2003 TV News Archives

Smallville Cast

January 18, 2003: “Smallville” Press Conference

The Comics Continuum has transcribed the complete "Smallville" Press Conference from The Wb Press Tour in Hollywood last weekend. Here are some of the more interesting questions and answers from the Press Conference...

QUESTION: Will John [Lionel Luthor] ever get his sight back?

MILES MILLAR: Tune in.

AL GOUGH: Tune in. That's a very distinct possibility.

QUESTION: How much are you plotting this in advance, and how much do guests turns or episodes that turn out particularly well inform where you go down the road or bring back characters?

MILES MILLAR: Well, we have five seasons in terms of touchstones films in where we know where the show should go. We have the season finales -- we're thinking ahead for the next, hopefully five seasons. So as the mid-act of those seasons as well. But in between we have, you know, we love to see guest stars, like we have this young kid Ryan, who was in two episodes who just blew us away by his acting, andŠ

AL GOUGH: He was so great last season that we brought him back this season. And I think what we sort of learned that you really need to do in TV is obviously have an idea of where you're going, but you have to leave yourself open to these sort happy accidents and surprises that occur.

John Glover, quite honestly, a total happy accident. He was a guest star in the pilot, and he was really terrific. And we were able tobring him back a couple of times during, you know, the beginning of the first season. And then he said he really loved doing the show. And then as we sort of built to the end of Season 1, we said, "Well, we should bring him in as a cast regular in Season 2.

Because really, you know, it's a show about sort of parents and children. And that really helped inform Lex. And he's just such a terrific actor. And he and Michael are so great together. That's a happy accident.

QUESTION: Will he be staying with the show beyond this season?

AL GOUGH: Yes.

QUESTION: Are you planning a cliffhanger for the end of this season as you did the first one?

MILES MILLAR: We're planning a big cliffhanger.

AL GOUGH: Yeah, we're planning a big cliffhanger. There's not really much we can tell you at this point. A, because we don't want to give it away. B, because there are still 10 episodes left to air and some of this wouldn't make sense if you hadn't seen the episodes that are coming up, starting next week.

QUESTION: How long can you maintain the story line that Clark is in high school?

AL GOUGH: In the proud tradition of "Grease" Š

(Laughter)

AL GOUGH: Aaron Spelling didn't seem to have a problem with 90210. I think they'll play through the high school years, and, you know, whatever it is, four years, and then we'll go from there. But I think that is one of the wonderful conceits of American television.

QUESTION: Tom, have you found out the certain places you can't go without being recognized, things like that?

TOM WELLING: Most places.

QUESTION: Most places?

TOM WELLING: Yeah. You know, obviously, you all know we shoot up in Vancouver and it's somewhat of a bubble there. I don't get a chance to leave very often. I know Michael leaves as often as he can. So he's able to enjoy the success of the show, I think, a little more face-to-face than I am. But even this morning when I flew in, I was at the airport, and this gentleman walked up to me and he said, "Hey, hey, hey, you're the guy from that show." And I said, "Yeah." And he said, "I really like your show." And I said, "Thank you." And he goes, "Well, I don't really like it. It's okay. But my son...

(Laughter)

TOM WELLING: ... "my son really likes it. And I guess the reason why I'm saying this is because, you know, I don't see my son that often, and, you know, I get to see my son on Tuesday nights. I always know where he's gonna be and I go hang out with him for an hour. So, thank you." And then, there's -- you know, that's the great thing about it. You know, we're there working hardŠ.

MICHAEL ROSENBAUM: Go ahead. Go ahead.

TOM WELLING: Šenjoying what we're doing, but you know, but for people to enjoy it to that extreme, it's just -- it's a good feeling.

Read the complete transcript at the Comics Continuum website.



2003 Television News

Listed below are all the Television News items archived for 2003 organized into 4 categories:

“Smallville” News:

“Justice League” and “Superman” Animated Series News: “Lois & Clark” News: Other Superman Related Television News:

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