June 3rd,
2006
MFP:
So how did this project come about,
Monk: The Official Episode Guide?
Terry:
Paula and I became involved with
Monk: The Official Episode Guide,
which at the time didn't have a
title, at the time it was going
to be The Monk Book, because we
write these other books. The editor
we worked with on the Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine Companion was working
with a woman in the NBC-Universal
Licensing named Cindy Chang. Margaret
introduced me to Cindy to possibly
work on a different book and that
project didn't happen. It was a
project that didn't get off the
ground. But Cindy remembered me
and very shortly called and she
said literally, "You might
be the answer to my problem."
She had been given a chance to have
NBC-Universal create a Monk companion
book. She didn't have an author
and wasn't acquainted with an author
who did that kind of writing and
was pleased to have met me. She
just offered me, kind of sight unseen,
we met for a little while, but she
hadn't really read anything I'd
written, and telephoned me and asked
me if I'd be available to work on
the Monk book. I looked at Paula
and just said “Monk?”
We love the show. We'd never missed
an episode. We just immediately
said, “Yes, we'll write it.
“What would you like?”
MFP:
Sort of a dream job?
Terry:
Right.
MFP:
How long did it take you to write
it?
Terry:
It took about….
Paula:
I think six months.
Terry:
About six months, maybe seven months.
Paula:
It had to be done fast.
Terry:
Yeah, it had a deadline on it from
the beginning so we had to hurry.
Paula:
They actually extended the deadline,
because they wanted to include the
fourth season in the book, the whole
fourth season.
Terry:
That's right. It actually was going
to be five months but we were expecting
at first to include three and a
half seasons of the show in the
book. For the second half of season
four we thought we might have to
just do little tiny summaries, because
we thought we would have to turn
the book in before those episodes
had actually been shot. They were
able to work it out with St. Martin’s
Griffin, the publishers, to shorten
their publishing schedule. You know
they have a lot of work to do at
the publishing house. They squeezed
their schedule a little bit so that
we could actually see the last few
episodes and write about them before
we had to turn in the book. So the
book includes four seasons.
Paula:
We actually saw the last half of
the season before they were aired,
because the producers were nice
enough to share the early rough
cuts of the episodes.
MFP:
So they gave them to you ahead of
time so you could make the deadline?
Terry:
Yeah, we felt real privileged. Other
than the people in the editing room
and at the studio, no one had seen
the shows except Paula and myself.
We felt pretty lucky.
MFP:
So the rough cuts, they're without
music and everything in them?
Terry:
Yeah, they're without music. If
there were any kind of visual effects
they weren't there. So they may
have had scenes that were....
Paula:
Sometimes they had some markers
for where they were going to put
in a different effect.
Terry:
Sometimes if they were just going
to have an insert shot like a picture
of somebody's hand or something
like that, they shoot those things
later. They wouldn't be there; there
would be a little card that said,
insert here. They're very rough
and there's no music whatsoever.
The dialogue was real rough. The
dialogue hadn't been straightened
out, so that sometimes it would
be too loud, sometimes it would
be gruff. Sometimes you could hardly
understand what they were saying.
When they call them rough cuts,
they really mean rough.
Paula:
But it does make you appreciate
what goes into the final....
Terry:
The post production.
Paula:
Yes, into post production. You suddenly
realize what all those people do
behind the scenes, how they balance
out the sound in addition to everything
you'd kind of expect. Well, you
know, they add special effects,
but you never think about what the
person who mixes the post production
sound does.
MFP:
Right. There’s a lot of work
after the actual filming.
Terry:
Yeah, a lot of work. There's a lot
more to it then just the actors
going on stage. There are those
people, those behind the scenes
names that you see. They're incredibly
talented people as well. We tried
to cover a few of them in the book,
by the way. I tried to interview
as many people as we had time to
in the constraints we had.
MFP:
What will the format of the book
be?
Terry:
We cover every episode of every
season. There's a synopsis of the
episode, followed by a behind-the-scenes
section. At the beginning of each
season we have a long essay about
changes that may have happened from
the season before. The book starts
out with an introduction that explains
how the idea came about, how David
Hoberman and Andy Breckman created
the character. We talk about casting.
Then, the way we worked, Paula did
the synopsis. Together we watched
every episode probably five times.
The producers gave us all of the
scripts. So we read all the scripts
at least a couple times a piece.
Then we had the scripts laid out
while we were writing, but Paula
did the synopsis. You want to tell
her a little bit about how you synopsized
the episodes?
Paula:
Well you know, it's kind of well,
how do you synopsize? You just sit
down and you try to hit all the
high points and get the detail in,
but it's hard to describe exactly
how you do that. If you remember
back in grade school when they taught
you how to outline, it's sort of
like that. You just want to get
everything down there without taxing
the reader's patience, but getting
all the good stuff in.
Terry:
And they all have to be the same
length. They all have to be about
a page and a half long. Something
like that. Then I did all of the
interviews. I went to the set quite
a number of times. I went on the
set almost every day while they
were shooting several episodes.
Which is quite a lot of driving
and a lot of time, because they
were going on location. They go
on location so often. So I couldn't
just drive to the soundstage everyday.
I had to drive wherever they were
shooting, sometimes many miles out
of town. I would introduce myself
in the morning and ask people if
they would have time to speak with
me some time during the day.
Then
I went in and interviewed the actors
and the directors and the producers
and the wardrobe people etc. and
then went to the studio afterwards
and talked to the editors and even
talked to a couple of the musicians.
I went to Jeff Beal's studio and
talked to him about writing the
original theme song.
Paula:
And he still does the episodic music.
Terry:
Yeah, Jeff still does all the episodic
music during the show everything
other than the theme song now. Then
we come home and, as you know, we
together would transcribe the interview
tapes, which just take so much time.
Paula:
We would kind of just split it up.
Terry would write up the whole behind-the-scenes
section at the same time I was working
on the synopsis.
Terry:
Paula's an excellent editor so she
would rewrite what I wrote and make
some suggestion about, hey, wouldn't
it be good if we could put this
part in? She would read the transcription
and nudge me a little bit if I had
missed some cute little quote. We
tried to keep it cute and funny
as much as we could.
Paula:
Terry’s good at noting when
I repeat phrases too often. He says,
“Did you know you used this
word five times on the same page.”
Terry:
So we edit one another as we go
along.
MFP:
That must make it a little easier.
Terry:
It's nice to have someone that you
can count on to slap your fingers
and say, "Don't do that."
It's kind of nice.
Paula:
Every now and then one or the other
of us would kind of press our lips
together kind of tightly and say,
"But I like it like that."
And then we'd have a discussion
about it and decide whether it really
worked or not. There were never
any big arguments about how something
should sound.
Terry:
Part of the fun thing in the book
we decided early on, and this was
a joint idea and actually I think
maybe Paula suggested it first and
then I jumped right on it, we have
a little section at the end of every
episode where we picked out the
clue that breaks the case
Paula:
That was your idea.
Terry:
That was my idea?
Paula:
Yeah.
Terry:
See we don't even remember. That's
what collaboration is, we don't
even remember who did what. We did
the clue that breaks the case, the
Monk idiosyncrasy of the week, you
know, the quirk that he did that
week.
Paula:
The quote of the week.
Terry:
The quote of the week
Paula:
Or the Monkism of the week.
Terry:
The Monkism of the week.
Paula:
Sometimes it wasn't even Monk who
had the quote, because if somebody
had a really good quote that seemed
really memorable we'd let somebody
else be quoted that week.
Terry:
Yeah, we tried to mix it up. Some
of them are from Stottlemeyer, some
of them are from Natalie some are
from Sharona.
Paula:
In early episodes Sharona says to
Disher "Bite me!" and
it was so typical of her character
that we just had to use it.
Terry:
But in order to do those things
we didn't just pick one out. We
actually listed them as we watched
the episodes. We would write down
everything cute that they said.
Then between the two of us we sat
down and discussed it: "Is
that one cute enough?" and
we'd cross them off and finally
come to a consensus of, this is
the essentially our own favorite
one of the episode. So when it says,
you know, the best quote of the
episode, it's Paula's and my favorite
quote. I'm sure that the readers,
and Teresa yourself, you might say,
"No this other one was better,"
but we really carefully pared them
down. We started with a long list
every time and pared it down to
what we thought was the best one.
Paula:
Yeah, so if they ever decide to
do a Monk quote book, we have all
the other quotes for it.
Terry:
Yeah we have many notes of things
that couldn't go into the book.
There are parameters in the publishing
industry. You are given an approximate
number of pages that the book should
be, because of cost and time and
everything in the publishing stage.
So we knew the length that the book
was going to be. I mean for us.
We sent in about 300 pages, typed
pages. The book will probably be....
I don't know how many pages the
book will be. But we were asked
for 100,000 words and so we gave
them about 100,000 words.
Paula:
I think it was originally about
80,000. We were running in to trouble
because some of the things were
running over and the editor said,
"all right it can go up to
100,000." So we were very relieved
Terry:
Yeah, the show is too good. To have
made the book shorter we would have
had to leave out so much wonderful
stuff. So we have many things left
in our interviews, that we could
actually write a couple more essays
and that sort of thing. So it's
kind of fun. Even though the book
is finished we're certainly not
finished writing about it. There's
a lot and we think about it all
the time. We just love the show.
MFP:
We know there are going to be at
least two more seasons, so is there
going to be a revision on the book
later?
Terry:
You want to talk about, is there
going to be a second edition of
the book?
Paula:
Well, we don't really know that.
I think it probably depends on if
the book sells well. I'm sure the
publisher may think about that down
the road, but it always really depends
on how well something sells. The
people associated with the show
were really cooperative. Terry and
I have worked on a couple of different
episode guides and behind-the-scenes
things. How good a book turns out
really depends on how cooperative
the people are behind the scenes,
how much they want a book like this
to happen. There are some things
we've worked on where the people
immediately involved with the show
might be cooperative, but sometimes
the people higher up at a studio
aren't as involved and aren't as
cooperative. In this case everybody
was from the top down. You know,
some of the nicest people Terry
talked to were at the very top over
at NBC Universal and USA.
MFP:
Everybody's really proud of the
show, aren't they?
Terry:
Yes, but there's a question about
the value of these books. The fans
like to have them and some members
of the general public find them,
but this type of a book doesn't
make the best seller list. There
have been behind-the-scenes books
done on the biggest hit shows and
they don't make the best seller
list. But the publisher, of course,
is in business and he has to have
his profit margin in order for it
to be worthwhile to do another one.
So it entirely depends on how many
copies sell. If in fact they wanted
to do a second edition or an extended
edition with seasons five, six,
seven, eight, season 15. Who knows?
We could only hope, right? We would
happily jump right in and continue
writing, but that's always a question
of economics.
MFP:
Why do you think they chose to do
the book now, at the end of the
fourth season?
Terry:
The earlier seasons of shows are
always the most popular and you
have to start writing a book while
people remember. If I were to go
on to the set of a show on season
seven and say let's start writing
a book and then asked them questions
about shooting the first episode,
nobody remembers for several reasons.
It's very likely that the behind
the scenes people, you know, the
wardrobe crew, the make-up crew,
the sound department could be 100
percent different people. They weren't
even there, because behind the scenes
crews, those 150 people behind the
scenes, don't stay with a show the
entire time. They come and go. The
personnel change rapidly, you know,
greatly. So either they don't remember
or they weren't there. You have
to start early and four seasons
is really pretty good. Four seasons
is about the right time to do the
first issue of a behind-the-scenes
book.
Paula:
When we first came into this book,
I think they made the assignment
right after the third season ended.
I would say we started working on
it during the hiatus between third
and fourth season. Fortunately,
because the seasons for Monk aren't
quite as long as they are for regular
network shows, we didn't have to
go back too far to try and discover
all the information. But if you
were getting involved in the final
year of a show that has been on
for six years already it would be
really hard to catch up.
Terry:
Yeah, you might have to hunt down
people. The original camera people,
the cinematographer may have disappeared,
might have gone off to do another
hit show. If you could catch him
on the set of the show he was currently
working on he would have already
put the previous job out of his
mind and you can't ask him questions
about it. So you have to start early
in a series. You know part of the
fun of the job…. We knew we
had a number of guidelines to do
this book. First of all we wanted
it to be inclusive and like the
show. We wanted it to represent
the show. We wanted it to be humorous
because obviously the show acts
as a comedy, but we wanted it to
be suspenseful. In Paula's synopsis
she didn't want to break the clues
too early in the way she was synopsizing
the episodes. So that if somebody
had missed one then reads it, they
don't find out the ending until
the ending.
MFP:
They can back out of the synopsis?
Terry:
Yeah, they can back out if they
want to.
Paula:
Although, actually, if they haven't
seen the episode, maybe they should
only read like the first paragraph.
Terry:
That's true. And then we wanted
to be a little bit educational.
Behind the scenes I wanted to be
just as fun as the episodes of the
show itself. We tried to be humorous
in them. So my interviews I asked
questions that would try to inspire
the interviewee especially the writers,
the writers are so wonderful, to
answer in humorous ways. But we
also wanted to be educational, so
if anybody young is reading it who
wants to get into the movie or television
industry, they might find it interesting
enough to say, “Oh, that's
how they do things.” We had
a lot of things that we were trying
to accomplish in the book. I don't
know if we accomplished any or many
of them, but it was a lot more fun
for us and interesting for us than
just, you know, writing down what
is.
Paula:
One thing that Andy Breckman wanted
the book to do, which I don't think
that we did, was he kind of wanted
it to be critical and he said, "Now
if there's a bad episode, I want
you to say, 'This is a bad episode.'"
And we just weren't able to really
do that because there weren't any
really bad episodes.
MFP:
How do you find a bad episode of
Monk?
Terry:
Well, there are a couple that weren't
quite as accepted by the fans, a
couple that didn't quite draw in
as large an audience: that weren't
quite as accepted by the viewers.
Paula:
But because of the way that we were
writing it, looking at each episode
under a magnifying glass, even if
it was an episode that might not
be a top episode, there were always
these moments that were so good,
it just kind of made it one of your
favorites automatically, because
Monk did something that was just
hilarious in one scene and it didn't
really matter if say the script
for that episode wasn't as strong
as the script for the week before.
MFP:
What do you think those episodes
were that weren't as accepted by
the fans? Which ones?
Terry:
That weren't as accepted as much?
MFP:
Right.
Terry:
The one that the people at the network,
and the writers and the producers
of the show all agree, the least
successful episode was "Mr.
Monk Takes Manhattan."
MFP:
Really?
Terry:
That's the episode that got the
least response from the viewing
public. The writers agree that they
made some mistakes and as you'll
see in the book, you know, we all
have 20/20 hindsight. After the
fact, we can tell what went wrong.
Essentially what the problem with
that one was is that when Monk is
in his own home turf, when he's
in his own backyard, he's the funniest.
The idea of putting him in the busiest,
most uncoordinated place in the
world, which is downtown Manhattan,
sounded very funny. But in reality
what happened was when you put him
there he was in the same situation
as everybody else. Every single
person on the street in New York
is experiencing how awful the subway
ride is, how loud the streets are,
how hard it is to walk up the street.
MFP:
And it's hard to stand out as crazy
in New York.
Terry:
So suddenly Monk wasn't unique and
special. The things that we see
about him that make him unique and
special were just ordinary. And
it's like Andy Breckman said, you
thought that putting him in a busy
place would be hilarious, but in
fact it just flattened him out,
he was just like everybody else.
So the episode didn't work as well.
Paula:
At least not for the audience, I
mean we liked it.
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