28 November 2000
By Vanessa Sibbald
| With a confirmation expected for the official pickup of Felicity soon, spirits are high on the set and at
Touchstone, the show's production company. Felicity's junior year on The WB has seen the show undergo some radical
changes. First of all, the show isn't just about Felicity (played by Keri Russell) any more. Surrounding characters like
Elena (Tangi Miller), Noel (Scott Foley), Meghan (Amanda Foreman) and Sean (Greg Grunberg) have taken on larger roles, with
side stories that sometimes overtake Felicity's. The show has also shifted from what was at times a moody drama to more of
a dramedy, complete with gags and over-the-top situational comedy.
At the end of last season, the show looked like it was headed for cancellation. Many viewers had abandoned the series and, coupled with the loss of the affiliate superstation WGN, Felicity dropped about 30 percent in the Nielsen ratings. This year the fans have come back in droves - not only increasing viewership over last season but also up 26 percent compared to the 1998-99 year. Whether the rise is due to changes in storylines, less reruns, or a return to Felicity's original Wednesday timeslot, it is clear that fans are responding. In a recent interview, Felicity's executive producer J. J. Abrams discussed the original concept behind the show. "I just had the idea for a story of a young girl who throws away the plans her parents have for her to follow a guy she had a crush on," said Abrams. "It was a very natural, organic process the way the pilot happened. The luckiest thing that happened during that time was finding Keri because we knew the show was called Felicity. It was about this girl. [But] who was this person going to be?" As to the show's direction in the future, Abrams says it's flexible, developing as the characters develop. "It [the show] wasn't all plotted out in stone where everything is going to go. We said, 'Well, how is it evolving and how do the characters work together?' Last year we did some things that were a little more fractured than they should have been; where instead of it being about this surrogate family and this ensemble it felt a little more like there were these satellite stories going on - Felicity and Greg and Noel and Ruby. It didn't feel like the stories were about the characters. Friends is about that core group, and I think we're doing a little more of that this year and the show's becoming more of an ensemble. For example, the character Sean is going through this health crisis story, and we're following them going to the doctor together - and I love that we're telling substantial stories with characters that aren't just Felicity and Ben." Friends may not be an odd example, especially given how Felicity has changed its tone from a serious to a lighter drama this season, with more of an ensemble feel. Asked whether the network forced the changes to the show, Abrams said that was not the case, but executives did want it a little lighter with less serious stories. "When you look at the peripheral characters of the show - with Scott Foley, Meghan, Sean, Javier and Richard - there's so much ... great pathos and comedic potential with the peripheral characters we decided 'Why keep them peripheral? Why not make them an ensemble?' I think any version of Felicity was going to have the characters branch out more," Abrams explains. "If you look at Ally McBeal, the third year saw the beginning of many more ensemble stories than had existed in the first two and I think it's a natural inclination to begin to explore the other characters and not simply focus on the main character." But just because the show is getting funnier, don't expect it to become less real. Abrams said the additional stories help keep the show true. "You need additional characters to find honest stories. You can always overload a character with phony drama and heightened reality but then it takes the impact away from those stories. If you allow your character, Felicity, to take the background in certain episodes and if you allow some of the characters that were in the background to step forward, you realize that those are real people [with] real drama and real comedy. Suddenly, the show is a celebration of this surrogate family and not an intense examination of the angst on one character. It becomes a sort of ensemble in the way thirtysomething was, which is one of our favorite shows." Felicity's "angst" is one of the factors Abrams attributes to the decline of ratings last season. "I think it's a question of balance," he says. Perhaps the reason viewers have returned this year is because weightier issues, such as an upcoming health scare, are balanced with comedy, making the show more even. "We felt like we were trying to come up with stories for Felicity that were dramatic and heightened. And the problem was that we were throwing obstacles at her that didn't feel organic. So this year we're dealing with health issues, responsibility issues, sexual issues, parental issues, questions of virginity and abstinence within relationships - there's so much out there we're doing that is actually pretty heavy ... the difference is we're balancing those stories within the episodes." "My favorite thing about this year is our stories go places and at the end of the story you realize, 'Oh my God, that's why that happened. That's why I met that person.' Something we set up in episode three is an enormous part of our cliffhanger in episode 11." Although Felicity gained several more characters this year, it has also lost a couple that have been with the show since the beginning - Julie (Amy Jo Johnson) and Sally, the teacher who Felicity talked to on her tape recorder. Aside from offering a more mature, removed perspective on Felicity's adventures, Sally was a means of allowing the writers to share thoughts inside Felicity's head, through her taped diaries to her friend. To replace Sally, the writers came up with the idea of using Sean's documentary as a way to get the inside thoughts of all the characters. "We're in better shape this year because the show is now being told, literally, from all the character's perspectives, whereas in the first year it was 'Dear Sally' and all these tapes. It [the use of the tapes] was very one-on-one intimacy with only one character. And now we get to do one-on-ones with all the characters via Sean's documentary." As for what sets Felicity apart from other shows on television, Abrams said it's the blend of romanticism and optimism that makes the characters unique. Asked whether Felicity will always be a lovelorn schoolgirl, Abrams says one of his favorite plot lines involves her decreased dependence upon the men in her life. "One of the things I love is that this year Felicity finds a purpose above and beyond men. She finds something that she gets involved in that gives her great joy that is apart from her relationship with Ben and I think that's part of what happens in college. You get out there and you discover things that turn you on. You discover things that you shouldn't get involved in, and that's part of her experience." Since the show is about the experiences a person goes through in college, will the show end after Felicity and the gang graduate? "Not really. Personally - if we're lucky enough to keep going - the first year after college is a more exciting year than the first year in college. It would be an amazing thing to see, there are so many stories that I would love to do. We obviously hope it will continue." |