Lauren and Carter then show up at Kaylie’s place after she fails to show up for practice, and she doesn’t want to hear it. Carter explains that Lauren was only being a friend, and he was staying at her house after he got kicked out of his own house. Kaylie reminds Lauren that she promised she would stay away from Carter, but Carter defends her. Carter tells Kaylie she shouldn’t use this to pull out of the China meet. Lauren tells her they need her to compete, but Kaylie scoffs that they only need her because the team will do better with her than without her. She declares that this time she is looking out for herself. Lauren leaves, and Carter tries to defend himself. Kaylie closes the door in his face.

In the last round of training before the competition, Emily is still struggling to land her Yurchenko one and a half with a blind landing. Leo (Kaylie’s brother) is helping her, but she still can’t get over her fear. Kaylie’s mom (Ronnie) comes to The Rock to ask Sasha to go talk to Kaylie and convince her to compete. Ronnie tells Sasha he’s the only man in Kaylie’s life right now, and she needs him. Sasha, quite intelligently I might add, goes to talk to Kaylie’s dad and asks him to step up and be there for her daughter. Emily returns to the Pizza Shack to pick up her check and Leo sees the note Damon left for her and takes it before Emily can see it. Emily had previously talked about how she didn’t want any distractions and Leo obviously likes her and thinks he’s doing this for her own benefit.

The next morning, a crowd is ready for The Rock vs China meet. Emily is scared to do her new vault and tells Payson she might go back to her old one. Payson admits she still hasn’t been able to get on the bars since her injury. Emily tells Payson she and Damon said I love you to each other, and Payson explains that if she can do that, then the vault shouldn’t be a problem. I really like this new found Emily and Payson friendship. They both balance each other out quite well. Emily needs help trusting, and so does Payson, and I like that they have been able to help each other overcome their fears.

Meanwhile, the National Committee head meets with Kaylie and her mom and surprisingly her dad shows up. Kaylie is told that she wasn’t sent to China because the US stood no chance at winning, and the National Committee wanted to protect Kaylie from this. When the Committee head leaves, Kaylie’s dad angrily declares that no one is going to come into his house and tell him that his daughter isn’t good enough. He finally comes through for his daughter, and Kaylie decides to compete. Back at The Rock, the Chinese team enter the gym quite robotically. I understand that gymnasts have to walk in a very specific way when entering the arena, or moving from one event to another, but the way these Chinese gymnasts walk was a bit over the top. Perhaps it was the angle that it was shot at, but this was the only gymnastics part of the show in its season run where I haven’t quite agreed with the way it was done. That said, they did a great job casting these Chinese gymnasts and choreographing their routines. Jengi Cho (the declared leader of the Chinese team), really resembled a member of the Chinese Olympic team from 2008. Even her cutesy floor routine was very similar to one I saw in the Olympics. Kudos to the gymnastics coordinators for really doing their research about these Chinese gymnasts. Shortly after the US team arrives, Kaylie comes in with her family and asks Sasha if she can compete. The National Team Committee head tells her she thought they had a deal, and Kaylie’s dad quips back that she doesn’t make deals with the devil.

During the meet, The Rock team seems to be proving their merit. Emily overcomes her fear of the blind landing and sticks her vault to win a bronze medal. She also takes home a silver on bars. While competing on beam, Lauren injures herself on the landing. She claims she’s fine to compete but the team trainer says no. With not many options left, Sasha tells Payson she is going to compete on bars. Payson tells him she won’t medal, but Sasha says neither would the alternate, but if she competes, she is inspiring her whole team. Payson doesn’t know what to do but in the end, she overcomes her fear. Her routine was easy and simple but she did it. The entire team is impressed. The Rock team has one last chance to medal (and beat the previous US medal record against the Chinese) when Kaylie goes up on the beam. Sasha tells her to do her triple twist dismount because he’s seen her land it in practice. She is nervous, but decides to trust her coach. Sasha tells Kaylie that if she lands the dismount, she will medal and the team will medal. However, he is looking out for her best interest as National Champion and she needs to do this skill for her. Kaylie ends up nailing her routine and her dismount and edges out the Chinese to win a gold medal (and beat Lauren). The Rock team ends up with 5 medals, and beats the record the “other” US National team had set against them in China (4 medals). What I loved about this part of the episode was not only the incredible gymnastics we saw, but also that The Rock didn’t win every gold medal. I understand that on an ABC Family show, generally things will turn out well (although not always, let’s be honest), but they didn’t make it super cheesy and predictable and have The Rock gymnasts beat the Chinese at every event and take home every gold medal. I liked that it came down to the wire, and The Rock ended up triumphant.

After the meet, The Rock gymnasts go to the Pizza Shack to celebrate and Leo gives Emily the note Damon left for her. She turns on the radio to hear Damon being interviewed about his songs and his muse (Emily). After hearing Damon sing his song on the radio, she decides she needs to go say goodbye. Kaylie offers to drive her and on the way out, Emily tells her mom to love whoever she wants (Chloe then looks over at Steve). Emily gets to the radio station but is told that the interview was pre-recorded and Damon has already left for the airport. This was another thing I loved about the season finale. Nothing was wrapped up in a bow, and this heartbreaking cliffhanger was a great one. While Emily was trying to find Damon, Kaylie calls Carter and leaves a message for him telling him that she loves him. However, Carter has different plans. He goes to Lauren’s room and kisses her, and that’s how the episode ends. I was a bit surprised by this, but Lauren has actually been an incredibly good friend to Carter so I can understand the attraction there. I will be interested to see how the whole Lauren/Carter/Kaylie love triangle turns out. And The National Team Committee is certainly going to give Sasha and his rogue team hell after what he pulled off. I want to know if Kaylie will lose her sponsorships or her title. Will Emily lose her scholarship and/or her job? Will Damon return? (I am pretty sure he will). What’s next for The Rock girls? I think Payson’s on the road to greatness again. I”m wondering what big meet season 2 will center around. I would love to see more international gymnasts and I always love when the girls are in the gym.

I think this entire first season has been fantastic, and I can’t wait to see what happens when it returns in the summer. I was so excited when I learned this show was first coming out because it combines my two great loves in life–television and gymnastics. I am still equally as excited about the success that this show has had as well as the fact that it has continued to keep my attention week after week. I genuinely like the characters, and I am interested in their lives. I loved the curve ball they threw with Summer and Sasha getting involved. I thought the return of Kellie Parker and Marty was great. And even Lauren has had her moments to shine where she showed she was vulnerable and can be very loyal and caring. I also can’t wait to see if Chloe Kmetko and Steve Tanner start dating again. There are so many things to look forward to in season 2. I will have a lot of coverage when we get closer to the premiere date.

Make It Or Break It airs Monday nights on ABC Family and will be returning in June for season 2.

The China team arrives first, looking a bit like robots

In addition, Adam and Kristina find out that Max does have Aspberger’s Syndrome (they hadn’t gotten a final diagnosis in the pilot). They meet with a family whose son was also diagnosed and of course he is playing guitar and dancing around in his underwear. The parents explain they will have to change Max’s diet, see a ton of behavior specialists, and Adam and Kristina are clearly overwhelmed. They get into see a specialist, who helps them understand how to treat Max’s condition.

There’s also a storyline with Sarah and her kids, some other sweet moments, and obviously there is a possum involved somewhere, but I don’t want to spoil too much. I can tell you that after this second episode, I am hooked. I would watch anything that Lauren Graham is in, and after the first episode, I decided I would give the show a shot. However, after the second episode, I truly see a ton of potential in this series. The episode was heartwarming in many ways but also had it’s funny and quirky moments like any good drama should have. I found myself wanting to see more once the episode ended and that is an extremely good sign. People have come up to me and told me that they can’t wrap their heads around watching Lauren Graham play someone other than Lorelai Gilmore. I completely understand and at first it was strange for me too. But I feel like Graham is embracing the role of Sarah, while bringing pieces of Lorelai to it as well. They are certainly polar opposite characters but there are moments in Parenthood (especially in this episode) where you see Lorelai’s wry smile or her sense of humor and sarcasm shine through. There are serious moments for Graham as well (perhaps the ones that seem out of place if you are used to Lorelai), but I’m asking all my readers who might not have been crazy about the first episode, to give this show one more try. If you watched the Friends pilot when it aired, you might have given up on that, but I think Parenthood is going great places. Jason Katims hasn’t let anyone down with Friday Night Lights, and I think he will take Parenthood to great places. The cast of this show is phenomenal, and I like that there are so many story lines to become invested in. I can’t wait to see more.

Be sure to tune in tonight to NBC at 10 pm for “Man vs. Possum.”

Meanwhile, back at Lux and Baze’s new happy abode, Lux is quite depressed. She is spending hours on the phone with Tasha and moping around because of Bug. She’s also skipping school, which was only alluded to, but it made me think that Cate wouldn’t have stood for that. In any case, Baze runs into Jones outside his bar, who came to give Lux her homework. After he had just talked with Jamie and Math about Lux needing friends, he decides to enlist Jones. Jones agrees to ask Lux out, and one of the best moments of the show is when he does, and she says “Why?” Despite her hesitation, she says yes. He promises her that she will love what he has planned. She doesn’t know how he knows what she loves, but he explains that he has his sources.

Back in bridal hell, Cate and Ryan have to tell their engagement story to an entire audience. However, not before we get a hilarious story from a couple that may or may not have resulted in a green card wedding. When Cate and Ryan tell their story, it actually seems like they might reconnect in some way. Ryan had been very cold and harsh to Cate but it is during these small moments that we see him break. They miss each other, and they want to get back together but there is something (or someone) standing in the way.

But back to Lux and Jones’ “date,” that he picks her up at 9 am for. They are driving somewhere quite far and Lux is skeptical. However, they discover that they both have the same taste in music. (At first I thought that Baze told Jones what Lux likes, but it turns out that isn’t true). While Lux and Jones are on their date, Baze finds a text message from Ryan to Lux (she left her phone at home). Ryan is going to buy Lux a car, and Baze is none too pleased about this fact. Finally, Lux and Jones arrive at their destination and Tasha runs out of the house. Lux and Tasha embrace in an incredibly great moment. Jones is obviously a good guy. I am still wondering about Bug and if he will ever come back, but I like that there is another love interest for Lux. Lux and Tasha spend the whole day catching up, and Jones babysits the other foster kids. (Team Abercrombie?)

Before the conclusion to the bridal expo, Cate has to put on a dress. Of course, being her sassy Cate self she makes fun of all the hideous wedding dresses, and when she finally settles on one, she can’t get the buttons closed. Ryan offers to help, and it looks like they might kiss, reconcile and everything will be good again. But this show is better than that. We can’t get what we want (whether we are on Team Baze or Team Ryan) right away. There has to be these real moments that might be a little painful to watch, where all you want is to see them make up, but it just wouldn’t make sense. Alice catches them backstage (almost kissing) and wrangles them back to the expo for a “newlywed game” called How Well Do You Know Cate? And of course, the game has some interesting contestants: Ryan, Baze and Math. At the end of a couple rounds, Baze is leading the pack. When asked Cate’s favorite song, Math comes up with some lengthy answer about a song Cate sang at a talent show, Baze writes down “Bitchin’ Camaro” and tells Ryan it’s like the one he’s going to buy for Lux, and Ryan writes “The Luckiest.” When Cate’s answer is revealed, it’s clear that she crossed out whatever she had written and wrote down “The Luckiest.” The next question is what is your number one relationship deal breaker. Math says the apocalypse, Baze draws a diagram that essentially says “no car” and Ryan writes Baze down on the card and storms out. Cate runs after Ryan and tells him that Baze is her relationship deal breaker too all while Baze is watching. (Awkward!) Baze confronts Ryan and tells him he gets that he is mad about his relationship falling apart but to back off and stop trying to sabotage his relationship with Lux. He explains that if anyone should be giving her a “clunker” it should be him. They go head to head about Baze sleeping with Cate (which Math was surprised to learn) and Baze tells Ryan he didn’t even know that he existed when Cate showed up at his door and they ended up sleeping together. If he did anything wrong, Baze claims, it’s that he listened to Cate. Math storms out because he’s mad at Baze for sleeping with Cate, but for once, Ryan actually agrees with Baze. He confronts Cate about her lies and tells her they can’t just keep pretending nothing happened. She only told him about Baze accidentally. What would have happened if she didn’t get caught? Ryan asks her why she slept with Baze, why she risked their relationship, but she can’t come up with an answer. Cate says it was a stupid mistake and she’s not sure why she did it. (Keep in mind, all of this is while Baze is watching). And in a moment that made me gasp, Ryan tells Cate she is more screwed up than he thought and to stop trying to fix their relationship, because she needs to fix herself.

After this chilling moment, Lux’s date with Jones ends. Jones comes clean about Baze asking him to ask her out, and she doesn’t take it too well. She confronts Baze about it and he apologizes but explains he was just trying to cheer her up. Ryan then comes to the bar to apologize to Baze but explains that he still wants to be a part of Lux’s life. Ryan goes up to see Lux and they bond over missing Cate. The episode ends with Cate getting a package from the wedding expo: a dress with a card that says “best wishes to the happy couple.” Cate cries (as any normal person would do in this situation) and we feel for her. What’s interesting is that Cate cheated, yet for me at least, I’m not quite sure who I am rooting for. I feel sympathy for Cate. She messed up, and now her life is in shambles. There is not necessarily any sort of justification for what she did, but it makes sense. I’m rooting for Baze, too. He has really pulled his life together post-Lux and I want him to be a good father to prove everyone wrong. And a small part of me wants Baze and Cate to see how they really feel about each other, even if Ryan and Cate are most likely meant to be together. I’d also love to see Cate distance herself from the situation. She has been continually confronting Ryan in an effort to repair their relationship, but I’d like to see her do something for herself. Maybe that involves sleeping with Baze again, maybe it involves convincing Lux to move back to her place…I’m not sure. Whatever the case may be, this show keeps me interested, intrigued, and coming back every week, because I truly care about these characters.

Many shows fall into the habit of having hilarious moments but I don’t care about the characters, or super dramatic moments that don’t really have any meaning behind them. Life Unexpected doesn’t fall into any of those conventions. Nothing is perfect in any of the character’s lives, but that’s how life is in general. It’s not sugar coated and perfect, it is full of unexpected (no pun intended) twists and turns and that’s what makes me want to tune in. I know I’ve said this before but come on CW, you have announced so many future projects, don’t let this one go. It is a show worth hanging on to. I know so many people who truly love it, and it deserves a 2nd season. Mid-season, regular season, I don’t care what happens, just renew it. Please?

Life Unexpected airs on Monday nights on the CW at its new time, 8 pm.

I just wondered if you could maybe talk a little bit about planning for that, what you might do different, and are we going to get a major cliffhanger leading into that?
Yes. We have a pretty major cliffhanger coming up here in two weeks. And what we’ve done in season two is really—we’re right into it now. The writers’ group has been going about two weeks now and most of that time; we’ve been just working on the mythology moving forward into season two. What I did, really, was looked and say what we thought we really did right in season one and just try to duplicate that. Luckily, I was sort of surprised, but most new shows, there’s usually a few shows you’re sort of not happy with and I’ve got to say, I mean, just amazing case, amazing crew. We had some really good directors this year and we got really lucky. I mean, I can’t really think of any show in season one that I wasn’t happy with. I mean, I’ve got my favorites.  But even the ones that are my least favorite, I still think came out pretty good.  So I’m pretty happy about that.  I mean, we have been dealing pretty specifically with Tiffani’s pregnancy.  That’s something we’re really trying to deal with in season two. We’ve decided not to bring it up on the show.  So working around that has been a real challenge and very interesting, but kind of fun to find out technologically what you can do in terms of green screen and things like that to be able to work around that.  So those are the challenges we’ve got going into season two. But for the most part, the way I’m looking at the show right now is it ain’t broke and we’re not going to try to change anything majorly in season two in terms of dynamic. For me, the show is really about Peter and Neal and that’s where the focus is going to stay, supported by Elizabeth and Mozzie, and that’s really where we want to keep it going into season two.

One of the things that I think was probably the most amazing things I’ve read was how when you’re coming up with this concept, you’d never been to New York and you did your research, I guess, with Google Streets.  I was kind of wondering how in hindsight did that work out, and is New York, I guess, different than you thought it would be?
That is true. Yes, I had not been to New York.  New York was a very obvious choice if you’re going to do a world of white collar crime.  And Manhattan, you really can’t beat it.  I mean, it’s the perfect city for the show.  And the one problem that I had was that I had not been there. So I’m a computer geek anyway, and I think Google Streetview when it had first came out, I thought it was pretty amazing, and once I started poking around on it, in Manhattan, it was really nice. I mean, you could stroll down the street. I could plan out Neal and Peter’s movements and actually walk through them. That was really helpful just in terms of sort of orienting myself geographically. What really shocked me about New York, I have to say, are the people. I mean, I sort of—being from Colorado originally and then from L.A., there was sort of a perception that people from New York can be very cold and sort of distant.  I was really surprised that that was the exact opposite of what I found.  I found that people there were incredibly nice, incredibly warm. I have to say that I was sort of—Central Park was probably the biggest surprise I had.  I spent some of the most peaceful moments in my life I’ve spent just sort of strolling through Central Park.  And that’s from a guy who grew up in a very small town in Colorado.  So that was probably the biggest shock is that there were these places of solitude in New York that you could find.  It wasn’t the big hustle bustle capital that I was expecting. It does have those elements, but there are also these wonderfully tranquil moments that really surprised me.

You’ve often said in interviews that Neal and Peter are the smartest guys in the room. And over the course of the season, we’ve seen them go up against some pretty clever criminals, but really the only one who kind of seems like a match for them has been Keller, which makes me wonder since Fowler is somehow connected to the whole case scenario. Clearly, he’s not the guy pulling the strings. So when are we going to learn more about the mastermind behind that and how is that going to play into future episodes?
Yes. The, as we call him, the big bad, as we call him, who ultimately will be the guy that Fowler reports to. We’ll learn a lot more about him in season two. Our season two, and knock wood, our season three mythology really deals with that and really we spend some time exploring Fowler’s back story, which is actually kind of interesting stuff.  Glad to hear.  I’m don’t know if that was you saying you like Keller, but that he was formidable, which I was very happy to hear. We liked Keller quite a bit, and actually the bad guy, Wilkes, who’s coming up in next week’s episode of “Front Man,” is pretty formidable also. Just as a side note, people have asked in “Free Fall,” which is our finale where Neal had bailed out of a judge’s chambers and ended up in the front page of the newspaper, whether there were going to be ramifications. And yes, Keller is one of those ramifications. Wilkes, also, is somebody from Neal’s past, which is that sort of by exposing himself, Neal sort of comes out of the shadows slightly, and that’s attracted some of the people from his own life. So two of the bad guys, Fowler will return and we’ll find out a little bit more about who’s pulling his strings and why, which I think is actually a pretty interesting story.

How hard is it to maintain a level of excellence writing for that kind of a [large] cast?
It can be difficult. What we’ve done is we’ve really broken it down to each person has their own sort of specialty.  Peter’s specialty is usually sort of the puzzle solving, the putting the pieces together that an FBI agent would be good at.  And Neal, I always look at Neal as somebody who can sort of look at the problem from outside the box and approach it in a way that most people wouldn’t think to.  Mozzie adds his own expertise, which usually that sort of that street level guy who knows the way that criminals do it.  And Elizabeth has a certain amount of emotional intelligence that we try to play off of. She’s going to see things from a human perspective that a lot of times Peter won’t see or Neal won’t see. So it can definitely be difficult, but I have to say that at times, we put all four of them in a room has been some of my favorite scenes.  In “Bad Judgment,” for example, when Elizabeth finally meets Mozzie.  Mozzie walking in and debugging their house is one of my favorite sequences so far, I think, in the series.

I wanted to know since the first season has done so well with the viewers and the ratings and everything. Does that take the pressure off or does it actually add more pressure for you to kind of keep the momentum going for season two?
I would say both. It’s a different kind of pressure. There’s a certain pressure you feel when the ratings are sliding and every week they go down. That’s not a good pressure. It’s sort of usually a debate whether you’re going to work on the show or start sending out resumes. And the pressure we’re under right now, I much prefer. It’s really the pressure to keep the show going the way it’s been going. To keep people happy. As a lot of you probably know, I’ve spent a lot of time on Twitter lately. Pretty well with Matt … and things like that. And the one thing I like about it is it really connects you to people that watch the show. I mean, you get to see what people like and don’t like. But just by putting a face on it like that, it really does, I think, increase the pressure to do it right. I mean, there’s several people, I don’t actually know them by name. I sort of know them by the handle or their Twitter icon. But there’s definitely a sense that we’re doing the show for them. And it’s very gratifying. I mean, for example, this last week’s episode. The actual production of it was very difficult. We ran into a lot of problems just in terms of logistics and all sorts of stuff. The episode was really very difficult to put together and for all of us on the production side, it was very tough. And we usually watch the Twitter feeds coming in. We’re on the west coast. And we’ll start watching the feeds come in from the east coast starting around 7 o’clock out here. And when you see people reacting, people who you know are fans of the show saying, Oh, I really liked Keller or that was a great scene. It’s a really good feeling because we feel like we’ve done something right and kept the people who like the show happy. And at the end of the day, that’s really all we have. It’s people liking the show, telling their friends to watch the show. And that’s how we survive. I mean, a lot of shows go a season. A lot of shows die in season two. And what we’re trying to do now is just keep building on the momentum we’ve got and do our best to really make a show that’s going to keep people who really do like the show happy and try to bring some new people on board.

And what surprised you the most about filming the first season? Was there something you weren’t expecting that kind of popped up, either in the filming or in the story breaks or anything like that?
I think, in a vague sort of way, I would say it was the reaction to the show. You never know. You go in expecting certain things. You do the best job you can and then you just put it out there. I would say, I expected Tim and Matt to really pop. I mean, the whole show was really designed for those two guys to pop. I think I was surprised by sort of the Matt Bomer’s star quality. I mean, we always had our fingers crossed, but the reaction to Bomer was pretty shocking to me regardless. I mean, having travelled out to New York several times and seeing his picture up everywhere was kind of neat. But then seeing the reaction to it was even better. From a story standpoint, I think probably the most refreshing thing that happened was we’ve been making a real effort to try to make an intelligent show, to do a show that tries to stay smart. I mean, we may not always succeed, but at least that’s our goal. And I wasn’t quite sure how that would be accepted. I mean, we’re constantly—we have a lot of chess games. We quote Dostoevsky, things like that. I didn’t know how things like that would be accepted. Last week’s episode which dealt a lot with sort of the nuance of wine. Again, in an MTV world, I wasn’t sure if people were going to like it. And the fact that people do, the fact that people seem to really be buying into that and enjoying it, where a lot of shows rely really heavily on action, we obviously don’t. We don’t rely much on girls in bathing suits and we haven’t done that. And it was refreshing to really not have to and to not be pressured to because people have really reacted well to—so I guess, maybe the more intellectual pursuits that we’ve done on the show. That’s been really nice.

Earlier, we had a chance to talk with Tim and Matt, and they were talking about their characters. They talked about Peter and Neal having a growing relationship, and they were learning to trust each other. And I kind of wanted to get your opinion if you saw it that way and what do you think the dynamics of the characters will evolve to?
Again, going into season two, one of the things we want to be careful of is that we don’t adjust too much. But again we kind of keep what’s working. And too, there’s a growing trust between the guys. What we’ve really moved away from is Peter is not afraid currently that Neal’s going to pack his bags and run. We’ve definitely advanced the relationship to that not being a big concern. In the first few episodes, it was always is this guy going—In the pilot even, when he says cut his anklet, Peter was pretty sure he’d run. At this point in the episodes we’ve done, when Neal, if he cuts his anklet, Peter’s pretty sure he’s sticking around. So that doesn’t really affect the trust between the guys. What does still factor in is Kate, the fact that Neal still has secrets on that side, and Peter has a few of his own. And that’s where the trust issues between the guys will still play and will continue to play into season two, the issues revolving around her, around that relationship. I think Elizabeth had a line. If I recall, it might have been flipping the coin, where she says there’s only reason Neal will ever lie to you. And he says Kate. And that again, is going to be something we really factor in in terms of the trust going forward. As far as the relationship between the guys, I think the actual growing relationship between Tim DeKay and Matt Bomer is factoring in. And you see it on the screen. You see it between takes. The guys just really like each other. And I think that’s what’s factoring in with Neal and Peter that these guys are spending time in the office together and they’re getting to really like each other. They like each other as human beings. There will always be the trust issues, the moments when Neal steps out of the room and Peter may look at him sideways or tell Jones to run a fingerprint on somebody. But it’s two guys who can go out and have a beer together. They really, really enjoy each other. That will be the relationship we’re evolving. The trust issues will always be there. But it’s two guys who just really, really enjoy each other’s company. We’re moving that forward.

Take us into the writer’s room for a minute. When you’re thinking about the crimes, how they’re committed, how they’re going to be solved to each episode, how do you guys—do you sit around and kind of like draw things out on a board? Do you act them out? Like what do you guys do?
Yes. For anybody that is following. You’ve probably seen us put up a couple of the white boards. So you probably know I’m not much of an artist. Yes. We do sort of all of the above. Usually, what we start with—there’s a process we’re doing right now. We’ll start with an idea. Usually, from me it can really come from anywhere. I mean, we scour some of the Google feeds in terms of what white collar crimes are happening. We have Tom Barden who’s our FBI consultant. He’ll mention some interesting crimes to us in certain cases. For example, going back to Bad Judgment, which ultimately ended up being one of my favorite episodes. That one started out really with us saying what’s the most boring crime we could possibly do? Let’s see if we can do it. Well, in that case, it was mortgage fraud. So that one was a little bit of a challenge, partly because that particular episode had what’s supposed to have been a bank heist and we were crashing into various things, not the least of which was a production problem, getting into a particular bank at that time. And so the last minute we just kind of swung it around and said okay, we need a new idea. And literally, that was it. It was my desire. I just said I know. What’s the most boring crime we got? And we thought about it for about two seconds and I just said mortgage frauds. All right. Let’s come up with a mortgage fraud crime and try to make it interesting. And then off that, the way I like to do it is I do what I call, if anybody remembers the old Mad magazine’s Scenes We’d Like to See. That’s what I’ll do. I usually start off with, and just start throwing things at the board and say okay, in this episode I’d really like to see a scene like—I happen to know in that particular episode that I wanted to see the upside down signature thing that we did. I really wanted to see that. I had a desire to see Peter blackmailed or the threat of blackmail. And we knew going in that we really wanted to have Elizabeth meet Mozzie in some context. And so usually, on the white board, I’ll just put those things up. It’s like we’ll say at some point, Mozzie meets Elizabeth. Peter gets blackmailed and Neal does an upside down signature. And then we’ll just try to start weaving those together. And throwing out scenarios, trying to figure out like well, how can we get that? What’s a good reason for Elizabeth to meet Mozzie? And we’ll riff on that for a few hours. They can meet this way. They can meet that way. In this case, it was—usually, all the character work where we’ll say well, Peter’s not going to be particularly happy about introducing them. So maybe Mozzie sneaks into the house. And then we’ll bang our head against that for a while. And ultimately in that particular episode, we came up with the idea that Mozzie came in to sort of bug sweep the house for them, which led us backwards to saying ah, well, who bugged the house? Fowler. So we had a pretty good Fowler episode. So it all—it’s really—what’s great about the writer’s room is if anybody is following the White Collar writers, we’ve put up some pictures there. We’ve got a pool table. We’ve got couches. It’s a lot like hanging out with a bunch of your friends. It’s like a coffeehouse. And just riffing. Which is great. They pay us fairly well to do it, which is kind of nice. We’ve got a really good group of people. And again, they come from everywhere. I mean, for example, Free Fall started—I really didn’t have much idea what I was going to do for the mid season. I knew where it was going to end up. I knew the scene with Peter and Kate in the room. That’s about all I knew. Everything else came from my desire. I had this bizarre idea that Neal should buy a bakery and that Peter didn’t know why. And that was really the genesis of that particular episode, that if we do nothing else other than, hey, wouldn’t it be neat if Neal bought a bakery? Why? Because Peter would be like why’d the hell this guy buy a bakery? So a lot of times the best ideas I think we come up with are the ones that are usually the most unexpected or the most random. But that’s pretty much the process. There really is no direct line ever from start to finish. But once we get on a line, we just break it down and get to a point where it all makes sense and we usually track it through or walk it through and say let’s walk through the story from Peter’s point of view and now Neal’s point of view and now Elizabeth’s. Now the bad guys. And just hopefully, make sure we’ve covered all the motivations, which is usually—If you walk away from the episode having watched it and it felt right or it felt good, it’s usually because we did our job right and didn’t have any weird motivations. Usually, what ruins an episode for, I think somebody viewing it is saying wait a minute; I don’t think Peter would do that. Or wait, that doesn’t make any sense. Neal’s not that dumb. Or something like that. So that’s sort of the process, I guess, in a nutshell.

Yesterday, I was part of the Burn Notice interview with Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar. And there was a question about would there be any kind of crossover that they wanted to do out of the USA Network shows. And they particularly mentioned specifically White Collar and talking about the potential of how the characters and the whole tone of the shows were so similar. And wondered what you thought about that.
No, I completely agree. I mean, Matt Nix created Burn Notice, and I are pretty good friends. Yes, if we’re going to do a crossover that seems like the one to do. It will be interesting to talk to USA about it. I know there’s been some joking about it, but I think in terms of a crossover that would be by far the most logical and the most fun. I guess the interesting thing would be would we send Michael to New York or would we send Neal to Florida? So as they say stay tuned. But that would be something that would be, I think, pretty awesome.

And in terms of as you’re writing, are you looking at particular guest stars that you want to plug in? Do they come in after the fact or before the fact?
Almost never do we know beforehand. Usually, I mean, again for those people following on Twitter, I’ve been putting up some like script page sneak peeks. I’ll put them up for the episodes for—like I put one up for yesterday for Front Man Now, if it’s somebody like Noah Emmerich, who plays Fowler, we’ll know that because we’ve locked him down probably a month or two before because we’ve made a deal with him to do three or four episodes in the season. But somebody like Dan Neal, who’s coming up this next week or Ross McCall, who played Keller this last week., which is airing next week. I believe that was—I’d have to check the date, but I think we were filming that in late November. And if you want to back that up, it was a few weeks before that that we were writing the thing. And with that, we almost never know ahead of time who the guest star is. Usually, we’ll write the character and then casting will go out and say what are you looking for? And what’s been really great is because the show’s doing pretty well, it’s definitely attracted a much higher class of actor who suddenly says, hey, yes, if I’m in New York I’ll spend a week and do a White Collar, which has been really nice.

One of the things I really love about it is Mozzie. I think Willie Garson adds so much to the show in terms of not only just being a really smart guy, but he brings a lot of humor. I’m wondering if we’re going to start seeing more of Mozzie’s connection to this underground world coming up in season two.
Yes. Yes, we are. We’ve got that. We’ll also find out a little bit more about Mozzie. For example, why he’s called Mozzie, which I can’t tell you. And more of his back story, which definitely deals with that world. And yes, I mean, he’s really evolved as one of the most fun characters. I mean, I think, as one of the executives told me we’d turned in a scene. This was last year at some point. We’d turned in a scene and a USA executive had called me and said you know what I love about these scripts? Every time I see the word Mozzie in a script is I know something fun is going to happen. And I think that’s really a huge part because of Willie Garson has really become the gauge, whenever it’s Neal and Mozzie get together and Mozzie or anybody together, it adds a certain special spark to that particular scene. And really, really pops. By the way. To the Burn Notice/White Collar crossover. Some of the writers here were toying with the idea that Mozzie could be Sam’s nephew, which I think would be kind of interesting.

Another fun thing that I think, more so in the last episode, was sort of starting to see Peter more traverse these gray areas with Neal. He’s not completely opposed to doing something that maybe a couple of episodes ago he would have thought was completely wrong. How much is that going to factor in in the future? I mean, might that eventually come back to bite Peter?
Yes. Yes to all the above. I’m not going to give too much away for our season finale, but that actually, that particular aspect, Peter’s up to now, sort of unwavering belief in the system and in the Bureau gets shaken pretty good. And it allows Peter, or sort of pushes Peter, to the other side a little bit. I mean, again, we’re not doing a radical re-shifting of the show. Peter’s not suddenly going to become a master criminal. But like you said in this last episode, his willingness to sort of bend the rules more to achieve what he considers a good end, that will increase in season two. Actually, that factors in very heavily.

We saw a few weeks ago that you posted something [on Twitter] asking for people to come up with ideas for drinking games for White Collar. And we were wondering if you got any good suggestions.
Yes. Actually, the question was a little bit duplicative. What I was actually curious about for myself was what people were perceiving as sort of the very repetitive moments of the show. And what we usually got was—The two that I think made me laugh the hardest because they’re the most true were drink every time somebody says Kate. And take a double shot every time somebody says trust me. Those were the two that kind of jumped out. But again, for me, it was sort of way to just see what people were perceiving as sort of maybe something a bit redundant on the show. And I think those two were pretty interesting. For the most part, we got a lot of drink every time Matt Bomer’s gorgeous which—

That’d be a lot of drunk people.
Exactly. So but yes, I would say probably Kate and trust me were the two big ones.

How did you come up with the concept for White Collar?
Well, the short version was I had an idea that was called Redemption, which was a much darker idea. It was really from my desire and love—I really love The Shield. It was one of my favorite shows. And knowing it was heading off the air, I’d come up with an idea for a Vick Mackey type character, who gets put in prison for allegedly killing his partner and he has to be released. The DA’s daughter gets kidnapped and the only person that can sort of solve the crime is this Vick Mackey guy. So they let him out of prison and put an ankle bracelet on him and track him while he sort of tracks down this kidnapper. And to move forward with it. Again, I called it Redemption. I thought it was pretty good. And a friend of mine called and said hey, you might want to take a look at this show called Life. And when I saw it I went oh. Which it was exactly pretty much word for word that idea. So I kind of shelved that idea. And then USA had contacted me and said hey, would you be interested in doing something for us? And so I was looking for different ideas. One of the things I’d wanted to do, always do, was sort of a buddy comedy in the vein of 48 Hours or Lethal Weapon. And I dusted off the Redemption idea and said what if I run this through, this dark story, what if I run this through USA’s blue sky filter? That was really the genesis of the show. I’ve said before I was also going through a fairly painful divorce at the time, which I think, probably it was a good thing that it happened at the time because that became the Kate story for Neal. What I was really worried about going in was that I was going to have this very charming con man and I wanted to make sure that there was something that grounded him. Something that gave him a soul. And so what I was going through personally really became his search for Kate. That was about it. And I’m very, very glad people are actually watching it.

Now Miss Carroll has a musical background?
Yes.

Is there any chance that you could make a musical number featuring June and Neal working an episode?
That’s funny. We were breaking that particular idea yesterday. I don’t think we’ll do a musical number, but the idea of Neal and June singing together. Yes, that is actually up on our white board right now.

He [Matt Bomer] kind of had a little bit of a following last season on Chuck and so he just kind of jumped right into this one.
Yes. I can’t say enough how happy and lucky I am to have Matt on this thing. I give most of the credit to Gayle Pillsbury who was my casting director on the pilot. I’ve said this before, too, but Matt came in. We’d been casting lots and lots of really good looking guys. It’s L.A. A lot of good looking people. And I remember walking in that particular day. And Matt who is fairly unassuming normally. I remember he was looking through his ipod in the corner, had jeans on, and his glasses. Gayle pulled me aside and said keep an eye on that guy. He’s a star. He came in and read and we liked him right away. We took him to the studio and he went up. He went to the network and they really liked him. We brought him back, I think, two or three times. USA tends to be really, really picky when it comes to casting, which at the time, it’s frustrating. But ultimately, I’m really glad we did take the time to get it right. There was a moment in the room where—I remember it was the scene from the pilot where he’s explaining to Peter that he’s got the photo and when they … deduction he wants to go look for Kate. And that was the audition scene. And I remember, about halfway through that scene, I looked at a couple of the executives at USA and we kind of nodded at each other because we knew at that moment that we had the right guy.

As you look across the board of shows like your show and Burn Notice. And these shows are actually beating a lot of other network shows out there. I mean, when the Jay Leno Show was still going pretty strong on NBC, I mean you guys had the same sort of numbers. And what do you think that says about cable TV in that is it the creative medium that’s allowing more fans to go over there than some of the more generalized network shows?
Yes, I think so. I mean, it’s interesting because a lot of people—There was some rumors that when Leno was leaving that 10 o’clock slot that the USA 10 o’clock weekly slot with us in sight and Burn Notice would move over to NBC. And to be honest, I was kind of terrified. I don’t think there was any reality to that rumor, but just hearing it scared the heck out of me. I can’t speak for a lot of the other cable networks, but, I mean, USA’s a really good place. And I mean, for me creatively, what’s wonderful about USA, is really two things. One is they know who they are. That’s really the biggest thing. The tough is having developed shows at networks before. The hardest is when you get a sense that the network themselves doesn’t quite know what their network identity is. Because then you get pulled in a lot of different directions. One day, they might tell you you’re a teen drama and then the next day, they say you know what? Instead, we want you to be a darker 10 o’clock show. And it’s that sort of thing that’s very hard to develop any kind of coherency to a show. USA knows exactly who they are. If you tune into USA Network, you know what kind of show you’re going to see. And they embrace that. And the other thing that’s wonderfully creatively is we don’t worry. I don’t have to worry that they’re going to can the show in two episodes if we don’t pull the numbers. I mean, they’ve always been right from the beginning, Bonnie Hammer and Jeff Wachtel have said to me don’t worry about it. We support this show. We believe in the show. If the numbers aren’t good, don’t worry about it. We’re not going to kneejerk. We’ll develop it. We’ll find the right spot for it. And luckily for us, we’ve been pretty successful off the top. But it was just that freedom of knowing we can sit down and develop the show we want to develop. What ends up happening a lot of times, is it becomes this kind of weird pendulum effect where you’ll have one episode that the numbers are bad. And keep in mind, by the time an episode airs, we may be downstream six or seven episodes. And so if one set of numbers are bad a particular week, you may get the call that oh, no, we need more female appeal on the show. So suddenly, you’re reacting to it but your reaction is six episodes downstream and by the time you get to that episode, there’s probably a new issue. It’s like oh, we need more action or something like that. So if you really give into those, you end up sort of vacillating wildly. And if you’ve ever wondered why a certain show’s all of a sudden in the middle of the season starts getting weird and going all over the place, that’s usually why. It’s usually you’re reacting to something that happened previously in the season. So I think probably right now the success of cable has a lot more to do with the fact that the networks, the cable networks themselves, really do have an identity. If you tune in to an FX show, you kind of know what you’re going to get. If you tune into HBO, you know what you’re going to get. And I think that’s probably been one of the greatest strengths. That and I think, just by virtue of having a smaller more targeted audience, I guess, not a lot smaller these days, but by doing that you’re also not trying to play the board and make everybody happy. You can really make your show about something. I mean, again, The Shield, like I said was one of my favorite shows and you couldn’t have done that show on NBC or CBS. It just couldn’t have been done. And I think there’s sort of a generalizing effect that happens with the networks where you have to appeal to a broader base. And it kind of smoothes everything out and makes it a little less interesting. And I think, now, probably thanks to Monk and Burn Notice, USA is sort of cool to watch now. And that’s helped us a lot, too. That people—a couple of years ago, if you were talking about USA Network, I would see the word guilty pleasure attached to it a lot. And I got to say, I’ve only seen guilty pleasure attached to my show just a handful of times. So I think there’s been sort of that awakening where people look at it and say hey, it’s cool to watch cable.

It seems like whatever the case is for the episode is almost like a little bit more on the back burner as far as Neal. Like when the show started, it was like you had to have Neal to do this case. And now, it’s sort of like this is the case we have and here’s Neal and we’ll see where he fits in. Is that kind of the way we’re going or are we going to get back to more like really super criminals? Does that make sense?
A little bit of both. I mean, I think in terms of, I guess the first part of your question, which is the cases themselves. I think if Peter and Neal evolved as a team, initially we worked very hard to make sure that Peter was sort of the zone operation. He didn’t really need Neal. Neal happened to be a tool in his belt. And we sort of were—You didn’t have to be very picky to about the cases we would include Neal in. I mean, it wasn’t—Early on the season, you may have gotten the impression that Peter has other cases going and we’re only choosing to show you the ones Neal’s involved in because that’s the show. As they’ve evolved together as partners, we’ve been able to say look, this guy is nearly a good a partner as I can have in anybody here that’s a full-fledged FBI agent. So how do we bring Neal into that? So we haven’t really shied away from that and we’ve decided to sort of embrace that. The second part of your question is–One of the things we got into early on was I always said this show can’t be a whodunit. I mean, there’s way too many shows that have been done like that and Monk did it really well. Most of the CSIs and the Law and Orders do that really well, the whodunit. So mine has always been it’s got to be a how done it. Early on, we spent a little more time worrying about the case of the week. We spent a little more time worrying about the details. And somewhere in the middle, we changed over a little bit and became a little bit more about the characters where the case, as you said, was on the back burner, where it was a little more like the case itself didn’t matter. And we focused a lot more on the character. And I think All In, which was the Chinatown episode, was a good example of that which was much more about the Peter/Neal relationship and a lot less about the case. There was nothing particularly surprising in the case itself. After a few episodes like that, we really sat down and did some soul searching and said we can actually do both of these. I think Bad Judgment was probably a good example of that where we decided to build more twists and turns into the case itself. Hard Sell is another good example as well as Free Fall, and next week’s episode is a little more like that, too. So I think it’s always been a real balancing act with us as to how much emphasis should we put on the case. I’m always sort of surprised when I see the reviews that attack us for not having a lot of twists and turns like CSI or like Law and Order. And it surprises me only because I don’t think we ever set out to be those shows. I mean, our shows, I think, were much more about the relationship between Peter and Neal and I think we function best when we play in that arena. I think, Free Fall probably being a good example of that where the case really took a back seat to the characters stuff. But going forward into season two, one of the things we’re trying to do is add more elements like that. I think, again, looking back at Bad Judgment. There was some—the thing with the upside down signature. The thing where we had the cop leaving the tip in the tip that he leaves at the table. Things like that. We’re more aware of those. We’re trying to add some more interesting twists into the story, but at the same time we’re going to keep going with the Neal/Peter character stuff that I thinks’ been working.

New York itself is kind of a character in the show. Are we going to like take any trips? Will we be leaving New York at all?
No. We have a tax break we get from New York which is going to keep us in New York. Which I’m very happy about actually. There was a little bit of discussion about that, but the great thing about New York is it’s a microcosm of the world, and we really don’t need to go anywhere. I mean, the only trip I could see in our future would maybe be to Miami.

Have you ran into trouble shooting on the street?
Surprisingly, no. It was one of my big fears going in that New York would be tough. My last show, which was Hawaii, which we shot in Oahu. I was shocked at the nightmare that traffic became. I had no idea that an island could experience gridlock the way it did. And I figured New York would be ten times that bad. But we got there and I think it’s a huge testament to how good the crews are and our crews especially. But no, it’s been really great. I think part of the reason is it’s a very compact city. You don’t have to go too far to change looks. And the other thing is we’ve got very smart guys. Jeff King, who’s my co-executive producer in New York, is a very smart guy out there. And what we’ve come up with is we do what we call location groups where we’ll pick a big location. For example, Free Fall, the courthouse became a big location for us. And then what we’ll do is literally, sort of pick a compass point in that particular location and draw a big circle around it that’s maybe a quarter of a mile around and say okay, if this is our main anchor location, what do we have around here? And then our location people will come back and say we’ve got a diner we can use. There’s a great little park over here. And then in the writer’s room, we’ll sit there and say okay, if that’s a location then we had set that. We wanted that scene to take place in the FBI. Why don’t we move it out here to this little diner? So by doing things like that, we’re able to really utilize our time in New York. So it’s like once we make the company move out to a place and set down there, all the other locations are within close proximity and we’ve had no issues at all.

As the creator of the show, did you go in knowing how it’s going to end? Or do you let the characters drive the storyline?
A little bit of both. I mean, I knew the big points. Like I’d always known that Peter was going to confront Kate in that hotel room at the end of Free Fall. I knew that. I’d known some of the big mythology beats, I knew. There were a lot of scenes that I’d wanted to use throughout the season. For example, the hotel scene with the girl in the portrait, with the French girl, that scene was actually originally going to be in the pilot, but as I was breaking the pilot down, that particular—the pilot just got too long and so I dropped that scene out. And I knew I wanted to use it somewhere so I kept it in my back pocket. In terms of the large mythology arcs through season one and a great deal into season two, I’ve known what’s going to happen in the big moments. I knew Peter was going to confront Kate in that hotel room. I knew the ring. I knew Fowler existed. I knew what his story was going to be. The finale coming up in two weeks, I’ve always known the ending to that. And planning into season two, I’d had a fairly good idea going into that. Outside of that, that’s the stuff we’re working on now. I wish I’d had the foresight to say that I’d planned all out five seasons of the show, but I wasn’t quite that optimistic going in.

One of the things that’s always impressed me about the show is you guys have such a great structure. Not only do we have a really compelling case, but you also manage to develop moments about the characters and you also continue the ongoing mythology that’s going on with Kate. I always come away feeling smarter about all of these things and I don’t feel anything’s ever missing. How do you guys pull that all together?
Well, thank you. I’m glad you do. That’s probably the toughest thing. I don’t know. My background, I started as a feature writer. Probably one of my proudest moments was Jim Cameron hired me to do True Lies II, which ended up bumping into 911 and sort of folding up. But I spent almost a year and a half working with Cameron and he was a real stickler for structure. And I think where I got my just desire to really push the structure. I’m somebody that approaches the story really from two things really. Structure and motivation, which is as long as the character motivation is true then usually things hold together pretty good. What you said earlier, it really is sort of the crux of it for us is trying to manage those things. We really do. We have the mythology elements. We have the character moments and we have the story elements. And all those things are always vying for time. I mean, it’s all about page count. Usually, it’s a 60 page script. And you can break it down pretty quickly. It’s like if there’s going to be a story with Elizabeth and Mozzie in this episode, you know it’s maybe 15 pages, which means suddenly you’re—You’ve got 45 pages to do everything else. So there’s always that balancing act. It’s a little tough. I have to admit I’ve borrowed freely early on from Burn Notice. As I mentioned Matt Nixon and I are pretty good friends. I was very close, Nix was very close to hiring me as his number two on Burn Notice, and at the time, I would have loved the chance to go sit down in Florida and just sit on set and let him write all the scripts, but it didn’t work out. Now he’s getting in trouble for not hiring me over and over again. But when I first came in and said I’m going to do a show for USA, I looked and said okay, Burn Notice is really successful. So I took a really long close look at a lot of those scripts to see how he’d handled the mythology element, as well as the story of the week and the character development stuff. And so I looked at that just in terms of how many pages on an A story, how many pages on mythology and sort of use that as my model going forward. Again, it’s like for us it usually starts as an idea and we just move forward with it and then sort of start—Once we found the idea, we usually start just trying to layer in the characters and say what would motivate them? If Peter is going up against this particular case, what are his feelings going to be? How is he going to include Neal? How is Neal going to feel about this? And then sprinkling the mythology and see how that affects everything. It’s really like a big puzzle where you’ve got all these sliding pieces and moving pieces and if you change one up front, things move down to the end. But that’s really sort of at the heart of what TV and film writing is. I think a lot of people—I get a lot of questions about how you become a writer for TV, how do you become a writer. And TV and film are a lot different than like writing for a novel. If you’re writing a novel it really is about the language. If I could list my one giant pet peeve. It’s whenever I post our script pages and somebody sends me a nasty email saying that there’s a typo. I’ve told many people. I said I’ll give you a thousand dollars if you can spot the typo on the screen. A lot of times, we’re moving very fast and when you’re writing it’s really, it is, it’s about the structure. It’s about the characters. It’s about how one scene follows another. It’s not about necessarily the words on the page. In a novel, you’ll spend a great deal of time getting somebody into a room. In TV, we just write Neal enters and that’s it. So for us, the essence of what we do really is about the structure and making sure each scene has a hook and something interesting and there’s … character in each scene. That really, I think, is what I love about this process, too. As far as jobs go, there’s really not much better than sitting around all day and really just talking about what happens.

What’s coming on the big season finale of White Collar?
You know, what, you’re a great interviewer, and I know you’re going to ask me all types of questions to get to the same answer. All I’m going to say is everybody’s involved. Certainly Neal and Peter, Mozzie, Elizabeth, Fowler, Kate, and even countries other than the United States.

Interesting! When you signed on, did you know White Collar was going to be so successful?
No. You never know. This was my 11th pilot, so I’m 3 for 11 with pilots. The others were all sort of…No I didn’t know! But because you have this guarded optimism as an actor because you think “Oh, I love this project, I love working with Matt, I love these characters,” don’t get too excited because you’re going to get the call and say It’s great, but it didn’t test well, or whatever. You know, there are so many people that make these decisions, to say “Yeah, let’s go with it.” But sometimes when you do these things, you feel all these, and you think all of these thoughts about the series or about the show, and then it’s confirmed by other people. You think, “Oh, I was right. It’s exactly what I thought people would think it was.” That’s a wonderful feeling.

Are we going to see more of Peter being watched by Fowler?
Yeah, the last episode, [he] becomes very stealth, I’ll use that word. The stakes are high, very high.

I know last time we spoke, you talked about shooting all over New York City. Do you have another location that you’ve filmed at recently that was one of your favorites?
We shot at — Oh no, I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you. I was just going to tell you and then you were going to say — Ohhh! You don’t even know when you’re asking good questions! You don’t even know!

(laughs) I didn’t mean it that way! Do you have a location that won’t give away anything?
They’re all good locations. I can’t talk to you. I was about to tell you a location that would have given a huge part of the story away!

I wasn’t trying to get you to spoil it, I swear! (laughs)
Bad, bad!

Talk a little bit about that scene at the end of the mid-season finale where you thought Peter was the bad guy.
Deep down, did you think Peter was the bad guy?

I didn’t. I thought he had good intentions for Neal, but I wasn’t sure.
Now I can talk about it. If he were a bad guy, the show would have no –

Grounding?
You wouldn’t be standing on it, you wouldn’t know who to trust. You have to know that even if Peter is deceiving somebody, it’s for the right reasons, and sometimes the right reason is not always the lawful reason. But there has to be that one block no matter what happens.

And Peter and Neal are both beginning to trust each other more. What has that development been like for you in terms of playing Peter?
It’s so fun to play. That episode where Peter stole the tapes, the surveillance tapes for Neal, he broke the law, he went on the other side to do that. But he knew that Neal was doing the right thing, and I just love those moments. It’s one of those where you realize “Oh, he likes Neal. He likes him.” He’s looking out for him in more than just making sure I get a good informant.

What is it like working so closely with Matt?
It’s a rich bond that we have. We trust each other completely. He can do no wrong in my eyes, no wrong. And he can maybe make a choice that would make me think “Wow, I never thought of that,” and I think he feels the same way about me–when you have that someone with you that says “Go ahead, jump. I don’t care. Don’t worry how you land. I trust that it’s worth it.”

Are there any guest stars you’d like to see in Season 2?
Any guest stars that I’d like to see? Oh I’ve got a whole bunch of friends that I’d like to see. It’d be interesting to see who would play Peter’s dad. He’s not old enough, but I got to work with Mark Harmon, and he’s the nicest man in show business, I would love to have Mark Harmon come over and kind of maybe NCIS and White Collar could cross. But the tone of the 2 shows are very different. I would like White Collar and Burn Notice to cross.

That’s what I was thinking.
That could happen.

And how about film?
I’m producing a movie with my brother right now that we hope to shoot in Mexico. It’s a bi-lingual farce, and it’s wonderful. So I’m working with him on that.

Are you going to be starring in it?
No. I will be producing it. I might play a small role in it, but it will be mostly Mexican actors.

Do you want to be in other films? Are you looking at roles?
Yeah there are a few things that are coming our way. Unfortunately, because of my schedule, I don’t know if I can do them.

Is there a specific genre that you’d want to work in?
There are a couple period films that take place in the 50s, there’s one that’s even in the 30s that I’d love to do. I would love to play a GI in the 30s or something like that.

After playing Peter, would you want to go work in a white collar crime unit?
No. No because the guy who did it with me, the real technical adviser, he says none of it is as glamorous or as exciting as what we’re doing.

Be sure to tune in tonight to USA Network at 10 pm for the season finale of White Collar!

How do you like playing Moz on White Collar? I love the character.
Oh it’s really great. They write it to me, they came to me with it, they write exactly in my wheel house. I get to play around with it a lot, just the fun of being able to play different characters depending on the scam and it’s great fun.

Have you done any research into what exactly your character does?
Oh God no. Yes, of course. You know, I start — because I’m kind of a gigi actor, I start with how things look. And I looked at those guys in Tompkins Square Park who play chess all day. And I figured, they must make a living, they must do something for a living — so that’s what I base Mozzie on mostly and then scams. Whatever scam we’re doing on that episode, we find out all about that as we go along.

The fashion is amazing on the show. Have you been enjoying working with the costume designers?
Stephanie’s great. We have a very specific look for Mozzie. It took actually a few episodes to find it, so we won’t be having the Scooby Doo neckerchief anymore, but again, it’s those guys in the park playing chess. They’re clean, they live somewhere, they’re just wearing kind of unique pieces. They’re one of a kind, and Mozzie’s one of a kind. And we knew, USA knew, by bringing me, I have, I’m a little fashion iconic, so they knew they had to kind of build to that. I couldn’t be wearing like an airline jump suit, people are expecting me to be dressed. So that’s why Mozzie has to be kind of dressed, because I’m playing him.

Right. And do you have a favorite moment from filming the show so far?
A favorite moment in the show…we have great moments. I love being out on the street in New York. And we have a lot of fun and especially because it’s me on the street– there’s always an adventure when we’re shooting out on the street. People are interrupting takes, screaming Stanford in the middle of it — so New York’s always a blast. It’s hilarious.

And can you tell us anything about the new movie coming out? [Sex And The City 2]
I can tell you that it IS coming out.

Any chance there will be a Sex and the City 3?
I have no idea. I hope so! I would like some vacation probably.

What it was it like working on the sequel?
Great. It’s just a gift from the fans that we’re [going to be] doing this. I mean, we joke about it. We’re like what are we Bonanza? We started talking about the pilot in 1996. This is crazy that we get to still do this. And it’s because the fans are letting us. So, God bless ‘em you know!

Did you have any idea it was going to be such a big phenomenon?
Oh God no. God no. That’s at the beginning at the show, and certainly when we released the first movie–we would never be so bold as to think that we’d end up with whatever, 500 million dollars worldwide. It’s like what? We just were making it for our fans. We didn’t realize how many of them there are. So, we love them. We love them, love them, love them.

Who did you hang out with on the Sex and the City set?
Sarah Jessica and I are pretty close, for almost 25 years now. She’s my best friend, so if I didn’t say her, I’d be lying.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night to USA Network at 10 pm for the season finale of White Collar.

What are you wearing tonight?
I’m wearing Calvin Klein.

Is there any way Bryce will be back on Chuck?
That’d be really fun. We’ll see. The opportunity is open, but timing-wise with both of our schedules it hasn’t really worked out so far. But I love that show, I love everybody on it, I wish them all the best, always.

What’s coming up on White Collar?
We have a big season finale coming up. A lot of big story lines coming to climax, a lot of really unexpected stuff going on, and we’re really setting ourselves up nicely for the second season. Check it out!

What has been your favorite part of filming the show so far?
I think really the cast, who I love, and we get along amazingly, and it’s truly a joy to come to work every day. And also getting to shoot in New York City. We get to see a side of New York City that a lot of people don’t get to see even if you live here. We’re shooting in huge, amazing townhouses and brownstones and getting to see the insides of a lot of the white collar aspects of New York City.

Do you have a favorite location from filming the show?
We got to shoot in a lot of really iconic places, like Times Square, the NASDAQ building and Columbus Circle, so for me, as somebody whose lived in New York, it was really a surreal experience for me. So I would say it would be somewhere between that and something really nice — we got to shoot in a really nice townhouse on the Upper East Side that had a million dollar chandelier that went down six stories and spread out on the floor. It’s just crazy opulence that I’ve never experienced before.

And you and Tim just recently rang the opening bell at the Stock Exchange. What was that like?
It was so much more exciting than I thought it was going to be. The countdown and leading up to it, and getting to introduce it, it’s such a huge part of New York City, just being in the financial capital of the world and getting to do it was a real honor. I can’t believe they let a criminal, though, ring the bell…but…

Has being on White Collar made you more aware of white collar crime? Have you done and investigation into some of the cases?
I think it was so out there, we were so fortunate, because we just came out there in the zeitgeist at the right time. We shot the pilot and then the whole thing with Madoff went down which was so fortuitous for us. And then, you know, it just kept rolling out and became more and more front page stories so the work sort of did itself that way. Anybody who picked up a paper was aware of a white collar scandal at the time.

Do you think Neal is going to trust Peter more in the upcoming season?
I think Neal never really trusted anybody 100 percent, but I think Peter’s probably the person he trusted the most so you know, I don’t think he’ll ever be really, completely given over to him in terms of trust but he definitely has a lot of trust in him.

Did you know the show was going to be such a huge success when you started?
No! We had no idea. To me, I just loved the script, I loved the character, it was so much fun to do that whatever came about was great. I think I’ve been in this business long enough to not really have any expectations, just show up, do the work, and do the best I could. And I knew I was on a network that really gave shows a shot, and really got behind their shows and so I’m really grateful to be working for them and I was pleasantly surprised.

Do you have anything else you are working on?
Right now, it was tough because this hiatus was so short. I did have movie offers, but I couldn’t shoot them in such a brief period of time so that was tricky. But right now, I’m doing a workshop of a new Broadway musical. They’re re-making the last Rat Pack movie actually, Robin and The Seven Hoods, and I’m playing the Sinatra role in that, so that was sort of a fun way for me to get to flex my creative muscles with a much smaller time constraint.

Is there a particular genre of film that you like?
I really respond to a lot of the really fun romantic comedy stuff. I think it’s fun, and it gives you a real sense of liberty as an actor to make fun choices, and I think that’d be a really fun place to start.

Do you have anyone in mind who you’d want to play the lead actress opposite you?
Oh my gosh, the list is endless. I really like Ginnifer Goodwin a lot. Who else do I really like? Anna Faris I love her, too. I think she’s hysterical.

And are you anything like your character? Are you anything like Neal at all?
Well, I think I’m gonna miss him because I’m definitely a bit quixotic like he is but I’m not nearly as smooth in terms of pulling off crimes, so the similarities end there.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night to USA Network at 10 pm for the season finale of White Collar.

The celebrities featured on the series are: Sarah Jessica Parker, Emmitt Smith, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Broderick, Spike Lee and the aforementioned Kudrow. Each episode tells one celebrity’s story. Sarah Jessica Parker’s journey starts with a visit to her hometown in Ohio. She then travels to all over and ends up in Massachusetts to find out that one of her relatives was accused of being a witch and was almost killed. Another one of her relatives was part of the gold rush.

The most moving episode out of all 7 for me was Lisa Kudrow. She starts off by asking her dad about their genealogy. He mentions the story of a cousin who told him when he was a kid (as well as his parents) that his grandma had died in a massacre by the Nazis. The cousin then vanished and they had heard he died. He got choked up telling her this story, and it was incredibly moving to see how the Holocaust impacts him, even so many years later. Kudrow takes off to a tiny village in what is now Belarus and speaks to a lady who was around at the time of the Holocaust and knew her grandma. She pays tribute to the Holocaust memorial in the village, and is able to see the view her grandma grew up with every day. Her travels then take her to another small town where she is able to track her long lost cousin. He is still alive with a son and grandson of his own and they reconnect. She also sets it up so her father and her cousin can video chat. After all those years of thinking he died, he was alive and well in Eastern Europe. This was an incredibly emotional journey for Kudrow, and anyone watching as well. It was interesting to see how one relative lead to another then to another then to the person she was looking for.

The show uses the help of geneology experts, ancestry.com, historians, libraries and of course, family members. It made me want to travel back to Europe to see what I could find about my ancestors. One thing I do wish for the future of this show is that maybe they branch out into celebrities and people like me. I don’t know that someone would want to watch my history unfold, so I understand the celebrity appeal. However, in the world of new media, perhaps the broadcast show could focus on celebrities while there might be some other way through a website (or something of the like) to connect with relatives. But I digress. The show is great, and definitely worth checking out. There are so many reality shows out there that don’t make you think (in fact they do just the opposite) but Who Do You Think You Are is insightful. One of the things I like the most about it is that there is no host. The celebrity who is tracing their past guides you through the episode with voice overs and various different interactions.

Check out this video preview from the Sarah Jessica Parker episode (which airs tonight):

And be sure to tune into NBC tonight at 8 pm for the series premiere of Who Do You Think You Are. It is definitely worth watching!

Are you surprised at the success of this show?  And I know at times, for USA, the show is either competitive with NBC or sometimes even through passing and are you surprised with the following that it’s gotten over the years?

J. Donovan: Well, I think that all you can hope for is that you make something that people want to watch and then somehow keep integrity while doing that. And so I think we’re very happy with the ratings definitely.  I know we work really hard, so surprised, yes, we’re always surprised when anything succeeds in this day and age.

Can you talk about your characters and just kind of the evolution that we’ve seen in your characters, and are you happy with where you guys have ended up with your characters?  And if you’re in charge of everything, where would you like to see them go I guess in the season or in the future?

G. Anwar: Do you think we’ve evolved?

I’m sure you could always do it better, I mean everybody’s got to have that feel for their character.

G. Anwar: I don’t know where we’re going, where are we going, Jeffrey?

J. Donovan: Well, I think that, I’ll speak for Gabrielle, I mean I know from talking with all the other cast mates, we’re very happy with where it’s going.  But sometimes Matt Nix and all the other writers keep us slightly in the character dark, not because they don’t trust us with the knowledge, but they’re just trying to figure it out as well along the way. When you’re dealing with espionage and covert affairs, sometimes the secret is more exciting than the knowledge.  If we were both in charge, I would love a deeper insight into Michael’s past, that’s for me.  I don’t know about Gabrielle, what would you like?

G. Anwar: I’m quite happy with Fiona’s enigmatic state of being.  I don’t think I need to know more about, I’d love to know more about where you’re from, absolutely, but I quite like not knowing.  I don’t like to know who I am.

I read online that in an upcoming episode, Michael will be going somewhere other than Miami and that he won’t be alone.  Can you tell us where your characters going and why, as well as who’s going with him?

J. Donovan: Well, obviously I can’t.  It’s the season finale, and it’s really literally in the last five minutes of the show.  It’s a bit of a cliffhanger.  Michael’s been stuck in Miami for quite some time, and there’s a couple of psychopaths on his tail, and things come to a hilt.  And by the end of the show, Michael is actually transported out of Miami, but I can’t tell you where, but it’s a bit of a cliffhanger.

For both of you, what first drew you to the show and to your characters?

G. Anwar: I was drawn to the character, Fiona, I just thought it was so brilliantly written.  It was sparingly written, but so insightful.  I couldn’t believe that a man had actually written the script, I mean at least her character.  When I first met Matt Nix, who created and wrote the script, I actually said to him, you must have a remarkable relationship with your wife, because you have such incredible insight.  So that was what intrigued me about playing a character. When you sign up for a TV show, you don’t know if it’s going to be for a pilot or for the rest of your life, so I wanted to play a character that I enjoyed thoroughly, and there weren’t that many of them out there.  So that’s why I clasped onto this script with great hope.

J. Donovan: I got hooked on the voiceover, the first page is a voiceover, it says, “You know what it’s like to be a spy?”  I love the idea that not only do I get to play a spy, I get to play a burn spy, and on top of that, I can talk to the audience about what it’s like being a spy.  I thought I had never seen anything like that on television, so that’s what hooked me.

I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the rest of the upcoming episodes, especially Good Intentions?

J. Donovan: It’s difficult, because a lot of it is, The Penultimate Episode and then the finale have a lot of cliffhangers and a lot of reveals. So without giving too much away, Gilroy, who’s basically a psychopath controlling Michael’s actions, has to deliver a plane that has a secret piece of cargo in it and needs Michael’s help to do it.  When that happens, you find out it actually is someone quite dangerous, and Michael unfortunately allows him to escape. And then the finale is about trying to capture this psychopath that’s loose.

What was it like working with Carlos Bernard in the episode?

G. Anwar: Fantastic.  He’s such a wonderful man and a fantastic actor, it was an absolute pleasure.

J. Donovan: I didn’t really work with him much, so it was all Gabrielle and Carlos.  So I only met him in brief, I think at the lunch table.

Let me ask you both, you both obviously had success in film, and a lot of times when that happens, people are less likely to want to do television.  What do you like about this particular medium and why do you keep coming back to television?  What do you like about this?

J. Donovan: I think that, especially with cable, it’s an avenue to be creative.  I think why people are drawn more now to cable shows than ever is that they take more risks, they’re creatively pushing the envelope.  I think that the networks have to answer to a bigger advertising calling, whereas the smaller cables have lower ceilings that they can bump their heads on.  So I think that’s why I keep being drawn back to television, because I think it’s one of the most creative outlets. And if you think about it, we make 16 one-hour movies a season.  You don’t get any opportunity like that in movies.  I mean, I can’t say I’ll be able to do 16 movies in the next year, and so that’s how I see it.  How about you, Gabrielle?

G. Anwar: I like the stability, the continuity of having a lifestyle where I know I can pay my rent at the end of each month.  And also I have these children that I am raising and it’s nice for all of us to sort of know that we’re going to be in a specific place for a certain amount of time.  I’ve never known that in my career.  So I’m really quite grateful at this point that I get to have the sort of double existence and I can rely on both.

And Gabrielle, take us a little bit inside Fiona’s mind with regard to Michael’s pursuit of the truth of trying to erase the burn notice.  What is her sort of threshold?  How long can she wait for him to sort of fulfill this quest that he’s on?

G. Anwar: I don’t know.  It’s really not up to me is it?  I have my own personal threshold and it was at the end of season one.

J. Donovan: Wow, wow.

G. Anwar: I think it’s going to be a real testament to have patience and adoration of Michael, which I don’t think she would admit either.

One of the strengths of the show is that each of the three major characters is capable of assessing the strength and weaknesses of an opponent or an ally.  What I’d like is if you would put yourselves in the mindsets of your characters and then assess your own characters and each others.

G. Anwar: Whoa.

J. Donovan: Well, Dr. Freud, I would say that Michael is probably some sort of borderline personality disorder who grew up in incredible fear in a dysfunctional hostile family.  He ran away and escaped it, so he joined the U.S. Army to find a noble pursuit.  Now, he uses all the things that damaged him as his abilities now to help others.  I wouldn’t even go in to trying to figure out Fiona.

G. Anwar: Well, I don’t even understand your question, so let’s just leave it at that.

What would Fiona’s assessment of Michael be from an objective potential opponent or ally position?

G. Anwar: His ability to decipher the characteristics of the problem at hand you mean, that assessment of him?

That kind of thing, yes.

G. Anwar: I think she finds it extraordinarily erotic.

J. Donovan: Really.

G. Anwar: I do.  I think it’s foreplay, all of it.  I think she finds him the most fascinating creature.

J. Donovan: Wait a minute, you said I do, and then you said she, is this Gabrielle talking?

G. Anwar: Well, Dr. Freud, who’s the bloody doctor here, Jeffrey?

J. Donovan: He is.

G. Anwar: Look what you’ve caused.

So I’m loving the series and the more I watch your series, Jeffrey, it reminds me of this old series from the 60s called The Avengers.  It has that feel.  There’s a very, the combination of real drama and camp and humor and lightness. And Gabrielle, you’re Diana Rigg—

G. Anwar: Yes, thank you.

And of course, Jeffrey, you’re Patrick Macnee for me, I feel the more I watch it, the more I’m reminded of that series as far as the pacing, the energy, the breaks of comedy into the drama.  And I was wondering if you could tell me, I really enjoyed seeing Tim Matheson and you play off each other, and I’m wondering will we see Larry again?

J. Donovan: Yes, you will.  Larry’s such a pivotal thorn in Michael’s … and that gives my character great ammunition to kind of fight with.  He’s a terrific character and Tim’s such a wonderful man and an extraordinary actor.  One, we were lucky to get him, and two, he’s actually happy to be on the show and wants to continually come back.  He’ll be directing season four’s premiere. And also, he’ll return as Larry at some point in the season.

Love that.  And Gabrielle, I love the unspoken communication, you guys say more in glances and looks than what’s delivered on the script, and that’s another wonderful thing about this series.  And Gabrielle, I was wondering about you and Madeline, your relationship with each other, and obviously she and Michael are a tribe of two, but I think it’s growing bigger.  Can you talk about that?

G. Anwar: Yes.  I think that these two women have a tremendous amount of respect for one another.  And you’re right, there’s so little spoken about what’s really being felt and really being witnessed with that connection to Michael, which I think is pretty accurate to real life, especially with the in-law figures.  There’s so much that’s not spoken out loud, and yet there are so many physical undertones and it’s very apparent, and that’s thanks to Sharon.  I mean, her performance is so beautifully nuanced and I find it terribly inspiring.  She’s a wonderful woman and actress.

I was wondering who would be your dream guest stars you’d like to see appear on the show?

J. Donovan: Gabrielle, who’s your dream guest star?

G. Anwar: Steve McQueen.

J. Donovan: Yes, he’s dead.

G. Anwar: He is?

J. Donovan: Gosh, you don’t read the papers.

G. Anwar: I didn’t realize it had to be somebody who could actually appear on the show, but I would say Steve McQueen.

J. Donovan: I would love Angelina Jolie.

And do you think there might be perhaps any other USA network show crossovers in the future or would you like to see that happen?

J. Donovan: I actually would like to do a crossover somehow with White Collar, I think that the show tonally is similar to ours.  I don’t know how that would work, but I would like to see that.  I don’t think we would work with any other show.  I think Psych and Royal Pains doesn’t figure into our tone.

My question was, one of the things that I really love about the show is the different kind of characters and personas that you both take on to figure out to help your clients and everything.  And so I was wondering if you had a favorite kind of accent or persona that you’ve done or how you get the inspiration for that or if you just go with what’s in the script?

J. Donovan: Gabrielle?

G. Anwar: Well, you’re the final king.  I don’t know how Jeffrey can come up with these creations that he does.  It’s pretty remarkable, especially he’s got such a heavy workload and yet he still can create these fabulous side characters.  It’s really, really fun to watch.  I don’t have that in my repertoire, so I’m glad it’s all on his shoulders.

J. Donovan: Oh, sure you do.  You played the French character, you played a hillbilly kind of girl, white trash girl, Gabrielle—

G. Anwar: That’s it, we’ve seen all I’ve got.

J. Donovan: I think a lot of the characters that we play really do come out of a script.  The writers are incredibly talented and they really help us with specific dialogue and note and kind of character descriptions.  My favorite—

G. Anwar: Yes, you do still come up with these fabulous little quirky things, like the chewing tobacco and the tooth picks and it’s really fun.  Those little tiny quirks make it so much more interesting than if it were just what was on the page I think.

J. Donovan: Some people call those crutches, those are crutches.  I think those are crutches.  But my favorite character of all has to be Michael McBride, the Irish character that I played.  It’s because it’s the character that Fiona had fallen in love with, so it’s very dear to my heart.

G. Anwar: Oh.

I’d like to know what goes into learning all the side tricks.  Is it just like here’s your script and have at it or is there more training and research involved in your roles?

J. Donovan: We have an ex-operative that actually is a consultant on our show that Matt Nix and the other writers have access to, so everything that is put into the show gets vetted through him before we air it.  Ninety-five percent of it you can find on the Internet anyway, but everything that is put into a script has been researched and vetted, so that when we speak it or we do it, we know it’s actual.

And to both of you, what has been your most memorable experience with meeting the fans of the show?

G. Anwar: I think actually to be honest, it’s the fact that so many couples are enjoying it together.  It’s become sort of a date night theme, which is really fabulous.  I’m happy for bringing the love, it’s all about the love.

J. Donovan: Yes, that’s actually true, Gabrielle.  A lot of husband/wives and boyfriend/girlfriends come up to me, the husband will say, “Oh my gosh, my wife loves the show.  I got her onto it,” or she’ll say, or a woman will come and say, “My husband didn’t watch the show until I told him about it.”  It’s pretty neat that it is kind of a date night for couples.

I was kind of wondering now that we’re seeing how Michael is and how the group is without the big overall mystery of who burnt Michael Westen, and who’s doing this, is there going to be a return of management anytime soon?  Maybe management checks in saying, “Michael, do you want to come back,” or are we going to see that at all, maybe in season four?

J. Donovan: Yes, season four is actually pretty remarkable.  I met with the writers last week and we kind of broke down the next eight or nine episode ark.  A new character is going to be introduced. I don’t know the name yet, but he is going to be a young operative, but he’s going to play a significant new role on the show.  And then there is actually going to be a change of management.  There’s going to be a new management that controls Michael’s life, and you’ll see Michael have to go on even more dangerous missions under this new management with the new operative.

Fabulous.  And Fiona gets to blow more stuff up, correct?

J. Donovan: Yes, more of Fiona explosions.

G. Anwar: Oh, yes.

And my follow-up question as we know is a Fiona-related question.  We know Fiona wants Michael to settle down, Fiona wants the life, and at this point, we’re not sure Fiona’s going to get the life.  So for both of you guys I guess, what do you think the life that Fiona seeks would look like or could look like, obviously it’s not going to be Suburbia and the 2.5 children and the dog and the cat, so what could it look like?

G. Anwar: I don’t know to be perfectly honest whether she does want to settle down.  I don’t think that that is interesting to her at all.  I think she wants to feel secure, but again I don’t know what that definition of security might be to her.  It’s certainly not your typical conventional idea of marriage for example, but I think she wants to feel secure because she’s a woman and it seems innate in all of us.

My first question is for both of you.  One thing that always cracks me up when watching Burn Notice is the tags that they put on the freeze screens of like the newer temporary characters such as Gilroy Freelance Psychopath or Damon…What would each of your tags be under your names, not for Michael and Fiona, but for Jeffrey and Gabrielle?

G. Anwar: Okay, you first.

J. Donovan: If I got introduced, a smiling shark.

G. Anwar: Oh, gosh, still figuring it out.

J. Donovan: That’s true actually.

My other question is for Jeffrey, I’m always interested in the fight scenes on the show and I’m a martial arts instructor.  And I know much of what we see you do is most likely complements of the stunt coordinator, but I’ve also heard that you have martial arts training yourself, can you fill me in on that?

J. Donovan: Actually what you see is 90% me actually.  I have a black belt in Shotokan karate, about 15 years experience.  I have eight years in Jujitsu and Akito, and about three years of boxing.  So what I try to do in every episode is the stunt coordinator makes it safe, but most of the time I choreograph it.  And it’s a great relationship, because I will say what would really happen here is this, and then he comes in and makes it safe for the guest stars.  And if something gets too physical, then the stunt men come in and take over.

Jeffrey, you spend a lot of time, because you’re the main character, you are very physical in this role, and you obviously spend so much time on set, what do you do for fun in what little off time you have?

J. Donovan: I golf.  Luckily down in Florida, there’s a lot of golf courses, and I just put a golf hat on and take my sticks out and I usually walk a course.  And sometimes I’m by myself and sometimes I just kind of walk onto a twosome or a threesome and join them, and most people just kind of leave me alone, and that’s my quiet time.  I love walking about four or five hours on a golf course.

How’s your handicap?

J. Donovan: I’m good, I’m a single digit, I’m down to a seven.

Impressive, wow.  Okay, Gabrielle, you have a complicated life too, you’ve got kids and you live out in LA, how do you juggle all this and then find time for yourself?

G. Anwar: I don’t.  I don’t have any time for myself.  In fact, sitting here in this hotel room in New York is as exciting as it gets for me, my alone time.  There really is no time, I’m a mom, and mom’s don’t have days off.

I was curious now having three seasons under your belt, is it getting easier or harder to keep playing these characters and stay invested in them?  Are there any challenges you’re facing now that maybe you didn’t have in the beginning of the show?

J. Donovan: I’m getting older.

G. Anwar: Here, here.

J. Donovan: And as you get older it’s harder to run and jump over cars and beat up bad guys, but it becomes easier in some ways because you know the characters so well, so it’s a little bit of both.  What would you say, Gabrielle?

G. Anwar: Yes, I always get a little anxious like the first day of school when we’ve had our hiatus and we’re coming back, because I think I’m not as insane as I was when we started shooting, which really landed itself to Fiona.  And now I’m afraid I might be getting a little boring in my old age, so I think that I don’t know if I can step into her shoes and deliver.  I have that anxiety before we start shooting.

J. Donovan: Oh, you underestimate your insanity.

G. Anwar: Really, oh, thank you, I really appreciate that support.

Have you ever tried any of the spy tips you give on the show?

J. Donovan: No.  No, absolutely not.  Gabrielle?

G. Anwar: Not the spy tips, no, but I do think that I can do super human things like drive my car at 150 miles an hour on the PCH and then get into trouble for it.

You have such fantastic chemistry on screen, so what is it like off screen with each other and with other cast members?

G. Anwar: Oh, it’s a problem.

J. Donovan: Well, we don’t find each other at all funny, that’s a hard thing.  We’re very blessed, we really are.  I know cast mates usually probably hide the fact that there’s tension and turmoil, but Bruce, Sharon, Gabrielle, and I, we get along, not only on screen, but off screen.  They’re extraordinary actors, but even better people, and the chemistry is just terrific.  We have dinner, we hang out whenever we

On a recent episode of Saturday Night Live, they did a parody game show called, What is Burn Notice?  Where people who had not seen the show tried to figure out what it was about based on vague promos and sort of an obscure title.  Did you know that aside from your massive number of viewers, that there were people out there who didn’t really know what the show was about?  And do you think it’s a hard show to wrap your head around either based on the title or on the concept?

J. Donovan: I don’t know.  It seems like everybody knows the show, because I walk down the street and everyone yells, “Burn Notice, I love your show.”  So I thought it was kind of a funny parity, quite funny actually, to make a show, it’s like what is Seinfeld on cable?  So I just thought it was hysterical.  What did you think, Gabrielle?

G. Anwar: I thought it was funny.  I think Ashton Kutcher’s awfully cute.  He can make fun of me anytime.

The addition of Chris Vance as a psychopath Mason Gilroy is really given you guys a violent insane villainess this season.  And when Michael and Gilroy meet it seems like they’re kind of coiled vipers waiting to strike at each other.  He seems to really enjoy being a psycho.  How is working with him added to the show during the season?

J. Donovan: Yes, he’s definitely added a great tension to every scene that I’m in with him, and I think kind of a great super villain that kind of governs over the show.  I think the best part of Burn Notice is always when the villain or guest star is either more talented, smarter, or crazier than the rest of the cast, because it ups all our game.  What do you think, Gabrielle?

G. Anwar: Yes, I agree.  I don’t actually get to work with Gilroy, but I agree with you.  There’s nothing more inspiring than to have to pull everything you have out of your back pocket on the stage.  And we have so little time to rehearse and to find everything imaginable in one scene, that when you do have this fantastic talent to work with, it really is, it’s fun, it makes it so much more enjoyable.

As a follow up, it’s really obvious that Miami is as much a character in the show as the setting.  What’s your guys favorite part about filming in such a diverse and vibrant city?

J. Donovan: I actually love the weather, to be honest with you.  I love that the climate is constantly being washed and rinsed.  You’re living in the Caribbean in the United States and sometimes it’s incredible blue skies and sometimes it’s an incredible thunderstorm that kind of screams through, but I love that part of Florida.

My first question I guess would just be for Jeffrey, and that’s how was it working with Tyne Daly from Cagney and Lacey?  I mean those themes at the start of this mid-season premiere, they were heart wrenching.  It was some of the best drama I’ve seen on the show, so I was just curious how it was for you?  I don’t know if Gabrielle had much of an opportunity to spend time with her on set.

J. Donovan: To be honest with—

G. Anwar: No, I didn’t unfortunately.

J. Donovan: Yes, and neither did I, it was almost all with Sharon.  So we all, to be honest with you, sat back and watched two pros go toe-to-toe 12 rounds.  It was quite remarkable.  We were all just blown away by it.  So I was more of a spectator like you than I was an actor in it.

What would you guys say is most dangerous stunt you’ve had to do?  Were you ever actually afraid doing it?

G. Anwar: I don’t like fighting with Jeffrey, because I always hurt him.  Because I don’t know what I’m doing, and he’s such an expert, and I always manage to accidentally cause some damage.

J. Donovan: Yes, the most dangerous is either a bomb or something going off or a fight with Gabrielle.  They’re about the same.

Over the years Michael and Fiona sort of brought this romantic feeling and this background story of their past, and it seems like there are little hints that they’re giving in a little bit more, both as a character and also as the straight actor. Do you think that that could ever work, like just as part of the show?  Do you think that maybe it’s a good idea not to give into those things, getting into sort of the Ross and Rachel, Dave and Mattie type of thing, where you sort of like too much of the tension in the show?

J. Donovan: What do you think, Gabrielle?

G. Anwar: No, what do you think?

J. Donovan: No, you go first, I’ve done it all.

G. Anwar: No, no, no, no answer.

J. Donovan: Fiona and Michael are our real relationship in as much as TV relationships are built off of tension, and let’s say it’s Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd in Moonlighting.  Once the banter ended after a couple of seasons and they slept together, there was no tension. That is a typical TV relationship.  Ours actually is atypical, we have had sexual relations, we have fought, we have gotten back together, we’ve hated each other, we’ve become friends to each other, that is the tumultuous relationship of their dynamic, and that will never change.  So the tension is not about them hooking up, the tension I think is their love for each other and how that’s displayed every episode.

Michael’s relationship with his mother has softened a lot this season from where it was in the early season, they were constantly fighting, and now you see more of the strong bond and the love together. And they are really trying to help each other, was that something that just sort of came naturally from working with Sharon over the years or how did that come about?

J. Donovan: Well, you can’t help but love Sharon, but at the end of the day, we’re actors and we can create any hatred or tension that we need for a scene to work. So I don’t think the writers were ever thinking like, “Oh, how nice, Jeff and Sharon get along, let’s make them love each other on the show.”  I think what you’re seeing is just a natural evolvement of what does a viewer want to watch.  Do you want to see a mother and son antagonistically attack each other every single episode for five years?  I don’t think so.  So it’s just a natural progression, just like Fiona and Michael’s natural progression.

The first one is for Jeffrey, you mentioned about Michael’s past, it seems that his father seems to be a significant part of who he is and we always get little bits and pieces about him.  There’s been some fan speculation that maybe the show isn’t always what it seems, that maybe his father could be alive or could not be alive.  How would you feel if that were to change, if he found out some new information about his father?

J. Donovan: Well, that device is always in play every season.  I don’t think we ever sit around and plot that Michael’s father is going to come back.  It’s not something that we think about, we just know that the device is in play and we like it that way.  I think the only shocking thing would be if Sam turns out to be my dad, that would be awkward.

And my follow-up question is actually for the both of you.  Obviously you guys get along really well, are there any favorite or challenging scenes that you’ve done so far that kind of stick out in your mind?

J. Donovan: What do you mean, challenging, in what way?

Challenging, like dangerous, any challenges there, or dynamic scenes, like anything that’s a favorite that you two have done and worked together that kind of stand out as memorable?

J. Donovan: Yes, I really love a scene that kind of came out of working with Gabrielle this past season where we created a scene that wasn’t necessarily on the page where I slap her across the face.  And Gabrielle did such an incredible performance of having to deal with her feelings for Michael hitting her and then acting as an undercover character.  That I think was probably some of the best work I’ve ever seen her do and that was one of the most memorable moments for me.

G. Anwar: Thank you.

First for Jeffrey, I know that you’ve recently donated some money to your high school in Angsbury, Massachusetts; but I know you’re also very involved in Life Rolls On, could you tell us a little bit about that cause and what drew you to it specifically?

J. Donovan: Well, many years ago, an actor friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a charity golf event out in Malibu for Life Rolls On, and I hadn’t heard about it.  And he explained it’s a charitable foundation to raise money for spinal cord injuries in young athletes.  And Jesse Billauer suffered a life changing surfing accident at the age of 19, and this foundation was created out of his name. It’s a wonderful foundation that raises funds that aren’t necessarily being put into by the government or a lot of private foundations, to research how we can get these kids either wheelchair assisted living or new types of devices that will help them either walk or stand or even ride a surf board again or any sport that they got injured in.  And so that’s how I got involved and it’s an incredible organization.http://thetvchick.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

I was wondering if we’re ever going to see any flashback episodes to see how your two characters met or maybe how Bruce and one of your characters meet or anything like that, if that’s ever been talked about?

J. Donovan: Flashback has been talked about, but not in a nice way.  We’re not, one, we’ve never done a flashback ever of anything and it’s just not a device that we employ, so I doubt it, but I can’t rule it out.  One of my favorite episodes of Magnum PI, which I was a fan of was when Tom Selleck got knocked off a boat and he had to wade in the water until he was picked up.  So they just basically shot him for about a half an hour wading in the water and then did the entire show of flashbacks.  I liked that idea.

And I really love, I follow both of you on the small screen, and on the big screen, Gabrielle, you’re awesome on The Tudors, and Jeffrey, you were so awesome in Changeling.  I wonder if there’s any other projects you guys are working on?

J. Donovan: None for me.

G. Anwar: Me neither.

Gabrielle, don’t you have two movies that are due to come out?

G. Anwar: Oh, that’s right, yes, I do.  In fact, I don’t even know what’s one of them is called, because they keep changing the title on me, so I’m not going to be able to do much of shout out for that.  I have nothing coming up, only Burn Notice for now.

And Jeffrey, I hear you have an acting school  in Miami, is that true?

J. Donovan: Well, it’s not a formalized school, but it is, I teach seminars.  I’ve partnered with a casting director who’s been working in South Florida for about 20 years, Ellen Jacoby, and we created a acting seminar, basically a small little institute for beginners, advanced, and intermediate actors in the area. And it’s really a selfish journey for me, because we’re running out of actors on our show to hire locally.  So instead of going to Louisiana or South Carolina or any of these places around us, I thought why don’t we just increase the talent level of the locals, so that’s why I’m doing it.

What has been your most memorable episode to shoot?

J. Donovan: Gabrielle?

G. Anwar: Wow.  I think the episode that’s airing tonight was memorable for me, because I actually had to work every day.

J. Donovan: For once.

G. Anwar: For once.  It’s true, I actually had a much greater significance in the storyline for this particular episode, so I got a taste of what Jeffrey has to contend with on a daily basis, and I was absolutely bloody exhausted.  So it was memorable, because I just had to work really hard “for once.”

J. Donovan: And I guess my most memorable is the pilot.  No one had ever heard of Burn Notice, not even the term.  They put this rag-tag team together of Bruce, me, Sharon, and Gabrielle, and Matt Nix who had never been given a show before, and we just kind of went down to South Florida and we made our show.  We made the Burn Notice and what every episode has been based on since, so that’s the most memorable.  Because I’m so proud that we took a risk, we did the show we wanted to do, and that it caught on is just gravy.

Without further ado, enjoy this lovely promo:

Not too much longer til new episode of Glee!!