EUREKA UNSCRIPTED

About Us: Eric Tuchman

 
Eric Tuchman                                                                                                Writer/Co-Executive Producer

Seventh grade.  My English teacher, Mrs. Kahn (voice like Harvey Fierstein, face like a shrunken apple) called me to her desk to discuss “A Cougar’s Life Story,” the five-chapter saga I’d written about a courageous mountain lion.  The good news?  The writing impressed her.  The bad?  She thought there was no way a seventh-grader could’ve written it.  I think it was her half-inspiring, half-insulting feedback that first made me realize I might have a knack for this writing-thing.   

Cut to LA, 1990.  I started out selling specs in the feature world, made a stop in animation (ANASTASIA), moved onto independent and TV movies and my first staff job on DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN, where I hold the distinction of writing the episode when Dr. Quinn takes her one and only onscreen bath.  From there, I’ve loved working in the sci-fi and fantasy world on series like EARLY EDITION, MYSTERIOUS WAYS, and most recently as the Executive Producer for the entire run of KYLE XY.   

So where do you go after working on a sci-fi show about a teenage genius with no bellybutton?  Why, to EUREKA, of course, a whole town full of geniuses (presumably with bellybuttons)!  To me, EUREKA has it all.  Great characters and emotion.  Wild and wonderful mysteries.  Big laughs.  I’m so excited to join the amazing creative minds bringing you season four.  Thank you, Mrs. Kahn, for helping me get here.

EUREKA Heads North

 

What happens when science and entertainment meet? 

Northern California EUREKA fans can find out when co-creator/executive producer Jaime Paglia appears alongside real scientists as part of a special event hosted by the Berkeley Lab. The event, which is part of the lab’s “Science Café” series, will take place at on February 4 at 7pm at the Brower Center in downtown Berkeley, CA.  

The Berkeley Lab website describes the upcoming event as “…a fun, informative, and interactive evening of science and entertainment.”  If you’re in the area, plan on attending this wonderful evening of science fact and fiction!  It promises to be a blast!

Click here for more info about the event and check out this site for more about the Berkeley Lab.

EDIT: Although previously announced, actor Colin Ferguson is now unable to attend this event due to prior commitments.

Trespassers Welcome!

Looked who stopped by today to torture Bruce and Jaime... our beloved Niall Matter (Zane) and Neil Grayston (Fargo)! 

Neil had already heard some of our ideas for season four, but the look on Niall's face when we pitched it to him was PRICELESS.  They're both as excited as we are!

About Us: Amy Berg

Amy Berg                                                                                                       Writer, Co-Executive Producer  

Growing up, I was one of those kids who lived in their head.  A Charlie Kaufman character, basically.  My classmates pegged me a loner, but that was never the case.  Truth be told, I was never alone.  I had my imagination to keep me company.

Teachers started encouraging my creative writing in third grade, and by fifth grade I was improv-ing my way through school plays.  But I'd always considered writing an outlet, not an occupation.  I even had designs on astrophysics as a potential career path, until I realized how much mathematics was involved.  ZOMG!

I went off to college still unsure as to what I wanted to do.  It wasn’t until an English professor smacked me upside the head that I finally made the choice.  She'd asked us to write a paper examining character motivations in HAMLET.  I decided to frame the paper as a scene from the actual stage play, wherein I was the director giving instruction to the actors playing each role.  The professor made me read it aloud in front of the class and then pulled me aside afterwards.  “What the hell are you doing here?” she asked.  “You should be in film school.”

I transferred the following semester.  

After graduation, I headed to Los Angeles with nothing but a suitcase and an empty rolodex (that’s like an iPhone contacts folder, for you kids out there).  The first script I wrote got me a meeting with Joss Whedon; the second script I sold to Nickelodeon.  As luck would have it, by the end of my first six months in town I was a working writer.

I scripted half-hour comedies for the first few years of my career, but my passion for science fiction soon took over.  I wrote a spec for LOST during its first season that propelled me into the genre.  I’ve since written for THRESHOLD, THE 4400, and most recently was a writer/producer on the first two seasons of LEVERAGE.  

I’m super excited to join EUREKA for season four.  It’s the first show I’ve been on that combines my true loves… comedy and sci fi.  More importantly, I’m working with a bunch of really awesome humans.  I can’t imagine being anywhere else.

Room With a View

                                                                                                                                                      If it seems like we're obsessed with rainbows, it's because we are.  Also puppies.  And large hadron colliders.

Eureka Goes to Washington (sort of)

Hey, guys.  One of the perks of writing a sci fi show about fictional scientists and military folk is sometimes REAL scientists and military folk take an interest in what we have to say.  People who work at little operations like, say, the DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.  Such was the case this week when I was invited to be a guest on the DOD radio podcast program, "Armed With Science," with Jennifer Ouellette from the Science and Entertainment Exchange. 

What were they thinking? 

In any case, I did my best to be entertaining and informative without being added to any FBI watchlists.  Here's the link.  Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jaime

Episode #50: The Science and Entertainment Exchange - entertainment, national academy of sciences, military, EUREKA, SyFy Channel

 

About Us: Jaime Paglia and Bruce Miller

Who are these people anyway?!

It takes a village to write EUREKA.  An insane, Starbucks-addicted village with questionable fashion sense.  Want to meet us?  No?  Too bad!  Over the next few weeks we'll be posting "get-to-know-us" bios from everyone here in Eurekaville, in their own words.  For extra eye candy, they'll be accompanied by illustrations from Co-Producer Paula Yoo.  First up are co-showrunners Jaime Paglia and Bruce Miller.

Jaime Paglia, Co-Creator and Executive Producer

I asked my daughter, Zoe, what she wants to be when she grows up.  She thought for all of three seconds and replied, "An actor, gymnastics coach, school teacher, astronaut, and maybe a rock star."  She can't decide.  I said, that's okay, I can't decide either.  But for now, I get to write this show.  And I have to admit, at the risk of waxing poetic, that doesn't suck.  Like Zoe (and her namesake in the series), it took some time for me to find my calling.  After starting college as an econ major (ha!), I stumbled into theater arts and literature.  My dad was SO relieved to hear his hard-earned tuition dollars were going toward such a promising career path. Luckily, I've managed to fall into a paying gig.  No small feat, considering that (as my wife, Kristen, has just awakened to point out) I have terrible judgment, no ability to gauge time, and am a terrible procrastinator.  In any case, after some time spent at MGM in feature film publicity and development, I managed to sell a spec script called BOMBSHELL to New Line Cinema with writing partner, Dave Draffin. That led to another film, KRINGLE, for Akiva Goldsman and Mark Canton that I co-wrote with Andy Cosby.  Then together, we created EUREKA.  That was almost seven years ago.  Another feature film and 3.5 seasons of EUREKA later, I am one of the few fortunate souls who gets to do this for a living.  And on a good day, I get to make people laugh.  Like those of you intrepid enough to read this pretentious bio. Enjoy the show.

Bruce Miller, Executive Producer

You’d like to know a little about me? 

Connecticut (where I grew up) 
Los Angeles  (where I live now) 
Autumn (thing I miss most from my home town) 
Twenty-two  (years I’ve been writing) 
Early-American Literature (college major) 
None (tattoos) 
Nine and a half (shoe size) 
Jupiter (favorite planet) 
New York Giants (favorite football team) 
ALIEN (favorite sci-fi movie) 
Higgs-Boson & Lepton (favorite sub-atomic particle [tie])
French Toast (favorite breakfast)

 

State of the Union

Hi guys!  We figured it was time to give y’all an official heads up as to what we’re planning to do with Eureka Unscripted as well as where we’re at production-wise with the show itself.  

I’m Amy Berg, a writer and Co-Executive Producer for the show.  If forced to sum up what I do in one word... I’m a Riker.  When Jaime and Bruce are on away missions, I’ve got the bridge.  I maintain the writing schedule, feed caffeine IVs to the staff, and rumor has it I’m in charge of supervising this blog.  The rest of the web team consists of Eureka staffers Eric Wallace, Kira Snyder, and Ed Fowler.  They’ll be writing most of the content you’ll see here, and I’ll chip in on occasion when time permits. 

In the weeks to come, we’ll be introducing you to members of the writing staff and rolling out new weekly features like “Day in the Life” -- a diary of what it’s like to work on Eureka from the POV of folks behind and in front of the camera.  Ever wonder what really goes on in a writers’ room?  How do the actors prepare once they’ve gotten a script?  And what the heck is the difference between a script coordinator and a script supervisor anyway? 

In our desperate attempts to keep you entertained, we’ll also be posting photos and videos from our writers’ offices and the set.  We’re hoping to make Q&As a regular fixture on the site.  And once episodes start airing, we’re planning weekly “Science Behind the Fiction” posts to give you insight on recent science and technological discoveries that inspired the storytelling. 

Although the network and studio humans don’t want us giving too much away, an innocent spoiler or two might creep by so consider yourselves warned!  

And now, at the risk of being useful, here is some ACTUAL INFORMATION:  

Twenty episodes.  This is the order that SyFy gave us for season four.  And no, we don’t know yet how/if it’s going to be split up into half seasons.    

March 18th.  The first day of production in Vancouver.  

Mid-July.  When we premiere on the SyFy channel.  Stay tuned for information on airdates in a country near you.

the sign outside "the room"

And here’s some basic TERMINOLOGY so you know what we mean:  

The room.  Shorthand we use to refer to the writers’ room, aka a large office filled with couches where we spend most of the day breaking stories.

Breaking stories.  The process by which story concepts are “broken down" into smaller elements (acts, scenes, etc).

401 to 420.  The disturbingly simple number code we use to distinguish episodes we’re working on… the 4 represents season four, and the following two digits refer to episodes 1 through 20. 

(Yes, I know all this terminology is super obvious.  To the 97.6% of you who already know this stuff, forgive me.)  

Now that you're familiar with the shorthand, when I tell you that right now the room is breaking 405 you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

That’s all for now.  If you have questions about the writing process, general or specific, drop them in the comments and I’ll address them in a later post.   

And if anyone's interested, next week I’ll give you a tour of the room…

We Come in Peace

Visitors, visitors, visitors!

We just LOVE it when a guest or two (or three!) drops by to say "hello."  Well, the past few weeks have been a cornucopia of drop-in friendliness.  And just who has visited our hallowed halls lately? 

First on the guest list is the lovely and talented Salli Richardson-Whitfield. Salli dropped by this week for a sneak peek at what's in store for Allison and the rest of Eureka's residents in Season 4.

Next came fantastic Fargo himself, Neil Grayston!

Now Neil has graced Eurekaville several times in the past month, including a special pop-by just before the holidays (see photo below). Oh, and in case you were wondering... Neil gets magnetized to the ceiling a lot less often than Fargo.

Finally there was everybody's favorite sheriff, Colin Ferguson, who dropped by the same week we moved into our offices.  Unfortunately, no one snapped a photo because we were all putting chairs and sofas together -- even Colin.  We promise the next time he visits that copious amounts of digital snappage will occur.

More next week.  

Have a great weekend!

Calling All EUREKA Fans

Greetings and Happy New Year!

We, your humble writing staff (yeah… right), want Eureka Unscripted to be the BEST unauthorized-authorized-sci fi-TV-writing-staff-slash-what’s-on-our-minds-blog OF ALL TIME. 

To do that, we put it to you guys: what do you want to see on this blog?

Leave a comment telling US what you’d like to see here at Eureka Unscripted, and please, no story ideas. Sorry, but legally we can't accept or consider any brilliance but our own.  

All righty, then. Let the fun commence!

Sincerely,

The Eureka Gang

EDIT: Sorry, everyone, in clarifying this post we had to delete comments. Please re-post your suggestions on blog features and topics. Many thanks!