Bryce Zabel's FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

Crow DVD Audio Commentary

The audio commentary for the two opening hours of the TV series DVD release for "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven" couldn't have gone better.

Series lead Mark Dacascos and I sat in an audio room at Hollywood's Crest Digital, wearing headphones, watching the first two episodes back-to-back and talking like old friends watching a past project and remembering how much fun they had together.

I'm glad we weren't over-rehearsed because I think fans will enjoy the spontaneity and discovery we ended up having for our own work (and the work of so many others who worked so hard on the series). I think we both were honestly surprised by some things we saw and the memories came authentically flooding back. We each remembered different things and different people, from fight coordiantors and stunt men to writers and producers.

Something else that helped is that in the last year, Mark and I and our wives have had dinner together three times and really renewed our friendship. Sitting in that room was just as natural, well, except for the championship dining aspect. But we laughed a lot yesterday. So much fun...

The DVD is being released as part of the "TV Guide" brand by Hart Sharp Video. It will be out on July 24, just a few days before the San Diego Comicon which Mark and I will also attend. Thanks to the Crow fans who lobbied Hart Sharp to get Mark and I in that audio room together, and we'll see you in San Diego we hope!

The Crow flew again and it was a good thing. He wasn't dead after all!

Attention: Crow Fans: Audio Commentary is On!

The issues have been worked out. Tomorrow Mark Dacascos and I will be recording the audio commentary for the July 24 DVD release of "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven." The company producing the DVD is Hart Sharp Video out of New York.

In preparation, I've been having a Crow Film Festival at my house. I'd forgotten how hard we worked, how many small details we sweated and how good the series was overall. We did it on a budget, with a lot of obstacles, but it came out great.

The trio of actors -- Mark Dacascos (as Eric Draven/The Crow), Marc Gomes (as Det. Daryl Albrecht), and Katie Stuart (as Sarah Mohr) -- really were great individually and as a team. They came across so authentically real in scene after scene.

Let me tell you a sidebar -- it also illustrates why you can't believe everything you see on Wikipedia. I'm looking at their entry about the series and it gives break-out directing credit to a guy who did one episode (not even the pilot which was done by Kari Skogland), mentions our Canadian line producer Gordon Mark (a great guy, by the way) as the sole producer, implying he was also the creative producer when even he would tell you he wasn't, and  doesn't even mention a single writer anywhere. My name isn't even mentioned in this box but I wrote the pilot and wrote or re-wrote most of the episodes and executive produced the series. It also says "The series was intended as a follow-up to the 1994 film" which is just not true. We started the Eric Draven storyline from the beginning and changed a great many things. Remember that Eric Draven was first in the comics, then in the films and, with STH, also on television: each version was different.

Back to doing the commentary. I'm looking forward to it. Obviously lots to talk about...

As the Crow Flies... Again...

The DVD set for "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven" is set for release on July 24, 2007.

It comes from Hart Sharp Video out of New York.

Lead actor Mark Dacascos and I recorded a two-hour audio commentary for the project in May 2007.

I've also given them the show's "gag reel" for some comic relief, plus a collection of dailies and promotional materials.

So there should be sufficient "goodies" to make this stand out from any bootleg or anything else that has come before.

I've written extensively about the experience of developing the Crow franchise for TV and working as the executive producer on the series.

By going to that post, you can download either the original pilot script, or the series bible written before we got started, or even the episode summaries as they were kept by the writing staff. Just CLICK HERE.

My best wishes to all the fans for their continuing support!

*****

The Crow: Stairway to Heaven

The Crow flies again... on DVD...

Must be something in the water. A few weeks ago, I got the news that my NBC series DARK SKIES (co-created with Brent V. Friedman) would be released by SONY on DVD this October. Now comes the news that THE CROW: STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN a series I developed and executive produced for Polygram TV will now be released by NBC-Universal this July. Woo-hoo!

Apparently, it'll be a four-DVD box set released under the "TV Guide Presents" banner. (And thanks to writer-pal Lee Goldberg for knowing this before I did and telling me!) I've been waiting for some kind of news peg like this to hang this blog-post on because I loved that series and it was a terrific creative experience.

It started back in 1998 when I was asked to develop "The Crow" film and graphic novel franchise into a TV series by the now-defunct Polygram TV. It raised an interesting challenge:

What do you do when the incredibly violent film you are asked to adapt to a TV audience is based on cruelty, and the main character is driven by a thirst for revenge?  

My answer? You expand the premise to fully explore the nature of life after death, and you change the character quest from revenge to redemption.

And how do you handle the fact that the cult film was made infamous by the horrible on-set death of its star, Brandon Lee?

That was a tougher question because the idea behind the TV series was to use the Eric Draven character, the one who'd been in the comics and that Brandon Lee had played. My take was that, tragic as Lee's death was, George Reeves' tragic death did not prevent Christopher Reeve or Dean Cain from playing Superman, and that we would just have to proceed and hope that our own version stood intact on its own. So, besides the conceptual changes, we also reached out to actor Mark Dacascos who created a Crow/Draven character that was unique itself.

In our 22 episodes, Eric Draven’s mission grew from simply wanting to murder the people who murdered both he and his girlfriend.  He began to climb… that’s right… a Stairway to Heaven.

Although the concept of the Crow had history when I came aboard, this shift was no small challenge.  The comicbooks by James O’Barr which started it all were intensely violent, bloodsoaked revenge fantasies.  Pretty cool in their own right, but impossible to sell to a mass TV audience. The films, brought to life by several different writers and directors, were dark, brooding mood pieces, also saturated by the blood of sadistic, drug-abusing, violent scumbags. An equally difficult sell. Yet the films built upon the comics, changed the mythology to adapt to a new medium, and grew the premise in the process.  That was the only way to go.

So the TV series had to become its own manifestation of the Crow. It, too, had to grow the mythology, and adapt to its own medium. At first, a lot of fans who came to the concept by way of the comics and the movies were taken aback. They felt it was not true to the spirit of O’Barr’s creation or the performance of Brandon Lee.  Yet we knew that even if every person who read a comic or saw the movie tuned into the series, it would still be cancelled. We had to bring new people in.

We did. We brought in women by making it a series with a love story as its central premise –- a love that survived even death. That started with our opening titles where we used the famous lines from the Crow movie (delivered only by Eric) about the "soul can't rest" and re-wrote it as a poem between Eric Draven and Shelly. This was my first draft:

WE HEAR two voices – Eric Draven and Shelly Webster.

SHELLY (V.O.)
People once believed that when someone dies, a Crow carries their soul to the Land of the Dead…

DRAVEN (V.O.)
But sometimes something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest…

SHELLY (V.O.)
Then sometimes, just sometimes, the Crow can bring the soul back to put things right…

DRAVEN (V.O.)
Things can never be right, my soul will never rest, until we are together again. 

We brought in others who found our new Crow’s mission to be more hopeful than the films and, therefore, more accessible to their lives.  We cast as our lead the incredibly talented Mark Dacascos whose performance gave the Eric Draven character an entirely new dimension of sympathy and whose martial arts skills were crackling and theatrical.  We wrote stories as smart as we could, expanding the mythology to include such twists as Draven being a suspect in his own murder to making literal the previously only mentioned Land of the Dead.  Basically, we tried not to pander to the audience, but to challenge them upward.

By the way, if you'd like to read the pilot script,  here it is:

THE CROW, PILOT EPISODE.pdf

If you'd like to read the series bible created before we went on the air (and, thus, something that changed), here it is:

THE CROW, Original Bible.pdf

Finally, if you'd like to read the episode summaries of the first season storylines, you can do that, too. I kept this document up-to-date throughout that season so that other writers could see where we'd been and it kept everybody "on the same page" as it were. This is definite SPOILER ALERT territory, however.

THE CROW, Episode Summaries, Season One.pdf

A number of people should be mentioned as having been part of this process. Ed Pressman and Jeff Most are the keepers of the Crow flame, especially in the feature world. Bob Sanitsky and Stephen Gelber were the Polygram execs who were smart enough to get us up and running, then support us creatively. The production wouldn’t have happened without Gregg Fienberg who came in as Polygram’s man on the ground, but quickly became my doppelganger, seeing my vision with me, and making it happen. Gordon Mark and Brad Markowitz took it from the page to the stage. The other staff writers and producers were Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes, Naomi Jantzen, John Turman and David Ransil. A great team.

It all worked. The show found its rhythm. Although the action was always intense by virtue of Mark’s fighting talents, some of the most heartfelt scenes I’ve ever written or re-written are in this series. It worked, and it was good. By the end of the season, we had a real friendship formed between Eric Draven and Detective Daryl Albrecht (played to awesome perfection by Marc Gomes) and Sarah (played so well by Katie Stuart).

The ratings were great by syndication levels (2.7 and above). Then Polygram was purchased by Universal, and it all fell apart. Universal, you see, wanted Polygram’s music division but, having gotten out of the TV business only the year before, had no desire to nurture a new series in the tough syndication market. It was just business. The show died.

Maybe, like Eric Draven, the show will come back to life some day. I’d like that. Maybe the fact that the underlying rights are now owned by NBC-Universal (which also owns the Sci-Fi Channel) will mean something. At the very least, I'd like it if this DVD release could spark the fire that would allow me to wrap up our Eric Draven arc with a film or a limited series, using Mark Dacascos. Then, maybe, Eric Draven really could rest in peace. Anyway, as the Crow flies...

Breaking News: "Dark Skies" DVD Coming Soon!

Once again, the truth about President Kennedy being assassinated in order to cover up UFOs can be told! Or at least the TV series purporting to be about the truth can be seen. Or something like that. Anyway...

After the thousands of e-mails I've gotten over the years from what seems like every corner of the globe asking me when they will be able to see the "Dark Skies" series on DVD, I finally have some good news!

I just received the good word today that "Dark Skies" is scheduled for DVD release in October 2007. Eight months and counting, but at least the countdown has begun...

A lot of copy's been written on this blog about the series. Go check here to read more about it. But, yes, the short story is that we were the people who were just enough south of sanity to write 20 hours of TV dedicated to the Unifed Field Theory of Conspiracies -- melding JFK's assassination with the UFO cover-up.

Flash forward to 2006. You may remember the poster you see here being ripped off (an homage?) by the "Path to War" publicity campaign. Since this similarity was reported on Salon, Slate, the Huffington Post and a lot of other places, maybe that extra notoriety helped move the show up the ladder of priorities. Whatever it was, it's great news.

If you'd like to read the pilot in anticipation of the DVD release, here it is.

BTW, my "Dark Skies" writing and producing partner Brent Friedman and I are working on a new project that is as insidious and mind-bending as our first project together. Also, Brent currently is the creative force behind "Afterworld" which has just launched on Bud TV after getting a build-up on the SuperBowl. Jim Parriott, the other Executive Producer on the show, has come off one success after another, most recently "Grey's Anatomy" and "Ugly Betty."

Because "Dark Skies" was a period piece set in the 1960s, it has aged remarkably well. I just screened a few episodes the other day, and they feel very fresh. Can't wait for those who want to see them to get the chance. The period music is terrific, the late J.T. Walsh is phenomenal as the leader of Majestic-12 Frank Bach. And Eric Close, now of "Without A Trace", portrayed the tormented and courageous John Loengard in one of the best performances he's ever given. And Jeri Ryan and Megan Ward were both great, regardless of which side of the Hive Mind they were on!

Thanks to Dave and SONY for making it possible, and congratulations to Brent and all the other people who worked so hard making those original 20 hours of TV!

For another alt.history way to look at the Kennedy years, CLICK on the banner below:

Hearts & Minds: My HBO Tour of Duty in Iraq

You don't need to watch the State of the Union to know that the nation is at the boiling point over this war -- I Tivo'd all the Sunday talk shows where the "surge" and the opposition to it dominated even Hillary versus Obama presidential news. Clearly, after a deadly weekend where 28 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq and a deadly Monday where twin bombings killed over 100 Iraqis at a marketplace, it does make us all think back and wonder, "How the hell did we get to this miserable place?" {Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubayel / AFP - Getty Images}

We debate why the war planners didn't plan for this, and wonder if maybe we would even have done a better job. In my case, I think I would have anticipated this growing disaster if I'd been given the task. I've even got something that passes for "proof." Because, you see, I actually did get paid to think about the future of Iraq before the war happened.

In 2002, while the war drumbeats out of Iraq were only being heard in the distance, I pitched HBO a TV series that would be set in Afghanistan at the fictional military base "Camp Big Stick." It would deal with a company of soldiers, including a group involved in psy-ops, and would be called "Hearts and Minds."

Download "Hearts & Minds" PDF

HBO works differently than the broadcast networks. Rather than order a pilot first, they ordered a "bible" about how the series would work. The executive explained the theory as being how they already knew I could write a great pilot, they wanted to know how the series would work once I had done so. Of course, it's also cheaper to order a bible than a full pilot script. So, at HBO, they would read the bible then, if they liked it, they would order the pilot script.

Frankly, I didn't care how they wanted to do it. This was the home of "The Sopranos" and the chance, as a writer, to work at such a great place meant everything. I don't think there's a one-hour writer in Hollywood who doesn't dream of having a hit HBO series.

So during 2002 I worked up a 60-page bible about these soldiers, fresh off of 9/11, trying to do their jobs in Afghanistan. I turned it in and HBO liked it enough to order a full one-hour pilot script. The focus slightly shifted, leaning away from psy-ops to military intelligence, although it was really just a matter of emphasis. As I began to work on that pilot, however, the talk of war with Iraq grew louder and louder, and it became clear that, unless Saddam blinked, it was going to happen. I called the HBO executive in charge and asked if maybe, given this reality, the pilot should now be set in Iraq instead of Afghanistan. Her response was, "I don't know, you're the writer."

Well, God bless her. At a broadcast network, it's 99% likely the answer would have been that they would bring it up at the next development meeting and get back to me. HBO's idea was to let writers create and then to decide after they had done whatever they were going to do whether or not it would go to series.

And so I wrote about Iraq. Since it was now my decision, I decided that Iraq was going to be where the action was. Time frames in TV, though shorter than films, are still long. My challenge was not a small one:

I had to write a pilot about Iraq that would take place almost a year after the war was over, but I had to write it while the tanks were still on their way to Baghdad.

It was like shooting at a moving target. I made certain assumptions. The first was that the script be neither pro or anti war, but deal with the people who were there and their lives. The second was that, regardless of the intentions behind the war, it would still be messed up there. Here's a snippet of dialogue that has proved to be particularly prescient:

            O'BRIEN
Next time we start a post-war
reconstruction, maybe we should wait
for the war to be over.

            FENTRESS
Yeah, I know, peace is hell.

I turned that script in, as I recall, a few days before the Saddam statue was pulled  down. When the executive called me a few days later, she said, "We f***ing love this script." She said that if they were going to make it they wouldn't ask me to change a single word. Unfortunately, she also said that HBO would never make it now. Not because Iraq was controversial. That was okay. The reason she gave was that while I was busy writing, HBO had made a deal with Spielberg and Hanks to do the follow up to the hugely successful "Band of Brothers" with the  new installment set in the Pacific. There was no money left over for another war project.

About a year after that, Stephen Bochco and F/X made a lot of news with their own Iraq war drama, "Over There." It was very high quality, but the numbers weren't good enough, and it was canceled. HBO, which doesn't care so much about total numbers, might have let "Hearts & Minds" stay on-the-air and grow. In some alternative universe, it's probably a big hit and was responsible for ending the war before it got to this place.

Anyway, because it's not doing me any good sitting in my closet, I'm making that script available for download now. It just seems that Iraq is such a big deal, and it was kind of fun seeing how close the script came, knowing that it was written even before the looting of Baghdad. For starters, I did not have us being greeted as liberators.

I also got car bombs and kidnappings down, but I didn't make it bad enough. And the idea that Iraqis would start killing themselves in this sectarian violence, that was something I thought about but figured would not be allowed to happen because the people-in-charge (us) would be ready for it. Well, sometimes truth is sadder than fiction... Maybe I should have just kept it in Afghanistan...

Download HBO's 2003 Pilot, "Hearts & Minds"

Note: The graphic montage above is not anything official to the project. I created it from news sources during my writing process to inspire me to hit certain key emotional connections.

The Hollywood Cookbook: A Holiday Win-Win for Charity

The first copies are back from the publishers and it will be in the major bookstores and Amazon.com will start shipping within the next week. I'm  talking about "The Hollywood Cookbook." It's the best win-win I've seen in a long-time. Really... think of it as Good Cooking, Great Causes...

Pre-Order Now for 2006 Holidays
Available Mid-November
$5 Per Book to Charity

To paraphrase Martin Landau's Bob Evans character from HBO's "Entourage" -- "If I told you there was a way to give somebody a modest gift for the holidays that they might actually like and, at the same time, give money to charities that help make the world a better place, would that be of interest to you?"

Regular readers of "For What It's Worth" know that I've never asked you to buy anything in all the time this blog has existed. This one just seems like such a great idea that I want to help.

The whole concept started a couple of years ago when my wife, Jackie, got this idea. She would find twenty celebrities, each one with a favorite charity, then ask them to supply their favorite recipes for a cookbook. Five bucks from each book would go into a pot to be distributed to the charities. She'd get the Entertainment Industry Foundation -- a group that has an outstanding reputation -- to divvy up the money. She'd sell the book, starting at the holidays, so that people could give it instead of a card saying "A donation has been made in your name." I mean, let's be honest, I'm always glad that a charity has gotten money in my name but it's a little disappointing. We'd like something tangible to go with it. Well, now you have the perfect compromise!

It's been a snowball effect of support. She's partnered with her good friend, Morgan Most, and together the two of them have practically willed this into existence. Celebrities like Ron Howard, Michael J. Fox, Jane Kaczmarek and Bradley Whitford immediately wanted to help. Charities were supportive and appreciative and put some of their key supporters in touch with the women of "Good Looking Cooking" (that's the name they came up with in order to publish the book). Later, as an added bonus, some very, very famous celebrity chefs also came aboard to offer some of their own special recipes. People like Wolfgang Puck and Mario Batali (plus Mark Dacascos from "Iron Chef.")

The book is literally at the printer now, pre-orders are being taken, and it can end up in your hands before Thanksgiving, in plenty of time to wrap it, mail it and give it to friends and co-workers for the holidays.

Listen, I could go on and on about this idea. I work in Hollywood where so often everything is a problem and it's great to salute an idea where everything is a solution. You want to know what was the most significant problem to overcome? Figuring out how to get $5 guaranteed to charity, given all the costs that go into books these days. But Jackie and Morgan have been unyielding. $5 to charity. Not a penny less.

They have a superior web-site that explains the whole thing better than I can do in this blog. Check it out. Feel good this year about at least one of the gifts you give. Make a difference. You can see all the charities there and check out the links to their sites for yourself.

Let me put one other thought out there. After you've checked out http://www.thehollywoodcookbook.com, you'll probably agree it's a great idea, too. Now, let's do some math...

Say they sell 10-thousand books before Christmas. That means charities will get $50,000 to split. But if we can push that number up to 100-thousand books that would mean a $500,000 check going to charity in early 2007.

So, check out the site and if you catch "The Hollywood Cookbook" fever like I have, stick a link to it on your blog or website, write about it in your own words, send the URL to your local newspapers with a personal note of endorsement and send one of those e-mails to all your friends asking them to send it to all their friends. Even better, buy a book for everybody on your shopping list and be a force multiplier. Think of it this way: buy 10 books; give $50 to charity.

Let's go viral in support of a great cause! We're the Internet, dammit, this is easy!

CNN & Hollywood

CNN has decided to keep its lease on its Hollywood headquarters for another fifteen years. That's the news in an article in today's L.A Times, "Hollywood Learns There's No Place Like Home."

CNN considered moving to the San Fernando Valley or the Wilshire Boulevard corridor east of Beverly Hills before renewing its lease for the next 15 years. CNN agreed to pay $24 million to stay in the 40,000 square feet at 6430 Sunset Blvd., home of "Larry King Live" and other broadcasts.

I first came to Hollywood myself as the original hard news correspondent for CNN. I know that dates me, and the entertainment biz is enormously hard on people who've been around a while no matter what they've accomplished, but I don't care. To say that I was simply a CNN correspondent for the Hollywood bureau just doesn't measure up: I was the first.

We were in another building then, about two blocks down from CNN's current headquarters. 6290 Sunset. I remember when I first looked up at that building. Sunset & Vine, it was. Even a kid from Oregon had heard of those streets. I drove past that building last week and it's barricaded off and it looks like they're doing a total make-over.

The first week I was in LA, doing rehearsals before CNN would officially go on the air, we had an earthquake. I was in our offices on the 16th floor and I literally thought I was going to die before I ever got to tag off a story with, "Reporting from Los Angeles, Bryce Zabel, CNN." The building swayed visibly (I didn't know then it was engineered to do this and that was a good thing) and there was no place to take cover.

The building didn't fall, CNN went on the air and it never went off since. I remember quitting a job as an anchor at KVOA in Tucson, Arizona to take this job, and the news director warning me that this CNN thing looked pretty iffy and I was probably making a big mistake. Instead, it changed my life.

I'm pretty sure I was the youngest network correspondent in America at the time. I'd been out of college for all of four years, reported and anchored at markets in Oregon and Arizona. The thing is, though, CNN couldn't play with the big boys back then. They wanted to pay low wages and work people non-stop. In exchange, they would give you a national audience and let you work on a project you believed in. And I did believe. I thought that 24-hour news would have the chance of letting the whole world see things together as they happened and that would change the world.

Back during the time I worked for CNN, I used to bump into my network counterparts at all kinds of stories. Often these men and women were reporting one story every three days, that kind of schedule. I was reporting three stories every day. It was like local news with a national audience.

It was a thrill, covering presidential campaigns, space shuttle launches, disasters, triumphs, everything. It was also crazy. I remember that I personally had to edit my first 17 stories that went out on-the-air because CNN had not hired a competent videotape editor, and I had taught myself editing back at my Oregon station, KVAL. I also remember seeing Ted Turner get off the elevator late at night, smoking a cigar, with a beautiful woman on his arm, after I'd been there since before sunrise. He smiled at me and said, "God, this is fun!"

Those of us who worked there during those first days were always bonded, like we'd been at war. Earlier this year, our assignment editor Scott Barer and I got back together for a lunch and it was like we'd never gone away. We remembered everybody fondly: Tim Sevison, Dave Rust, Casey Bennett, Scott Spiro, so many others. I remember there was an intern who was producing "The Lee Leonard Show" back then, who I had to throw off the editing machines from time to time. His name was Doug Herzog and now he runs Comedy Central. His Wikipedia entry says he started his career at MTV, but I know better.

I saw the new CNN headquarters about five years ago when I did several live interviews there post 9/11 talking about postponing the Emmy Awards show, while I was chairman of the TV Academy. If my CNN was a mom-and-pop news operation, it had clearly grown into the big time.

I'm glad CNN is staying in Hollywood. Like the article says, it's a good location, close to everything. Definitely close to me. Ted Turner was right. It was fun.

The Skies Just Keep Getting Darker!

After "Dark Skies" went off NBC in May of 1997, it went into a very heavy rotation on the Sci-Fi Channel, stirring up a whole new set of fans who, frankly, had more going on in their lives than to stay home on Saturday night to watch a TV show. This was before TiVO, you have to understand.

Around 1999, though, "Dark Skies" went into hibernation. Last week, it reared its paranoid, conspiratorial head again when "The Path to 9/11" started publicizing that mini-series with an ad campaign that looked about two shades past "homage" from the original "Dark Skies" campaign. This was duly noted on the Internet from everybody from The Huffington Post to Defamer to Salon. It was a real Roswell in a rainstorm...

Now there's word that it's coming out as an anniversary CD! Here's what they have to say about the release on the Intrada web-site that's selling it:

Original music from TV series set during 1960's, featuring conspiracies, cover-ups, the FBI, extra-terrestrials, other sixties icons, created by Bryce Zabel, Brent Friedman. Michael Hoenig scores with assist from Mark Snow on un-aired pilot. Hoenig anchors with main title theme blending lonely "Americana" trumpet with furtive string, keyboard rhythms. Bulk of score creates tension through plethora of piano rhythms, synthesized string figures, other bristling activity. In contrast are quiet ideas with meld of mystery, menace. Given limited scope of instrumental timbres, Hoenig works variety of material well, brings everything to a quiet, satisfying close. Snow gives unaired pilot score similar color via electronic string effects, keyboard ideas but highlights with interesting jabbing rhythm for synthesized brass, then balances with haunting minor-key theme for high strings over delicate piano arpeggios. Nicely-packaged with generous booklet offering notes about production, scoring. CD is packaged as "The 10th Anniversary Limited Edition Original Television Score".

It was an interesting musical start. Mark Snow, who was also working on "X-Files," scored our pilot originally and that version aired around the world in early 1996. But Chris Carter, as I understand it, was not enthusiastic about Snow doing his show and our show, so Snow had to depart our project. In came the incredibly talent Michael Hoenig as his replacement and the pilot was even re-scored before it aired on NBC in September of 1996 (ten years ago). And, for those "Dark Skies" fans out there (and I mean real fans), here is the rundown of what's on the CD.

1. Gary Francis Powers (2:24) 2. Dark Skies Main Title (0:48) 3. Project Bluebook (1:37) 4. Idaho Crop Circles (2:35) 5. Mesmerized By Light (3:43) 6. Moving Targets (2:25) 7. John's Escape (2:13) 8. Roswell, New Mexico (2:36) 9. Mission Control (1:50) 10. Mercury Rising (3:44) 11. majestic Headquarters (1:28) 12. Dreamland (3:27) 13. Meeting RFK (1:21) 14. Child Abduction (2:40) 15. Bach's Command (1:37) 16. John's Vision (2:59) 17. Majestic Takes Control (1:40) 18. Juliet, Dubious Ally (1:04) 19. Majestic Checkpoint (0:49) 20. Hoover In Louisiana (1:33) 21. A Grey Seeks Help-Kim Taken Over (2:35) 22. Kim Touches Light (1:35) 23. Steel (0:35) 24. Abort the Mission (2:25) 25. Epilogue (3:21) 26. Suite from "The Pilot" (Mark Snow)(12:30)

The thing is, I remember all these songs because I was there and editing with them, etc., but I am really looking forward to hearing this CD. Especially since, I think, I'm quoted in the liner notes. But I'll never forget that, in addition to our sophisticated and memorable musical score, we also budgeted for the use of a lot of period music. Our pilot, for example, ended with John Loengard and Kim Sayres on the run, after the Kennedy assassination they helped cause, as we heard the first strains of "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield. Now you know a bit about where this blog title came from. And, for the fans who to this day criticize that song as being out of time order, I offer the real explanation. We were scrupulous about matching song release to actual story points through the series, and "For What It's Worth" (released in 1967) was used -- ON PURPOSE -- because we wanted it to be a precursor of the paranoia that existed for our characters on the road ahead.

Now, if only SONY would take heed here. We've had the "Dark Skies" poster re-exposed to the national audience in the last week, now we have a CD of the music out. Maybe -- just maybe -- it's time to put the series itself out on DVD so people can actually watch it again.

Just a thought, guys. For what it's worth...

Credit Where Credit Is Due

The striking similarity between the 1996 NBC "Dark Skies" key art and the current ABC ad campaign for "The Path to 9/11" has really struck a nerve. It's amusing to some, to others it's further evidence of a corrupt movie process, and to one person it was very personal.

DARK SKIES | NBC | SONY | Bryce Zabel & Brent Friedman | 1996-1997
Art by Alicia Fernandez | Blue Sky Creative
Winner, ProMax Gold Medallion Award

My first reaction upon seeing the ads for "The Path to 9/11" was, "Huh?" Exactly ten years ago this month (September 21, 1996), I was launching an NBC series called "Dark Skies" that was darkly paranoid and floated what my writing/producing partner Brent Friedman and I liked to call the Unified Field Theory of Conspiracies: that President Kennedy had been killed because he was going to tell the truth about UFOs in his second term.

I remember that I loved the graphic imagery of this key art the instant I laid eyes on it. It captured the paranoid essence of our series perfectly.

During the rush of production, I never got to know the talented woman who actually did this work. Thanks to the connectivity of blogging, however, she saw the earlier post and wrote me today which allows me to properly credit her work!

The original concept is by Alicia Fernandez of Blue Sky Creative. She actually won the ProMax Gold Medallion Award that year. ProMax is the industry organization that deals with promotion activities. If you want to see the full-size version of the art, just click on the photo above.

It was great work, Alicia. Let me know when ABC sends you a residual check!

• To read more about the "Dark Skies" series, including downloads for the pilot script about JFK's assassination and the episode script which deals with the New York power black-out, the death of Dorothy Kilgallen, Jack Ruby and Dan Rather all in one fell-swoop, please CLICK HERE.