Tim Minear

At just 23 years old, Tim Minear was working side-by-side with Oliver Stone as an (uncredited) assistant director on Platoon (1986) and beginning a thus-far full career of mostly short-lived television series. So short-lived, in fact, that when he signed up for a Twitter account, he chose “CancelledAgain” as his handle. Yet, he swears he’s neither bitter nor defeated, having had, among his writer/director/producer peers, a unique experience of working on many and varied series, series that though fleeting are also some of the sharpest around: Firefly (2002-2003), Wonderfalls (2004), The Inside (2005), Dollhouse (2009-2010), and Terriers (2010), among others. In fact, much of his work could be described as small-screen poetry—condensed, potent. When I had the pleasure of speaking with Minear via phone on January 12, 2011, we casually yet seriously reasoned that he might be a better fit for the British model of television. Though our conversation came soon after he had learned of Terriers’ cancellation, Minear was hopeful about his new series The Chicago Code, which premiered on Fox at the beginning of February, and was happily reminiscent about his work with Joss Whedon. In this first part of two, Minear talks about Firefly and Angel (1999-2004), the role socio-political and cultural issues play in his creative work, writing strong female characters, and what he learned while working alongside Whedon.

POPMATTERS: Readers of the Firefly comic books have recently learned some much coveted information about Shepherd Book’s past. What deeper insight into the character Inara Serra can or will you share?

TIM MINEAR: Well I could, but I won’t. I don’t feel like I have the freedom to reveal that.

PM: Well, it was worth asking [both laugh].

TM: Yeah, I just don’t feel like I have the freedom to reveal that.

PM: Moving on then… Whedon has participated in politics in ways that can be directly connected to his creative work. He sponsored the “High Stakes” fundraising parties for John Kerry; he supports the non-profit organization Equality Now. In particular, he himself—as well as fans, journalists, and scholars—have described Whedon as a feminist. What role, if any, do you find social, cultural, or political issues playing in your own work?

TM: I suppose on some level. And all that is definitely true about Joss. I remember in the last season of Buffy he came in once and said, “Buffy has become like George W. Bush… forming an army.” The truth is that sometimes art may not exactly reflect one’s personal politics, but the story, the drama, the thing you’re trying to say might want to go in a certain direction, and while it may seem like it has resonance with things that are happening topically, you kind of want the world you’re creating to have its own internal logic. Above all, you want it to track, make sense, and resonate emotionally. So I actually don’t know if I do that consciously or not. That’s probably not the answer you want; it’s not a very interesting answer, but that’s the answer.

PM: No. Actually, it is interesting. Because those who study popular culture—and those of us who are scholars of Whedon’s series, including your work—are particularly interested in how consciously you’re thinking about these real-world issues when you’re writing. So to have your answer is illuminating.

TM: Joss is more center-left, and I’m more center-right. I’m more of a libertarian. Joss would tell me that his sympathies were often with the Alliance—universal health care and that sort of thing. But when you’re doing a Western like Firefly, the drama is really with the iconoclast—I don’t want to say a libertarian with a big L, but you know, the guy who’s out there searching for his own freedom. So, I don’t know that Joss was particularly making a libertarian statement, but I know from what I’ve read on the web that a lot of Libertarians embrace Firefly in particular as a libertarian ideal.

Kind of backtracking a little bit on your original question… one cannot divorce oneself from sitting down and closely examining one’s work. You’re always trying to tell a story and make it interesting, yet you might also realize a scene says something offensive about women or some other group. Then you might go in and adjust it accordingly. I did this recently with Terriers. We had this story thread with a character who cheated on her boyfriend. She had a drunken night and ended up in bed with her professor. When we were breaking that story, there were all sorts of reasons why we wrote the thread like we did. We wanted to give the character agency of her own; we didn’t want her to feel like some appendage to the male character, so she had her own life and her own stuff to work out. On the other hand, we had to be very careful not to make it seem like she was date-raped. So how do you do that and not give the audience the idea that you’re trying to say something when you’re really not? I think often it’s more about being careful that you’re not saying something that you didn’t intend, as opposed to trying to infuse your work with things that you want to say. Joss would probably have a completely different take on this question.

PM: Well, that’s why I’m interviewing you [both laugh]. In a similar but slightly different vein, when Joss Whedon accepted an award during Equality Now’s “Men on the Front Lines” event in 2006, he organizes his remarks around an imaginary press junket during which reporters repeatedly ask him the same question: “Why do you write these strong women characters?” After many other responses—some funny, some not, all of them serious—Whedon ultimately answers, “Because you’re still asking me that question.” Is there a recurring question that you get asked that makes you wonder about the sanity of our culture? Or one that simply drives you crazy?

TM: Nothing’s leaping to mind. It’s interesting, though. I totally understand his frustration with that question. When I first started working with Joss, I did Angel, which was sort of the boy version of Buffy, so it wasn’t about the empowered female necessarily. It was more about the empowered male. But after I left that show, I went and did Wonderfalls, which was absolutely about this young woman at the center of the story.

PM: A story I love, by the way.

TM: Thank you. And then after Wonderfalls I did The Inside, which was also about a female character doing things that are more male-oriented—on television at any rate—sort of an action hero. She wasn’t using stereotypical feminine intuition to solve cases; she was much more attuned to the masculine side of her brain. I never really planned to sit down and write shows that have young women at the center of them because I often feel foolish. Actually, I don’t. I’ll take that back because when I actually sit down and write, I just try to get in her head and be as honest as I can about what the character would be doing or thinking in a particular situation. I think female characters on TV are often more interesting than male characters… or can be. Tim Minear

Tim Minear

PM: I know you have Jennifer Beals at the heart of The Chicago Code which premieres soon.

TM: Yep. That’s exactly right.

PM: Fans are already commenting on her casting and the character she plays.

TM: Yes, she’s awesome, really great.

PM: We’ll come back to the topic of The Chicago Code a little later. For now, let me finish asking you about your work with Whedon. What is the greatest lesson, professional or personal, you’ve learned from Joss Whedon?

TM: That’s a good question because there’s not just one thing. The thing about my experience with Joss [laughs]... it’s actually kind of a funny story. About ten years ago, I was working on a show with Howard Gordon called Strange World. I had just come off of The X-Files, but while I was on that show—I’m going to ramble for just a second if it’s okay with you—there was a woman there, Kim Metcalf, who was the assistant of Ken Horton, the president of Chris Carter’s company. By the time I came on to The X-Files in season five, Ken was putting most of his attention on Millennium. So I would go over [to their set] and hang out with Kim because she was awesome. Once she took me into a room and said, “I want to show you something.” I absolutely remember what she put into the VCR (it wasn’t a DVD player at the time): she put in “Surprise”, the episode where Buffy sleeps with Angel. She said, “You have to see this.” I’d never seen Buffy. And for whatever prescient reason, Kim said, “You should be working with Joss Whedon. You shouldn’t be here; you should be off working with Joss Whedon.” I thought, She’s a cheerleader; I just don’t get the show.

Fast-forward a year or two later. I’m working on Strange World, and my agent tells me that Joss Whedon wants to have a meet-and-greet. That’s pretty normal; you have these meet-and-greets when you’re a writer in Hollywood. You go, you meet people, you talk, and you hope that means you’ll get work later. So I go in and meet with Joss and David Greenwalt. But right before I went in, my agent told me I was supposed to have four or five episode pitches. So I’m thinking, Okay, so it’s not a meet-and-greet. It’s a pitch! That means I have to search out some college girl I know whose got all the Buffy episodes on tape and borrow them. So I borrowed the videotapes and watched them. And I said, “Okay. That’s pretty good. That’s pretty good.” ‘’

I came up with five ideas. I was also told that Joss likes a scene, a teaser, what the story’s about, certain elements. I walked in with these sort-of-worked-out pitches. Now I don’t remember what most of them were. I remember one—this was back before Xander [had had sex for the first time]—I think the pitch was: Druids come to Sunnydale and they’re searching for a virgin to sacrifice. Xander, who is a virgin, is running around to all the girls he knows saying, “You have to sleep with me or I will die!”... I pitched all this stuff to Joss, and the report I got back was that “those were the best pitches Joss has ever heard; however, he thinks you’re the angriest man he’s ever met and can’t bear to be in the same room with you.” I said, “Okay, whatever.” When Angel was spun off, David Greenwalt said, “What about that ‘mountaineer’ guy who came in here and pitched?” Joss said, “Fine, as long as I don’t have to be in a room with him.” So I went to Angel, and then of course, fast-forward, it all worked out great. We became ‘besties’ and sat around French-braiding each other’s hair and knitting booties [both laugh].

So the thing I learned from Joss? There were things I understood before I got to Angel because I had been doing this for a while. I had been with a couple of shows, and beyond that I had been writing syndicated television for a couple of years. I had probably 50 produced hours of television under my belt, which is kind of unusual for someone who has just started working in network TV. When I went in there, I had an understanding of what I was doing, but Joss gave me the language to articulate what it was that I was doing. When he talked about a story that we were breaking and putting up on a board being just a bunch of plot moves as opposed to being about something, getting to the heart of what’s the Angel of it, what’s the Buffy of it, what’s the emotional center of this story, and what’re we trying to say about these characters, that process gave me language to articulate what it was I had already been doing. Once I knew what to call things, I got better at it. That’s one thing he gave me.

The other thing he gave me was—and this is hard to quantify—but he has a kind of enthusiasm for what he does that translates. In other words, when I produced something for him that he loved, he expressed his delight. He had no ego in terms of wanting the people who worked for and with him to succeed. I know a lot of these big name guys who have to make sure you know that it’s really their genius that’s running everything. Joss, on the other hand, would go out in print… like when I got my deal with Twentieth Century Fox and there was a pretty big piece in Variety the next day. In the article, he basically said, “Without Tim Minear, there would be no Angel.” He is very quick to give credit where it is due. Now, he doesn’t just give you empty praise; you need to perform. It’s really nice to be recognized because I’ve been on a couple of [projects] that were unpleasant. I also learned technical things from Joss. When someone as good at what they do as Joss is expresses admiration for the work you’re doing, it makes you want to be better, and then you can actually get better.

PM: What’s the greatest lesson you’ve taught Whedon?

TM: You’d have to ask him that [both laugh].