lthough The Crow: Stairway to Heaven only ran for one season, executive producer Bryce Zabel is quite proud of what the show accomplished, and he's hopeful that it may yet have a future. Recently he sat down with Science Fiction Weekly to discuss the show, its cast and its possible future.
The SCI FI Channel has picked up The Crow: Stairway to Heaven and started airing it in July. How do you feel about that?
Zabel: I am so jazzed about the SCI FI Channel airings--it will be a big boost. Interestingly, I now have two series on the SCI FI Channel on the same day. ... Dark Skies continues to air at 12:00 Eastern on Sundays, while Crow will be at 8:00 p.m.
Do you think Brandon Lee would have played Eric in the TV series Stairway to Heaven if he were still alive?
Zabel: No.
Do you think Mark Dacascos would come back and play Eric Draven again in the series if it comes back on the air?
Zabel: I mean, the guy was a star; he would have [moved] on to other things. I believe if we didn't shoot the series in Canada that Mark would come back. I know he likes the Crow a lot and enjoyed playing the part.
Why couldn't you get Sofia Shinas, the actress who played Shelly in the first Crow movie, to play on the series? Was she committed to another part?
Zabel: I could have had [Shinas]. ... This may sound odd, but she was wrong for the part.
I actually cast [Shinas] for an episode, but it was vetoed by the powers that be for creative reasons. Candidly, [she was] a little too old, not quite a match with Mark Dacascos and not quite as good an actress as Crow fans fondly remember from the movie. Most of her dialogue was cut in the movie, I understand. We lost our first choice the day before shooting, and ended up with the actress we cast. I don't mean to knock her personally. ... She just didn't move me as Shelly as I would have liked.
How was filming in Canada?
Zabel: Canada is not the U.S., for starters.
Where would you like to film the show?
Zabel: I would like to film in the U.S. first. ...
Do you have any particular city in mind?
Zabel: If L.A. wasn't acceptable, I'd take Chicago, maybe ... but the thing is, if a show is syndicated, then it almost always ends up in Canada. Remember, the first movie said it was Detroit, but it wasn't filmed there. The reason I
had the city in Stairway to Heaven called "Port Columbia" was so I could actually film the scenery in Canada, because it's so damned hard to make it look like something else on the schedule and budget I had.
Was it hard to duplicate the set of Eric and Shelly's apartment from the movie?
Zabel: It was actually easy to duplicate the apartment. Our most huge battle was over what color the walls should be. We started with maroon, and the Polygram execs demanded they be changed to yellow. I'm not kidding here, either. Well, the truth is, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference what color they are. The sets are long, long gone. Draven has more chance of actually coming back than they do.
Did Mark Dacascos enjoy playing two characters--"Crow" and Eric? Which did he like best?
Zabel: I think he enjoyed both about equally ... totally different challenges. ... However, I bet Mark, who is a world-class-act guy, enjoyed the wise-ass Crow persona for the fun of it.
How long did it take for Mark to get into "Crow" makeup?
Zabel: Over an hour, I think. Unless he did it himself. Kidding.
How was the set, fun or intense?
Zabel: The set was mostly fun. The day we lost a man was intense. Another Mark.
Rumors said James O'Barr wanted the show to be more violent. Is that true?
Zabel: James never said that to me. He told me at the San Diego Comic-Con how much he liked what he had seen, and he said the same to Jeff Most on another occasion later. I think we did the violence as reasonably as one could do it, for TV. The Crow, as I see the concept for myself, is about redemption. The movie The Crow and the comic The Crow are about revenge. I had no choice, for TV, however.
Would Mark be available if the show comes back?
Zabel: Mark is finishing a film in France right now. We are in no imminent danger of starting again, so there's time to corral him if we need to.
Is money the reason why the show can't come back for a second season?
Zabel: The show was canceled, in my opinion, because Polygram got sold to Universal, and Universal had only a year before [getting] out of the television production business. Therefore, they could not get back in with somebody else's show, nor could they let a good one get away. Money and politics, yeah.
Is there a realistic chance of getting the show back on?
Zabel: Ed Pressman is still working toward that end. Ed is a serious guy who gets things done. I'm rooting for him. I like his commitment. ... I would [ask fans to] write, phone and call the SCI FI Channel and continue to ask for them to re-air the first season. They've done that with my other series, Dark Skies, [which] has introduced it to millions of new fans.
The TV series ended with a cliffhanger. Did you have more already written?
Zabel: Oh, definitely. I had a whole plan for the second season. Clearly, Shelly jumping off the bridge allowed me to switch out the current actress for a new one. It also demanded a huge story shift worthy of a second season. She fulfilled her contract, and we didn't do a second season.
What did you have planned for the second season? Or is it a secret?
Zabel: I actually wrote the story for one version of it for Pressman. One idea: Shelly ends up in the body of a car crash victim at the moment of death. ... Her only memories of Eric and Shelly are the ones she dreams about. Somehow they continue to search for each other. She goes to Eric when she realizes she dreams about him. ... Complications, as they say in the biz, ensue.
Bryce, thank you for your time.
Zabel: No worries--that's Mark D's favorite expression, by the way.
