TV Gold

Personally I rather have a preference for English drama series whether contemporary or period however an American show that still has a favourable impression in my mind is “Crossing Jordan”. I like the character dynamic and interaction, the scene direction, location/studio filming and the effective use of both specially composed incidental and pop music to accompany the weekly central/peripheral narrative.

I was very surprised but thrilled to discover last month the first season of this series cropping up as a newly released six disc DVD box set title and at such an appealingly inexpensive price I knew it would be my next ‘investment purchase’. However there is an unexpected challenge with this title! Not officially released in the UK is in fact an import with packaging and onscreen information in Dutch. As I don’t actually speak or read this language I’ve made some small attempt in typing up the product text and converting it using a language conversion website. However although it is now legible it doesn’t actually make grammatical sense. When you load a disc you are presented with a choice of French or Dutch subtitles and by selecting the latter not only do you go through some copyright and advert items you also gain most of the menu items in English. The familiar Celtic inflection conveyed in the theme tune is features prominently on the main menu (a 48 sec loop) and episode selection options.

Now I was only expecting this title to only offer up just the episodes that made up the first season but was astonished and delighted to find a generous wealth of extras spread throughout the six discs. Rather than offer up thoughts about each of the 23 episodes I instead intend to concentrate on these extras items which should give you an idea as to why this is an entirely praiseworthy, unexpectedly good value for money title which despite its Dutch import status deserves to gain sufficient commercial success to enable subsequent seasons are released, preferably as full UK titles!

Well the first and probably most important special feature item on offer on the first disc is the option of selecting a commentary on the opening ‘pilot’ episode of the series. Personally I rather prefer a balance of cast and crew but I thought it was a wise choice to find, offering their views on this pivotal instalment, series creator Tim Kring, producer/director Allan Arkush and incidental music composers Lisa Coleman & Wendy Melvoin. I very much enjoyed the relaxed but very informative chat these people had and I learnt a lot about how they feel about the series and what it was like making it. To give you an idea of this pleasing, relaxed and enjoyable commentary I’d like to highlight a few of the aspects I noted down from the wealth of worthy discussion these people engaged in whilst watching the episode.

They liked the ‘clever way’ in which Jordan is introduced, attending an anger management meeting which gave worthy backstory to where the character was coming from. It was noted that her costume in this scene indicates that she ‘wasn’t really a grown up’ and ‘dressing like a teenager’. Praise is offered for the introductory titles sequence played along a rock feel themed tune from The Pretenders of Jordan making her way to Boston and talking to the restroom mirror about what she thinks will be the conversation will be with Garrett Macy, complete with jump cut filming. This first scene between Jordan and Garrett also gained praise from our viewing commentary participants with them pleased with their actors working together. Apparently the sets were designed around the abandoned building (later to feature in the “Spider-man” feature films) they found and the entire set for our series regulars was on the ninth floor with it designed so that they could move the cameras around very fluidly so that they can play scenes in long takes.

I felt that there is much to praise incidental music composers Lisa Coleman & Wendy Melvoin for in their insightful contribution to this commentary which conveys their passion for their work. For the next scene we switch to an alley way and this was the first chance for our music composers to come up with the atmosphere for Jordan’s character. It was very important for them not to trivialise the murder scenes or the death scenes because a lot of times the dialogues between two characters whether it be Jill discovering or Jordan’s character the body or one of the other coroners discovering the body there would be some levity in their dialogue and if you put music behind that that represents that kind of lightness that it would take away from the seriousness of the murder that they are trying to solve or are trying to figure out. So this was our first moment to really bring out really who she was prior from being fired this job and who she was going to be continuing to be for the rest of the series. Of course we were in Boston so the two of us with Tim and Allan decided that we wanted to give it more of a Celtic vibe to kind of make sure that you subtexturally felt her story all the time. Our composing duo felt that this first season ‘really held true to that narrative story about her [Jordan] past and her heritage and that hot headed Irish blood and the personal side of her life other than cutting open bodies and finding out who did it’

On the shot about 21 mins into the episode, a simple fade from exterior to interior of a ‘chapel of rest’ apparently gained considerable praise from the network even though it was technically speaking merely a ‘dolly past a post which came together’. There is a beautiful scene here were Jordan goes up to a dead body laying in an open casket and she is so cool about just breezing up and checking over the inert figures wrists which our commentary members felt ‘says so much about her character and likeability’ which was a slight challenge to the incidental music pair to avoid making it too obvious and too cute. Tim says that they are never obvious and never sentimental in their scoring of the series.

The most discussion musically was in the first scene between Jordan and her father Max where they are sitting around the kitchen table late at night talking about her latest case with photos and paperwork spread in front of them. This also features the first of the classic ‘who do you want to be – victim or killer?’ with the familiar dissolve as they talk through what they believe would have been the sequence of events. Praise is offered from one of our incidental music composers for the effective camera moves, dissolves and movements of the camera plays so well for the music to play that as well so we created the oboe sound with the baritone with ‘no attack’.

We hear that this pilot episode took about 12 days of shooting and that there are characters and situations that never made it into the final transmitted story, some of which crops up in the deleted scenes on this release. As we move to the end of the episode it is noted that of the people whom worked on this pilot about 40 – 50% of them stayed throughout the entire series which I think indicates a strong family feeling amongst the production team.
Regarding the deleted scenes for the first episode there are three on offer which total 3:17. The first (1:17) which sees Jordan moving into her new office and meeting her new colleague is slighted extended to include a few more words with Bug. I liked the second one (0:54) where Jordan speaks with the oriental Grace, someone whom clearly has previous emotive issues with our series lead. The third, down in the morgue with Trey Sanders inviting Jordan to a basketball game offers a momentary piece of humour despite the seriousness of the body to which our series lead is standing next.

The second episode fields just one deleted scene and this 1:54 item with Jordan in prison taking mouth swabs from inmates seems identical to the sequence that was transmitted.

I hope to 'intermittently' return to this thread as and when I come across items worthy of a comment as I countinue to take a leisurely weekly stroll through the six discs.

There is one further deleted scene featured on this first disc and it comes from the fourth episode on offer called “You Can’t Go Home Again”. Basically it is a slightly longer version (at 3:16) of the scene between Jordan and fireman Jimmy Donnelly but without the accompanying incidental music.

Been polishing off the second disc last week and would like to add...

The first part of the double episode “Digger” story provides us with the next selection of extras in this DVD set. The first deleted scene lasting 1:33 finds Jordan cooking eggs in the kitchen whilst taking with her father Max about Evelyn walking out on him, naturally a rather heated and emotive conversation. Again back in the Cavanaugh homestead Jordan enters late one evening, no doubt the same day, and in the second deleted scene (1:48) finds her father Max drunk and they once more talk about Evelyn. With both of these being worthy additionally filmed embellishments to the transmitted narrative it makes the included third deleted scene all the more puzzling. Lasting a mere 13 seconds it is just further shots of Jordan rushing around various deserted rooms in the FBI building.

Looking back to last week with this...

Turning my attention to the third disc and part two of “Digger” fields a couple of deleted scenes. At 1:31 you first find Jordan dropping by during the day at the Cavanaugh family home talking with Max. Her father is casually dressed and ready for a trip to Philadelphia to see and perhaps persuade Evelyn to return. Naturally Jordan questions his reasons which leads to reproachful recriminations between the two characters. The second deleted scene pulled from this episode runs to 3:11 and takes place later at work where Jordan is surprised to find Max awaiting in her office. It transpires during their conversation that Max has learnt that Evelyn is not coming back.

The next deleted scene offered on this disc weighs in at a mere 0:54 but I think it is a great shame that it was cut from the “Blue Christmas” story. In the med lab Jordan talks with Trey about a couple of her high school buddies dropping by and wondering if it is a good idea that she should meet them. A worthy explanation of the sudden appearance of their arrival later in the episode. It is puzzling that all deleted scenes on offer on this third disc do not give you the option of turning off the Dutch subtitles.

Staying with the third disc and a further scene with Detective Woodrow ‘Woody’ Hoyt at the Medical Examiners building talking with Macy and Jordan comes from “Wrong Place, Wrong Time”. Don’t get too excited because at only 0:46 in length it seems puzzling, for me at least why this relatively pleasing interplay was cut from the transmitted 42:42 episode.

Moving onto the fourth disc and continuing the surprise bonus features on offer throughout this DVD box set you will find here that the main special feature is a commentary for thirteenth episode “Miracles & Wonders” which I personally felt was, for me at least, probably the weakest of the first season episodes that I’ve watched so far. Yeah there is the usual worthy character interplay however it is the lack of a clear discernable murder/mystery investigation that weakens it. So this time around your viewing companions for this slice of first season “Crossing Jordan” are series creator Tim Kring, story director Allan Arkush and the composing team of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. It’s typical deeply appreciative fare throughout from people whom were obviously passionately enthused with the creation and development of the series (Clearly they feel that the series quickly got into its stride with the fourth show (“Born To Run” which has a premise about ‘Russian strippers’)) but generally I thought it was a worthy audio extra to be offered. Now each viewer will no doubt take various aspects from their group discussion as the episode plays however I made a few notes whilst watching which I would like to share. Initially there is mention that “Miracles & Wonders” covers philosophical ground with a feel of synchronicity about the central premise with what they feel are some incredibly bold directorial choices evident. When we switch from the opening ‘donuts for the staff’ to the initial church alter set Arkush states that he wanted it to be lit like a renaissance scene which clearly has been achieved. Later praise is given for the morgue set where four of our characters spend time looking at blood stained footprints on the floor. Apparently only four drawers here worked and the production ran two hours over schedule shooting this scene to which Arkush received a cautionary warning from the network. On hearing that the episode was shot during December 2001 there is certainly a softer Christmas feel to the narrative on offer, particularly when Garret and his daughter inexplicably run over a deer in the centre of town late at night. It seems like a rather surreal occurrence however it prompts Allan Arkush to relate that he had a similar real life experience around this time. Now later back at the medical examiners building with Macy and Abby attempting to save the life of the injured animal I thought it interesting to hear from our commentary group about the two puppeteers under the table working the animatronic deer. There is a point in the story where Jordan and a priest are, late a night, down by the local cemetery gates where they are attempting to pick the lock and gain entry. Apparently there was only one way that this could be shot as to focus the camera in the other direction would have captured the office of Steven Spielberg’s office. Although I was pleased to hear a momentary piece of praise for Robert Picardo (better known as the ‘Star Trek : Voyager’ series EMH Doctor character) the most noteworthy commendation for a guest performance goes to the uncredited Andrea Martin. This actress has a couple of brief cameo scenes as the grieving widow of a ‘supposed’ Elvis impersonator. Apparently at the audition for the part she had the production staff in fits of laughter which made her the perfect choice for this part.

We also have a deleted scene plucked from this episode which lasts 1:24. This pleasing scene features Lily talking with Garret asking her boss if he believes in fate. Further to reading up about chaos theory Doctor Macy dismisses the notion. This leads Lily to relate a charming tale about how she and her friend Carol go to the Army recruitment agency with the intention of signing up. Lily fails to enlist due to having flat feet and this then ultimately leads to her gaining her present job though a temp agency, something that she attributes to fate. It’s a shame that this didn’t make the final edit of the episode but I for one am glad that we have it here as a bonus feature on this disc.

There is one other deleted scene on disc four and, taken from “Acts of Mercy” this 1:02 offering takes place out on the street with an evening chat between two regular characters where Nigel is expressing second thoughts about joining Bug on his TV show.

Turning my attention to disc five beginning with this...

In addition to being treated by having another commentary and a further deleted scene this fifth disc also offers the first really substantive specially recorded extra made exclusively for this DVD box set. Following a brief introductory montage of behind the scenes filming shots (indeed this is something that also crops up intermittently throughout this item) we fade into the sight of sitting around a square table in the corner of a well appointed restaurant setting during daytime (you can see an enclosed open air patio behind) Allan Arkush (Series Director/Executive Producer) talking with series regulars Ravi Kapoor (“Bug”), Steve Valentine (“Nigel”) and Kathryn Hahn (“Lilly”). In my opinion it seems a logical decision to group these actors together here as their characters are I feel, although essential to the enduring appeal of the series, rather secondary regular characters to that of Doctor Garret Macy (Miguel Ferrer) and Dr Jordan Cavanaugh (Jill Hennessy). In this charmingly convivial relaxed empty setting these four people have a pleasingly friendly chat about the season and the series in general and I’d like to pick out certain memorable aspects of this 15 min item. They begin with the subject of initial auditions for their respective characters with each of the three actors having their own unique take on what brought them to gain the roles for which they are now arguably best known.
Moving onto the topic of when they became series regulars Kathryn picks up on the ‘amazing’ chemistry that Nigel and Bug have as a comic duo which began, as Steve says, ‘when they are outside Jordan’s door with her boyfriend there and they are there listening’ leading into a clip of the specific scene he relating to. Kathryn feels that in this first season Lilly was ‘so quirky’ and that she heard that ‘if the character didn’t work out then she would be caught in some sort of compromising position with a corpse which would have been the end of Lilly’. Next Allan moves the conversation onto the subject of ‘whom would be Nigel’s bride at his wedding’, a key character aspect to the secondary narrative featured in the two part “Digger” story leading to a rather risky retelling of the original version of the ‘Lilly asking what Nigel’s size is’ scene.
Ravi makes a worthy point how the series would ‘go into something so serious and then go into this humour which was so out there which was such a high wire act in terms of balancing it’, something that for me is one of the key aspects that makes ‘Crossing Jordan’ enduringly appealing for me.
There is merit in what Kathryn says about ‘the series in its first season being something of an underdog so we were able to take these great risks because at the same time there is never going to be the CSI because we had so much character and humanity’. I both agree and can see her point as indeed could her colleagues and this prompted Allan to insightfully say that “we saw the show as ‘Northern Exposure’ and ‘St Elsewhere’ and we were supposed to be doing ‘Law and Order’ – that was always the battle”.
Naturally they had to touch on “Miracles and Wonders” which Steve cites as ‘his favourite episode’, closely followed by Kathryn’s comment that she feels it is ‘so beautiful’. Not to be outdone Ravi adds “I remember it being so spiritual and philosophical and Tim throwing down the gauntlet that this is what our show is about and I remember that one that was really looking in the bigger picture”. This enthuses Kathryn further when she next says ”that episode the rule was there were no rules. Like it just seemed that anything could go and the world was just kind of busted open”. The last word on this thirteenth episode goes to Steve whom says “I had a feeling that when I was watching that actually the other day at that very last scene when we are all up on the roof, Macy steals the kiss (with Lilly) and there’s just a moment where we are all standing there and it kind of felt like a (sigh) this is the cast kind of moment. It’s kind of like, there was a lot of experimentation at that point to whose coming and going and it was like… this is the cast”.
We move onto a collective offering of credit to production staff members Natalie Hart and Jason La Padura and Keri Owen whom, according to Kathryn ‘facilitated their entry onto the series and in finding really great and quirky guest actors’. In response to this Steve singles out the sinister guy featured in the “Crime and Punishment” episode where he threatens Jordan in Max’s bar, something I indeed agree with!
Apparently as the three actors said there was never a serious disagreement among the cast and crew in the entire six years, something that I’m sure is readily apparent from the good natured banter on offer from contributors to these extras and commentaries as featured throughout the six discs of this first season. Allan intimated that in the office ‘they had a term’ and with his making a paddling his canoe motion with his arms he says “we all row together here” and that ‘would resolve it and it was a conscious effort to not have divisions on the show’. “But I have to say” retorts Steve “over the period of the show I think that came down from Tim and you guys up above there was a great vibe came down because it has to trickle down from above… from the production office”. During this appreciative moment Steve indicated that he greatly enthused about the ‘freedom take’ which basically meant that they ‘could improvise or do whatever we wanted to do’, something Kathryn agreed with. Steve further clarified the point by saying “the weird thing is working on your lines a lot and you can’t get it right but when you hear ‘freedom take’ you have the freedom not to be accurate on your lines, suddenly you are accurate on your lines”.
Steve also delivers the final observation of this good natured pleasing extra item regarding Lilly’s last scene when she is waiting to get on the bus with the looks and vocal exchange between her and Garret which is certainly an amusing observation about the other people in the line waiting to board. I’d just like to finish off by saying ‘thanks guys for sparing time to drop by and share your thoughts and reminiscing for this DVD box set!’, it made for an enjoyable further supplement to the episodes.

Agreed there is a lot to praise nineteenth episode “For Harry, with Love and Squalor” for but I personally would have preferred if next story “The Gift of Life” was picked as a commentary choice due to its delving into the personal history of Jordan. Anyway I welcome another chance to hear from series creator Tim Kring, producer/director Allan Arkush and incidental music composers Lisa Coleman & Wendy Melvoin as they sit around watching this slice of first season ‘Crossing Jordan’. Clearly a favourite for our production team quartet making this I feel rather light on insight into this particular instalment. Anyway taking a look on the ground that is covered I made a few notes. Initially they all agree ‘there is effectively no case instead it is a psychological twisted romance and a crazy rompy story with Garret Macy and his father’. Tim feels it is a fairly controversial move to offer a ‘one night stand’ for Jordan in this story something that is considered not farfetched for this character taken on a journey in this story rather a morality tale. Naturally they are understandably very complimentary towards story guest star Carl Reiner playing Harry Macy, father of series regular character Garret. This begins when the two characters meet in the Chinese restaurant and the veteran actor suggested a marvellously memorable change to his first scripted line which was ‘not enough egg in the egg foo young’. Tim felt that Carl Reiner was a bold casting choice but clearly one that considerably paid dividends in the way that he interacted with Miguel Ferrer.
The series creator later talks about the virtually immediate forum hits/reaction of the show, mid story or after the story has just aired. We do have insightful talk about set design to compliment flesh tones with each room required to have an infinite diversity of looks and the colour of the workplace shades was thought about. What colour could it be so that the skin tones remain, they separate from the backgrounds and the skin tones looked good. And the set was all made of glass so that you could see from one end of the set to another, with Garret’s office like a fish bowl in the middle of the set but you needed to have very private scenes in there. Hot spots of light that make the show attractive to the eye. All about depth, you never shoot into a wall. Los Carlos was a stage downtown where you’d go down there for courtrooms and for city hallways, it’s an old warehouse which was built for a TV series called ‘Equal Justice’. They built this fabulous rotunda and a courtroom and have since added sets along the way like a little jail set and apartments things like that. Anthony Quinn’s son guest stars as gun toting ‘hood’ character when Macy and Reiner’s character visit apartment. Certainly if you scratch the surface beyond the clear adoration that these people have for this particular story there are worthy aspects to this commentary which make for a very worthy bonus item on this fifth disc.

This nineteenth episode also offers up one deleted scene which is of 2:06 length. A sequence in two parts, the first finds Lilly resting Jordan from her momentary daydream to talk about Garret whom she cannot stop thinking about. Jordan is a bit apologetic for supposedly messing things up between them but Lilly doesn’t regret the risk that she took. The second half, exiting the building into the street we find Garret Macy and his father shortly after the ‘small fire in the top pocket’ incident. Although his father is laughing Garret cannot see the funny side to the diversionary occurrence. His father attempts to defuse his son’s foul mood by recalling a childhood visit to Disneyland as an example of ‘some good times’ that they had together. Their conversation is cut short when the father spots two shady characters standing nearby causing them to make discrete separate ways away from the area with the arrangement to meet up later at a prearranged location.

It is the sixth disc which offers the greatest amount of specially recorded extras, the first of which I'd like to say the following about...

In the setting of a deserted bar setting we find Allan Arkush (Series Director/Executive Producer), Tim Kring (Series Creator) enjoying a relaxed chat with series regular Miguel Ferrer (Doctor Garret Macy) and the opening question to the actor is ‘do you remember what you thought when you got the script?’ to which he replies ‘that it was the best that he had read that whole pilot season’. Miguel continued that he ‘wanted to get a TV show so that I could see my children everyday and work in the city where they went to school and I got my wish. Loved the pilot, loved the character and had been asked so often to play kind of authoritarian guys, cops or bad guys who really know what they wanted and Garret Macy was so conflicted and ambiguous and fell short of his hopes and dreams as we all do – he lost a mother, had a failed marriage, had a difficult relationship with his daughter – just a complex guy which I had never really been asked to play that kind of guy over time’. Tim picks up the conversation by illustrating his initial vision for the character to which both Allan and Miguel clearly empathise with. Miguel then relates how hard and difficult his first acting day was when he considers how to ‘deliver the goods’ which prompts comment from the other two leading into a ‘deleted scene’ plucked from the pilot where Garret is delivering a particularly graphic descriptive lecture to students, I think it’s obvious why this never made transmission! I agree with Tim when he relates that the Jordan/Macy relationship was the character centre piece of the show because there was never the chance of Jordan settling down so the great love of her life was Garret Macy. Miguel is really truly amazed that they were able to get the ‘great’ Carl Reiner to play Garret’s father with him writing a letter to persuade this actor to take the job with a p.s. of ‘it’s what my dad would have wanted!’, so no pressure there! A pleasing aspect of this extra which both Allan and Tim empathised and embellished on with the use of location photos and a behind the scenes on set filming clip. We slipped from this over to talking about Katherine Hahn and her first day of ‘not stepping on the tape marks’, another pleasing reflective story from our trio. It is no surprise when Miguel then moves the conversation on with the inevitable question all us long term fans of the show want to ask – “Why has it taken so long to get around to release the series on DVD?” to which Tim, after a momentary sigh, says “partly because of the amount of music that we use” which frankly is just the reply I was expecting! Allan seems to indicate that, for the DVD, certain songs were changed, however the most important that are a significant part to the general feel of an individual episode remain. I also agree with Miguel when he says that ‘the music was another character’, certainly part of the lasting appeal and success of the series. The conversation then leads to Miguel stating that his favourite first season episode is “Miracles and Wonders” which makes it a shame that he didn’t get to participate in the commentary for that story. Miguel then follows this with a charming, amusing recollection about the scene in the final episode, where Lilly is about to get on the bus to make her way home which I certainly won’t spoil for you at this point. The actor rounds off this enjoyable rather lightweight informal 18 min chat by saying that “in 27 years this was the finest job I’ve ever had in my life and I have the greatest fondest memories of the friendships that we made, people that I will always have in my life and never ever forget so thank you guys for that!”

The second item lead me to compose the following...

Considering the amount of time they have spent working on the series I think it is both pleasing and fitting that we spend 18 mins in the company of Jill Hennessy (“Dr Jordan Cavanaugh”) and Allan Arkush (Series Director – Executive Producer) whom have a relaxed conversation apparently seated at one of the tables in a currently deserted fashionable Boston restaurant. This is a marvellously insightful, enjoyable special feature item and to give you an impression of the general flow of their chat I’d like to highlight what I feel are the key aspects of the first season and the series in general that they touch upon. Alan begins by saying that one out every seventy-five shows make it to a hundred which gains an obvious audible gasp from the actress as to what they achieved with the show. Jill remembers getting the script and agreed with her agent that this was a female character that was indeed very unique. She received lots of scripts about female coroners but this is one that really had something a little left of centre going on which Jill felt was so much fun. What Jill enjoyed was the way that the character embraced her dysfunction and being very apologetic about that she knew that she was extremely messed up, was doing the best that she could and loved her work and used that as her drug, her escape to avoid feelings that she didn’t want to confront. I certainly agree with Jill’s opinion regarding Tim’s (Kring, series creator) whimsical nature, knowing how to get into someone’s subconscious and also find humour and also find the pathos and make every single character so appealing and easy to relate to. Naturally Alan wisely steers the conversation to the opening scene of the pilot episode with Jordan attending an Anger Management meeting (briefly glimpsed here) which for the actress was the aspect that really roped her in. Prior to this Jill Hennessy had only worked on the long running “Law and Order” series so the change of schedule with increased hours, lines to finding a call sheet for this series indicating the unfamiliar increased leading character responsibility that ‘Crossing Jordan’ obviously demanded of her. At this point we have a brief intercut between their conversation and some behind the scenes filming of the series shots, and then a montage of scenes to support Alan’s understanding of how Tim wrote more for the other supporting regulars.
This leads onto Alan broach the subject about ‘the chemistry between you and Steve (who plays Nigel)’, an actor that leads Jill to reply that she believes he is ‘the genius whom never stops, every time that guy walks onto the screen the gems that he keeps throwing out’. ‘Meryl Streep and Barbara Streisand’s lovechild’ is the amusing way that Jill appreciably describes Katherine Hann whom she feels plays Lilly with such ‘sincerity and undeniable honesty’. Jerry (O’Connell whom plays Detective Woody Hoyt) is accredited as being ‘just this cool, fun, hilarious guy whom is very together’ with Jill then remembering an amusing story during their initial on set meeting. “On our first day working together it was so hot, the poor guy is wearing a three piece suit as Woody. Sweat just pouring off him and just came knowing all his dialogue, so enthusiastic. I was so excited to meet him and I extended my hand and said “Mr O’Connell it is a true pleasure, thank you so much for doing this show” and he said “Oh my goodness Hennessy I didn’t realise you are such a tall drink of water”’. Jill is I think absolutely right when she says that Jerry ‘plays the hick cop so well’ and to support this she refers back to the “Crime and Punishment” story (which Alan feels is one of their best episodes) and his reactions when Jordan and Woody have to go to the S&M establishment are ‘so subtle and you can tell that he is just shaken to the core watching this gentleman describing all the different rooms and services’.
Alan moves the conversation onto the unique ‘game which Jordan and her father play’ with it, for example ‘starting in the kitchen and then the kitchen turns into the alleyway and there was a scary moment where you have to have the black plastic bag put over your face and that stunt man was too enthusiastic.’ Jill continues ”and I appreciate enthusiasm but he said oh don’t worry there’s a hole cut in there you’ll be able to breath no problem and I said ok but I’m very claustrophobic and I went for it lifted my feet up off the ground and I’m kicking and I’m thinking where’s the hole”. “An enthusatic stunt but the sequence turned out so well" retorts Alan whom goes onto say “and that gave us the impression that we can do this aspect of the show almost every week”. Jill picks up on the unique nature that she and her father have of recreating a crime in this way which for these characters is a normal and natural type of thing but it was there way of bonding that was so macabre. I’m pleased that this aspect to the show is picked up in this extra as it is I feel one of the key unique character strengths of the series.
The conversation turns to “Born To Run”, an apparently believed lost script from the first season with Jill saying that in the game sequence she has to get on the stage and do a pole dancing sequence which was, in her words “very interesting stuff that!” As they laugh about this Alan replies by saying “That was a big thing in the first season, Jordan in the sense of ‘con artist, doing what is necessary in the moment to get the information and the greater good” and as Jill contributes “putting herself on the line and not caring if she is going to be arrested or in any physical danger”. This is typified from a scene from one episode where Jordan and Garret climb a fence into a Police impound yard looking for clues into their current case. From this Alan moves the conversation towards talking about the two-part “Digger” story with its downside of the ‘night time in the graveyard in the coffin sequence’ with the two people talking in detail about the filming of this tense sequence.
“It was one of the gutsiest pieces of television I’ve seen” is Jill’s response when Alan’s next topic of conversation is the “Miracles and Wonders” story as typified, she feels by aspects like “Macy and her daughter attempting to repair their shredded relationship and in the middle of a huge brawl in their car hitting that deer” which she found, when reading the script quite incomprehensible. It is true to say how everything was, as Jill puts it, “all tied together so cleanly at the end as well”.
Naturally our duo had to talk about the two-part “Secrets and Lies” season finale where, as Alan puts it, “we wanted to see how far we could push Jordan till she broke” which begins with “Jordan running out of the asylum with a package she had been given.” He goes onto say “you get into the car, you open up the package and there is a set of sunglasses that you recognise as your mothers, you open up your mothers diaries and they are full of insane crazy writing and we film it once or twice and being not entirely happy with the result he asks Jill can she do it again?” To this Jill replies “yeah it’s fun”, which, as they laugh about it now reflecting back in it of course got him ‘really scared’
“So what do you think about that first season?” asks Alan to which Jill replies “it was so gutsy and such a unique year for any series and I have yet to see any series that really went as many directions as we did, took as many chances” Reflecting on the season and series in general Alan believes that he and Jill have spent something in the order of 6,000 hours together creating over the course of 117 episodes, and how much give and take and how much we trust each other.
We appropriately fade out from this light-hearted, feel good, enjoyable conversation between Jill and Allan with a scene plucked from the end of “Miracles and Wonders” where Jordan is playing a guitar at home singing ‘2000 Miles’

For the third specially recorded item I would like to say...

It seems likely that we are in the more formal office surroundings of Series Creator/Executive Producer Tim Kring for the third specially recorded offering presented on this sixth disc. Seated in a large light brown leather armchair I thought that Kring casts a distinguished handsome figure with his corresponding slightly greying short beard and moustache, that is not to be overtly disingenuous to his production team colleagues present with him for this 18 min item. Occupying the adjacent couch are Producer Dennis Hammer and Producer/Director Allan Arkush and this more production centred conversation touches on a few interesting aspects of the season and series in general which to give you an idea I’d like to talk about. The entire length of this item is proliferated with occasional ‘behind the scenes’ filming clips to, with great effect I feel, further enhance the appeal of the conversation and further connect the viewer to the positive vibe engendered working both in front of and behind the camera.
To paraphrase Tim’s opening comment he leads off by saying “I originally had this character as a small town sheriff whose father dies and she becomes sheriff and someone had seen a show when they went to Europe that was a medical examiner show and decided that wouldn’t that be great if they came back and did this”. This naturally leads to wondering if ‘Jordan’ could be a medical examiner rather than a sheriff which Tim was rather sceptical about and Ted Harbert (presumably a station executive) pulled him aside and said ”it was the closest thing to a sure thing I can offer you because the network really wants to do this”. This neatly sequined into those initial pilot episode scenes with Jordan speaking to the bathroom mirror about ‘being offered her old job back’. Hinting back to the three cast member chat on disc five Tim reinforces the point when he says about the production of the series that there were ‘no bullies allowed – a rule that they came up with really early on’. He continues by saying “we talked about the kind of show that we wanted to run as much as we talked about the show itself at the beginning and the kind of vibe and I think as a result ‘Crossing Jordan’ we had an enormously positive reputation”. In agreement with this Dennis says “I think the cast on stage felt loved and appreciated and that they were a part of building their characters”.
“Part of their discussion about what the central [Medical Examiners] building would look like” says Tim “was that I wanted height and I wanted it to feel as though there was natural light that came in very much from the fact that the morgue free air conditioning. If you think about it the morgue had to be able to open the windows and had to be up high enough off the streets so that people couldn’t look in on it. So they were often up on the sixth, seventh, eighth floors and they needed a cross breeze so that the wind could go through”. Dennis added “So we built the set inside that practical location using some of the actual properties” following on from Allan’s brief offering of praise for the distinctive curved windows. Tim then added “Most of the walls either flew or gimballed – it is sort of like a large dollhouse where you could move walls.” This discussion was further enhanced by a few ‘under construction’ photo stills of the location they were talking about before a brief clip from an episode with Jordan and Macy walking along the corridor into an office. For those eagle eyed viewers Tim makes what I think is an interesting point when he says “If you look closely in the pilot and second episode people will notice that there were two sets. One was the set that we built in the building downtown LA and the other was on the [Universal] soundstages.”
Dennis followed this by saying “First day that we were location scouting and I was trying to get a rhythm of how you like to work and you sort of stopped and you were looking down and I wondered ‘have you had a stroke?’ and I went up and asked him (referring to Tim) and he replied ‘I’m looking at the shot’ and I replied ‘how does it look’ and he said ‘I don’t like it – (I see the show on the floor) such an interesting technique!” was Dennis’s wry comment.
An unusual way of phrasing this question but an interesting enquiry from Dennis next when asks Allan “Since we are not being filmed and no one will ever know what’s the one thing that you regret about the pilot? What is the one thing that was originally there originally or you thought that didn’t end up”. To this Allan and Tim were in complete agreement about the absence of butterflies in a ‘fabulous butterfly scene’ to which the Alternate Sequence is faded in where we see Macy at his desk as a beautiful light pink butterfly comes to land on the top of the pen that he is holding in his right hand. He then puts his pen down and walking from his office is surrounded by a myriad of pink butterflies flying around him and as he joyfully outstretches his arms and looks up smiling some of these creatures land on him. Apparently this was vetoed by the Network because they saw a rough version of the effects. For Dennis he wished that they could have gone further with Miguel’s character ‘breakdown’ in front of the students and another alternate scene is slotted in after he expressed his opinion. He supports this by saying “I regret that because I felt it set up what the show was about. It’s one thing for Jordan to be emotionally damaged but to have this man whom she is looking to for salvation also to be damaged, the dynamic of that was so interesting!”
With occasional interjections from Dennis, Tim says “In watching the first season again you really realised first of all just how uncompromising we were in our tones. She [Jordan] was such a complicated character and at the time I think now that you have shows that are way more complicated it’s not nearly as but at the time that was a very dark character that made the Network very nervous, now it’s common”. Three brief sequences from the show supporting this are slotted in at this point. The three men then mention how they had personal tragedies in their own lives at the time that the pilot was being shot making them all ‘surrounded by death’ which lead to a ‘very interesting time’.
Tim then went on to say that “this show had obviously the cases and the relationships but always at the heart of it there was this idea of life and death that hovered over it and how people dealt with those transitions and we were able to do it sometimes with humour, sometimes with tremendous heart and emotion. It was just a subject that we dealt with a lot”. Again this is then supported with an appropriate collection of scenes from this first season.
Next Dennis makes an interesting point about the unique identity of the show when he says “there is a funny, we call it Kringy look when we cast it was always about that. Someone who fulfils the character and then they are turned a little this way and the stories were the best stories were that way like a woman whom is convinced that she was married to Elvis. These were very unusual stories and they almost, we laughed so hard because it was the kind of show where you wouldn’t necessarily think behind the scenes you’d just be in hysterics”. This leads Tim to reply “And a show that had so many tones in one package was also unique, because we would hold very broad humour and then very heavy melodrama all in one. That was something that the first season was very about. Let’s see where the boundaries are, we pushed them pretty far. The pilot was one of them, episode thirteen (“Miracles and Wonders”) was another one and very much because we had an order for thirteen and that could have been the final episode of ‘Crossing Jordan’ and we wanted to go out on our own terms and I was always willing to take those risks because it allowed us. It’s that great feeling that you have when you are in the editing room and you are watching it and it is unlike any other that you’d ever done before and you get this amazing sort of ‘oh my god this show can be THAT’”. Specific images from “Miracles and Wonder” excellently support Tim’s opinion.
This leads into Tim further saying “When the show worked at its best it was when we were scratching the surface of something more metaphysical and more mystical or more religious and the irony of the show was becoming more forensic show over the years as the procedural world of television became more successful on other networks. The pressure on us to make the show more that way was a great irony that it was us that had to do it and you couldn’t cast three less likely guys”.
Dennis felt that “Katherine (Pope (President of NBC Universal Television Studio)) really got it pretty quickly and she fought a good fight for us in terms of trying to keep it quirky and keep it character driven at times when there were notes” effectively ‘criticising the artistic flow of the scripts’. Well you have to follow up this with a montage of some of Nigel’s best moments in this season leading into our production team trio talking favourably about the series gadgets and the provider concerned.
As we moved into the closing minutes of this item Tim said “We kind of knew we were going to get a second season but we wanted to go out the way that we came in” and “reset the clock and come back and there was just this attitude I think that we had that we were we looked at it as if we were making a student film. It had that kind of purity, importance to us”. Dennis feels that “the show itself became an extension of you (gesturing towards Tim at this point) and an extension of a world view of how people are connected to one another and how people are all very much the same and I’ve been asked how is this so different Heroes from Crossing Jordan and I’ve said not really. When you chip away at it it’s really about heart, soul inner connectedness and characters.”
In summary I felt that this was a satisfyingly insightful very pleasing conversation between these three key production crew members whom give a valued opinion on the series. Thanks for sparing the time to talk about the show!

In addition to comenting about the contents of this title I've put together a review which I have just submitted for Amazon.co.uk which looks like this...

I initially discovered “Crossing Jordan” quite by chance but quickly realised that this is one US drama series where the passion of the cast and production crew conveys a lasting viewing appreciation for the medical examiner based crime solving premise. With well defined memorable regulars effectively conveying the well written scripted narrative imbued with serious and humourous moments along the way its no surprise why this show was and continues to be such an immense award winning well regarded show with the viewing public. Credit is also due to the insightful vision of creator Tim Kring and his production crew whom have developed such a realistic regular environment for our characters to work and live in throughout each instalment giving the audience a reassuring familiarity with the show. Now for myself personally as considering TV series box sets like this as initially a long-term weekly viewing investment purchase “Crossing Jordan” has long been high on my wish list but I was stunned to discover such a wealth of unexpected bonus features on this first season spread throughout all the discs. The first five discs each feature a few deleted scenes of between 1 and 3 mins whilst on discs one, four, five and six the passion for the series is clearly evident when you listen to the production team orientated commentaries on offer. Tim Kring is joined by Allan Arkush (Producer/Director) and Lisa Coleman & Wendy Melvoin (Incidental Music Composers) for episodes 1 (pilot), 13 (“Miracles and Wonders”), 19 (“For Harry, with Love and Squalor”) and 23 (“Secrets & Lies” – Part 2). In addition there are four specially shot interview extras made exclusively for this DVD set. On disc five there is lightweight banter when Arkush spends 15 mins talking with series regulars Ravi Kapoor (‘Bug’), Steve Valentine (‘Nigel’) and Kathryn Hahn (‘Lilly’). There is more praiseworthy fascinating and very enjoyable insight into the making of the series with disc six fielding three more discussions which have Arkush and Kring using 17 mins talking with series regular Miguel Ferrer (Doctor Garret Macy), 18 mins for Arkush’s chat with series lead Jill Hennessey (Doctor Jordan Cavanaugh) and 18mins with Kring, Arkush and Dennis Hammer (Producer). I for one am absolutely delighted with this fully comprehensive, lovingly assembled, well polished, professional, stereo sound first season DVD box set of “Crossing Jordan”, a title that certainly has set a very high standard for the hoped for subsequent releases to attempt to match. If you love engaging enjoyable, well acted American crime drama which blends thought provoking mystery with a pleasing degree of occasional humour this is definitely an essential purchase which is well worth adding to your collection!

Hope to come back for some thoughts about the final commentary in the near future before moving onto my next new viewing item, back to Network DVD for an ITV 80s drama series.

Back for a bit more...

Rounding out the generous amount of extras that this impressive Season One DVD box set offers we are served up with a fourth and final commentary on the sixth disc. A worthy and arguably essential choice was always going to be the dramatic season finale, the second part of the double episode “Secrets and Lies” where Jordan goes on a personal quest to find the truth about her mothers past. The usual quartet of series creator Tim Kring, producer/director Allan Arkush and incidental music composers Lisa Coleman & Wendy Melvoin are your contributors and it is the usual fare of insightful praise of the finished episode from people whom still clearly feel passionately about the series that they worked on. Their valued input certainly will help to heighten your appreciation of this pivotal instalment of “Crossing Jordan” and to give a flavour of the general flow of their discussion I’ve made a few notes along the way. When Jordan exits the mental hospital and tips out the contents of the envelope she has just been given on her car passenger seat the voice of a little girl featured on the audiocassette is infact Allan Arkush’s young daughter. One scene that gained praise was that of Jordan talking with the non speaking patient on the park bench on the front lawn outside the hospital. Apparently technically speaking this was an unmoored, unsettled shot around the characters, something that is tough for a steady cam operator which naturally gained praise for the man concerned with getting the shots. Our composing duo were appreciative of the creepy front area for a cage of the security entrance to the evidence room which Jordan attempts to gain entry to however the guard on duty is stolid in denying her. Beyond the double doors (needed because interior and exterior were shot in separate sets) the actual evidence room is conveyed as being vast. It is here that we learn that there were infact only eight rows of shelves shot from different angles. The actual forced perspective of greater size was realised using CGI and it was the production teams intention to attempt to emulate the final scene of the feature film “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. There was what I feel an apt throw away line as our series lead looks into a sealed box in the evidence room that the scripted narrative was ‘taking the viewer moving through this mystery finding out with Jordan’ something that I’d agree with. Naturally the emotional state of Jordan causes concern at work hence the return of Doctor Howard Stiles played brilliantly by Wallace Shawn. Understandably he gains praise from our commentary team for a character whom is ‘cagey, not letting Jordan get away with anything’. As Tim says it is ‘key that you underestimate him’ and he likens him to the Star Wars film series character Yoda, which although funny seems I think quite apt. There was unexpected ‘off the wall’ praise for the (initially considered as brave (as in ‘did he bring the necessary gravitas to the role?’)) casting of Wallace when it is said that the lighting man said that he had the perfect shaved head, feeling it was ‘like lighting the moon!’ I think it is an effect way of indicating the passing of time when they had the sunglass wearing Jordan sitting in her car whilst outside speeded up time lapse images of vehicles move around. This is an aspect that gained praise from our commentary team with added insight that background plates were shot in Boston. Passing appreciation for Jill Hennessy was offered for an actress whom knowing where she was in the story paced it in a realistic believable way. One of the strongest, most memorable scenes in this episode and infact most probably in the entire first season took place in the Cavanaugh household where the key relationship between Jordan and her father Max has been seemingly irrevocably broken over the revelations about Jordan’s mother. With understandably appreciative comments for the way both actors approached delivering the scripted dialogue we learn there was the expected intensity on the set when shooting the scene. As we journey towards the latter stages of the episode and after another time lapsed nocturnal sitting in her car the still sunglass wearing Jordan exits the lift and goes to the conference room where she delivers the classic memorable line “did someone’s hamster die?” which our commentary quartet appreciated and thought was perfect for this scene. Elsewhere in this DVD box set we’ve heard about the other passengers waiting to climb aboard the Greyhound bus but whilst Doctor Macy and Lilly talk we additionally hear that this scene was shot very early in the morning in front of Universal television offices. Our commentary team feel that this script proved to be the making of actor Jerry O’Connell with narrative dialogue and scenes providing the greatest challenge that he’d faced in his career to this date. All agree, and I’d certainly join them that Jerry rose to the task brilliantly and no more is this evident than in the episode’s final scene where he confronts Jordan whom is about to disappear on the trail of her mother’s killer. This is a pivotal moment not just for this instalment but in the entire first season which as I and other viewers should easily discern (and pointed out by our commentary team) essentially defines the whole premise of the show. Thank you guys for a most worthy, insightful, enjoyable commentary to this episode. As with all the commentaries, deleted scenes and specially recorded interviews with cast and crew my appreciation and continued enjoyment is greatly enhanced by this comprehensive well assembled first season DVD box set title. I sincerely hope that the subsequent seasons will both be not too far behind in being released and that they meet the same high standards set by this initial box set title!

Hope all this has been useful and interesting to you all here!