August
13
"John from Cincinnati's" Zack Whedon is on his way
"JOHN FROM CINCINNATI" SPOILER ALERT, PART TWO:
Among the many interesting things about the "John from Cincinnati" finale seg is that it heralds the ascent, in WGA terms, of Zack Whedon.
Zack is the latest addition to the Whedon clan's tradition of producing fine TV and film scribes, stretching back to the 1950s and '60s with Zack's grandfather, John Whedon ("The Andy Griffith Show," "Dick Van Dyke Show"); and father, Tom ("The Golden Girls," "Benson," "Alice"); and on through older brother Joss ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," "Serenity").
Zack has been schooled in the David Milch tradition for the past four years, starting out as an assistant to Milch on "Deadwood" early on in its first season. He wound up co-writing a "Deadwood" seg with his boss last year, and this year he was a kind of permanent freelancer on "John from Cincinnati." And like the titular character, Zack had good timing throughout. In episode seven, he fell into a bit acting part as Wonderboy, aka the Stinkweed vice president armed with all the research about the company's target demo and its prospects for expanding in e-commerce -- all of which earns him a face full of Linc Stark's bare ass in the memorable mooning scene. In Milch-ian fashion, they wrote the character the day before the shoot and were time-pressed to find someone to play the part.
(HBO's hard-working publicists searched but could only find one production still above from that scene, with Milch at the center, and it offers only a glimpse of Zack's arm, his hand holding a pencil and a bit of his face in the far right-hand corner.)
As the fates would have it, Zack wound up taking the lead on the finale seg, episode 10. How'd he come up with the Bunuel-ian ideas and imagery that bring a climax, if not conventional storytelling closure, to a show like "JFC." Well, as Zack (who's pictured properly below) is the first to say, he didn't do it alone.
"David works day to day. You don't know what's going to happen next. If you just show up for your episode (as a writer), you're going to be way out of the loop," Zack says. "It's sort of a blur how 10 ended up in my hands but I was very, very excited to have it."
The "JFC" scribes knew going in that there would be some sort of spectacle in Imperial Beach to fuel the
drama at the very end, and they knew that Luke Perry's Linc would be a very important character in the driving the art-meets-commerce theme. And yes, they knew (hoped) that the decision to have John and Shaun come cruising out of the water in camouflage-patterned wet suits would push some anti-war buttons (or at least thoughts) in the audience. (I confess on first viewing of the finale I thought the wet suits were supposed to be fish scales, evoking the missing duo as having become an organic part of their beloved Pacific Ocean. "It's open to interpretation," Zack generously allowed.)
"David writes everything organically," Zack says. "He doesn't like to think too many steps ahead. But there was a logic to the world. (Milch) did in his head have an idea of where John was from and so on. It wasn't that it wasn't building toward something. It's just that on a scene to scene basis he's very open to where the previous scene leads him."
No matter how modest the audience turnout for "JFC" has been, and no matter how uptight most critics have been about the show's free-form storytelling, getting the sole writing credit on the finale is a rocket-booster to Zack's profile in the industry. As for what's next, Zack sez his first choice would be more time with the "JFC" playground, which seems a long shot at this writing. He's also working on his own pilot script, and enjoying the time he now has to follow his own muse after learning at the knee of a master.
Milch, for his part, calls Whedon "an extraordinary talent" and predicts he's destined to "step out on his own" soon. As such, Milch is quite happy that Whedon's name is on the final seg of "JFC."
"It points to the future," Milch says. "That's just right."
Cynthia Littleton is deputy editor, news development at Variety and a veteran television reporter. 
Subscribe to this blog's feed
Does this "item" (or shameless HBO PR push) explain why the series is totally UNWATCHABLE, PRETENTIOUS and a COMPLETE Failure, both critically and commercially!!! Where's Tony Soprano when we need him? Somebody at HBO needs to get Whacked!
Posted by: Ned | August 14, 2007 at 10:59 AM
It wasn't unwatchable. It was way outside the mainstream, granted, and it took a lot for me to get into it, but I think I understood what they were doing by the time episode 7 rolled around.
You can't look at it as a TV show. The storytelling method was certainly alternative, but it made you feel something, which is more than I can say about a lot of the crap that I see on the tube.
You can read all my JFC posts at this link.
http://iamatvjunkie.typepad.com/i_am_a_tv_junkie_a_blog_f/john_from_cincinnati_tv_show/index.html
Posted by: Joe Bua | August 14, 2007 at 02:11 PM
I wanted to like JFC, but I got lost. I met my husband surfing at Imperial Beach, CA., I related to the counter culture, surfing types... the milieu, and I enjoyed much about the show. But I became totally confused. I am not some drugged out surfer hippie.. I've got a degree in literature. But if I found the show incomprehensible, think about the general HBO public.
Posted by: Marilee | August 14, 2007 at 02:36 PM
I have to agree, JFC just didn't work. While I liked the cast a lot, the story and the writing were just a waste and really failed to do anything more than frustrate this one viewer.
Granted, I tried. I watched every episode, but it failed to really tell any story about surfing, Rebecca D had little more to do than scream, and the whole plot around surfing never really emerged. It's too bad, I liked most of the actors a lot.
But why does Milch insist on using Garret Dillahunt over and over again? He wasn't good in either character he played in Deadwood (yes, they cast him twice!) and he brought nothing to JFC.
Anyway, I'm not disappointed to see the show go, I'll just miss the cast until Milch does something else.
Posted by: ML | August 14, 2007 at 03:40 PM
Seems like the main problem with JFC was that it wasn't Deadwood, or The Sopranos.
I hadn't watched either, and wasn't an HBO subscriber, but watched every episode of JFC twice. It was intriguing to me, but a total turn-off to my wife. But it seems the writing on the wall was writ large with its slot after the Soprano's farewell, and as the next project of the Deadwood creator, and not being either.
Posted by: Jon | August 15, 2007 at 07:06 AM
This is the first TV show I've ever cared enough about to visit bulletin boards and websites to investigate it further. Something about it touched me deeply, from the very first episode.
One thing that struck me time and time again was the vitriol directed at this series by the people who were upset about Deadwood's cancellation. They were calling for JFC's demise before even giving it a chance.
While JFC's cancellation doesn't surprise me in the least, knowing how mega-media corporations operate, it does disappoint me. There was so much potential in this series, and it was just starting to build a groundswell of support. I'd talked it up to dozens of people, none of whom were watching it before. Now that they're interested in seeing it, they can't.
Ah, but there's plenty of reality programming to mesmerize the masses!
Posted by: Lynn | August 16, 2007 at 03:45 PM