Hey folks, it’s superhero again. OK, out
there in comic land: below is my Part One of a Two-Part interview with
the heads of Catastrophic Comics, William Katt and Christopher
Folino.
You may know Mr. Katt from, among many other
things, the ‘80’s hit TV super-hero comedy THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO.
Mr. Folino is no slouch, however, as he’s the writer and director and
producer of the indie film GAMERS.
Together these
two have combined to form a comic company known as Catastrophic Comics.
Catastrophic Comics has been responsible for the terrifically dark
super-hero comic known as SPARKS and will be teaming with Arcana
Studios to revitalize THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO in the pages of a six
issue mini-series comic soon.
It’s a long but
fascinating interview so let’s get to it. We pretty much started out by
talking about THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO…
Christopher Folino (CF): So one of things
that happened was…
superhero: With GREATEST AMERICAN HERO?
CF: With GREATEST AMERICAN HERO. Was that when we
sat down to talk about, when Bill was forming Catastrophic Comics, the
main title we were going to push was MYTHOLOGY WARS and SPARKS was
going to be the second title but we kind of flip flopped those. Then we
talked about, well, what about GREATEST AMERICAN HERO? What do you
think about GREATEST AMERICAN HERO? So we talked about it for about a
month and a half and we said OK, I’ll tell you what, let’s make the
phone call and find out about it. We missed getting GREATEST AMERICAN
HERO by three weeks! Arcana Studios already had the rights to it. So
what ended up happening, our director of marketing is Derek McCaw, and
he was at Wondercon and he ran into Sean O’Reilly from Arcana and they
had already submitted a script and some artwork to Cannell (Stephen J.
Cannell, creator of the show and 80’s TV mega-producer) and it got
rejected and they said to Derek, “Hey, it’d be interesting to get Bill
Katt involved in the comic book.” So we had a meeting with Arcana, went
50/50, it went really well, we really liked them a lot, and we teamed
up with them. Bill got on board and wrote about 80% of the script for
GREATEST AMERICAN HERO. It went through without any changes whatsoever.
Sean helped touch up some stuff,
too.
William Katt (WK): I think
what happened is that they realized that it could have been problematic
and with a lot of challenges without us. But with me involved, you
know, I had Stephen Cannell’s ear. I went right to Steve, was able to
sit down with him, I got a meeting.
superhero: So you were able to just get a meeting?
WK: Yeah, I’ve been friends with Steven for
a long time. I called Bob Culp and got him on board, Connie Selleca on
board, to come down and help with the announcement down at Comic-Con.
We were able to tape Steve doing an announcement. You know, giving an
introduction of the comic book to the audience who are our fanbase. So
I think Sean realized that this was the way to
go.
CF: It’s a good partnership,
too, because Sean’s got a specialty in PR and marketing which is really
his forte and he can bring the big guns. Which he has. Which is
amazing. Because of this he’s got a reunion show. I’m sorry--t’s not a
reunion show. It’s just a get together with everybody from the show set
for the 7th of September. It’s going to be for a couple of hours and
it’s going to be over at S.A.G. (The Screen Actor’s Guild) and they’re
going to show clips and just talk about the show.
superhero: This is for broadcast?
CF: We’re negotiating that right now with
TVLand. We’re going back and forth with TVLand about
it.
WK: Yeah, and we’re thinking
we’ll release a DVD with the graphic novel as well. With stuff that
they haven’t seen before. You know, we’re going to have Rod Holcum, the
original director who was so instrumental in lending the whole tone to
the show. We’re hoping to get Reuben Cannon there who’s back east but
who originally cast the show. I know Connie’s going to be there, I’ll
be there, Bob will be there, we’ll see if we can get some other cast
members there. Dennis Madalone, our stunt coordinator, will be there.
He’s got some fun stuff.
CF:He was a hit over at
Comic-Con.
WK: Big
hit.
CF: They’re tight, they’re
really, really good friends. They both talk about wearing the suit.
Because he had to wear the suit, too. It’s really funny how they were
both first presented the suit. It’s a real fun
story.
superhero: So you remain friends with everyone from the
original show?
WK: I have.
superhero: That’s how you were able to get them on
board?
WK: Right.
superhero: There were no hesitations from anyone?
WK: Well, I came with a big stick, you
know? (Laughter) I came bearing money, so…(more laughter). No, no, I
didn’t offer them money or anything. Yeah, just, these are really nice
people, you know? Bob Culp has been a distant but a good friend for
many, many years and Connie is just…I don’t think there’s any greater
person out there in the world. She’s just so
genuinely…
CF: Or
hotter…
WK:..good. Yeah, she’s
gorgeous, too.
superhero: Well, yeah, there’s that.
WK: Yeah! Yeah, there is that. (Laughter)
CF: John Tesh
is…
WK: Yeah, John Tesh is a
lucky guy.
superhero: So let me ask, I have a list of questions that
some of the other guys submitted and since you started off with THE
GREATEST AMERICAN HERO…basically, you got the rights through Arcana
Studios? Someone else had the rights and then you teamed up?
CF: That’s correct.
WK: Arcana had the rights, they
realized they were having problems with the Cannell organization so
they called Catastrophic ‘cause they knew that we had a company and
they said let’s have a meeting and see if we can work something out.
And it worked very well. That’s the way it happened.
superhero: So would you say that when you got involved that’s
when the machine started running because it had gotten
rejected?
CF: I think that realistically the original
story wasn’t as solid as what we presented. They took it from an
approach where Ralph is teaching his son how to fly. That sort of
thing. It’s just that, honestly, that sort of thing would be
re-inventing a whole new thing to THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO. What you
have to do with a franchise that’s that beloved is you’ve gotta bring
it into modern times, and it’s gotta be solid, and you gotta do some
tweaks. Really, we start off with the pilot episode. Really beef up the
villains. And we did a great job with modernizing things, some of the
characters…
WK: The language is slightlydifferent. The jokes are just as fun. We take Gabriel’s Army, which are
the bad guys, and we make them kind of the modern day Lex Luthors. So
we’re going to see them again.
superhero: That’s great. So essentially it’s kind of a
reboot? Starting from the beginning?
CF: It is. It’s going to be very faithful
to the pilot, the first two, but then what’s going to happen is all the
stories are going to kind of break free of that.
WK: At Cannell’s request.
Steve’s request is that we re-tell the pilot. Tell the origin, tell how
Ralph acquired the suit, how Bill Maxwell and him met, and explain the
relation ship with Connie, the counselor. Or “the skirt” as Bob Culp
likes to call her. Then he said you’re free to go tell some other
stories. Of which we have several. In fact, Bob Culp has got an old
undone script from one of the shows because he wrote two or three of
them. And he came to us while we were going about it and said, “You
know I have an old script that was never done that might be
appropriate.” So we’re taking a look at that. I have a couple of ideas
I want to do. There are some wonderful writers out there who were great
fans of the show who have also come forward and said, “Gee, we’d like
to pitch a premise.” So, we have some great opportunities out there.
superhero: So you’re thinking about going past the six-issue
mini series?
CF: Yeah, a lot of what’s going to happen
is…well, we got rid of his son. Because even in the series they
didn’t…
WK: Yeah, we got rid of
his son.
CF: It didn’t make any
sense. Things had to be updated. They just had to. But the fun thing
about it is they are THE ODD COUPLE.
WK: It was THE ODD COUPLE!
Stephen always would tell us the story, the fact that he was writing
THE ODD COUPLE. It wasn’t about a super-hero. It was about this
ordinary guy who gets this suit that creates problems in his life,
y’know? Bob Culp used to talk about the show as an Arthur and Merlin
scenario. Where Arthur gets the sword and Merlin is his Yoda. It’s the
one who pushes him to do all these great things.
superhero: One of the things I noticed, when I watched the
pilot…Gabriel’s Army…was that controversial at all? When it first came
out? Because today…a religious army saying the phrase, “Jesus loves
you”?
WK: I don’t think so. We’ve handled it a
little bit differently. We’ve made them a heck of a lot more
intelligent and more sinister. They’re sharp.
CF: We took out the
Vice-President. Also, too, his partner (Bill Maxwell’s partner is
killed in the opening minutes of the pilot.) That was really
interesting talking to Bob Culp, because he asked us about the pilot
the other day, well, originally they wanted his partner black because
they wanted Bill Cosby to be in it but Bill Cosby just didn’t work out
in the end. But when you watch the pilot it makes absolutely no sense
because he’s infiltrating Gabriel’s Army (a white power group)…
WK: Because everybody else is
white…
CF: And everybody’s just
like, Ho-Kay. One of the things is that when you watch it (the series)
there’s really no recurring bad guy. Y’know, there’s really not. That
was always the one thing when you watched the show…OK, well we’ve got
to beef some people up here. Because the thing is we do need to
establish some things here. Especially if we want to do this for a long
time with the series. We need to make sure that Ralph has some menaces
and really kind of make it so the stakes need to be a little bit
higher. They just have to. You know, too, what I think will be fun too
is that when you bring it into the modern world…it was always
interesting watching the show…he would get on a bus and people would
look at him and how weird he was. A lot of people would get off the
bus. Now you pretty much live in a day and age where people would
probably be a little more accepting of him in his jammies.
WK: The fun thing about it is
it’s fun to discover it along the way, too.
superhero: Regarding villains, because it’s set in the modern
day, will Ralph be dealing with terrorism, repercussions of 9-11,
super-villains? How fantastic and how grounded do you want it to
be?
WK: I don’t know if we…it’salways fun to stay grounded. Ralph is the everyman. There’s always
going to be problems. He definitely wants to be a regular guy and he
has this F.B.I. gentleman that creates a problem for him. And, of
course, Bill Maxwell is still a Phillip Marlowe wannabe. He’s still
living in the post-cold war world.
CF: It’s really fun because, by
nature, we’re a little bit darker.
WK: Real dark! MYTHOLOGY WARS is
very dark.
CF: We had the whole
terrorist talk about it. But we need to sort of balance it out because
it might be too much. We’re not saying no but the thing is we need to
establish the kind of same world that the show lived in and make sure
that we have to be a little bit more mature.
WK: Mature but a PG. PG-13.
Stephen has made it very clear: he wants to keep it PG/PG-13 at the
most.
superhero: It’s interesting, because having watched the pilot
and a couple of episodes, when they first get the suit Bill starts
fantasizing about going into Russia, we’re going to take out their
missile systems, we’re going into the Kremlin…is there any of that sort
of thing? If you got a super-suit wouldn’t you want to go fight
terrorism?
CF: The wonderful thing about the
characters was that Ralph, if he was left of his own accord, he’d be
helping out the whales. And Greenpeace. Bill Maxwell wants to bring it
a little bit harder. You have to update Maxwell too. You have to ask
yourself is he F.B.I.? Is he Homeland Security? Those are all
interesting things because what does he have access to? But one of the
wonderful things that the series did to keep things in check, in all
honesty, is, it was one of the most genius things they did…every F.B.I.
agent every 3-6 months has to take a lie detector test. It’s a
fascinating thing because they ask you if anything has changed in your
life. And Bill is just…
WK:
(chuckles)
CF:Yeah, yeah! It’s an interesting line of how you have to keep certain
things away. It’s fun because it really accounts for a lot of the human
elements. Like one of the great things that they do too is the story
about how when Ralph is getting promoted to Vice-Principal, and Pam is
going to open up her own law practice and Maxwell is getting demoted!
WK: My favorite episode is
called “The Plague”. You know, where they’re trying to save this
military installation and they’re afraid that a virus has been
unleashed and it’s the black plague and so they fantasize that they’re
having the symptoms. And it’s funny!
superhero: When I was looking at the ashcan I noticed that in
a scene with Bill in the diner he’s looking at the TV with the
President on it and it’s a liberal president. Why did you guys decide
not to go with George W. Bush? You would think that would be Bill’s
fantasyland.
WK: It’s wishful thinking! It’s wishful
thinking!
CF: It plays better.
superhero: You didn’t want to explore that at all?
CF: I think honestly any hard-core
Republican, honest to god, would be hard pressed to look you in the eye
and say that George W. Bush has done a great job.
superhero: Oh, I’ve met a couple.
CF: It plays better into the process that
goes on with Bill.
WK: Ralph is
a man of the people and I think the comic book should be a book for the
people. We’re not trying to impose our political beliefs on anyone.
That’s just the way we called it.
superhero: How does it feel to be writing the character? Did
you have any say in the original series?
WK: Oh, Bob and I re-wrote…there wasn’t a
scene that Bob and I didn’t have our hands in. We didn’t change the
intent or direction of the scene. The phrases would be approached
differently.
CF: The wonderful thingabout the show is…there were twenty-two episodes in the second
season…they would basically get the scripts and they would sit there
and they would talk to each other before a scene would start and there
was just kind of a dialog which would make it much, much better and
funnier.
WK: With the same
impact. With the same entry point and the same exit point and covering
the same territory but changing it to be either a little bit funnier,
heightened a bit. I remember at times Bob and I sitting around saying,
“We wouldn’t be funny. There wouldn’t be a joke at this point.”
CF: They tried to play it
straight as much as they could, too.
superhero: So would you say it’s kind of natural to you
writing the characters? Was there a lot of improv on the
set?
WK: You know, what happens when you live in
a character you go there, you start thinking like that character. You
crawl into his skin and live in his body and his mind and soul so to
speak. I’ve stepped out of that for a long time. But the more we do it
the easier it is to slip back into that skin. But it’s going to be
slightly different because I have a different perspective on life.
We’re probably going to imbibe it with a little bit more irony because
naturally there’s more…the older you get you realize how much irony
there is in life.
superhero: So was there ever a point in your career where you
felt, sort of like William Shatner did about STAR TREK? Where this (THE
GREATEST AMERICAN HERO) affected my career too much? Were you typecast
by it?
WK: No, no. I maybe felt that for a few
years but I’ve never stopped working. Now it’s just a great joy to
revisit those characters and spend time with my friends.
CF: But at the time, during the
show, you were worried that if you used the jammies too much it could
hurt you as a real actor.
WK:I was worried a little bit. You’ve got to realize it was a different
era. You didn’t have the Ed Nortons, and the Robert Downey Jrs, and the
Nicholas Cages doing these fantasy epics.
CF: You had George Reeve…and
that guy’s career went to hell.
WK: It was a different time, you
know? You’ve got to realize as an actor I had done a lot of A-list
films. I had been doing a lot of Broadway. I came from a play with
Diane Wiest off-Broadway with the cast of the Guthrie Theatre. We were
off-Broadway. I was doing BONJOUR, LA, BONJOUR, a Michel Tremblay play.
With Diane Wiest. Fabulous actress. And I went right to do THE GREATEST
AMERICAN HERO. I was worried about the fact, wearing that costume at
the time. Because no one was doing it! There wasn’t Nicholas Cage, you
know, doing GHOST RIDER. So it was a different time. But that changed.
That changed and now it’s acceptable.
superhero: On the flipside how does it feel to be an icon?
Because all the people who were kids at my age know who you are. I mean
they know THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO. When we were talking earlier you
said you were nervous about the hall (at Comic-Con) being empty when
you and Connie Selleca showed up.
WK: I was very nervous. Connie turned to me
and she said, “What if nobody comes to see our panel discussion at
Comic-Con?” I said, “I’m worried too, Connie.” We walked in and it was
standing room only. It was unbelievable.
superhero: Do you get a sense of how powerful it is to fans
over the years?
WK: It’s been a great surprise.
superhero: Well, that’s great because there were a lot of
fans, like me, as soon as the DVD came out, as soon as the maquette
came out, I was there.
CF: I’m with you, man. It was one of my
favorite shows as a kid. When I got him on GAMERS (Folino’s
independently financed feature film) I was star struck, y’know? It was
awesome. It’s funny because we talked about Comic-Con and I was, like,
no it’s gonna be cool. Don’t worry about it. That show, not just that
it was in the top ten when it came out but the song too. So many people
know about it. The wonderful thing is that it was so hard to find a
re-run of that show and the DVDs only came out a couple of years ago
but it still stayed in your mind. It still had a special place. Whereas
you watch “The A-Team”, well, that just doesn’t hold
up.
WK: It’ll be interesting to
see…who is it? Singleton is directing the re-make.
superhero: So no plans for getting THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO
to the big screen?
WK: I know Steve is making a film. He’s
definitely going to make a feature film. But we won’t be starring in it
or anything. He’ll make it with a new cast. I read a very good script.
Chris read the script. It’s a very good script.
superhero: Did the script provide any guidance for your
series?
CF: No, we had the outline laid out
beforehand and had the script already written. The direction they are
going…
WK: It’s different. It’s
skewing younger. That’s something that Steve wanted to do. I think he
has long term plans with it. It’s different and similar at the same
time. It’s like what they did with STAR TREK. It’s a different
franchise but no less viable.
superhero: Well, how did you two meet? You met on the set of
GAMERS?
WK: Yeah.
CF: We did an indie film. Shot
on 35mm. Did it in six days. Basically we cast John Heard, Beverly
D’Angelo, Kelly LeBrock and what happened was…we didn’t have enough
money to even rehearse with any of these guys. We met on the first day
of shooting. It was just funny. We were late and he was so cool about
waiting. He was so laid back. You’re such a better writer when you have
real actors and you’re such a better comic book writer when you have a
real artist. It’s amazing when you see what real actors can do. Up
until that point we didn’t have the opportunity to work with real
S.A.G. talent. It was absolutely fascinating. So we tricked him to go
down to GenCon with us and while he was signing the movie for free he
looked at me and goes, “You so owe me.” That began two and a half years
of meeting twice a week working out ideas for a comic book. That’s
really how it happened. It’s been awesome. He’s tough. He’s really
tough.
WK:Who me?
CF: Oh, yeah. It was
like going to boot camp. It was great, though. It was really cool.
Because you’re sitting there with somebody who’s written four
screenplays that have gotten made. Someone who’s been on several hit
shows. It’s been nice. Nice to have a mentor who’s your friend and who
you respect too. It’s been a really good blessing.
WK: He gives me far too much
credit.
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