In October of 2000, Larry Brody, the executive producer of Automan, posted to Chuck’s message board. I boldly emailed him and asked if he would do an interview view e-mail for both the CWIFC newsletter and my Automan web site (http://www.flight-o-fancy.com/chuck/automan/). He graciously agreed. From his replies to the questions (supplied by myself and other Chuck fans), I can bet a voice interview would have been even more enlightening and entertaining. Many thanks to Larry for taking time to oblige. Any comments from me are in italics following Larry’s answers.
PM: What is your background as far as schooling goes?
LB: I have a B.A. in English Lit from Northwestern University and spent a year at Northwestern university Law School and another year in grad school at the University of Iowa. This was long before the days of film school or even film courses.
PM: How did you get started in "show biz"?
LB: That question is answered at TV Writer.Com in all its gory detail.
PM: Any other family in the biz?
LB: I was the first one in the family to go into the biz--no connections there in other words. But my 26 year old son, Jeb, is now the head of Clinica Estetico, a New York film production company owned by Edward Saxon, which produced THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS among many others. Their current project is a new film written and directed by Spike Jones, who did BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. My daughter Jennifer (she's over 30 so I'll be coy about the exact age) is the New Media reporter for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, and my 15 year old daughter, Amber, just starred in a family film.
PM: Who are your idols or have been the most encouraging toward you?
LB: My idols have always been Cliffort Odetts and Rod Serling. I never got to meet either of them, but throughout my career I have been helped a great deal by people like Gene Roddenberry, David Gerber, Robert Blake, Stan Lee, Stacy Keach, and others who have put their belief, faith, and creative trust in me.
PM: Aside from Automan, what else have you worked on?
LB: A list of my credits can be found at TV Writer.Com on the Bio page under "Site Details."
PM: Can you tell us more about you BBC project you mentioned on Chuck’s message board?
LB: In the usual "understated" British way, its full name is CAPTAIN LIGHTNING IN THE CARNIVAL OF DOOM. It was created by a brilliant BBC V.P. named Rick Sigglekow, and I'm one of the main writers. The series is aimed at young teens and is about a Jr. High boy whose favorite video game hero comes to life--because our dimension is the next level of the game. Technically, it's a combination of live action and computer graphics, with the computer generating Captain Lightning and all his villains. Creatively, it's a combination of young teen soap opera and all-out superhero stories. The show will be on BBC and a U.S. cable network that I can't mention until all the details are worked out.
PM: If you weren’t working in entertainment, what would you see yourself doing?
LB: Throughout my life the answer to that has changed as I've changed. When I was younger I would quickly have answered, "Nothing!" Now, however, I know that I would be writing books and poetry and raising horses, goats, and chickens on my ranch halfway between L.A. and Santa Barbara. Of course, the entertainment business is what paid for the ranch, so things get a little muddy here, don't they?
PM: What are the responsibilities of an Executive Producer?
LB: At the time of AUTOMAN, an Executive Producer was, simply, the head honcho, the guy who ran everything creatively and financially. He did the casting, supervised the scripts, oversaw the production, dealt with the network and studio on every level. Nowadays, the situation has changed and many Executive Producers are simply in charge of the scripts, with studio personnel handling what used to be the rest of the Executive Producer's chores. Being a control freak, I like things the way they were.
PM: If you remade Automan for present day, how would you change it?
LB: I'd give the show more time in pre-production so we could have better scripts that would better suit the great sfx it's now possible to use.
PM: How were the people on Automan to work with?
LB: It was a great group. I enjoyed the cast and crew of AUTOMAN more than I have any other show. Desi was sensitive and sweet and funny, very much like the character he played, and Chuck was like a real superhero, filled with confidence and inner strength. I made fun of him for it at the time, but the truth is that I literally found him inspiring. He was so positive about life that he always made you feel better if you were down.
PM: What were the ratings for the show like? Was it the audience or "the Powers that Be" who were uninterested in the show?
LB: The ratings were a little below average for the time, which means that they would be a huge hit today. But the series was cancelled long before the audience had a chance to find it.
On a practical level there were two problems. First, the show was ahead of its time. Computers and computer gaming hadn't taken hold of the audience and its imagination the way it did ten years later, and network executives are always behind the times anyway. For a business that is essentially one big gamble, they're a conservative lot.
Second, the sfx made the series the most expensive show on the air at the time, and the studio couldn't afford to keep doing it. Fox kept going back to ABC for more money, and finally the answer was just plain, "NO!"
PM: What was Automan’s suit made out of and how was it made to glow?
LB: The glowing parts of Chuck's suit were made of reflective tape, believe it or not, and an on-the-set blacklight made it shine. This made setting up the shots a long and tedious process.
PM: What was the most challenging aspect of filming the show?
LB: To be perfectly candid, the most challenging aspect of doing AUTOMAN had nothing to do with creativity. It was dealing with uninformed suits everyday and trying to help them understand what the unfinished scenes and such would really look like. You'd be surprised at the number of successful, theoretically intelligent human beings who just couldn't imagine what the SFX (Special Effects) would be, where they would go, etc. The negotiations were insane.
PM: What made you cast Chuck?
LB: He walked into the room and he was Automan. That's really how you cast any series lead. An actor/actress comes in and says hello, and you go, "Whoa! This is so-and-so." Then, when they read the audition scenes, all you hope for is some semblance of the ability to act...because BEING the character is more important than acting technique on TV. With Chuck we were very lucky: He's a hell of an actor and just tore through his audition, giving the lines nuances we hadn't even known were there.
PM: Had you seen him in anything prior to his audition?
LB: Nope.
PM: What was he like to work with?
LB: That's answered in my response to the question about the cast.
PM: Can you share an amusing story or two of working with him?
LB: None that's repeatable without at all of us drinking at least two bottles of wine!
PM: Do you have any props or scripts from the show?
LB: Bad marriages and divorces cause many tragedies. The loss of all my AUTOMAN memorabilia in my divorce is of course the biggest tragedy of all.
PM:Can you tell me about the episode "Fly By Night"? I have a shooting script for it and was wondering how close it was to being filmed before the series was cancelled.
LB: Actually, I left the series for personal reasons before it was cancelled. I was producing both AUTOMAN and THE FALL GUY and had no time left for my life. But while I don't remember FLY BY NIGHT specifically, I can tell you this. Any script marked "Final Draft" was going to be filmed. Since the script writing wase barely keeping up with the production schedule, if FLY BY NIGHT was in Final it was probably the only script that was at that time, which would mean it would be the next show to be shot.
PM:What is your favorite Automan episode and why?
LB: My favorite episode was the pilot. Glen Larson wrote it, and I rewrote it about a dozen times before and during shooting. I love the set-up and the heroic moments--the first heroic moments with a hero who was unique at the time. We had a longer shooting schedule and spent a lot of time on location, which helped the cast and crew bond. Even today, I remember almost every line of dialog, my favorite being Automan's reply when Walter asks him about Donkey Kong. "Donkey Kong is an animal!" I still hear Chuck's voice on that one whenever I think of it.