MONDO EXTRAS

Well, you're not supposed to.

Exactly! Well, at least the kind of shows I like, and the kind of shows I hope to keep creating -- you gotta really rub a piece of coal to make a diamond. It's about people bumping into each other like that, and it's about everybody not liking everybody all the time, and it's about conflict, and that kind of stuff -- those kinds of conversations that happen, and that kind of drama -- that's what I watch television for. When I see those kinds of connections between characters, that's when it feels the most real to me, and that's also when I feel like I learned the most from it too, about my own life. Anyway, that's just my own little soapbox. Brought to you by pomegranates.

Good, I love soapboxes. So let's move on to some questions about the actual show. I know everybody asks you what inspired you to create Everwood. Do you think that I should ask you that question?

You can if you want. I can tell you that it was, in part, commerce...that I had a deal, but the short answer is that I felt in relationship dramas, male characters had been given the short shrift. And I had personally never really seen on a drama, like, my relationship with my father, which was combative, but slowly got better as we became more and more sort of best friends. And I'd never seen something like that rendered on TV. The other half was that I wanted an opportunity to talk about social issues, and it seems like that wasn't present on network dramas. Now, cable dramas can do that, but if you have network shows neutered, then everybody just goes to cable, and the networks lose.