MFP Review: Mr. Monk is Up All Night

September 27, 2007... 9:00am

David Breckman is the younger brother of Monk creator Andy Breckman. He has been with the Monk writing and production staff since season one. Besides writing "Mr. Monk is Up All Night" David has so far been credited or co-credited with 15 episodes of Monk, including "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut" and "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm."

He's also the co-creator (along with Ross Abrash writer of "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month") of Underfunded a series developed for the USA Network which has yet to be picked up. Unlike most of the Monk writers, who work in New Jersey, David has settled in Los Angeles where Monk is filmed.

David agreed to do a phone interview with me and graciously answered almost all of my questions.

MFP: Has Monk been renewed for season seven?

David: Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry to be coy right out of the gate. The answer as of this conversation is no, but between you and me it looks promising. I’d say there’s a seventy or eighty percent chance we’ll be back for another year.

MFP: Do Tony and the other producers want to continue for another season?

David: All of us would love to come back, yes.

MFP: USA wouldn’t have the network they have today if it weren’t for Tony and the show.

David: That’s probably true. I mean Monk is their flagship -- the pride of their fleet. We’re proud of the work we do as writers, but there’s no question that Tony being the superlative actor that he is, is probably the primary reason the show is so successful.

MFP: I don’t know. You give him everything to say, so I think you writers count right up there.

Tony Shalhoub

David: Make sure you underline that.

MFP: Okay.

David: Italicize it as well and put it in bold.

MFP: It looks like for season six the ratings have leveled off a little. Is that a concern for the network?

David: Actually, they’ve been happy with the ratings. We do very well for ourselves and we deliver a very big audience to Psych which follows our show at ten o’clock.

MFP: Maybe this is something you can talk about: what can we expect to see in the second half of season six, without revealing too much, of course?

David: I can talk about that – circumspectly anyway. Monk will be solving various mysteries and acting in a very eccentric way. Okay, the second part is off the record. Of course I’m kidding. You are going to be seeing Monk in various hopefully clever and fun situations like – I’ll be coy again, but your readers are bright and will read between the lines – Monk may or may not be accused of murder and find himself in very hot water. So the… hindquarters Monk will be saving in that particular show will be his own. You may or may not be seeing a special two-part episode. You may or may not be seeing Monk going undercover and infiltrating a Reverend Moon type cult. You may or may not be seeing Monk taking up painting as a hobby and then stumbling into a terrible crime. These are a few of the things you may or may not be seeing in the months ahead.

John Turturro

MFP: May we or may we not be seeing John Turturro come back as Ambrose?

David: Alas, that’s not even a possibility this season. We’d love for it to happen in the future though.

MFP: How about Kevin Dorfman?

David: Um… Kevin is…. I’d rather not give the game away. I’m very sorry.

MFP: No problem. Are there any guest stars you can mention?

David: Yes, hold on, let me think. Some prominent guest stars as of now? [Long pause.] Let’s move on for now. I’m so sorry I’m just kind of rousing myself here.

Jarrad Paul (Kevin Dorfman)

MFP: Yes, it’s kind of early.

David: Well, for me it’s early. I’m the kind of guy -- as are most of the writers -- we wake up late and stay up late. [Laughs] But let me think about that and let you know in like 15 minutes.

MFP: So is solving Trudy’s murder and Monk’s reinstatement to the force still goals for the show?

David: Yes. That’s the over-arching goal… the through line of the show. Of course, sometimes it’s more prominent than at other times, but yes, that’s always Monk’s chief concern.

MFP: So that hasn’t changed.

David: Nor will it.

Monk Bobblehead on location in San Francisco

MFP: Do you plan on doing any filming in San Francisco this year?

David: There are no immediate plans, unfortunately. That could certainly change between now and late November, but it’s unlikely.

MFP: We’d be happy to have you up here.

David: Oh my gosh, and don’t think we don’t love shooting up there. It’s one of the loveliest cities in North America, but it’s purely a budgetary thing.

MFP: Our film commission is desperate. They may cut you a deal.

David: That’s perfect, because we’re desperate too. So… maybe it will happen.

MFP: I want to ask a few questions about “Mr. Monk is Up all Night.” Everybody loved it [except the eye doctor] by the way. The USA website has a poll and it leads [substantially] for the season.

David: No kidding.

MFP: Yes.

David: Okay, I’d like that perhaps in bold as well, maybe a different kind of font and I don’t know if you have florescent colors.

MFP: Certainly.

David: Again I would have to attribute that…. Obviously there’s no question, Tony is a brilliant actor and obviously the whole ensemble is good, but I mostly would have to attribute that to the writing, wouldn’t you, Teresa?

MFP: Oh, absolutely.

David: There you go.

MFP: I might actually attribute it directly to the last few scenes.

David: Yeah, the writing of the last few scenes is what you mean.

MFP: Exactly.

David: No. Obviously it’s very gratifying, but I’m not going to take any credit for that. By the way, Monk is a show that is, in many respects, written collectively. There are seven of us, and the shows are outlined collectively in the Writers’ Room. During that time not only do we work out the storylines, but lines of dialogue are pitched out and even some of the nuances that you see in the episode are pitched out. Quite often a lot of the ideas that you see in an episode that people think are clever may not generated by the writer of record. It may have been someone else in the room. Of course, my brother Andy, the show runner, takes a final pass on every script himself. He does the final rewrite on every script before it goes before the cameras.

MFP: I know you said in your writer’s commentary that this one sprung from a couple of ideas from Andy and Hy Conrad. Is that right?

David: Yes, yes.

MFP: But what in the script can you point to and say, “That’s all mine. That was me.”?

David: I can’t even… that’s something I’m reluctant to do. I’d actually have to sit down with you and watch it. But you know there are moments since I’ve been working on Monk…. I was off the show for about half a year, but not counting those episodes, where I didn’t participate at all – in a way it was kind of a blow to my ego because those episodes, the first half of season five – those were some of the best episodes ever. In fact I remember thinking, “Oh my god, they don’t need me at all.” I mean "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," "Mr. Monk and the Actor"… those were some great shows. But everyone in the Writers’ Room can point to moments in every episode and claim them as his own.

MFP: So it’s always a team effort?

David: It’s largely a team effort, but keep in mind the dominant creative force behind Monk is a triumvirate: It’s Tony Shalhoub and my brother Andy and to a lesser degree another executive producer named Randy Zisk, but everyone is essential to the process.

MFP: And Randy Zisk is also frequently the director [as he was on “Up All Night”], right?

Randy Zisk

David: Exactly. I would actually add…. I would say it’s a quartet. I would also add Tom Scharpling to that as well. I mean all of us like to think we’re indispensable, and we’re all enormously important, but I would say the first among equals are Andy, Tom Scharpling, Tony and Randy Zisk.

MFP: Is that where most of the decision making occurs?

David: Most of the decisions yes, but by no means all.

Andy Breckman

Tony Shalhoub

Tom Scharpling

MFP: Back to “Up All Night.” It seems to have a somewhat different feel than most episodes… a different structure. How did you decide on that?

David: When you say it had a different structure can you maybe expand on that?

MFP: Well, in that it takes place almost all in one night.

David: I think it just sprang out of our eagerness to see how Monk would handle insomnia and how he would react to a crime if his faculties were so impaired by having been awake for 72 or 96 hours.

MFP: The episode is also pretty light on Natalie. Is that just what the script called for?

David: Yes, it was really just a function of the structure and the structure was imposed on us by the nature of the problem Monk was facing. We thought it would be more fun if Monk was kind of out there on his own, doubting his own senses. If Natalie was with him corroborating everything he was seeing, then we wouldn’t be doing that.

MFP: Whose idea was it to have Monk reading a book by Hy Conrad in the episode?

David: Hy kept pleading and begging us to do that for years and we finally gave in. No, not true, not true. That’s a joke. Honestly, I think someone in the room suggested that Monk pick up a mystery novel and I think originally it was an Agatha Christie book. Someone had pitched Monk opening the book to page one and solving the case instantly and being frustrated because now he has to find some other way of amusing himself at three o’clock in the morning.

Then someone else -- I’ve forgotten who -- had the idea of replacing Agatha with Hy Conrad. We were thrilled because it’s a great inside joke.

MFP: When you’re writing a script like this do you picture who’s going to play the role?

David: We usually imagine Tony Shalhoub playing Monk.

MFP: Really?

David: Almost always. But you were probably referring to our guest stars.

MFP: Right.

David: No, we don’t always have an actor in mind, but it often helps if you have a specific voice in your head when you’re writing a character. Occasionally we’ll have a pretty good idea of who will be playing a part.

MFP: So, for instance in “Rapper” you would probably have had Snoop Dog in mind?

David: I think he was one of a few that was on our short list. Certainly when we were writing “Biggest Fan,” we were hoping Sarah Silverman would come back to play Marci Maven. If Sarah was unavailable we’d have changed the name of the character and had another Monk groupie show up. The story would have played out the same way, but we were glad to get her. We wrote that part with Sarah in mind back when we did “Mr. Monk and the TV Star.” There are other examples of this. "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective," the Jason Alexander episode, I think was one where we were hoping to get Jason Alexander. He was certainly our first choice. We were lucky, because there’s no guarantee that you’re going to get the person you were hoping for.

MFP: Are you ever disappointed that an aspect of the script doesn’t come out like you thought it would?

David: I think you just summed up my whole life. But as for the scripts, of course we are and I would say that I think that’s certainly the case with every writer in every medium, not just television but in features, novels, stage plays, what have you. You always look back on stories, even ones that you’re very proud of and say, “Oh, wow, I wish we had thought of this at the time” or “I wish we hadn’t thought of that at the time.” Of course those emotions fluctuate from mild to extreme, but I doubt there’s even one episode we don’t wish we had another crack at.

MFP: There’s no perfect episode?

David: Hmm… Well, I’m saying no, but please put in parentheses that I hope your readers will argue the point, and loudly.

MFP: Okay. So was there anything that was cut from “Up All Night” that you thought they should have kept in?

David: There were a couple of things. First of all I’m very proud that my name is on that episode and I think everybody did a great job, but there were one or two things that perhaps I would have done differently, but I’m loathe to mention them.

MFP: It’s been a few years now since Bitty Schram left. Still too soon to talk about it?

David: Why don’t you get more specific and we’ll see how much I can reveal.

MFP: Was she simply dissatisfied with the role or the money or was there a genuine desire on the producers’ part to take the show in another direction? Or both?

David: Yeah, I would say things were a bit more complicated than the press reported, but even now I’m still reluctant to elaborate. Let me just add, and I can’t go into a lot of detail about those complications, but I will say – and take this as an article of faith -- that it was never as simple as just the money.

MFP: So what was your reaction to the fan reaction?

David: I guess the short answer is, we expected it. We expected some controversy. We expected some indignation. We knew how much people loved Bitty and she was wonderful in the part, no one’s arguing about that. But I gotta say that we’re thrilled to death with Traylor Howard.

MFP: So were you confident, knowing that Bitty was leaving, that you could get past it and go on?

David: Frankly, not at first. We sure were hoping we could. We had some great stories we wanted to tell, but we weren’t ever sure in the beginning. We were never certain that the character of Natalie Teeger would catch on and be someone that we could write with as much confidence as Sharona.

Happily, we quickly realized that she was. This was a character that we all, more importantly, adored as much as Sharona. In fact, I’ll say this for the record, much as I loved the character of Sharona, I think Natalie is first among equals. I love her character and I love Traylor in the part. The reason is -- and this just comes down to personal taste -- she just is warmer to Monk than Sharona was. Sharona cared deeply for Monk, but there was this tough-love aspect to her relationship with him that I never quite warmed up to. Natalie’s a lot more nurturing. So with a gun to my head, I would say I might prefer the episodes with Natalie just a little bit more.

MFP: Was there ever any consideration of other assistants before you settled on Traylor as Natalie?

David: There was an audition process and there were some talented people who came in, but Traylor really had that rare combination of warmth and relatibility and humor that the part required. It’s our fault entirely that we don’t always give her enough comedy to play, but when we do she knocks it out of the park. Even when we don’t, she finds little bits of business and reactions that are really very funny.

MFP: In introducing Natalie what were the main problems in writing the character?

David: Again, the problem was in stepping up and writing a character that would be as indelible as Sharona, but in a somewhat different way.

We finally hit upon that approach, which was that Natalie’s approach to Monk was warmer. I mean, she addresses him as Mr. Monk unlike Sharona who called him Adrian. It’s more of an uncle/niece kind of a thing in some respects. You know Monk is like the eccentric uncle that needs looking after.

MFP: Any plans for Natalie to ever address him as Adrian?

David: Well, the dynamic would shift a bit if she started calling him Adrian. I guess the short answer is I hope that she won’t, although nothing’s impossible.

MFP: What adjustments did you have to make when Traylor Howard became pregnant with writing the character?

David: We clearly had to get a little bit more clever. For example, the bathing suit episode was off the table. I’m joking, but there were certain situations we couldn’t put Traylor into as soon as she started showing. And when she was really further along we wanted to get her off her feet as much as possible. So we tried to accommodate her. She may have been marginalized in a couple of episodes, I’m dry for any specific examples of that right now, but I’m sure that you and your readers can come up with some.

MFP: Well, I can come up with “Mr. Monk Visits a Farm."

That’s true. That’s true.

MFP: Which she wasn’t in except for a couple of scenes.

David: Yes, one that should have leapt to mind because my name is on it.

MFP: Exactly. So she was just too far along at that point to hide it very well?

David: Yeah, but it’s funny. It’s the kind of a challenge that a lot of shows face, particularly shows that have been on the air for a while. Usually if there’s a recurring female character quite often the actress in the role gets pregnant and they have to start getting clever in addressing it, or in hiding it. We hope we were clever.

MFP: You were. Some of the lamp placement was very good.

David: [Laughs] Yeah, you got to give credit to Randy Zisk and the directors for being artful in that regard.

MFP: So how do you think the New Jersey/L.A. split effects the production. Is it helpful, is it a pain?

David: Opinions vary. We think it’s helpful. The network might argue with us. We like the feeling of autonomy we get from being 2700 miles away from Los Angeles. You know we have a great relationship with USA Network and with everyone there, but we like being able to be mostly left alone when we write these stories. Of course when the scripts are finished the network will always weigh in. Tony and the actors will weigh in, but when we’re taking our first pass at the scripts we like being left alone. I think that the geography helps.