypton Club. All rights reserved. Any material within is property of the Krypton Club and/or respective individuals unless otherwise noted as coming from elsewhere. Any opinions within belong solely to the individuals who express them. Copying or any unauthorized publication of material from the Krypton Club newsletters without permission is illegal. This week's quote came from "Faster Than A Speeding Vixen." You know, since ABC isn't promoting "Lois & Clark" at all, why not try and see what shows the other networks have on the air? For example, there's a great movie airing this Friday at 8 on CBS... why not check it out? [I'd better quit while I'm ahead, or Matt will get on my case for plugging the Dukes of Hazzard again -- Craig]
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