Interview with TV Writer & Creator Joseph Mallozzi

[00:00:06] It's a Jacked Up Review Show Welcome to the show all and as usual we're in the mood for some comedy so we're going to talk to someone who understands it top to bottom Joseph Mallozzi, us known as the creator of both the

[00:00:58] comic and the TV show version of Dark Matter has been with the Stargate SG-1 family since season four of that show but more importantly he's worn so many hats and spoken so many dialects as being one

[00:01:12] of the many just right creative writers on numerous shows but welcome thank you thanks uh yeah and i you have been a big part of my childhood more than i even realized yeah you've written for so many just canadian produced tv shows that were just syndicated

[00:01:32] just everything from flying rhino to Richard scary oh yeah yeah those are the you know i got my started in animation and uh i kind of just lucked into it because i actually wanted to

[00:01:44] obviously you know i wanted to write movies and i uh ended up reaching out to like 100 production companies and like i think maybe a hand filled got back and said no thanks but one of them

[00:01:57] got back to me they were an animation company they were like well we're not really looking for anyone you know to read scripts or to pitch movies but if you want to write for animation

[00:02:05] this is how you do it and that's how i did it i got my foot in the door in animation and you know work my way up and and uh you know uh eventually transition from animation to live action teen

[00:02:17] sitcom a show called student bodies and then from there to like one hour live action adventure and then eventually stargate and whatever new writers are trying to break into the field i always

[00:02:28] suggest one way that they might you know that may not be so obvious is to maybe try to get in the door through animation because animation producers tend to be more receptive to new writers

[00:02:39] and it allows you to hone your craft while you get paid so you know that's a typical bit of advice then and not not the first i've seen so many do it from you know being the guy who buys people

[00:02:55] coffee to providing like being a makeup assistant writer assistant even a a lot of stuntmen for longest time said that's how they got their sad card they were day player and then eventually some

[00:03:11] director's assistant rounded them up and said hey can you handle being punched in the face hey actually a really charismatic guy let's give you some dialogue and then went from there but yeah it's very rare that you kind of just explode you'll usually have to like start small

[00:03:25] and work your way up absolutely and animation it seems like that one is really getting me more competitive which is kind of a shame because you wonder how many other minds that haven't

[00:03:38] had their idea come to fruition yet on just saying hey i got a perfect idea for a learning kids show or i got what could potentially be the next Shracker Toy Story formula you know

[00:03:54] and have you ever tried showing some of your friends and family some of your uh kid-friendly programs um i they're familiar with my like all of my work um but of course they

[00:04:09] had their preferences they kind of leaned towards more to the adult fair like uh dark matter well it's not bad but it's just it's the same that some of them i don't even know where you

[00:04:21] could find them now because they don't seem to be streaming anywhere and the dvds are kind of out of print yeah yeah kind of sad kind of sad yeah i hope someone can uh possibly remaster them and

[00:04:39] upload them on like a pbs app one day maybe we can do like a you know a uh the joseph melancy collection just kind of there you go you know memory lanes i think i i'm uh produce almost 400

[00:04:55] hours of television it would be a a daunting uh task not just put it together but i'll be on your tombstone joey m's greatest hits maybe that could be your have you ever thought of doing dj work

[00:05:08] you joey m dj joey you surprisingly no surprisingly no uh good news the the country mouse and the city mouse adventures that's right that old french produced uh hbo animation is now on tuby so

[00:05:22] oh well there you go there's one you can show i don't think yeah i you know i i always gotta really ever watch i really ever watch any of my shows once they're finished just because i watch

[00:05:33] so much during the production process so that would be a a blast for me to intentionally watch watch these old old uh shows too close to it yes that's it which is not bad i mean we all do

[00:05:46] it i mean uh for a while i had to even explain that two family members where they're like oh uh i don't get this movie talk okay apple cart does this yada yada you know right uh and and then telling

[00:05:59] him about hey why why did an actor not want to see it i'm like because they're seeing themselves and what if they're playing a bad guy or some other the role's uncomfortable you know yeah everyone has

[00:06:09] a reason for me it's just when you're in production for instance on on stargate we would you know i would write the script and then i would try to be on set for this show and then

[00:06:19] we would watch the the uh the edit usually we'd watch the director's cut then i go in and watch the episode at least like a dozen times in editing and then we would watch it again with the mix

[00:06:34] and so by that point you've seen it at least i want to say at least 30 times so you know just to see it one you know one more time finished is just you know kind of a bridge too

[00:06:46] far you already kind of know what isn't working at that point so you're not even worried about yeah hopefully most of it is working though by that point oh no totally but like you're not even thinking

[00:06:58] yeah you kind of can't at that point even care if someone will find it entertaining you're like well this is my brand you know they did their part the director's happy i i got to be happy with

[00:07:09] that line of dialogue he's like eh that joke it's coming off flat even though it sounded great on paper yeah it happens um uh and you know we've just all seen the making of the show of the Stargate

[00:07:24] shows and it's just so lovely to see how what a collective and creative family it is and let alone how half the cast has gone on to do some directing and producing of other projects um did you ever

[00:07:37] want to consider a little more directing or not really directing is something that uh i don't know i i have much respect for directors but um you know i really like as a writer i always appreciate

[00:07:57] producers who let me do my thing and as a you know writer producer i'm always respectful directors let them do their thing i mean it's it's another hat i i suppose i could wear but

[00:08:10] i'm really more interested in writing and producing than than kind of being on set yeah okay awesome yeah and uh well i'm not sure if you've been asked this before i couldn't find anything but

[00:08:25] what element little uh you know you've done so many different genres low-owned ones that are kind of a mash-up of different ones but what elements do you really love to write the most you know is it exposition is it comedic elements versus suspense definitely not exposition exposition

[00:08:43] is always a challenge in some way that you can sort of relay it in the most succinct and entertaining way and an obtrusive way possible uh for me it's anything with like an undercurrent of humor

[00:08:56] um so that's always my favorite any type of uh narrative element that you can surprise the audience that is always a lot of fun where you you know you set up a story that you think is going to go

[00:09:12] one way and then you kind of pull the rug out from underneath them that is always very satisfying yes yes i did a lot of that on dark matter both the humor and the uh and the surprises

[00:09:23] so that was uh that was a lot of fun i'm sure you've been asked a million times did you try pitching it to some other networks um i didn't really do any of the pitching i actually

[00:09:35] what i did was a i pitched dark horse comics about doing it as a um a comic book and they loved the idea and then my agent sent it to several production companies and one of the

[00:09:51] production companies uh uh Prodigy Pictures um President J Firestone they ended up optioning the uh the the material and he went out and pitched it and i'm not sure where he pitched it to but

[00:10:08] you know he went to actually he went to sci-fi originals in LA and they passed and then he went to sci-fi in New York and they picked it up as an acquisition

[00:10:19] and so i i i since there was a very sort of acrimonious uh working relationship with sci-fi because they originally passed but their east coast wing picked it up as an acquisition and so

[00:10:33] um we were never we weren't a sci-fi original we were an acquisition meaning that they didn't really develop our show they didn't put a lot of money into it they just paid a

[00:10:41] pit in two eras to license the uh you know the show for their network and so um i think they always kind of resented the fact that we went behind their back no well that but also we ended up

[00:10:55] outperforming all their originals um those sci-fi originals so that uh that created situation yeah that's rough man because it's not a contest you know it's true but in in their eyes it very much

[00:11:15] was actually so unfortunately that's a shame uh it's it's got a huge fan base it's just we're never gonna get that closure that happens the last free episode season three yeah i don't know who knows i haven't given up hope on a mini series and um

[00:11:32] you know i'm always i'm in touch with the cast all the time i saw zoe palmer who plays the android last week we went for lunch and uh it was fantastic yeah next week i'll be in la and

[00:11:42] i'll we'll be going to dinner with melissa who played too um they were doing that with so many canadian produced shows for a while like there was this one that was kind of like the fifth

[00:11:51] element called vagrant queen it was on for barely a season and it seemed like sci-fi just wanted something to just kind of kill time you know take up space but not commit and it's like well

[00:12:04] like you say if people get hooked on something don't yeah i don't i i've always kind of felt that you know there's a kind of unwritten rule or agreement between uh broadcasters and audiences

[00:12:16] where essentially you're asking audiences to commit their time to watching a show that you are airing so i think the least you can do is give them an ending like something even the way like a one hour

[00:12:30] final episode or a movie ideally a movie instead of trying at the syndication order yeah instead of just boom ending it and that's that it never really makes much sense it just kind of shows

[00:12:45] i mean you would see sometimes hbo admins kind of talking smack about their successful shows and it's like well own it guys why you've been distributed if you don't like it but um so have you ever thought of uh uh

[00:13:08] teaching a few like writing courses for those who are trying to get into it or is it very hard to format no i teaching is something i

[00:13:21] not be on my uh on my radar or my uh bucket list but essentially what i do is i'm very active on twitter where i uh where i dispense uh you know my screenwriting wisdom or insights into

[00:13:38] sort of you know pitching and various aspects of uh of the industry and you know i do it for free if you know i'll do the occasional podcast as well um and uh you know do q and a's

[00:13:54] but actually doing kind of a structured teaching um you know a structured teaching environment is just not something i uh i uh you know that really appeals to me i i just kind of like the kind of

[00:14:08] more kind of free flow of being at home writing if i get a show into production great that's you know when i when you know i'm on set and and get into the structure of production but

[00:14:20] i'm not really interested in uh in entering a classroom all right no that's cool to know i just it's a lot to ask as well so well i know a lot of people do do it and a lot of people do

[00:14:35] enjoy it very much and a lot of people are very good in it i just don't yeah it's uh it's uh like i said not on my to-do list okay no that's fine i it's interesting to me

[00:14:50] just from a third-party perspective because you know i'm taking screenwriting classes and it's just it seems like everyone pretty much gives you rules but doesn't always tell you how you can break said rules and it's like right and horror action and sci-fi don't really no one

[00:15:11] really seems to have an answer for why those work either you know they just sort of kind of like well let's just hire people who worked on various iterations of twilight zone outer limits

[00:15:19] and star track and like well but why do they work so well you should examine why they work correct um and uh how yeah you've been at numerous conventions and behind the scenes docs

[00:15:37] how were emotionally rewarding has those been to just kind of just spill some secrets as well as just kind of all this energy in the room that's coming off of fans who are just like

[00:15:49] ah but that was awe-inspiring mystery and that was such a funny skit you guys wrote i mean i've been doing it since since i started on stargate i've been very active online

[00:16:02] mostly through my blog but also on twitter to a lesser extent on reddit and an even much more lesser extent on instagram and facebook um but always be very approachable so if the fans

[00:16:16] ever have any questions they're you know they they can always be free to uh approach and interact so it's it's not something really new to me i've been doing it for now for i'm gonna say like you know

[00:16:28] 16 years probably been longer no i guess yes been longer than 16 years i don't uh when i start on stargate i guess uh season like or in 2000 so yeah so 20 so yeah like 23 years

[00:16:46] man time flies and it does um i know michael shanks said in some interview he was amazed at how so many people had shown their kids it you know they were young adults or teens when it was on

[00:17:00] and you know it hadn't really been syndicated in a while and it was a while before it hit streaming again and he's like uh it's amazing they own all the dvd and blue races yeah yeah i'm always amazed by

[00:17:14] um you know the strength of the fan base you know even though the shows we've been off the air for what like french has been off the air for over a decade um yeah uh especially in europe

[00:17:28] europe has the most eye-hard stargate fans i mean our former cast members can't walk down the street without being recognized it's wild oh and uh tilt actor christ judge he became part of the

[00:17:40] big with gamers on the god of war oh yeah yeah yeah i did you see how he won an award i saw i saw i didn't see this feature i heard it was a pretty long speech i he he dedicated it to his son who

[00:17:53] was a gamer amazing and i'm just like whoa you know i wouldn't ever guess you know this is like i thought he was gonna for a while kind of just show up do conventions and do the typical kind of good

[00:18:09] guy bad guy guest spots on tv and then here he is and he's like he did this for like three different reasons and i'm like that that you can't make that up that's great yeah it's amazing how basically

[00:18:23] everyone's career has taken different paths and you know they're no less success with paths after uh after stargate well why do you feel like society has also kind of become more

[00:18:39] comfortable i mean you're a pet guy but why do you think we're now pets kind of bring us all together in a way especially on social media compared to just sharing photos of food we're cooking

[00:18:52] um pets uh i don't know they uh it's something that most everyone kind of responds to so with uh you know it's it allows you sort of a uh another glimpse at at at kind of these people

[00:19:08] you know i'm always kind of interested like you know i've always been a pug and a french bulldog guy so i'm always interested in the celebrities who have pugs and french bulldogs

[00:19:18] right and you and you get to actually kind of see the other side of this dog is like why is this dog considered dangerous you know they're it's all about the training and the you know how they're

[00:19:30] bred and how do you raise them correct right although i you know pugs and french bulldogs are not all that dangerous they're a pretty chill pop culture likes to make it sound just like no it's

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[00:21:08] them out well given how there's so many different like digital script writing methods people can use you know cell tax and what have you um uh what are some good methods that you would

[00:21:27] recommend others just kind of uh used to just remind themselves to stay on track stay focused on their narrative and not subscribe to the whole oh i guess i can't do this i guess i got a writing block

[00:21:41] um really the only i mean it's kind of a cliche but if you want to be a writer right and i mean really that's what it comes down to i mean read a lot watch a lot and uh write a lot

[00:21:56] if you're you know if i'm on the clock and i have a deadline for writing a script i try to write five pages a day for instance so set a goal for yourself um and if uh you know if

[00:22:10] if you hit writer's block writer's block is is a luxury frankly for writers who are not working writers because if you're working writers you're on a deadline you can't afford a writer's block

[00:22:22] so basically if you have a writer's block when you've been hired to write a script and you can't deliver your script then it's probably one of the last times you'll probably be hired to write a

[00:22:33] script so uh writer's blocks are like i said a moral luxury for people who have the time to spare and uh in that case i mean i would again like suggest kind of just force yourself to

[00:22:47] to either write or do something writing adjacent either read a script watch a movie and uh or you know read a book and just kind of get those creative juices flowing or you know

[00:22:58] maybe if you're stuck on a scene think about it and consider a way to attack it and it's kind of a completely different way um for me often i i kind of like to use humor in the dialogue and if

[00:23:11] you know i'll run a scene through my head with dialogue and and that will sort of get me excited enough to actually sit down and write the scene it's amazing how the simplest methods can see if

[00:23:23] it's working or not from just saying it aloud hey and if you can't say it with a straight face then you know not even the best actor in the world can say it um any writing workshops that are held

[00:23:43] nationwide or annually that you'd recommend people seek out i honestly i don't really know anything i know like there are a lot of people who basically go to go to writing workshops or

[00:23:52] or take online courses or you know read books and but i know that's totally yeah i mean for me i i i learned screenwriting through one of those very basic books by cit field where he basically

[00:24:09] lays out this the structure really the format uh of a script and then just from watching movies that i love and tv shows that i loved i essentially wrote um so you know in terms of um screenwriting

[00:24:27] you know if if you're a writer and you you you need help i guess just kind of like informational help in terms of how to format you're just starting and you want to know how to format a script

[00:24:39] or um you need kind of that initial push or you know you're you're curious about how to get into the business they're kind of beneficial is one of the things i always say is like these these

[00:24:51] these courses can teach you to become a better writer but they can't teach you to become a writer so i think you have to have it in you to start.

[00:25:01] Oh hey that that is a start for sure and it it is eye-opening how especially when you look at youtube videos that will talk about hey they're breaking down a scene by scene and it's like you're gonna

[00:25:17] find something here and there and it's like see you can't call this or that a bad program or not an entirely bad one. Yeah well i mean i see it online where basically in writers or people in the industry say you shouldn't you shouldn't criticize a movie

[00:25:35] or a tv show because no one sets out to make a bad movie or tv show to which i say uh you know that's ridiculous you know if you're if you're spending money

[00:25:51] or you know time and money investing in a movie you know watching a movie or tv show you have you're well within your rights to criticize and you know what you like or what you don't like.

[00:26:02] Oh totally it's just it seems like a lot of people like like it's black or white like there's only this or that and it's like well it can be a bit of everything right the scene is working

[00:26:15] it's just not well told i mean i i applied uh some of the new star track shows who which have decided to fix some of the issues that were in some of the infamous movies they revisited it

[00:26:28] instead of doing what every other franchise does which is pretend like it never happened doesn't exist and divide their fan base more come on you know there's gonna be a fan of anything out there so you might as well just

[00:26:43] improve what the previous writer or director could not bring to life. Um and uh all together uh so do you talk with your writing colleagues Paul Moley and company on a monthly basis sorry what was the question do you uh reach out to your writing partners

[00:27:11] uh Robert C. Cooper Paul Moley and Brad Wright on a daily basis uh not a daily basis i mean i i exchanged occasional emails with Brad and and Rob and uh Paul um Paul's my former writing partner

[00:27:26] um Rob is in uh Rob and I are in the same fantasy football uh league so we're in uh in more regular contact yes so lovely um any of your other movies and shows that you might

[00:27:44] want to revisit down the road i know Utopia Falls is still on Hulu and that's kind of a cold yeah that that one was not mine that one was I was approached to show run by the creator

[00:27:56] RT Thorn and uh it wasn't a show that's really in my wheelhouse um but I like RT and um I like the people and so I ended up developing the show with him and overseeing the writer's room

[00:28:09] and the production um so I mean if um it does have like a surprising cult following the music show yeah yeah so I don't know if you know what the future holds for that one

[00:28:24] more Stargate is always you know like Dark Matter is always kind of enticing but I think Amazon um it's kind of wants to step away from kind of the established Stargate classic Stargate

[00:28:37] and wants to do kind of a more something more uh along the lines of like kind of the reboots of all like the sci-fi shows that are uh yeah you know are on now so I wish them the best without

[00:28:50] dividing anyone you know if they can do it with the expanse that I I have faith because they seem to have figured out sci-fi um do you have any fun stories from working on so many other

[00:29:03] syndicated shows like The Lost World and Largo Winch which is a you know first Canadian co-production no yeah no those were very early on in my career and they were really more of a freelance basis I

[00:29:15] went in Paul and I weren't went in I just remember for Lost World we went in um we were in LA for a couple of days and so they said let's come in and break break the episode and usually when

[00:29:27] I break an episode um I like to know what the obviously the beginning of the episode is the end of the episode and then I work my way down from macro to micro what are the act breaks how does

[00:29:39] each act break ends and what is each scene and each each act and they went over about it you know remember sitting down and they went about it in a kind of very weird way very linear way

[00:29:48] where they just went what happens in this in the first scene and what happens in the second scene and they work their way through to the I mean pretty much at the end of the day they realized

[00:29:58] holy holy crap this isn't working we're gonna have to start over the next day and I just thought wow this is uh I'm an incredibly inefficient way to break a story so that was my experience of uh

[00:30:11] a lost world yeah that's for Largo Winch not really I think you know we pitched a couple ideas and uh and um we ended up writing a couple of episodes but it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't really memorable the experience wasn't memorable and I think in the end

[00:30:27] maybe the show wasn't that memorable either yeah I only knew about it because it was like a book series and there was like two international movie versions they did to capitalize on the

[00:30:36] success of born identity and the new James Bond but I just I knew it was kind of a cult show because some future A-listers get started on it on occasion but yeah I it is a little underwhelming

[00:30:50] when you're kind of being told duly noted you know you're letting you do this and that but you can't do really what you kind of want to do that could easily make the show better instead of just

[00:31:01] robotic I'm sorry um and uh you've been attached to the powder mage trilogy for a while or you've still kind of loosely attached to it uh yeah I mean basically we've gone out with it the the

[00:31:18] issue is that yeah I mean um it's uh um it's a uh you know it's an expensive show to produce and so you know for that reason um you know a lot of potential buyers have been a bit leery and then

[00:31:35] the strike came along so I mean like anything you've got um you know so many kind of balls in the air you end up like um developing like I'm developing I think seven or eight different

[00:31:53] things at the moment actually probably more closer to 10 and um you know you never know what's going to land so you know you just have to have a lot of balls in the air

[00:32:03] I wish but the best uh brings me to a fan question we got James Gavsfi of the Who Would Win show he's a big stargate guy um he actually wanted to know your thoughts on the writer's strike which

[00:32:18] you know when he asked it was still going on at this time I'm in I'm in Canada so um you know I'm not as I guess I am affected um you know because it's the uh it's it's uh

[00:32:34] it was the WGA the writer's guild of America but they've settled thankfully and uh right and uh you know it's and you know I mean I you know I say I I wasn't I wasn't infected in that I wasn't

[00:32:48] you know down on the picket lines because I'm in Toronto um but I mean I was I certainly wasn't going out and pitching out of respect but not that it's over I look forward to seeing uh

[00:33:02] you know what opportunities arise yeah it's just kind of sad to think that people could have been denied various jobs just because hey you know you're we want to do it faster and cheaper but not

[00:33:18] better you know I don't get it um and also uh given how we've all kind of been embracing just kind of staying positive and various trends and algorithms on social media uh it can be easy to get kind of

[00:33:42] annoyed by toxic energy that peers give off what what do you recommend you know especially when you're in a profession which has so much rejection and acceptance uh or some good ways to just

[00:33:54] kind of put your shields up as well as just vent and just realize hey you met someone I don't know I think I think we're we're kind of you know it come to a time in society where everyone is so

[00:34:07] thin skinned that the slightest uh you know uh critique uh you know is like a grievous wound I think if you're an artist and don't want to be criticized I would strongly urge you to um

[00:34:24] stay off social media uh entirely I mean you need social media to promote yourself so you know maybe just turn off comments uh just promote yourself and don't interact with people

[00:34:37] don't read the comments I like that idea or or you know if you want to really promote yourself and you know you're an artist and you believe in your work suck it up and uh you know engage

[00:34:50] if you if you want to it's uh so I mean there are there are many ways to to avoid having your feelings hurt uh I guess um you know my advice would be don't be so thin skin but you know uh I'm sure others

[00:35:07] will have other advice no that's that's cool to know and because I'll see often kind of black and white or I care or I don't care and it's kind of cool to just kind of uh have kind of a

[00:35:18] an in between is like hey I'm here to promote my thing and I'm scaling after this have fun guys I see so many who get kind of just annoyed by just even the most minimum thing and I'm like

[00:35:35] God it's not worth it uh well I wish you nothing but the best on the mage trilogy because you know given how people have embraced you know rings of power or not as well as uh the will of time it

[00:35:55] seems like again we're in a much safer route now to attempt fantasy type of material yeah yeah yeah and yeah I mean you know from a visual sec uh effect standpoint um there is no better time I think

[00:36:12] yeah I see so many people who get all freaked out and are like I don't know I can do it I'm like what's stopping you all together when you are uh um what are some other tips and tricks for telling anyone who's working on an independent

[00:36:35] project on just like what to look for and what to avoid like how can you tell the serious apart from the not so serious what do you mean just knowing that you're going to be on a reliable film shoot

[00:36:48] you know I know a few pointers like hey this person does or does not have like a shot list or storyboards well they're giving you maybe answers that's not good that's that's tough I mean essentially

[00:37:03] I like I uh I mean I I kind of work with like a team that I've been working with for for a while and you know every once in a while you'll have someone who doesn't have the right together

[00:37:18] I mean one of the things that I learned very early on in in Stargate was LTS Brad right told me uh well I was like I asked about a certain actor and his response was LTS and I

[00:37:29] asked what's LTS and he says life's too short so they're just certain individuals that you hear about that are just not pleasant to work with so if you can avoid them avoid them but when I joined

[00:37:41] Stargate in his fourth season uh as your fourth season they had actually worked out all the kinks and and they had you know gotten rid of all kind of the the difficult people to work with so it was a

[00:37:52] very well-run machine and so when I did Dark Matter I essentially applied what I learned from Stargate on to Dark Matter and and are you know it's hard work but everyone is very good at what they did

[00:38:06] and I don't think there was really any instances where you know I work with people who were unprepared I think on on Utopia Falls once um you know there was a director who came in with no shot list

[00:38:18] but uh I didn't hire them uh the production company did so that was on them yeah yeah it can be a little eye opening at the same time just startling and just have to say

[00:38:35] okay we can solve this now or we can go into micro manager mode yeah hopefully you know you uh you do your due diligence before the production starts like from as a as a showrunner for instance

[00:38:49] I usually you know rely on on my line producer um and and and that's you know my team to sort of vet all the department heads and then relying the department heads to vet the people under them

[00:39:02] to make sure that everyone uh A is good at the job and and B is happy to be there there that's lovely yeah and when you are you know going to all these production meetings

[00:39:16] uh what what kind of note taking would you recommend for those who are you know trying to get their feet wet but also try and learn all these other tips and tricks

[00:39:27] uh it's not everyone's gonna take a note you know uh I mean if you're going to be involved in you know in a production you should ask if you could sit in on the production meetings

[00:39:41] and uh and just you know take note of everything that's going on and and you know obviously learn from from the process because uh the uh you know prep is I want to say a long and involved

[00:39:55] process but you know it's actually surprisingly short usually um you know when one episode is shooting the other episode is prepping and then as soon as you know that episode ends you know it's

[00:40:07] your episode you're up and then another episode perhaps so you know just try to be as involved as possible in all aspects of uh of uh a prep week from the you know from the concept meeting

[00:40:18] through um the various various department meetings through casting and the final production meeting um you know as as you know if you're like just starting out um I don't know how you

[00:40:30] ended up on the production um but if you got some free time ask the showrunner to sit in uh lovely uh just one of my final questions and we'll kind of just wrap this up uh yeah given how

[00:40:45] you know you've embraced both comics and uh tv have you ever thought of just kind of wrapping up any unrealized storylines just kind of for dark matter or stargate in comic book form again

[00:40:58] um stargate no because it's not I don't have the right to stargate that would be it was like an mgm decision and next to an uh a uh a uh now a amazon decision uh you know uh once comics

[00:41:14] company actually did reach out uh like for some reason whenever they've done the comics they never reached out to the writers they've reached out to people who've never done the show who were involved in the show um but once we uh Paul and I were approached and we

[00:41:29] pitched them uh the unproduced stargate a lantis movie that we wrote and turned that into a comic book and they liked the idea and they and they brought it back to mgm and mgm didn't like the

[00:41:43] idea and then those plans fell through so that's really the closest stargate came this is the dark matter you know um uh you know is is possible but you know in my mind I would love to finish it on

[00:41:56] screen with a mini series that maybe picks up you know events maybe five ten years later and so there's always an opportunity for that so I'll uh you know I want to wait and see how uh if you

[00:42:09] know if the opportunity presents itself in time yeah no okay no and interesting to hear uh I just was curious because I know you know dark matters started off as you know a comic

[00:42:24] yeah yeah sci-fi abandoned it I don't know when anyone will get a chance to revisit it yeah hopefully hopefully in time I wish nothing but the best for you and um thank you any other just kind of closing thoughts or uh just remarks you just love to leave

[00:42:47] with other people um following their dreams on the writing yeah I mean basically like you know I said if you want to write write uh if you're stuck read all right you know and watch tv shows or

[00:43:02] or you know or movies just always keep your mind active okay no very very cool okay well you stay safe out there in the meantime all right thank you ever so much for just kind of a

[00:43:16] mind-meld this was no problem my pleasure all right now let's you know when it uploads godspeed you out there all right thanks cam take it easy time I did take care bye follow us on the web

[00:43:35] on facebook twitter and instagram the podcast is available on podby spotify i heart radio anchor apple and anywhere else podcasts are available feel free to review our show and leave comments on any of those sites thanks a million for listening it's a