chiller blog

Posted Dec 29, 08 09:49 AM

Freak Out

Some of my favorite TV memories are encased in shows that barely saw daylight during their oh-too-short limelight. Let’s see… there was the Ed McMahon-hosted murder mystery game show Whodunnit? where contestants earned big compensation for correctly solving who knocked off guess celebrities ranging from Quincy’s Jack Klugman (poisoned on an airplane) to Three’s Company’s Audra Lindley. $weepstake$ was an NBC drama that followed the gold ticket winners and runners-up of a $1,000,000 spin-the-wheel prize. Cliffhangers brought three separate serials into one series roof (Dracula, a Brenda Starr reporter, and – hmm – an archeologist, if I remember correctly?).

Another rook that fell too early on television’s chess board schedule was the cult FreakyLinks, an X-Files for the slacker set whose thirteen episodes blazed on Fox from October 2000-June 2001. Chiller proudly rebroadcasts all episodes in a 24-hour New Year’s Eve marathon beginning at the stroke of midnight on January 1.

The immensely likeable Ethan (Eagle Eye) Embry starred as Derek Barnes, a guy tracking the mysterious fate of his dead (hmm… or is he?) twin brother, the proprietor of a website dedicated to the occult. Derek bands with his friends who, piece-by-fun-shivery-piece, pursue the paranormal internet bread crumb trail to the truth. Dennis (Breaking Away) Christopher turns up as Vince Elsing, a scientific-test guinea pig claiming residual “other worldly” powers – including contact with Adam.

So far so great, and the potential was the pedigree. Gregg Hale -- fueled by the overnight phenomenon of The Blair Witch Project (for which he shared Independent Spirit and Producers Guild Awards) – joined forces with visionary David S. (Blade, Dark City, The Dark Knight) Goyer to co-create FreakyLinks. Count among the creative ensemble writers Russel Friend and Garrett Lerner (later, three-time Emmy nominees for House) and co-executive producer David (Charmed, Angel, Roswell) Simkins who would inherit the showrunner position. They even followed the Blair Witch model created by Ben (Alien Raiders) Rock: build, in advance, a website to hit-count prospective audiences.

So what happened??? Chiller asked Simkins, who kindly responded in kind.

Chiller: Back in 2000-2001, Fox would have seemed the ideal fit for an edgier show to have creative license, develop, and build an audience. What transpired? The show never got its due… or its chance.

Simkins: As I understand it, the show had a bit of a tortured pedigree. That is, Gregg Hale and David Goyer… were tortured by the unending meddling of the studio. The tone and scope of FreakyLinks, originally called Fearsum, was a bit different. Darker. Creepier. But the head of the studio at the time never accepted Hale’s and Goyer’s vision and ultimately replaced them with exec producer Tommy Thompson who, somewhat reluctantly, did the studio’s bidding. When the pilot was ordered to series, Tommy found himself being pushed even further down the rabbit hole of studio demands. They wanted the show to be less obscure and unsettling and more like, I kid you not, Scooby-Doo. That’s when Tommy dropped out. I stepped in with the intention of giving the studio just enough Scooby-Doo-esque touches to make them happy. In fact, my goal, along with the staff’s, was (to) keep the show creepy (but still fun) and honor Gregg’s and David’s original intention as best we could. Not out of any allegiance… but simply because I believed their approach was the right one and that the studio was chasing competing notions of a concept that was, at best, ephemeral.

Chiller: What did you envision – long-term – with the series? Would you ever consider re-exploring it by rebooting… into another format, say, a graphic novel series?

Simkins: Honestly, I came into FreakyLinks simply as a writer looking to work. It was a good and fun experience but I’ve moved on in my career. Revisiting the concept would feel like a (slightly painful) step backwards into a very politically complicated past.

Chiller: What were your best memories of the experience – and of what were you most proud?

Simkins: I think I’m most proud of the fact that, in spite of being cancelled after one season and laboring under some pretty difficult creative constraints, we created a show that pretty much hit the mark in terms of what we were trying to do. As for individual episodes, my faves are “Three Thirteen” (creepy good), “Desert Squid!” (a fun romp), and “Live Fast, Die Young” (as serious a drama as were likely to do).

(My thanks to Ben Rock, Gregg Hale, and David Simkins for their assistance and cooperation with this article.)