TV VIEWERS VOICE

Halloween is over, but do I have a supernatural series for all you sci-fi fans, “Haunted” on UPN starring Matthew Fox (“Party of Five). It’s having a struggle in the ratings, but I think it’s because viewers haven’t found it yet and the reason for that is it has some really stiff competition. It airs on Tuesday nights at 7-8:00 P.M., CST, against The WB’s “Smallville,” CBS’s “The Guardian” and FOX’s big hit “24.” It really needs a new night to capture its own audience. I’m so happy that it’s on UPN where I’m sure they will give it a chance to pick up that audience.

“Haunted is a one hour drama, where after a near death experience, private investigator Frank Taylor (Matthew Fox) suddenly finds that he is haunted by lost souls who help him solve crimes. He reluctantly accepts his heightened awareness and evolves from an incredulous non-believer to an intrigued witness to the beyond.

Friday morning, the second official day of our Viewers Voice Conference, a few of us went over to the set of “Haunted,” to do some interviews with the stars of the series. The show is filmed in an old warehouse in the Los Angeles area. We met up with the publicist of the show Michele Schuwarger on the corner of the street across from the warehouse. She took us passed the trailers of the stars to this big old building where we entered and were taken to a room they use for interviews. The room wasn’t anything special but it was sufficient enough for our cameras and to do what we needed to do. We then sat and waited until the cast had a break in shooting.

While waiting Michele was nice enough to take us on a tour of the set where the cast and crew were in the process of filming a segment of the show. The area being filmed was so crowded we seen very little of what was actually happening. It was a scene where Frank was encountering, Simon (John Mann), a villainous ghost in the series; all we could really view was the smog coming from the area. Since it was almost impossible to see anything Michele took on a tour of the rest of the studio and other sets that weren’t being used.

When we got back to the interview room we spent some more time waiting, when finally one of the stars was available to talk to us. It turned out to be Russell Hornsby who plays Marcus Bradshaw in “Haunted.” Marcus was Frank’s ex-partner when he was a police detective. After Russell we interviewed Rick Ramage, the creator of the show, Lynn Collins, Frank’s ex-wife, and John Mann, who plays the ghost, Simon. Somewhere in between we also interviewed Matthew Fox and that’s the interview you’re about to read.

When Matthew entered the room he appeared to be a little shy, knowing him from “Party of Five” I know this to be true. Matthew has never been real comfortable with interviews or the limelight of being a star.

Sharon:  Matthew, can you tell us a little about your character in “Haunted”?

Matthew: I play Frank Taylor on “Haunted.” It’s a series; I like to call it a new art detective series with a twist on top. I play a guy who in the opening of the series dies pursuing a suspect and enters into the world between the living and the dead. He’s brought back to life but part of his sole is left in that world between the living and the dead and he is used as sort of a conduit into the real world by souls and spirit’s that have unfinished business in the other world and need to wrap those things up before they can move onto what ever it is they’re going to move on too.

Sharon: How much do you believe in a life after death?

Matthew: I actually don’t. I’m an evolutionist, I believe in science basically, but there is a big part of me that’s obviously attracted to the idea of it. I think that’s a big reason why I was attracted to the project in the beginning, there’s a huge part of me that likes to flirt with the idea of there being a place that we end up and that there is maybe a place even between the real world and where we ultimately end up that is really worth examining. I mean I think the stories you can tell about this kind of thing is, they’re very valid stories and they’re interesting. So I’m obviously attracted to this, but one of the wonderful things about being an actor is that you don’t necessarily have to believe in some of the stories you tell, but you get to flirt with the idea of them being reality.

Sharon: I did an interview with you once when you first started out on “Party of Five” on the telephone; obviously you’ve come a long way since then. Can you tell us a little about yourself now? I think you had a pet iguana then?

Matthew: Yes, now we have two kids. We traded it in, now we have two little bambino’s running around the house all the time. I have a five and a half year-old daughter who was born while I was working on “Party of Five” and I also have a son who is turning one tomorrow. So basically the two years since “Party of Five” rapped, actually it’s been two and a half now, I just kind of wanted to drop out of the business for awhile.  Six years of being on a successful TV series and all the good and bad that comes along with that, I just kind of wanted to fade out a little bit and get back in touch with my friends and my life outside the entertainment business and I felt it was really important for me to do that on a personal level. I also felt that on a professional level it was wise for me to let Charlie Salinger, “Party of Five” and all of that sort of fade out. I played that character for six years and I didn’t want people to think that was really me and that was what I was going to do. I mean, I was playing a character there. So I got involved in a theatre company here in Los Angeles and did a couple of plays and really enjoyed that and made a great bunch of fantastic friend’s involved in this theatre company.

Then after the first of the year I felt like it was high time for me to start looking for something to do. I intentionally was looking for something that was a hundred and eighty degree difference, both the show and the character from what I’d done before and “Haunted” completely fit that. The tone of the show was very dark and edgy; “Party of Five” was a very soft show, very sensitive, and on a character level also. Charlie Salinger was a very sensitive guy, the stories were a lot of talking, a lot of people taking about how they feel. I was looking for a character that was much more active, that acted before he thought and was reckless and impulsive and you know heroic. Frank is one of those guys, he’s completely unmatched by the circumstances and he’s dealing with so much and yet he continues to fight with everything he has and I think basically that’s what defines heroes. He goes into situations where the odds are completely stacked against you and the soul of the individual drives you to continue fighting against all odds.

All the interviews from “Haunted” will be on our Viewers Voice TV Show on the West Allis local access channel 14, on Mondays at 6:00 P.M., CST. Until my next column let your voice be heard.