or more than a decade, actor-director-producer Jonathan Frakes' name has been synonymous with all things genre—whether you're talking about Star Trek (he's directed two features, numerous episodes and, of course, plays Number One, Cmdr. William T. Riker), or series like the now-departed Roswell, or Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.
As the host of Beyond Belief, Frakes introduces viewers to bizarre stories that couldn't possibly be true, and then challlenges them to separate the real from the fantastic. SCI FI currently airs episodes of Beyond Belief every Monday through Thursday at 8 p.m. ET/PT, and will be continuing to do so throughout the summer.
You've been doing Beyond Belief now for how many years?
Frakes: It's the best-kept secret on television. We've been on and off. I've been doing it for at least four years. But we always seem to be on the air for part of the season; one of these years, it will catch on to the point where it will actually be on somebody's schedule.
How did you first get involved in doing Beyond Belief?
Frakes: In my role as the "official" spokesperson for the paranormal. I guess because of the Star Trek connection, I have a healthy respect for all things alien—and it's something I've always been connected with.
I've done a lot of hostings and wraparounds and voiceovers for paranormal-type shows. Space, psychic, aliens, and one of the themes of the Beyond Belief shows is that they are
beyond belief. Whether they are true or not, they challenge your imagination, and they question what is
real and what is not.
Dick Clark and Al Schwartz and Mari Edelman, who do the show, asked me to do it, and I always look forward to getting back with these guys.
As host, are you involved at all in picking the stories themselves?
Frakes: Not at all. I often do the wraparounds with Al, who directs them and produces them, and Barry, who writes them—without having seen the episodes about which I'm speaking, so I can't slant the audience. Because it's, in a way, like a family game show. The premise is, at the end of the show, you decide amongst yourselves at home which segments are true, and which ones are not. Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction: Which are fact and which are fiction? So, as the host, I'm better off not
knowing, so I don't slant the audience with a wink. People seem to respond to this format of paranormal game show.
Sometimes, do you hear of stories that make you wonder, "How can that possibly be?"
Frakes: That's right. And those are often the ones that are true.
Are you sometimes surprised yourself by which stories are true, and which are fiction?
Frakes: I am often surprised. They've chosen stories with that in mind, obviously, so that the most far-fetched ones, the ones you think are going to be written by our writing staff, are the ones that are actually true. And I think that's fun for the audience.
Any stories that shocked you, when you learned they really were true?
Frakes: Well, I think there were stories that I had trouble buying, but Barry and Al claim they're true, so I have to trust them [laughs].
Do you find yourself believing in the paranormal yourself?
Frakes: I'm asked that question a lot. I believe in psychic connections. I believe that we'd be naive to pretend that we're the only life form in the universe or the galaxy, and I think there are unexplained phenomena that do happen.
How many new episodes are there this summer?
Frakes: We did 13 new ones. I did these shows a year ago. Dick Clark was trying to get the show back [earlier], but Fox wanted the show because they needed it for their summer schedule.
Since working on these episodes, you've been very busy. Tell us about how you became involved with the new Twilight Zone, which will air on UPN this fall.
Frakes: I directed the pilot, which sold. That will be on UPN's schedule after Enterprise, which is fabulous.
Was it fun working on a genre anthology show like that?
Frakes: It was great. The script by Pen Densham was right in the tone of the original Rod Serling shows. And Jeremy Piven is the star of the pilot episode; he's a wonderful, interesting, wild actor. The new Rod Serling, as you might know, is Forest Whitaker. So it's a nice team to be involved with. And one of our old Star Trek show runners—Ira Behr—is running the show with Pen
Densham. So it's a good group.
It must be interesting being paired up with Ira Behr again, only on a show that isn't Star Trek.
Frakes: Ira got hired after we did the pilot. So I'll be working with Ira when I go back to work to do some episodes of the series.
Did you follow the original Twilight Zone?
Frakes: I was a huge fan. Unlike Star Trek, which I didn't know much about, Twilight Zone is something that I used to watch in reruns as a kid. The series, its premise and anthology setup, the cautionary tone and the idea that the leads were often Everyman characters, so you always seemed to believe that this could be you. I think that was one of the great appeals of the show: that audiences placed themselves easily into the dilemma that the characters faced.
[With the pilot,] I think we brought it into the 21st century in terms of the shooting style, certainly, and the technology and the visual effects. Yet we honor the cautionary tales and morality plays that the episodes often are. But the subject, by nature of the fact that it's 40 years later, will be more contemporary. I think it honors the original show in a very good way, and it moves us into this millennium.
So what else are you working on now?
Frakes: Nemesis is wrapped and coming out in [December], and I'm hopefully going to be directing a movie version of an old English television series called The Thunderbirds. I'm on my way to a meeting that will determine whether or not that will happen; if not, I'll probably go into another movie with the Nickelodeon people, who I did Clockstoppers with last year, and I'll stay busy with Twilight Zone, and trying to sell some other series for next year.
And they just called me
about [directing] Enterprise, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do the one they offered, but I'll probably be over there at some point this year to do at least one. I've been very impressed by that series.
Can you leave us with one final thought—what stands out in your mind about working on Star Trek: Nemesis earlier this year?
Frakes: It was nice to be able to be just an actor between setups. And it was nice to be back with our family. It was as if we had never left, and that was a comforting, satisfying feeling.
Also in this issue: The cast and crew of Austin Powers in Goldmember.
