Everything I need to know I learned from the Leverage special features

Its no secret that we all love Leverage around here. Scott likes Parker almost as much as I do. Bob has an unhealthy obsession with Christian Kane’s hair (I for the record, like the look). Deb has talked to producer Dean Devlin about the show. Season two is in full effect, and I’ve been going back and watching the first season via the recently released (and subject of a CliqueClack giveaway) DVD set. The extras on the set are outstanding, especially when you consider how quickly TNT churned out the set.

When it comes to special features, I’m a Commentary junkie. The work on this set was outstanding. Each episode has a recording, most hosted by creators John Rogers and Chris Downey, but producer (and director) Dean Devlin, writer Amy Berg, director Johnathan Frakes, and a host of others all show up. The sessions are fun to listen to, and are informative, so much so the full focus of this post was going to be all of the cool stuff I learned:

• TNT often challenges the producers on whether some of the things the team pulls off can really be done. Case in point, Devlin actually showed them he could do the picture/document/fax bit from “The Nigerian Job.”
• The production team has developed a short hand for talking about elements of the show. One of which that popped up a lot was a “Busey,” which was the main villain’s henchman, after the Mr. Joshua character Gary Busey portrayed in the first Lethal Weapon movie.  Another is a “Ledger,” for when a fact they made up sounds so real the cast or crew think its true (For the explanation of why the night deposit box is big enough for Parker to fit in “The Bank Job”).
• The scrapes and scratches on Eliot’s face at the beginning of “The Stork Job” were written in after he tripped and fell when tossing a football after a 1:00am poker game with Tim Hutton and Saul Rubinek (Dubenich from “The Nigerian Job”).
• In “The Nigerian Job”, Devlin and the cast came up with a little technique where the actor playing a line off screen would (unbeknownst to the actor on screen) say what they were thinking instead of what was scripted to get a more real reaction. It worked so well with the cast that they continue to use the technique all the time.
• It wasn’t until they started breaking (and writing) “The First David Job,” that they realized that Nate and Sophie hadn’t really worked all season, and probably wouldn’t. Nate, as he’s currently written, will always look down on Sophie. Whether or not they will find a way to fix that, or just move away from it, remains to be seen.

Other highlights in the features include a segment with Beth Riesgref playing a meeting with the writing team as a prima donna that just about made me fall off the couch laughing. They filmed the internal second season pick up announcement, which the cast and crew all thought was an online Q&A session until Devlin told them what was really going on. There were several decent featurettes, and then there were the Deleted Scenes. Aldis Hodge owned the Deleted Scenes. They share several of his improv runs, and I’ve got to tell you, the man has got a long future in this business.

Its a great set. The episodes are in the order that I think that they were intended to be shown, which is not really the same order I remember them. Or, I could be completely crazy (which really isn’t far from the truth no matter how you look at it). But, if I were crazy, maybe I’d be a good match for Parker?

Clacked by Ivey West
on Jul 26, 2009 @ 13:01 EST5EDT