Balancing Act
Writer Richard Whitley juggles comedy and drama with ease.
      by Linda Najera

Millennium

"That same year in 1997, they went back and ran Millennium and they said, 'Hey, we want you to do Millennium. We want you to do a funny one.' A funny Millennium. You know, 'military intelligence', 'jumbo shrimp', 'a funny Millennium'. So I said 'Great'."

Tucker Smallwood as Steven Kiley, proving that karaoke does indeed kill.

After The Notorious 7 was shelved, Glen Morgan and James Wong were asked to helm Millennium, and expanding upon themes introduced in the first season, gave the show greater depth and the character of profiler and Millennium group candidate, Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), a shot of humanity by granting him a dark sense of humor and a love for singer Bobby Darin.

"Glen said, 'Think of like a Dr. Kevorkian kind of thing,' and I said, 'Okay.'"

The result of a lot of research was "Goodbye Charlie", the tale of a discredited doctor, Steven Kiley (Tucker Smallwood) -- so named as a sort of honorarium to actor James Brolin who had guest starred in a Roseanne episode which Whitley wrote --, who, like Dr. Kevorkian, assists in the suicides of terminally ill patients. While his intentions seem merciful and honorable, the ritualistic manner in which he assists his patients into the afterlife is just off enough to make Frank and fellow candidate Lara Means (Kristen Cloke) suspect that Dr. Kiley relished the control he had over these people's lives as he ended their suffering.

Although the means of death was virtually painless, Kiley bound his patients with duct tape and then proceeded to sing them into the darkness with horrifically cheesy songs like "Seasons In The Sun" and "Goodbye Charlie". No one deserves to go out like that.

"I don't know where the karaoke thing came from," explains Whitley. "It just sort of popped in my head."

Of course he could have just been missing Tucker Smallwood's voice.

"In my episode 'Dear Earth' he gets to sing a song and then I got to get him singing in 'Goodbye Charlie'," Whitley brags humorously.

James Brolin-wanna-be's and evil karaoke aside, "Goodbye Charlie" gave both Frank Black and the audience something to think about long after the screen faded to black. And isn't that what good television is all about?

"Glen and Jim really kinda pushed me to do something that became one of the best things I'd ever done. I was very, very proud of it. Through their encouragement, they pushed me in a direction that I probably hadn't thought of going in. It was just a really great experience."

Ever generous with his praise, Whitley adds, "And I think it was made even better by Tucker Smallwood, who I thought was absolutely brilliant."

The Others

"My wife hates clowns. We grew up in Chicago and when we were kids there was a show called Bozo's Circus. When women would get pregnant, they'd get on the waiting list so when their kid was 4 or 5 they could get tickets to it. It's just a huge thing. And my wife got to go and Bozo sat next to her and she practically had a fit because she found clowns so disturbing."

Clowns. Evil. 'Nough said.

Troy Manheim (James Morrison), a.k.a. phony phone psychic Simian Nye, has begun to make horrible predictions that are coming true. When Satori (Melissa Crider) seeks him out to give him a piece of her mind, she finds a broken, frightened man who just may be the only viable link to her father who has already passed on. That is, if this wanna-be clown can survive being punished by the real Simian Nye, an unsettled soul who is angry at the misuse and abuse of his name.

"When [I] was working on the outline for "$4.95 [a Minute]" Jim [Wong] kept on going 'And it's scary.' 'It's scary, don't worry.' 'It's gotta be scary.'"

And what could be more scary than clowns? Clown paintings. Clown figures. Clowns driving cars.

And scary. And evil.

Roswell

The alien youths.

"I initially was asked to write a romantic screwball comedy episode."

At one time Dreamworks had produced a mini-series for The Sci Fi Channel called Taken which Whitley describes as "10 two hour movies about the alien abduction experiences." There he met fellow scribe Tonia Graphia, his co-writer for Roswell's "Tess, Lies and Videotape." Whitley and Graphia's myth-arc heavy episode had the normally suspicious Sheriff Valenti throwing in with the series' heroes and revealed that the new girl in town -- who could put an irresistible lust-whammy on the usually monotonous... er... I mean monogamous Max -- was yet another alien.

Unlike his other efforts though, it didn't have quite the balance between comedy and drama that Whitley is used to producing.

"Unfortunately minds were changed at the last minute and the comedy was taken out and the drama was heightened. It was unfortunate."

Well, probably what passes for drama at Roswell at least.

"The other unfortunate thing was the show's insistence on focusing on soap opera-like teen angst rather than the idiosyncratic fun aspects of high school as well as digging deeper into alien lore."

Still, he has some good things to say about the experience: "The people I worked with were all very nice."

The Future

"My favorite movies have drama and humor. And you write what you want to see."

So far Richard Whitley has written a lot of what we want to see and hopefully he will be allowed to continue to do so.

On the horizon are a possible feature comedy about his experiences in college, while in a more genre vein he recently pitched a story idea to Fox's midseason series Night Visions. Although it hasn't yet been accepted, "They liked the area and asked me to rethink the ending. I only feel comfortable right now saying it's again dealing with a psychic."

A psychic, huh? I wonder if a tarot reading by Madame Cleo would have good news for us. What was her number again?

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