MM: It's amazing, just the way the fans and the cast and crew have been interacting, it's something I've never seen before this show. I mean- we KNOW ShelBel. We KNOW R2. We KNOW all these people. We put them in our show, we name them- indirectly and directly- in our show.
B: I can remember a few instances where they've been talking about that online, your fans have been talking about it online while the show's been going on, and it's like "Oh oh! Did you catch that?" and then they'll all just go nuts!
MM: Yeah yeah, it's been an interesting little symbiosis there.
B: Something about Stacey cheating on Darien or something like that? That was one of the funniest ones I think.
MM: That was pretty direct. Her handle is also in the opening credits.
B: Yes! Yes, it is. And they all have their handles and what have you, they're a very carnivorous little group of ladies.
MM: Oh, absolutely.
B: And not just ladies, there's some guys in there too.
MM: A few. The guys who figure out being one guy among like 50 women is a pretty good ratio.
B: A pretty good place to be.
MM: That's why I went into theatre, especially musical theatre, you know? I was like, the only choice! Every other guy there is looking at the other guys, and all these beautiful women who can sing, and then, it's like "Well- I like my chances HERE." I don't need to be like in a frat or something like that I think I'll just, you know, I'll be in the THEATRE.
B: And on the phone with us from San Diego- holy wow, I like it out there, it's nice out there...
MM: It is!
B: ... is Mike McCafferty from SciFi's "Invisible Man". How are you doin' Mike?
MM: Oh, I'm doing great.
B: Well thanks for hanging out with us here on a Monday, I know Mondays can get kinda busy. You know, with the show, SciFi has been talking, I guess they're not going to renew the show for next season. Has there been any talk about finding another home for the show? For seasons coming up possibly?
MM: Well, you know, it's SciFi finally said they don't think they're going to pick up the show, you know, which is too bad. The show has a tremendous following and really it came down to the atmosphere in addition to the money situation, and hopefully they'll be able to find someplace else to put it. But we're not giving up hope yet, we're digging in the trenches and I only need to mention a show in 1968 that was cancelled called "Star Trek", which still has some life to it as I understand, and I think it's ONLY on it's fourth series now, so we should be so lucky.
B: That's a good sign, though! You got something to look forward to.
MM: Absolutely.
B: Well, that's great. And you have a huge fanbase, actually. It's one of those things that for a show on a network that is not readily available to everybody, for starters- it's a very large fanbase, considering that is something that actually works against a show on a network like this.
MM: Yeah, you know, it's amazing how the fans have come to the show. I didn't think anyone was going to like the show (laughs), but that shows my real confidence in something like this. But the fans really started to flock to it and they've really shown up in force and you're right, a lot of people don't get the show. We syndicate it, but still... I think it's on like on midnights or something on Sunday nights on a lot of stations. It's just been an amazing thing to see the fans in action and just their support, and they've really become an active part of the show.
B: And part of the show even down to the point that some of the folks in the fanclub even show up on the show- at least their names do, on occasion.
MM: We've mentioned a couple of the fans by name, if you look in the opening credits at the top left there's little green letters which scroll by and a couple of them are the handles, the online handles of some of them and there's also something called the "VVSB"...
B: A "VVSB"?
MM: The "VVSB" is for the lead, Vincent Ventresca, it stands for "Vincent Ventresca Shirtless Brigade" (laughter), which was formed by a bunch of girls- at least, I presume...
B: I hope so! For his sake!
MM: Well, it's the 2000s, we're all encompassing, but- they're actually in the opening credits, so we try to be very very interactive with the fans. An episode where they could vote as to which ending they wanted, or which way the character would go at the beginning of the next episode. It's been a really unique experience.
B: Okay, well when we come back, we want to talk a little bit about your character, Eberts, who always seems to somehow steal the show a little bit when he gets in behind those scenes, behind the Official.
MM: I don't know what you're talking about.
B: (laughs) We'll talk about that what doesn't really happen, officially, coming up next!
(edit)
(more tape troubles)
Caller: I know you've done theatre, musical theatre, and I was wondering if you had a preference as to theatre over like the television show thing.
MM: You know, they're so different, doing a play from beginning to end, with a character certainly is a lot of fun, and at the end of your job every night they applaud you, which is a very rare job indeed to have.
B: I know I don't get that in radio...
MM: Yeah, I know when I worked at Taco Bell it didn't really work out that well, asking people to applaud at the end of every shift, so... (laughter) In television they shoot out of sequence, so you can do your most dramatic scene first, when you're not ready for it, and then do like you know something else last, or be running down the hall in your last scene. But they do pay a lot more, and we like that a lot. (laughter)
B: Yay, let's hear it for the money! Show me the money!
MM: Yeah, we don't mind selling out for that kind of stuff every once in a while.
B: Excellent. Well Mike, I have a question for you, and that's regarding your character. We were trying to describe your character in just a couple of words. And the one I came up with was something to the order of a "suppressed bureaucrat."
MM: A suppressed bureaucrat? Yeah, um, probably "yes man"... "toady," I think... anything like that is basically absolutely correct. He's just a second in command, right hand man...
B: Knows everything that's going on although he pretends he doesn't.
MM: Right, right. He kind of sits in the shadows, you know, sometimes speaks out a little too much, but always basically everyone's always theorized that he's actually running the whole show, the whole Agency. I've never suppressed any of that. I firmly believe that as well.
B: Okay, although we officially know this DOESN'T really happen, there are a couple of times, and it has been stated, and Shel if you want to jump in on this I know you're still there...
Shelly: Okay...
B: I know you're still there. Every now and then Eberts has a tendency of stealing the scene by what he's doing back over here in the corner...
MM: (laughs) Well...
B: How does that work?
MM: You know...
Shelly: I have two words- "lint roller."
MM: Lint roller, yeah.
B: Lint roller. Okay, here's somebody who watches her I-Man.
MM: She knows exactly; everyone else is going "What's that all about?" (laughter) Kinky in some way; if so, we've gotta watch the show. Yeah, you know, I stand behind- literally- behind the right hand shoulder of the Official in every single episode, and it gets kind of boring back there. On stage, it would be called "pulling focus," or "stealing the scene." On television, it's just called "good acting" I think. I think it's called "Emmy consideration." (laughter) I think that's the word I'm looking for here.
Shelly : Hint hint!
MM: So I will plead to no charges, thank you very much!
B: Well there you have it, we'll continue our discussion... talking with Mike McCafferty, "Eberts" from SciFi channel's "Invisible Man".
(edit)
(more tape troubles)
Caller: (laughter) I have plenty of chicken and sausages, and I will love you forever.
MM: (laughing) Well... if that's not misconstrued, nothing else will be!
B: There you have it! (laughs)
MM: That's... that's... well, thank you very much!
Caller: Thank you.
MM: I don't know if that... I don't know if you can say that on the radio or not...
B: It's DONE. It's DONE! Yeah, that's it.
MM: I think the FCC just stepped in... That's actually from one of the episodes, actually. I dubbed in some lines and one day me and the guy were sitting in the booth, I was supposed to say one thing, and I said "Let's just roll with it" and just said about twelve random things. I'm supposed to be going nuts in this postal office.
B: Don't say "nuts in a postal office," you know what happens, they all get a little bit nervous when they hear that!
MM: Well, yeah, this is an episode that unfortunately we'll probably never see again because of... um...
B: The events of September 11th, I suppose.
MM: Yeah, and it deals with like someone sending something thru the mail and they actually pulled the episode recently out of the SciFi channel.
B: There's been a few shows here and there that have gotten, how shall we say, the series has been, a couple shows have been removed because of content that NOW, in hindsight, would be questionable. But at the time, you know, was totally okay!
MM: Well, you know, it was, hey, the whole postal worker thing was... You know, tragedy plus time equals comedy, they always say, and the whole postal worker thing was just about ripe for you know, making fun of it, and now I don't think we'll ever be seeing that episode again.
B: Nope. All righty, well- El Dora?
Caller: El Zora.
B: El Zora, okay, see, I'm not good with my Spanish, you'll have to excuse me.
El Zora: It's not Spanish. (laughs) It's a long story. (laughter)
B: Well, sounds good, thanks for calling!
El Zora: Thank you! Bye Mike!
MM: Bye!
(more tape troubles)
MM: this conversation is getting more confusing.
B: You think YOU'RE confused... All right, well, lets see, what were we going to talk about next here. Oh yeah, we were going to talk about how the cast all gets along and how things work out with everybody. It seems like there's some fun and games on the set.
MM: You know, you watch the show, especially Hobbes and Fawkes, who are the two, you know, the two lead guys- not that I'm any less important, of course, but they save me for you know the better stuff- but half the stuff they say they make up! (laughter) And basically, I kid you not, they take most of the script, they throw it away, and they make up the rest, and we have a blast because we all just react off each other, laugh, you know, kid around- it's just absolutely a great time.
B: So it's a pretty loose set then, everybody's pretty cool and everybody gets along good, this isn't like ah- what's that show with all the little skinny twigs, that they're all fighting?
MM: Ally McBeal?
B: Yeah, that one, yeah.
MM: (laughing) Yeah, well, first of all, none of us are very skinny, so that we will never be mistaken for them. Second of all, we're down in San Diego shooting the show, the producers are up in L.A., by the time they see the tapes it's too late, they can't do anything about it. You know, if there's any script problems we solve them down there and then they get what they get. It lends for a very creative, fun atmosphere.
B: Well that sounds like a good show to be on! It's kind of interesting, we were talking a little bit off air that- Oh! By the way, Mel, do you have anything else you'd like to add today?
Mel: No I don't.
B: You just want to sit there and hang out with us? That's cool, you can sit and hang out with us, that's cool!
MM: Kinda like one of those party lines, you know? LiveLinks or something.
Mel: If you could see me right now I'm shaking like a leaf.
B: Are you really?
Mel: Yes, I am! My hand is like "oooooo"!
B: She's shaking like a leaf, Mike, what do you make of that?
MM: Really? I don't know.
B: I think it might have to do with... Have you been eating a lot of sugar? I mean, it's just after Halloween and all, maybe you're having sugar shakes.
Mel: Uh, no.
B: Okay, just checking.
MM: I had a huge sugar high last night, I don't know why, but... (laughter) I've been, you know, trying to lose a little weight, going for the Ally McBeal look, and I had some Halloween candy, and I could have like built an addition to my house with all the energy I had.
B: Oh yes. Well there you have it, we've got more with Mike McCafferty from the SciFi channel's "Invisible Man". He's Eberts, coming up next!
(edit)
B: Looking forward to the new shows that will be coming out, new episodes on the way in January, is that right?
MM: We have the final five episodes of the season. You know, SciFi does things rather oddly in they decide to run in the summer, and then they stop for like four months and then run like five episodes. They try and keep it away from like all the network shows, that way they get all the better ratings in the summer.
B: So they kind of work an opposite schedule, than the major networks do.
MM: Exactly.
B: So where major networks are previewing all their new shows in the fall, and so not to compete against they new shows of "Friends", for example, on a Thursday night...
MM: Right.
B: Which would be really bad.
MM: Yes.
B: They try to do in the off time and hopefully dominate that, dominate the daypart they do it in.
MM: Right. We tried to do it last winter on a Monday, Monday at nine, against Ally McBeal, Roswell, and Everybody Loves Raymond, and that worked out really well (sarcastic).
B: Yeah, because quite honestly, all those shows suck.
MM: Yeah, yeah. When our rating dipped considerably, the reason we went back to Friday nights at 8 was just pure coincidence (tongue in cheek). Basically, we just hide from all the networks, basically. (laughter) Cower in fear, and I even didn't watch the Emmy's because if I watch it I know my eyes would burn out (laughter), that's how much we're scared of them.
B: That's funny stuff. Well, we're gonna visit with you some more, is that okay?
MM: Absolutely.
(edit)
B: I'm going to open up the phone lines for one more caller here, okay?
MM: Sounds great!
(edit)
B: More than just today's best music, we've got really cool people on the radio today too, including from SciFi channel's "Invisible Man" show, he plays "Eberts", it's Mike McCafferty, Mike say hi!
MM: Hey!
B: And on the phone with us, is... let's see, who do we have with us?
Caller: Who me?
B: Yeah (laughs), let me check...
Caller: Rebecca.
B: Rebecca, how ya doin'?
Rebecca: I'm doing good.
B: Well excellent. Got a chance to talk to Mike here, and hang out a little bit on the radio with us this afternoon, as we are experiencing right here in St. Cloud, what could be THE nicest day in November EVER. Do you know, it's 71 degrees right now, here? And I know for those of you like Mike out in San Diego, when they have normal weather like we have say this time of year, it would be the top story in the news, wouldn't it, Mike?
MM: Absolutely. We had that- yesterday we had rain, it was the first time it rained in 160 days. I kid you not. It was the top story. And basically they don't know how to drive their cars, so basically they just let go of the wheel and plow into anything they can find. I love San Diego, but not the drivers when it's wet. (laughter)
B: And Rebecca, did you have anything you wanted to ask Mike on the radio today? That you could think of or did you just want to call up and say "hey"?
Rebecca: Hi Mike, I love you! (laughter)
MM: Well this has been a real productive question and answer session here so far...
B: Hasn't it though...
MM: Yeah, that's A-OK. I am an actor, I do need this kind of adulation (laughter), I don't need to eat really I just need to feed off this...
Rebecca: I'm just a groupie!
B: Ain't nothin' wrong with groupies!
MM: Absolutely not.
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