Well Gang, it finally happened to me! I met and shook hands with a real Hollywood television producer and what a time we had together! The producer’s name is Alan Demming and he’s been working in television for over eleven years! He has his own production company, Demming Productions Unlimited, and a real office in downtown L.A.! I asked him to read a pilot script I wrote, one thing led to another, and the next thing I know…we’re having lunch! Imagine me, Jared Logan, having lunch with a real producer! I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share this experience with Blerds fans, so I politely asked Alan if he’d let me interview him for our little website. He agreed. What follows is a transcript of our conversation. Enjoy!

JARED: Alan, tell the Blerds audience a little bit about yourself.

ALAN: My name is Alan Demming. I produced the pilot for Jurassic Park: The Television Series.

JARED: And was that pilot picked up as a series?

ALAN: No. What are you talking about.? Do you remember there being a Jurassic Park TV series? No. It’s because they passed on my pilot.

JARED: And why do you think the major networks passed on your pilot?

ALAN: Well, at the time we made the pilot for Jurassic Park: The TV Series (I call it JP:TTVS), we didn’t have the budget to do Computer Generated Dinosaurs, like in the movie. So…the special effects weren’t as good.

JARED: What did you use?

ALAN: What do you mean?

JARED: If you didn’t use CGI, what did you use to show the dinosaurs?

ALAN: Well, in the pilot we only had one dinosaur actually make an appearance and that dinosaur was played by an actor.

JARED: In a rubber dinosaur suit?

ALAN: Make-up. He had dinosaur make-up.

JARED: They can really do amazing things with make-up nowadays, can’t they Alan?

ALAN: Sure. Okay.

JARED: So. Unfortunately your pilot for JP:TTVS didn’t get picked up. What was your next project after that?

ALAN: After that I produced the pilot for Jurassic Park: The Sitcom. See, my feeling was if you’re doing an hour long Jurassic Park dramatic TV Series, people are going to expect to see CGI dinosaurs. For a half-hour sitcom, you can get away with just using actors in dinosaur make-up.

JARED: And did that show get picked up?

ALAN: No.

JARED: Are you sure?

ALAN: Are you kidding? No. It didn’t get picked up. Do you remember seeing it? No.

JARED: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about it.

ALAN: Well…it was a sitcom that was set, you know, in the Jurassic Park. There was a paleontologist, his family, his pot-smoking brother-in-law, and a dinosaur character played by Saved By the Bell’s Dennis Haskins. The dinosaur character had a funny catchphrase…it was… I can’t remember. “Let’s get serious!” or something like that. It was funny.

JARED: And that didn’t get picked up?

ALAN: No. I told you, no.

JARED: Feels like I remember seeing it. Okay, so what was your next project after that?

ALAN: I took a break for a couple of years. I focused on my restaurant business. I own several Wendy’s franchises.

JARED: Mmm-hmmm. Yes.

ALAN: But now I’m working on a very exciting project. This new pilot I’m producing is sure to get picked up.

JARED: And what is this new pilot you’re working on?

ALAN: It’s Jurassic Park: The Reality Show. We put ten strangers together on an island, filled with dinosaurs, and they have to survive to win one million dollars.

JARED: Now that’s exciting. And this is a reality series, so will you be using real dinosaurs?

ALAN: What? No. There are no– They’re extinct. This is Jurassic Park: The Reality Show, not Jurassic Park: The Reality.

JARED: So how will the contestants be facing dinosaurs if you don’t have any?

ALAN: I bought a komodo dragon and a crocodile from a guy in Myrtle Beach. My writers are going to come up with all kinds of challenges involving the komodo dragon and the crocodile. Although, the komodo dragon is sick right now so I hope it’s still moving when we start filming.

JARED: But those aren’t technically dinosaurs…

ALAN: We’re going to mount a big fiberglass fin on the crocodile’s head.

JARED: Let’s move on. What was your biggest challenge on all three of these projects?

ALAN: Trying to get the rights to do a show about Jurassic Park has always been a challenge. I still haven’t actually succeeded in acquiring those rights so, technically, creating this new pilot is illegal. That stuff is all copyrighted. They’re serious about that stuff.

JARED: Alan, your critics would say “Why Jurassic Park?” Why try to create yet another television show about a movie that came out over ten years ago? A movie that generates little to no interest among the general television-viewing audience? Why continue to flog a dead horse? Or, dinosaur in this case? (laughs heartily). How do you respond to that, Alan? Why Jurassic Park?

ALAN: I think that even though the movie Jurassic Park is over ten years old there’s something about that story that digs deep inside your subconscious and doesn’t let go. I think there’s something about that movie that resonates with audiences even today and that’s why I choose to produce television series based on it. I don’t know what that something is. I’ve never seen the movie.

JARED: Have you read the book?

ALAN: There’s a book?

23/07/2006
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