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Network Executive Producers Talk Shop

Posted on: Friday, 18 July 2008, 06:00 CDT

By Robert Bianco and Gary Levin

LOS ANGELES -- When executive producers get together, in front of television writers, what do they talk about?

Troubles, surprises and plans -- though not in too much detail.

Thursday, Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey's Anatomy (and Private Practice, but more about that later), said she "found it surprising" when Katherine Heigl publicly blamed weak story lines for her decision to withdraw from Emmy contention. "I didn't feel insulted," Rhimes said, explaining she'd written fewer scenes so Heigl could film a movie. "I have a wonderful working relationship with Katherine. But Katie is an outspoken person, and I think we all know that already."

Rhimes? Not so outspoken. Asked about Heigl's Izzie, for whom ABC programming chief Steve McPherson promised an "unbelievable" story line next season "essential to everything that's going on," Rhimes would only say, "We have a great story line worked out. We're all very excited about it."

(Ugly Betty creator Silvio Horta happily chimed in: "I'd put her in a coma.")

Brothers & Sisters producer Greg Berlanti, meanwhile, said he was surprised by the heat he took from viewers for the Justin/Rebecca relationship -- two characters who started the year as siblings, ended romantically, and in between found out they weren't related.

Part of the problem, Berlanti said, is that the strike shortened the season and compressed the story line. "We had wanted to lay out the story a little differently, and we wanted to dismount a little better," he said, adding "none of us expected that there would be the contingent of the audience that would be as vocal as they were about disliking that story line."

And Lost's producers, even as they look forward to next season -- "the year that links us from the past to the final season," said Carlton Cuse -- are keeping the specifics close to the vest.

They will say, however, you can expect to see Daniel Dae Kim's Jin in one way or another, good news for those who criticized Lost for killing one of TV's only heroic Asian characters, a charge producer Damon Lindelof thinks is unfair. "We've killed a lot of white people, too," Lindelof said. "And I can guarantee we will kill more white people."

More ABC news:

*Rhimes, in an appearance with the cast of her other series, Private Practice, conceded that, last season, the show had trouble finding its balance; the personal aspects were fine, but the medical stories weren't strong enough. "We're homing in on really making it a show where the stories tell moral and ethical dilemmas that the doctors have to face." And as the show gains more weight, so will the main character, Kate Walsh's Addison, become more substantial.

"The characters end up sort of doing what I'm doing at the moment," she said. "Addison was finding her footing; I was finding the show. I feel that both of those things are stronger now."

*New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a onetime attorney general, was forced to resign last winter after being caught in a federal sting of a prostitution ring he'd patronized. The scandal was an eerie echo of fictional New York attorney general Patrick Darling, who's running for Senate. "What a visionary we all were on the show," said William Baldwin, who plays Darling on ABC's Dirty Sexy Money. "Every time I've ever been with a hooker, there's never been an electronic trail. If I'm not that stupid, how could he be that stupid?"

Baldwin can't vouch for Spitzer, but said Darling "is a very impressive person, a highly effective public figure, who's tortured and tormented by the demons in his life." (c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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