Tom Lynch, Creator
South of Nowhere
|
Tom Lynch Interview 11/2/09
<<Previous
One of my favorite things that I like most about South
is my fellow fans. I don’t think I’ve ever
seen anyone more passionate about anything than South
fans are about the show. There might be things that
people are just as passionate about, but I doubt that
there’s anyone more passionate. Tom says South
fans are, "THE BEST!"
As anyone could see, South Of Nowhere has
the potential to do many things, because everything
could be South Of Nowhere. It could have other
characters, issues and locations, and still stay true
to the original. With that in mind, I asked him about
the possibilities of a spinoff. He said he always thought
it would be interesting to explore when Chelsea had
her baby. “I thought that was an interesting storyline
of a strong, independent, African-American girl. It
would have been a great story.” He also said that
he’s always thought that when Madison (Valery
Ortiz) went off on the road to be a dancer. He added
that they did look into working with her on it. It it
didn’t come to fruition, but that a Latino girl
with a story like hers would be really interesting.
He also mentioned that Aiden (Matt Coen) would be another
good candidate for a spinoff as well. “Aiden,
was probably one of the most dimensionalized characters…He
had an interesting story…Where does he end up?”
He brought up the webisodes that showed the girls together
having a baby,and Aiden was still friends. Tom said,
“That was kind of a cute little thing.”
He said that there are probably spinoff’s in there.
Then, he went on to say that the problem is that the
network is his partner on it, and they would have to
figure out where to take it within their Viacom (Teen
Nick’s Parent Company) world. He added that there
were talks at one time with MTV about it. “Maybe
we’ll talk to them again about it.”
At this time I expressed the fans desire for more S.O.N.,
and he advised me to tell everyone that if they write
to Teen Nick and ask when it will run again and whether
you want to do a spinoff etc. “The networks do
respond to fans,” he said. So everyone, please
write to:
Teen Nick/The N
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
While I was on the phone with him, I couldn’t
stop thinking of you the fans of the show, and how it
seems like everyday there’s still new stories
of how its impacted people. I told Tom that, and he
responded by saying, “That’s one of the
greatest gifts of the show. Whenever you do a show that’s
critically acclaimed, people watch, and they’re
emotionally moved by it…That’s the best.”
Next, I asked how he came up with everything. He laughed
and said, “It’s not just me. There’s
a room full of cool writers…It’s my job
to come up with the original idea and the emotional
and moral tone of the script, and then, I rely on a
lot of people to help me with it. There was a room full
of writers that brought a lot to it. The actors certainly
elevated the material. There was a whole army of people,
but what I always try to do is keep the focus on: what’s
the truth of the moment; what’s the truth of the
characters; and what is interesting for people to watch?
In season one, I think I wrote nine of the eleven episodes.
So I very much had my hand in the architecture of it,
and that was pretty cool. That worked out pretty good.
So after that, the characters were allowed to grow and
breathe…It was a lot of luck.” We both laughed
at that point. Then he added, “You’ve got
to have a lot of luck”, he chuckled.
After a few moments of Tom actually taking time to
ask me questions about my own life, which I was very
honored by and thankful for, we started talking about
writing, which naturally lead me back to our site .
I told him he should check it out because he might be
blown away. Tom’s response was “I don’t
think I could read it…If I read it, I’ll
probably think they have better ideas than I have.”
I continued to tell him about the wide variety of stories
we have on our site, everything from the stories that
stay close to the SON world, to those that
defy reality, to the ones that push the envelope. “I
think that’s one of the greatest things that we
did not confuse ourselves on was the idea that we kept
it in the real place. A lot of shows if they’re
salacious get kind of surreal. I think with this show,
we kept it in a real place. It had enough titillation
and enough salaciousness and enough interest.”
He went on to talk about the fact that if they would’ve
gotten to salacious or un-relatable, it would have been
over. He said, “That would have made them just
another bad soap opera. The show deserved to be better
than that.”
He’s absolutely right. I told him that a lot
of teen dramas could be like that, but it’s all
about the way you present it and the characters you
bring to it. As far as I can tell, the fans of the show
think that they did it the best. He was again moved
by the appreciation his fans have shown him. He told
me to tell you that he loves you.
For those of you who are wondering if South
may be continued in book form, he said that he’s
hoping that when he finishes the book he’s doing
now about the journey of the show that will create new
interest in the show and that might lead to a book.
“There was one time I talked about doing a series
of books with a publisher, and I got distracted.”
I told him that a lot of fans are going to be happy
to hear that he said, “I want them to be happy.
They make me happy.”
So fans, do you want there to be a DVD box set with
all the webisodes, final goodbyes, and possible other
extras? Here’s your answer, “I think that
will happen. I don’t know when, but I think that
will happen in the next year or two, maybe the fifth
year anniversary.
If there was a fourth season what would it have been?
Tom said he thinks it would have focused on Spencer
and Ashley living together, and the complications that
can occur in any relationship, because it’s tough
to live with someone. “A lot of the stories came
out of the relationship I have with my wife over twenty-eight
years. They weren’t gay stories, they weren’t
straight stories. They were just stories of people in
love.” He would like to continue that, to see
how society views them both, pro and con. It would have
been a more grown up version of the series. “When
you first move in with somebody, you can write about
that forever.”
I followed up by asking if the cast wanted to do a
fourth season. “Yeah… they definitely did.”
When I asked if he would ever talk to them about making
the movie he said “Of course, I would have to
I would talk to Mandy, Matt, and Gabby. They’d
be the first ones I’d talk to about it…It’d
be once I got the movie set up. I don’t want to
talk to them about it until then.” However, once
he did have it set up he would call them, and ask them
if they wanted to do it. Does Tom think they would be
on board? “I know Mandy, would be. Mandy, would
totally want to come back and tear it up…It’d
be great!
For his parting words, Tom told me to tell all of his
fans that he cannot thank you enough for your engagement,
and watching of the show. You are the ones that made
him want to do South of Nowhere.
To contact Tom write to: 1801Ave. Of the stars Suite
710 Los Angeles Calif. 90067 or E-mail him at Tom@TomLynchCo.com
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this. I certainly
had fun doing the interview!
Travis
|
