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From
an interview with Beth Blighton
conducted for the "Earth
2 Bash" in Las Vegas
June, 1998
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CONTINUED
FROM PART I...
About
"Earth 2"
Beth: With Earth 2 being your first experience
doing a series for television, was it what
you expected or would you ever consider
doing another series?
Clancy:
That one was pretty special, I have a feeling...
Was it what I expected? I don't know what
I expected. That one was pretty special.
Every other series I've worked on hasn't
really had that feeling about it. But it
was exceptional because it was on location,
it was a big cast, not a lot of "famous
people", with the exception of Debrah and
Antonio, so there werenÕt a lot of
ego things going on. There were some, certainly,
but not lot. It was an exceptional cast.
I mean, Jessica Steen is as good an actress
as there is out there. And the kids fit
very strongly into the stories, and the
whole technical crew that was on the cutting
edge, making the Grendlers and Terrians...
The art department was spectacular and completely
under-appreciated. Those caves... ya know,
they built those caves in a week! That was
an amazing situation. So we were always,
as much as the environment was a character
in the show, the environment was always
a huge factor in the logistics of shooting
it. And so, that sort of tended to take
you out of the mundane problems of filming
that you get into in Los Angeles, which
is "We gotta finish the day." It really
becomes a life and death kind of struggle,
much more enervating, much more exciting,
because of the real life stuff we had to
do. Santa Fe is just beautiful.
Beth: I don't know how they thought they
were gonna move that show back to LA!
Clancy:
Well, ya know, executives look at it and
they say, "Oh, look, here's a couple of
rock formations and a desert. They've got
that out in Joshua Tree. We could do that...
We've got that out at Vasquez Rocks..."
Beth: In other words, you just know they
never watched it...
Clancy:
Right... "We could get that shot and "The
Cisco Kid!"
Beth: "Oh look, it's the 'Star Trek' planet!"
Actually, I know that everybody loves New
Mexico, but I was kind of hoping that as
the years went by the show would pick different
parts of the country.
Clancy:
That was part of the plan, to go all over
the world. That was the plan of the onsite
producers that one year they'd be in Hawaii,
the next year they'd be in Spain, and the
next year in Australia, and they'd just
sort of go for it. But...
Beth: But they just wouldn't go for that,
huh?
Clancy:
No. But that would have been great!
Beth: What do you think was the defining
characteristic of John Danziger, or what
was your favorite characteristic to play?
Clancy:
My favorite characteristic was kind of...
The best example of it is in "Better Living
Through Morganite, Part II" when -- and
I read something online about this -- there
was this tremendous analysis... That was
half the fun of doing this picture! That
there was some great stuff going on online!
And there was a tremendous analysis of it
-- when Devon decides to go try to talk
to the Terrians, to try to save Morgan's
life, and Danziger comes up and he says,
"Wait a minute. What are you doing? They're
different from us! They're not gonna...
They didn't read the Geneva Convention rules.
They weren't raised in Judeo-Christian ethics.
This is a completely different thing! Let's
go in and get them!"
Danziger wasn't right, but there's sort
of that innate understanding of survival,
of the actual precariousness of the situation
that I don't think Devon ever had. There
was also that struggle between the writers,
because then, and I think still now -- although
less so -- there's this sort of fear about
really talking about hard issues in an unattractive
way. So you tend to get this kind of wishy-washy
stuff. And I've always tried to push that...
always tried to push the human and the pragmatic.
So as far as Danziger is concerned, I think
it was always... He never for a second forgot
what a dangerous situation they were in,
how they could all die in a second, that
there were only twelve of them and who knows
how many of these others out there, and
how many others there were! How many other
groups of 'others' were there? And that
they could only depend on themselves. It's
a little paranoid and stuff, but I think
it's a pretty accurate recapitulation of
what it must have been like to settle the
North American continent in the 1700s and
1800s.
Beth: His character was so grounded where
hers was very idealistic, but somebody had
to have their feet on the ground!
Clancy:
Right. The pithy description was that she's
always looking at the stars and Danziger's
making sure that nobody steps in any holes.
It was a little more than that, a little
less than that. The Uly in the future one
was kind of an interesting episode for all
of us cuz we all hated it, mostly because
we couldn't tell what happened!
Beth: It was like, where was Danziger?
Clancy:
Yeah, right. Where was Danziger? Ya know,
at least there should be a mountain range
named after him!
Beth: Or something! See, now what I always
thought they should have done with that
one was that she looks at this future, and
yes, she got them out there, and yes, she
got everything she wanted, but it cost Danziger
his life! So somewhere along the way she
had to make a decision where she knew, okay,
what's more important? Your ideals or a
human life? But they didn't go that way,
so what do I know?
Clancy:
Well... they can only do so much in an hour.
And those were questions that the producers
and the studios didnÕt really want
to answer.
Beth: It was such a dark future, though.
It really was.
Clancy:
It was kind of a dark future. I was a little
bummed at that. It was a little sort of
typical. I was kinda disappointed. I mean,
I think it would have been more interesting
if someone had done a little research into
Botany Bay and how... There was that great
book out about Botany Bay and the settlement
of Australia. I think that would probably
be the most likely analogue.
Beth: It was sort of hard to believe, after
all that struggle, that she'd let it go
to pot!
Clancy:
Right! And, in fact, sort of sign on, in
a way...
Beth: Well, they just ran "All About Eve"
on the Sci-Fi Channel, and the big debate
on the internet now is how in the world
were they planning on getting Devon out
of that cold sleep chamber! Got any ideas
on that one?
Clancy:
It comes back to me in dribs and drabs...
Somehow we've moved out of that valley that
had afflicted everyone. And, of course,
it had turned out that we were all sick
because of the chips in our heads -- which
was nicely set up by about the fourth episode
with Wentworth & Firesteen. So we were
all sick because Eve was sick, and Eve's
fixed now and Eve helps us, she's become
our advocate. But it turns out that Devon
really is sick, because Devon is the only
biologically "pure" human on the planet.
And the planet is, in fact, reacting against
her, because the planet is Gaia, is a living
thing. It's reacting against her, yet half
of her genetic information is in Uly, who
is the answer to the future of the planet.
So there's all sorts of great little tangential
philosophies and theories and great... it
was gonna be such a great season! But she
thinks she's dying, so she's brought out
of that valley -- I think it happened fairly
cursorily, perfunctorily, kind of, "Well,
we moved her out of the valley, and..."
But she's still sick and she's still dying.
So she's not well, but she decides that
there's no way around this as we discover
that the planet is having an antibody response
to her. Eve is able to program our physiology
to counteract this, apparently, but they
can't do anything for her because she hasn't
got this little chip in her head. So she
thinks she's dying, so she asks me to be
the receptacle of her experiential data
or whatever, to have her digital being downloaded
into me! Her whole history and all that
stuff.
That was gonna be a real fun episode because
they were gonna have these flash cuts of
her giving birth to Uly, and then it would
end up being me on the table, screaming
and sweating. All this weird stuff! Poor
John Danziger gets all of his rough edge,
macho side... just suddenly has to deal
with all this very feminine experience,
and I was just very excited about the whole
prospect!
I don't really know what eventually happened
to Devon, but I think there was probably
an arc where she didn't get better and there
was an arc where she did get better. The
arc where she did get better would have
been much more interesting because suddenly
I already know what she's thinking, and
I...
Beth: You have way too much information!
Clancy:
There were gonna be other things that just
weren't gonna happen because Universal stuck
their noses in...
Beth: But this was what they were gonna
do?
Clancy:
The problem was really the leadership at
Universal who really started to have a "SeaQuest,
DSV" reaction to "Earth 2". So they were
just gonna take it and mess with it!
Beth: So this was what was gonna happen
before they put that other storyline in?
Clancy:
This was Michael Duggan's plan. Michael
Duggan and John Harrison, and there was
another guy...
Beth: Not P.K. Simmonds?
Clancy:
No... P.K. was gonna keep writing, I'm sure.
But I think Levin was out and I Carol Flint
was out, and they've all gone on to better
things... I mean, they weren't dismissed,
they just sort of decided to step away because
Duggan was really the one one who wanted
to carry it. It was a great experience being
with all those very talented folks -- Duggan,
Flint and Levin. But Carol's connection
was much more personal with everybody and
with me, and Duggan's was very personal
with the material. He was really by default
the guy who was gonna end up running the
show. But I think he had problems with the
leadership at Universal, so he got sacked,
which just spelled doom to me, all the way
down the line.
Beth: Now when did that happen? Were you
done filming?
Clancy:
It happened right before... right at the
end of "All about Eve" we found out about
it, like a few days into shooting. To their
credit, the leadership at Universal came
out and said, "We are behind this show.
We want it to work. We're doing what we
think is best. We're gonna move it back
to LA, and blah-blah-blah-blah-blah... And
we wouldn't come out here if we didn't give
a damn." Which is right. I mean, they all
came out, all the honchos and, ya know,
even though they're very impressed with
themselves, the fact that they'd come out
did speak volumes. I got a little testy
with them and said, "Why are you fucking
with us?!? This is a goldmine if you guys
would just leave it alone!" And that's when
they started retooling the Danziger character!
[laughter] They started introducing all
these new characters who were going to be
the new stars of the show, cuz they were
convinced that I was gonna be trouble.
Beth: Are you trouble?
Clancy:
I am in the sense that I sort of challenge
folks... There was a time early on where
I started saying, "Okay, this is great,
this is wonderful that we're doing this
thing. Now, give us a little background.
Who are these people? Where do we come from?
If you're gonna start laying out this technology
and laying out this future history, then
tell us the pre-future history. What's the
culture that we come from?" So Mark Levin
made an attempt at this, but it was very...
You could tell he sort of did it in an afternoon
and he thought it was clever, and he sent
it on to me. But unfortunately, the problem
is that I've been interested in sci-fi for
awhile. I've read Heinlein, I've read Herbert,
I've read William Gibson...
Beth: So you just weren't buying this...
Clancy:
No! But there were really good points in
it, so I wrote him back and said, "Okay,
this part makes sense, but this other part
doesn't make sense..." I've probably got
the letters lying around somewhere... But
Mark had enough of that! So, he handed off
to Carol, and Carol and I got into this
dialog that was a lot of fun. We really
started fleshing out what had happened from
1995 til 22-whatever. But boy, that was
really fun futurist kind of stuff, talking
about Huxley and the guy who wrote "Future
Shock", all sorts of great... that was a
great fun discussion. That's where Carol
and I got close.
Beth: See? You can't sit there and debate
with a writer because they love it!
Clancy:
Mark didn't love it. He was having fun writing
it, but his focus was always on writing
features and moving up that ladder, so...
He wasn't really... He liked it and he liked
everyone in it, and he had a fun time writing
it, but it wasn't really his, he really
didn't have the passion for it that anybody
else did. Carol really had a passion for
the people and the characters.
Beth: You could tell by the stories she
did.
Clancy:
That's what she was all about, but now she's
moved on to "ER". She was actually the one
who called me to be in it with Laura. And
her whole argument was, "We're trying to
do this for Laura's character", which is
the perfect argument to make to me because
that I understand. That's very honest. First
of all, they're not saying, "We want you
to be this kind of character because, dah-dah-dah-dah-dah."
They're saying, "These are our stars and
Laura's is lacking this and we want to provide
that for her, and we want you to do it."
Then I understand my role, with what I'm
supposed to do, and Carol knew that about
me.
Beth: Now, we're gonna have John [(Gegenhuber)
Wollner, Morgan Martin] and Rockmond [Dunbar,
Baines] here to defend themselves, but you're
not gonna be here to defend yourself. Are
there any stories you'd like to tell before
they get the chance to?
Clancy:
Oh, they'll have some good ones... No, I
can't defend myself. I have no excuses for
all of my misbehavior. Tell Ôem don't
worry... John is such a good actor! He should
be working so much more. He's so good! I
always thought he was the best thing in
that show! I would fight to get scenes with
him! I mean, even little scenes, even little
things where I just exchanged a look, it
didn't matter! And always trying to throw
things in, ya know? "If he moves, shoot
him!" It was just a great sort of... He
was such a great person. You could throw
any kind of pitch at him and he'd catch
it and throw it back. That's rare enough.
I think he was actually the best actor there
and had the most interesting character.
There was a lot similar between his character
and Danziger. I mean, they really were,
I think, flip sides of the same coin. And
Universal wanted to get rid of him! Not
because of anything John did or because
of anything that Morgan did! They wanted
to get rid of him because they wanted to
free up Bess to have all sorts of naked
scenes with whoever the guest star was!
It was just really dumb...
Beth: Which I'm sure Rebecca would have
enjoyed no end, too! [Sarcasm]
Clancy:
Oh yeah... Rebecca would have just loved
that...
Beth: Is there anything you'd like to say
to the fans in parting?
Clancy:
Thank you... Just thanks so much. Goodbye.
Keep the faith! Something will happen one
of these days, in some form or other...
But also remember that I say that as a former
Hong Kong Cavalier who's still waiting for
that World Crime League to rear it's head!
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