Exclusive Interview: Alan Ball dishes about True Blood and his hopes for Sookie

With the True Blood premiere quickly approaching it's time for some more Alan Ball. Below are exclusive interview extas from my recent interview with the show's creator about True Blood's upcoming third season, the challenges he faces, and what his long term hopes for Sookie are.

If you're looking for some serious spoilers, check out my article in Sci Fi Wire, "9 sizzling True Blood spoilers from creator Alan Ball." However, until you read that, perhaps this less spoilery and more behind the scenes interview will whet your True Blood thirst.

KATHIE: What's been your biggest challenge this season?

ALAN: I think the biggest challenge is keeping each episode exciting and still remaining true and organic to the characters' emotions, 'cause that’s where everything’s got to come from. We’re not a movie. We don’t have a week to shoot one special effect or one stunt, and I think that’s what keeps people coming back is even with all the craziness on the show I think you actually end up caring about these characters and being invested in them. I think it’s walking that line between keeping things exciting and keeping things grounded. Because these episodes are like little movies and so getting everything that we have to get in terms of footage, special effects, prosthetic effects, visuals effects... getting it all done in the amount of time we have allotted for each episode, that is definitely the biggest challenge.

Exclusive Interview: Chris Fedak Versus Chuck's Season 3

I got a chance to talk to executive producer and co-creator Chris Fedak about Chuck's big season finale before it aired. Here's some interview extras with Chris chatting about his and his co-creator Josh Schwartz's initial take on the series, the Chuck and Sarah of it all, and what Fedak's secret plan is when it comes to creating an awesome fourth season.

If you'd like more about Monday's finale, you can check out my interview with Chris which ran in Sci Fi Wire, "10 reasons you MUST watch tonight's Chuck season finale". I got nearly 400 digs on the article, so I'm happy.

In that article, Chris gave us an early spoiler regarding next season, which he would only say, "I'll say this, season four is about family." And since we a glimpse of Chuck's mother's back, I'm guessing that he might be talking about Mama Bartowski.

Here's our conversation after Chris admitted that someone we knew and liked was going to die (which turned out to be Chuck's dad, played by Scott Bakula):

Kathie: Oh, you’re evil.

Chris: Thank you very much. You know, it’s funny. It’s not an interview these days unless someone is actually telling me that I’m evil.

Lost finale will be simulcast round the world

For the first time ever, at least as far as I can remember, an American television show will be simulcast around the world. The 2-1/2 hour Lost finale, "The End," will be shown at the same time in the U.K., Canada, Portugal, Israel, Italy, Spain, and Turkey.

Check out my article in Sci Fi Wire, "ABC's plan to avoid Lost spoilers: Show finale EVERYWHERE". I've got some sneak peeks of the finale there as well.

Chris Fedak Versus the Big Chuck Finale

Just got off the phone with Chris Fedak, one of the creators of NBC's Chuck. He gave me some great stuff, which will be posted on Sci Fi Wire on Monday. Chuck's two-episode season finale airs on Monday at 8 p.m. ET and he promises we haven't seen anything like it.

The previews make it look like the Buy More is going to be blown up, but he wouldn't confirm. More to look forward to on this once I get the interview transcribed and write up the Wire article. Interview extras of interest will be published here.

Jouralistic Rumblings - Leonard Nimoy, new show video clips, Futurama, and sex

It's been one of those weeks. I have five articles up alone today on Sci Fi Wire, and 14 this week with all the network fall presentation news and end of the season stuff. Add to that setting up interviews and such for Sci Fi Magazine... Let's just say my husband's requesting I cut my hours down to 12 a day. I've got one more article to write tonight and then I'm taking tomorrow off! Here's a couple of bits of interest regarding my Sci Fi Wire articles...

Leonard Nimoy retires - In my interview with Leonard Nimoy from a conference call, he talks about his retirement from the business, and at 79-years-old I think he means it this time. He goes into his work on tonight's Fringe finale and why his role as Walter Bishop will be his last.

CW spoils new seasons of Vampire Diaries, Smallville, and Supernatural

The CW announced their schedule for next fall, adding Nikita to Thursdays and bumping Supernatural to Fridays. But the big news is the spoilers. In a surprising move, they announced the direction that The Vampire Diaries, Smallville, and Supernatural are going to go next fall.

To find out more about Nikita and the CW's new schedule click here to read my article on Sci Fi Wire.

Here's the goodies, with quotes from the CW press release, about the new seasons of my three favorite CW shows:

Journalistic Rumblings - Summer shows, pickups, renewals, cancellations...

It's been one busy week with the network news flying fast and furious, including big pick ups and shocking cancellations...

Upcoming Newish Summer Shows:
NBC: Persons Unknown
ABC: The Gates
Syfy: Haven
Comedy Central: Futurama