Busy For Fun Blogs: Thirteen Years Later

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Halloween Week: Sunday #2 - Trivia Challenge Conclusion

It’s All Hallows Eve, a time when we find ourselves craving both tricks and treats. Back to Frank Black delivers on both counts by presenting the answers to our diabolical “Thirteen Years Later” trivia challenge! Below you will find the promised solutions to all thirteen of our fiendishly tricky riddles. If you’d still like a shot at proving your millennial mastery, cover your eyes now and simply revisit the posted line-up of questions, presented at the start of our Halloween Week extravaganza. The answers to many of these trivia questions have been offered throughout the week in the exclusive interviews, original essays, and video tributes posted to celebrate “Thirteen Years Later.”

Additionally, there’s still time to submit your entry for the Back to Frank Black Halloween competition! If you could become any fictional killer from the annals of both film and television, who would you be? Review the posted competition guidelines and drop us an e-mail. You have until midnight (PST) tonight to enter for a chance to win a copy of Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue (2009) signed by both Joe Maddrey and Lance Henriksen!

And now, Millennium fanatics, the treat to balance out our tricks, the answers you’ve been awaiting...

1. Which classic horror movies are referenced on-screen in “Thirteen Years Later”? 1) The Hitcher (1986) 2) Halloween (1978) 3) Friday the 13th (1980) 4) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) 5) Psycho (1960) 6) Motel Hell (1980) 7) The Omen (1976)

2. Which of the cited franchises can be tied to the resume of Millennium’s star? Lance Henriksen appears in Damien: Omen II (1978).

3. What cult horror television series also takes place in Trinity, South Carolina? CBS’s American Gothic (1995).

4. What detective movie does Emma Hollis cite as her personal favorite? The Enforcer (1951).

5. What book does Emma take time out to enjoy? Labyrinths (1962) by Jorge Luis Borges.

6. Who are the four founding members of KISS and what cameo roles do they play in this episode? Paul Stanley appears as Lew Carroll, Peter Criss as Nice Cop, Ace Frehley as Sick Cop, and Gene Simmons as Hector Leachman.

7. In addition to “Psycho Circus,” what KISS song is referenced in this episode? “Rock and Roll All Nite” (1975).

8. Who is the “Reverend” M. Goodman granted tribute with the episode’s epigraph? Morry Goodman, a Fox network censor.

9. On which big screen horror flick did Thomas J. Wright join more than a half-dozen other Millennium alums? Final Destination (2000).

10. What screen credit connects Millennium stars Lance Henriksen and Terry O’Quinn with guest stars Jeff Yagher and Jon Polito? HBO's Tales from the Crypt (1989).

11. Which victims uttered those unwitting last words on-screen? A) Sheriff Fritz Neuenschwander B) Lew Carroll C) Sarah Cryer) D) Kenny Neiderman E) Marta Danbury F) Hugo Winston

12. What uncharacteristic action connects “The Beginning and the End,” “Beware of the Dog,” “Roosters,” “TEOTWAWKI,” “Thirteen Years Later,” and “Goodbye to All That”? Frank Black fires a gun.

13. Which Millennium episodes feature nods to the entertainment industry? A) “Jose Chung’s Doomsday Defense” B) “522666” C) “Goodbye to All That” D) “Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me” E) “The Curse of Frank Black”

Halloween Week: Sunday #1 - Jeff Yagher!

And so Halloween Week ends its life, as life should end on this wicked weekend, on Halloween itself. It is the 31st October and today is the last day in our special event. Thank you to all involved and those who have shouted out to us here and on our Facebook fanpage.

We are very thrilled that for our final Halloween 2010 podcast we got the opportunity to have "Thirteen Years Later's" guest star, Jeff Yagher, on the show! This is a great, personal interview in which Jeff talks about family (aside from Megan Gallagher, he has some other very cool entertainment relevant family members), his work on Millennium and of course... V!

Jeff in V!

Plus, we have our new cool intro! Who can beat having Frank Black introduce the podcast? So, without further ado...

Direct download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/backtofrankblack/MGS_Jeff_yagher.mp3

Available on iTunes: search for "BacktoFrankBlack" or "Millennium Group Sessions" and click subscribe!

Those who use our iPhone app, there is our Halloween wallpaper, a special promotional PDF attached and a small bonus audio feature!

Halloween Week: Saturday - KISS!

Saturday brings us Halloween and memorable kisses... strange pairing. No wait, memorable KISSage.

Yes, we have another bit of "Thirteen Years Later" homage as Joselyn has done this wonderful little video to KISS, one of the iconic elements of "Thirteen Years Later."

KISS – Biography

Regarded as one of the most influential rock-and-roll bands of all time, KISS was assembled in 1973 in the city of New York by co-founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, soon joined by Peter Criss and Ace Frehley.

Stanley came up with the name while Frehley is credited with the KISS logo design. This extremely famous and acclaimed band has produced 37 albums across 36 years of music, with over 100 million albums sold worldwide. During this period, the original members separated: Criss left in 1979 and Frehley left in 1982. Nevertheless, in 1995 the band reunited to perform in a special MTV Unplugged concert, inviting Criss and Frehley to participate.

Keeping with this sense of nostalgia, in 1997 the original KISS members appeared at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards for the first time after 17 years of separation. In the following year, the album Psycho Circus was released on September 22nd, 1998. Between the release of the album and the kickoff of the KISS Psycho Circus tour in 3D, the band was invited to participate in cameo roles for the fifth episode from season three of Millennium, “Thirteen Years Later,” alongside cast members Lance Henriksen, Klea Scott, and special guest Jeff Yagher. The episode aired on October 30th while the tour started on Halloween itself, October 31st, 1998.

In 2008, the band decided to record another studio album, which was released in 2009 under the name Sonic Boom, and another studio album will be released mid-2011. As of July 2010 Kiss continues with their new tour, The Hottest Show on Earth, within the United States.

Halloween Week: Friday - What the Killer Sees: Marc Bianco

Just two days to go until Halloween. Somewhere demons are conspiring, spirits are stirring, witches are reading up on new dastardly spells, vampires are sharpening their teeth, zombies are groaning... you get the idea.

And meanwhile it’s Day Five of Halloween Week here at Back to Frank Black. Our focus upon Season Three’s “Thirteen Years Later” gives my regular column here the opportunity to come at its profile from a slightly different angle in this edition, and I hope you will find it as interesting as I did to research. You may never again be able to view the horror genre in quite the same way after this particular glimpse into What the Killer Sees...

Killer: Marc Bianco (Jeff Yagher)

Episode: “...Thirteen Years Later” (30 October 1998)

Writer: Michael R. Perry

Director: Thomas J. Wright

Quote: “I wanted to be like you, Frank. I wanted to see what the killer sees... But, you know, by killing them I learned something really important... I really like killing people. And now I know what you know.” --Marc Bianco

Profile: In considering the psychology of Marc Bianco, it is important to understand from the outset that the events surrounding his case as we witness them are at least to some degree – and quite possibly in their entirety – an unreliable account, given they are narrated by Bianco himself whilst incarcerated in a penitentiary for the criminally insane. Nevertheless, that narration in itself tells us something about him.

Undoubtedly, Marc Bianco is delusional. From the evidence we witness he very possibly suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder, in which the subject displays multiple distinct identities or alter egos. Not only does Bianco immerse himself in his screen role as a ridiculous version of Frank Black, he also commits his killings in a series of otherwise irreconcilably diverse fashions. Such a diagnosis is normally linked to a major trauma or period of stress as a trigger originating earlier in life. We get no hint as to what this may be in Bianco’s case, but we certainly see evidence as to just how deep his psychosis penetrates as he rants to a room full of oblivious fellow inmates.

A word or two on schizophrenia is merited at this juncture also, since this is a diagnosis to which the layman might leap. Schizophrenia is a much misunderstood and relatively common disorder in which cognitive and emotional responses to stimuli are misappropriated. Paranoid schizophrenics are the most common subgroup and hit headlines since when they do resort to violent crime their dysfunction allows them to commit the most appalling acts, but this is incredibly rare. It cannot be stressed enough that schizophrenics are very, very rarely homicidal – possibly even less so than non-sufferers of the condition – in spite of what a slew of horror genre material would have us believe. As Reverend Goodman cautions us, “Never believe anything you see on Halloween”.

Another aspect of Bianco’s psychological make-up that marks him out is how he seeks to become Frank Black way above and beyond the demands of his starring role in an abysmal B-movie, to mimic him and his understanding of “what the killer sees” to the point of committing multiple murders himself. Bianco is so drawn to Frank’s ability to put himself into the killer’s head that he becomes lost to his delusions, and quite literally becomes capability, the thing we fear the most. It is perhaps a telling reminder of the toll that this line of work can take upon forensic psychologists, Frank Black included.

The other psychological effect that Marc Bianco forces us to examine is the purported effect of horror in the mediums of television and film on the perpetrators of violent crime. High profile examples include a murderer apparently motivated in turn by a book on barbaric murderers, a Zodiac killer copycat, any number of copycat killings attributed to the movie Natural Born Killers, a teenager who copied Dexter’s methodology in committing fratricide and, perhaps most chillingly similar to the case of Marc Bianco and also related in part to Dexter, the case of filmmaker Mark Andrew Twitchell.

Whilst a media favourite topic, however, there is no empirical evidence to suggest a link between the consumption of horror and the committal of violent crime. Moreover, it is often the preoccupation by media outlets with such links that is seen by some to risk propagating them. The very attention given to serial and spree killers in particular often serves merely to portray them as people of power that can elevate them to be all but anti-heroes, whilst Millennium is normally far more effective at portraying its antagonists as violent, disturbed individuals who may even be the agents of some deeper rooted evil. And as a further editorial aside, the mediums of television and film surely teach and reinforce far more moral values than they do destroy them, even – and perhaps especially – when they are this dark in tone.

Kills: 8

Investigation: Quite frankly, it’s anybody’s guess as to exactly how the investigation into Marc Bianco went down. Frank Black and Emma Hollis’ state of perplexity at the unfolding set of murders exemplifies how hard it is to fit Marc Bianco into a neat psychological profile. They do, however, spend an inordinate amount of time over a bowl of popcorn profiling a variety of preposterous yet entertaining killers from the screen, and Frank’s insights here are priceless whilst adding a whole new take on how the genre represents murderers and their motives. Just something to think about when you’re devouring your horror fare of choice this Halloween.

Halloween Week: Thursday - Joselyn's Eye

It's Day Four of our Halloween Week celebrations here and once again we have something very special to accompany your preparations as you continue to work on terrifying pumpkin carvings, shop for outrageous party outfits and barricade your homes against the oncoming storm of candy-rabid children.

Today we're very happy to be able to present the return of Joselyn's Eye for the first of two outings this week! This edition comprises a documentary redux of "Thirteen Years Later", so sit back and enjoy a peek behind the scenes of the making of this extraordinary episode...

Material from the Millennium Season Three DVD box set is © Copyright Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc and its related entities. Any use of copyrighted material or images is for the purposes of lawful educational research, promotional news and critical review, their use being allowed under the fair use clause of the Copyright Law.

Halloween Week: Tuesday - Here's My Thing!

Two goodies for Tuesday: we have another of DiRT's wonderful video reviews in Here's My Thing--this week, unsurprisingly, focused on the third season Halloween episode "Thirteen Years Later"--and secondly a nice Halloweeny wallpaper to adorn you desktop! So, without further ado...

DiRT's Review - Thirteen Years Later

Halloween Week: Monday #2 - Competition and Trivia Challenge!

In the episode we’re celebrating this week, “Thirteen Years Later,” dark fantasy and reality collide as Frank Black and Emma Hollis struggle to stop a killer whose methods at first follow the script of the movie his victims are making and who then turns to mimicking horror classics that are airing on television in the run-up to Halloween.

In dubious honor of this madcap killing spree and in celebration of the Halloween season, Back to Frank Black has a brand new competition for you! What we would like you to do is search the deepest recesses of your psyche and consider your answer to the following question:

Which famous fictional killer from film or television would you most like to be and why?

All you need to do is send your response to us by e-mail at info@backtofrankblack.com. Make sure your e-mail is titled “Halloween Week Competition” and that you include your full name. Your entry must reach us by midnight on Halloween, October 31st. The Back to Frank Black team will judge the entries on creativity and originality and the winner will receive a DVD copy of Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue--the fantastic, blood-drenched horror documentary written and produced by Joe Maddrey and narrated by Lance Henriksen. This prize will be signed by both Maddrey and Henriksen!

Good luck to all! We look forward to being deeply disturbed by your entries.

As a companion piece to this competition and a means of prolonging our holiday entertainment, we’d also like to torment our faithful readers with thirteen fiendishly difficult trivia questions tied to “Thirteen Years Later.” No prizes will be awarded for this lot, just the guarantee of hair-raising fun as we invite you to examine this unforgettable installment of Millennium. Stay sharp during your annual viewing of “Thirteen Years Later” and search this week’s essays, interviews, and video tributes for clues. We’ll provide the answers to each of the thirteen questions right here on the blog this Sunday--Halloween! Good luck!

1. This Halloween episode acts as an outright celebration of slasher cinema, featuring no less than seven on-screen references to classic horror movies. List them.

2. Lance Henriksen stands as a legendary figure in the history of the horror genre. Which of the horror franchises cited in “Thirteen Years Later” can be tied to the prolific star’s resume?

3. A legend informs us that the events of “Thirteen Years Later” take place in the town of Trinity, South Carolina, linking this episode to what cult horror television series?

4. It’s clear that Frank Black doesn’t much care for horror films; he tells his partner that he prefers detective stories. What detective movie does Emma Hollis, the horror movie buff, cite as her personal favorite?

5. During a quiet moment, the clearly multi-faceted Emma Hollis balances her fangirlish fervor for slasher flicks by relaxing in a bubble bath with a classic work of literature. What book is Emma immersed in?

6. “Thirteen Years Later” features a guest performance by KISS and, notably, includes the band’s members both in and out of their famous stage make-up. Who are the four founding members of KISS and what cameo roles do they play in this episode?

7. KISS provide an energetic performance of the title track from their 1998 album Psycho Circus, a song that reached number one on Billboard’s chart of Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. What other KISS song--like “Psycho Circus,” recorded by the band’s original line-up--is referenced in the episode?

8. Faithful viewers would do well to heed this episode’s cautionary epigraph: “Never believe anything you see on Halloween.” The point is emphasized by the fact that the quote was fabricated for the story by writer Michael R. Perry. Who is the “Reverend” M. Goodman granted tribute with the quotation?

9. This episode allowed director Thomas J. Wright to pay visual homage to a number of classic horror movies and genre motifs. On which big screen horror flick, a veritable modern classic, did Wright join more than a half-dozen other Millennium alums?

10. In spite of Peter Watts’s obvious absence from this episode, what scary screen credit connects Millennium stars Lance Henriksen and Terry O’Quinn with guest star Jeff Yagher? (Need a hint? Add “Omerta” guest star Jon Polito to the mix, too!)

11. Killer Marc Bianco is responsible for slaughtering eight victims during the filming of Madman Maniac. Which characters uttered these unwitting last words on-screen before meeting their bloody end at the hands of the episode’s chameleonic killer? A) “That’d be me.” B) “Here’s to us.” C) “This is the movie Frank Black didn’t want you to see.” D) “I don’t need a bunch of hot-head actors thinking that we don’t have the rights to the story here.” E) “Lew?” F) “This movie’s not over!”

12. Frank Black’s behavior is admittedly somewhat… uncharacteristic in this madcap installment. What action connects the following seemingly disparate episodes of Millennium? “The Beginning and the End,” “Beware of the Dog,” “Roosters,” “TEOTWAWKI,” “Thirteen Years Later,” “Goodbye to All That.”

13. In “Thirteen Years Later,” a criminal investigation conducted by Frank Black crosses with the entertainment industry, but not for the first time. Can you name a Millennium episode in which... A) Frank Black visits an office decorated with movie posters B) Frank channel surfs in bed C) Frank peruses a serial killer’s videocassette collection D) Frank visits the set of a television series E) Frank glimpses a television pilot produced by Glen Morgan and James Wong?

Halloween Week: Monday #1 - Thomas J Wright Speaks!

Halloween Week kicks off with a fascinating little directorial insight into Millennium's season three Halloween episode, "Thirteen Years Later," courtesy of Thomas J. Wright!

So without further ado...

Those who have purchased our iPhone App will also get an exclusive iPhone wallpaper, Halloween image and bonus audio feature!

Download directly:
http://backtofrankblack.libsyn.com/13years-later-thomas-j-wright-mp3

Available on iTunes: search for "BacktoFrankBlack" or "Millennium Group Sessions" and click subscribe!

Are you ready for Halloween?

It's that time of year again, Millennium fans! Halloween is almost upon us and what better way to celebrate the holiday than celebrating it Millennium style! Last year we dedicated a week to the season two episode "The Curse of Frank Black." It was a very successful week. This year, we are going to top what we did last year. We have decided to dedicate the week to the season three classic "Thirteen Years Later."

We have a lot of cool things in store for you. Special guests, contests, prizes, and much more! All will be tied into that episode and the overall Halloween feel of Millennium. We hope you will join us during the week and celebrate the holiday with other Millennium fans. No other site brings you the exclusives that we do and this celebration will be no different. To get you in the mood for Halloween, here is a little teaser:

Thirteen Years Later - BTFB Speaks exclusively to Michael R Perry!

Emmy and Edgar award winner Michael R. Perry is one individual I had been very enthusiastic about speaking to since the time this campaign began. Involved in no fewer than forty-five episodes of the franchise, Michael wrote such celebrated entries as "Thirteen Years Later," "Omerta," and "Collateral Damage" and created arguably one of the finest episodes of the entire canon. Fan favourite "The Mikado" has continually polled within the top three episodes of the show for over a decade and has been imitated but never bettered in a slew of formats since the episode aired. Michael took time from his very busy schedule to speak to Back to Frank Black and no one was more delighted than I. I am, and will remain, very much an admirer of his work.

Particular kudos has to be given to Michael for his response to our request for an interview. His words, thoughts and insights make this one of the most enjoyable and fact-filled interviews we have conducted. I am indebted to his warmth, honesty and generosity of spirit.

So, thirteen years later, enjoy the words of one of Millennium's true luminaries, Michael R. Perry.

BACKTOFRANKBLACK: Could you tell us a little about how Millennium came to be on your
curriculum vitae?

MICHAEL R PERRY: In 1996/1997 I was working on the first season of The Practice as well as NYPD Blue (simultaneously -- which you’re not really supposed to do). We Practice writers were housed in a construction trailer across from Chris Carter’s bungalow on the Fox lot. In this rickety trailer were Ed Redlich, Frank Renzulli (who went on to write for The Sopranos), Steve Gaghan (who later wrote the movie Traffic), David Shore (created House MD) and me. David Kelley himself had beautiful offices in a permanent building nearby, but visited us every day. Working two shows (and writing a movie at the same time) entailed a lot of late nights; I met Chris a couple of times when the lot was nearly deserted. I thought: nice guy, hard worker, two record-breaking shows.

David Kelley is so talented and energetic at rewriting that your work is often unrecognizable by the time it reaches the screen. You make a great salary, you work on a beloved, high-profile network show, and you disappear. Not my cup of tea. All the writers except Ed Redlich left The Practice after the first season. I asked my agency to send writing samples to Chris, with hopes of being considered for either of his two shows. I think a crime novel called The Stranger Returns landed me the interview on Millennium, and they hired me in the summer of 1997.

BTFB: And how would you rate your work on it in terms of personal satisfaction in comparison to other work you have done since?

MRP: It’s impossible to compare working on Millennium to working on any other show because it was such an astonishing learning experience. Chris Carter makes a point of ensuring that new writers learn how to produce their own scripts. You learn rewriting, casting, working with the various departments like Props, Costumes, Locations, Production Design and so on; work closely with the director; later, you sit in the editing room with the editors and face the consequences of your decisions, after they’ve been irrevocably committed to film, and there’s no one to blame for the problems except yourself -- and it’s up to you to fix them.

Later, perhaps the most fun part, you go over to Mark Snow’s house and he plays all the music cues and solicits feedback. It changed the way I write, the way I think about television production. That can only happen to you once.

BTFB: You produced twenty-two episodes of Millennium, were executive story producer on twenty-three episodes and wrote five of them. Did you have a particular preference regarding your role on the franchise? Did any give you a greater degree of enjoyment?

MRP: Writing is the engine that pulls all the other titles along behind it. Without the writing, there is no story editing, there is no producing. The titles don’t really correspond to any particular set of duties. My influence on the Morgan-Wong written episodes (when I was “story editor”) was zero, other than the episode I wrote.

BTFB: Millennium fans have often debated the changing face of Millennium over the course of the three seasons, friendly divisions do exist between those that prefer the direction of the first or second

season, what is your take on this unique aspect of the franchise?

MRP: I didn't work on the first season -- I was a viewer, only, but loved it so much that I pressed to join the team. Glen and Jim took the second season and ran with it, it was very much their baby, they had a vision, they had the authority to pursue that vision, and they pursued it aggressively. The only script of mine produced that year was a bit of a throwback to season one.

BTFB: "The Mikado" remains a real high point of Millennium, especially in terms of audience appreciation, and a whole slew of similar concepts of been explored in genre movies over the last decade or so. What inspired you to write that particular episode and have you also observed the many formats in which the theme has been explored since?

MRP: In the Pleistocene era of the internet, a young woman decided she would be on camera 24/7, and thus was born Jennicam, the first webcam exhibitionist. I heard about her site and instantly wondered, if Jenni were killed, and no one knew precisely where she was or who she was, who would investigate the crime? The situation raised all kinds of knotty issues about when a spectator becomes an accomplice, the distancing aspects of mediated communication, the difficulty of law to keep pace with technology, and so on. Plus, it was just a straight-up creepy idea. This is so long ago that I repeatedly had to explain to people working on the episode that the internet was not synonymous with America Online. Seriously. We’re talking, a long, long time ago, when most people connected via dial-up lines and modems. It’s been oft-imitated, but the imitators never understand what is interesting about the subject matter.

When a new Mikado knock-off airs or is released, usually some friend or other will spot it and email me the TV guide listing. I never watch them, and I haven’t seen last year’s movie knock-off. I wrote “The Mikado” twelve years ago. If I were doing a similar story in 2009 it’d be radically different, taking into account all the things that have happened since.

BTFB: A fellow season three writer once proclaimed the difficulty in writing for that particular season, she felt that there was too much emphasis on what not to write, with little guidance on what direction writers should take. Would you concur with that view of things or was your experience very different?

MRP: It wasn’t that unusual. On most shows some amount of uncertainty exists as to what direction to take; that’s why they need writers. I prefer a slightly chaotic atmosphere because you can have a real influence on the strategic decisions, and more variety in storytelling. It’s harder work, though, than being on a more rigid format like a typical procedural where a body shows up in the teaser and a perp is arrested in the final scene.

BTFB: "...Thirteen Years Later" remains a particularly memorable, and offbeat, inclusion to the franchise. Was the involvement of Kiss always a goal when the episode was being devised or is there any truth in the assumption that 20th Century Fox had a hand in shaping that aspect of the episode?

MRP: Fox television said: put Kiss in an episode of Millennium. Then, they said: make it the Halloween episode. This was non-negotiable; I know, because Ken Horton valiantly

tried to get them to relent during several loud phone calls. How we got Kiss into Millennium was entirely our own business. At the time I was working on a more typical episode, basically, Frank visits a town where an old case is being made into a movie and sees telltale signs of the crime recurring. Chip and Ken came in to tell me how the episode I was part-way through outlining had to change: mine was the only script that could be ready in time for a Halloween air date. Very quickly, it had to be gutted and rebuilt to accommodate the Kabuki-faced kings of stadium rock.

And, oh, by the way, they had to perform a song. And each of them needed a speaking role, out of make-up. And, the kicker: only two were real actors. It was like one of those games where you pull thirty random words out of a hat and make a poem. The words I pulled were: Halloween, Frank Black, a movie being made of an old murder case, and lots and lots of Kiss.

Everyone around the office groused that there’s no room for Kiss in the Millennium diegesis. In their complaints, I found a creative approach: Frank Black would encounter a film that was an intentional distortion of a real case, and he could be as appalled at the distortions in tone, style, etc. that were in the movie-in-the-episode as my officemates were at the very idea of a Kiss/Halloween episode. A wee bit of deconstruction goes a long way: here was an opportunity to put the usual complaints about our show into the mouths of characters and have Frank Black respond, and defend his honor and world view.

The episode would contain its own critique. Jacques Derrida might have a field day, if he ever “watched.” I am a connoisseur of 1970s and 1980s horror movies and decided to pack the episode with references to favorites such as Halloween, Motel Hell, The Hitcher, and so on. Many details of life on B-movie sets came from my wife’s firsthand experiences; for example, it was she who told me that, whenever a nude scene was about to be filmed, producers would “coincidentally” show up on the set to see how things were going. Tacky, funny, and true.

After the outline was published, while I was writing the script, Kay Reindl and/or Erin Maher (I can’t remember which -- Hi, Kay! Hi, Erin!) contributed a favorite detail: have Frank Black watch all these horror movies for the first time, but use his profiling talents to intuit the end of the movie after seeing only one or two scenes. Impossible? Of course. But it’s exactly the kind of boast the insane man who thinks he has become Frank Black would make. It’s a great bit and Lance ran with it. After the first read of this script, Lance had a couple questions -- who wouldn’t? -- but once he bought into the conceptual break with the other episodes he was brilliant and brought many special nuances to his performance.

As I wrote, the piece took on an unexpected vitality of its own. The point of the poetry game -- thirty words out of a hat -- is to reach strange, dark corners of the unconscious mind that might never otherwise surface. Similarly, “Thirteen Years Later” may have begun as an obligatory assignment, but turned into a surprisingly personal and strange exploration of why I love horror movies, the pleasures and pain of low-budget filmmaking, as well as a civil answer to the people who didn’t really “get” our show and wished it were more like Murder She Wrote.

Tom Wright did a phenomenal job with the most physically demanding episode ever, including many, many stunts and a musical number, while still making the schedule. Many Millennium fans will still hate “Thirteen Years Later” thirteen years later. That’s their privilege.

BTFB: In retrospect, how do you recall your time as part of the Millennium crew?

MRP: It was a great couple of years of hard work and creative challenges.

BTFB: Are there any individuals, or events, that you have particularly fond memories of?

MRP: Yes, Chip Johannessen.

BTFB: I know you have recently been involved in Persons Unknown. Could you tell us a little about that and what fans of your work can keep their eyes open for with regards to your continuing career?

MRP: Persons Unknown is a 13-episode series (so far) concerning the kidnapping of seven people, from seven different places, who never met or knew each other before, and find themselves trapped in a bland yet sinister small town from which they cannot escape. We worked as hard to create memorable, distinctive, unlike-any-other-show stories as we did on Millennium. I cannot reveal too much without breaching confidentiality agreements, but you can get an idea from the trailer, here: http://personsunknown.com/

BTFB: Our thanks to you for taking the time to talk to us!

MRP: It's a great honor! It's a pleasure to visit your terrific web site, help with your campaign, and read the thoughtful and insightful commentaries and critiques that you have gathered.

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