JIM WORKOUT

by Bryan Carins

It should be no surprise to anyone that David Conrad has landed on a spooky new drama "GHOST WHISPERER." Although he's racked up numerous credits on "Miss Match," "Relativity," and "Boston Public," the 38 year-old actor is a self-professed genre geek. "Joss Wedon is one of the most brilliant producers who ever worked on television," he offers. "To me, he's like David Lynch. "Firefly" and "Buffy" were amazing. I went straight to "Buffy" and said, 'I'd love to play any role.' I was in running for the bad guy, Caleb, who Nathan Fillion played. The show I really wanted to get on was "La Femme Nikita." I tried to get on "Battlestar Galactica" too. [Edward James] Olmos probably leads a strong ship on that. But I thought "Buffy" was one of the best shows on TV. Joss knew how to take the restrictions of a teen show and make it hilarious, scary and moving. To make a musical out of such a show like that or the scene where Buffy's mom dies….. It is so smart and what makes TV good and effective. Whoever is doing stuff like that I'd love to work with."

Conrad and Fillion also competed for another strong sci-fi character. "What is funny is Nathan also got the "Firefly" role of Captain Malcolm Reynolds that I was up for," he sighs. "I know Nathan well and I hate him." He laughs. "I thought "Firefly" was brilliant."

Conrad may have missed out then, but "GHOST WHISPERER" certainly gave him his genre fix. The series follows Conrad's character Jim Clancy, and his extraordinary wife Melinda Gordon (played by Jennifer Love Hewitt), an antiques store owner who converses with spirits to help them move on. "I liked the respect the pilot showed the main ghost," reveals Conrad. "He could stand on his own. I liked the idea that as a paramedic, I am sort of on the other side of the divide between the living and the dead that she's on. I'm fighting to keep the people alive and she's dealing with their struggle on the other side. To me, that was interesting. I enjoy that competition where he's like, 'You're not going to get this one'. There were also personal moments that were very real."

Yet even before it aired, "GHOST WHISPERER" was criticized as a "Medium" rip-off, but Conrad insists they never lived in Patricia Arquette's shadow. "The guys who made the show did not want to make "Medium," but what it proved was that there is a market for a lot of different aspects," explains Conrad. "When people first started creating comic books, they thought, 'There's no way you would be interested in more than Superman or Batman' and they certainly shown there is an interest on many levels."

"I thought "GHOST WHISPERER" was more fantastical than "Medium." "Medium" is more grounded in the real and then invaded by the supernatural. Our show is more of a fantasy and dressed-up. "GHOST WHISPERER" is also more spiritual, but we look for a high note between the two and the person they are helping. The main point is it shows there is a market for people being interested in this subject."

While Melinda is problem solving for the deceased, Jim is saving lives as an emergency medical technician, "I've learned a lot of it," reveals Conrad about the profession. "My brother is a paramedic, a physician's assistant, which is sort of a country's doctor. They take EMT, emergency and paramedic work. I call him about things. They also have people on set who are official, so whenever I have to do something, I will sit down with them and say, 'Do that for me four times so I can physically watch what you do'. That way I am saying the same things and checking the same stuff, trying to mimic the physical actions of these guys who have been trained to do it for years."

So far Jim and Melinda are newlywed bliss, yet her strange gift if bound to cause some bumps eventually. "In the first couple of years of their marriage, if they hit right, it can be really magical, especially if they have a little secret of their own," states Conrad. "It is kind of exciting for Jim to know what his wife can do when nobody else except Andrea (played by Aisha Tyler). It is funny because we'll be doing stuff and we'll go, 'Hey, let's make this meaner, tougher or more difficult,' and we'll do it but sometimes it doesn't work dramatically as well as reaching out to each other. We realize we need to stick to what we are, which are two people who are looking for ways to understand rather than conflict. I am sure there will be plenty of times when we are fighting, when something goes wrong."

Jim's life is definitely more ordinary than Melinda's so would Conrad prefer for his alter ego to be more active in his wife's adventures? "You know, I pitch sometimes, 'Let me do something'," he reveals. "'Give me more of a job, an actual function.' Sometimes I help and other times she has to do it on her own. You need to know when to back off and say, 'It is not my game.' He needs to know when to stand in the back and not say anything. They are going to look for more complex plot lines, but in the first season they want to stick the formula that sells to people and is also simple to understand before they start twisting things."

This may be Melinda's journey, but viewers are still learning about Jim along the way. "The cool thing about the show was when I read the script, there was a major monologue in the pilot about a brother who died," explains Conrad. "The second I read that I really fixed on who this guy was. I could feel the sensibility of what motivates him, the main sense of loss, and also the way he talks. You have writers who are doing the show every week and you are trying to make the writing appealing, funny and witty. What I wanted to make clear to them is, 'Don't make me a comic. I shouldn't be funny the way Andrea is.' Jim says less than fewer words. He's the straight man and more of the listener than a talker. I said to writers, ' Can I say this in one line instead of five? Just to give the sense he's more of an observer, someone who takes everything in.' That was the main thing."

Like any fledging series, "GHOST WHISPERER" has experimented with format but to date there hasn't been an overall arc. "I always like to see things connect," offers Conrad. "People who watches television wants something that hooks one episode to the next. "24" proved it more than anything and there's "Lost." They have a couple of tie-ins with the people who have come back. Those shorthand references are great. I'm hoping for larger arcs, but who knows? Television is ruled by writers and we are just the employees."

CHILDREN FIRST

"GHOST WHISPERER" has kept things fresh with episodes about twin spirits, a trapeze artist at a carnival and a dead soldier. Despite the eclectic topics, Conrad easily singles out his most memorable.

"The children ones are some of my favorites, just because I like the whole idea of a child ghost," he says. It is fascinating that someone can be both old and young at the same time. I like the ones where the ghosts are not just nice people who screwed up and want to make everything better for those they left. In the episode with the painter who was hung and the tattoo guy, they were both dark and in the end confessed, 'I did a bad thing and I want my family to learn that I still love them'. Those are more effective and both those guys were great actors."

"For anyone who works on television, the amount of hours you work is exhausting, especially when you are the star. The thing I love about her is the way she treats people who hang the lights, set the wires, who cook the food for her. She is always unfailingly good to those people. What really counts is you treat the workers, the people who are making the stuff, making less money compared to you, who are living a normal life and insane hours, with kindness, courtesy. And she's always done that. That is nice for me because I grew up in a working class atmosphere. We've had a great relationship. There are times when we get pissed off at each other but when you are with someone 24/7, that is going to happen. I think a lot of her."

In the end, "GHOST WHISPERER" has thrived in its Friday nighttime slot and despite becoming one of the fewest breakout hits of the 2005 season, the cast hasn't lost a sense of humour or ability to poke fun at themselves. "We were filming a couple of days ago and Jennifer had a scene where we're lying in bed and the phone rings," recalls Conrad. "As she's reaching across me, I'm like, 'Ah, just tell him to cross over, why don't you?' So we're starting to do stuff like. When we were first making the titles for the show, it was 'Jen Sees Dead People' or 'Love's Ghosts'. We came up with 25 different names."

Story: © 2006 Cult Events UK. All Rights Reserved.
Images: © 2005 Touchstone Television LLC - a Walt Disney Company and Paramount Pictures Corporation - a Viacom Company. All Rights Reserved.