For part one, click here.
Writer and producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach has worked on such television shows as The Pretender, Charmed, Medium, and Lost. Last week, Pink Raygun was invited to take part in a moderated conference call with Grillo-Marxuach to discuss the live-action adaptation of his comic book, The Middleman, which will air this summer on ABC Family.
The Middleman is the first time Grillo-Marxuach has had the opportunity to work with his own characters and his own ideas on a television show. When asked how that felt, he said,
“. . . there’s a real sort of validation to it. Especially because the show has been in my head for so long and I wrote the pilot so long ago, and the initial response to it – people always thought it was just too quirky, too weird, too out there, just not televisual and mainstream and broad enough to really work. So to finally see it get on the air and so closely to what I originally wrote is a tremendous validation for me.”
Like all page to screen adaptations, The Middleman had to undergo some changes in characters and storylines. Grillo-Marxuach says that when he originally wrote Wendy and her friends in the late 1990s, he wrote them with more of a Gen X attitude. In keeping with the times, ABC Family wanted those same characters to be more millennial, particularly in the case of Wendy’sfriend Lacy, who, for the television show, has become more politically and environmentally active. Noser will no longer shout song lyrics at Wendy due to copyright issues and has become “an oasis of calm in this world of hyperkinetic people who all talk in a very heightened way.”
Other than that, The Middleman is faithful to the comic book. Grillo-Marxuach says:
“Pretty much, I would say, 75% to 85% of what’s in the comic book is in the pilot, and the other things that changed are things that we did for budget or for other reasons. For example, the apes in the comic book were originally chimps, and we found out that ABC will not use chimps in any of their programming for ethical reasons. . . and CGI chimps were cost-prohibitive, so we wound up changing that to a gorilla and it’s one gorilla as opposed to 20, and the Jim Henson Creature Shop did the gorilla.”
Another minor change is Wendy’s ethnicity. Grillo-Marxuach wrote her as a caucasian in his comic books, but ABC Family suggested casting a Latina for the television role. Enter Natalie Morales, a relative newcomer to acting. Prior to The Middleman, Morales appeared in Pimp My Ride and an episode of CSI: Miami (“Darkroom”). For the role of the Middleman himself, the right actor was found tucked away in The Last Days of Disco: the very dreamy Matt Keeslar. In that movie, Keeslar’s character delivers a monologue on Lady and the Tramp, and it was his performance in that scene that convinced Grillo-Marxuach that Keeslar was the right guy to play the Middleman.
In contrast to much of the genre programming on television, The Middleman takes on a different tone than shows like, Buffy, Angel, and Battlestar Galactica, which are “very dark shows that really sort of follow the very dark ramifications of kind of sacrificing your own welfare in order to be a hero.” The Middleman, with its 100 Mexican wrestlers, zombie fish, and gun toting, tracksuit wearing, mafia gorilla, is decidedly light-hearted, fun, and positive. “ In a way,” Grillo-Marxuach says, “I think it’s a reflection of the demographic that it’s pitched at. . . . I think this is a lighthearted show, I think it’s an optimistic show, I think it’s a show that is sort of unabashed about itself and it doesn’t make apologies for being . . . a show that isn’t tragic, isn’t dark.”
The Middleman is also less “plan-centric” than shows such as Lost. The show isn’t serialized and doesn’t have a mythological wall constraining the storytelling. Grillo-Marxuach wants the viewers to trust that the writers and producers love the characters and will allow them to grow in a natural way in the world they’ve created. The viewer has to trust that the best interests of the show – rather than the mythology – at heart and will do what’s necessary to put out a good show every week.
The Middleman starring Natalie Morales and Matt Keeslar premieres on June 16th on ABC Family. You can see more about the cast and show, including promo videos, at the official website.
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Written by Lisa Fary
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
