At first it seems nothing about Javier Grillo-Marxuach is simple. Take that name for example. The spell checker threw up twice already (the sanctioned pronunciation is "ha-vee-air gree-joe marks-watch", by the way).
But hey, he's worked on complicated TV shows from 'The Pretender' to 'Lost' with stops on 'Charmed', 'Kyle XY' and 'Medium' in between.
Then there's his new TV show 'The Middleman', premiering June 16th on ABC Family. It's based on his Viper Comics title of the same name, which was actually a TV pilot script that was turned into a comic because it was too complicated for TV. But now it's a TV show too. You see?
Perhaps we should let Grillo-Maxuach explain.
"The Viper comic book series is based on a pilot that I wrote in ’98 or ’99. Really, the comic book followed the idea to make it a TV series," the writer/producer said in a recent conference call interview.
In 2004, Grillo-Maxuach had already worked on a string of successful TV series and had just landed on the mysterious island that is 'Lost'. It was there that he came into contact with 'Batman Animated' mastermind Paul Dini, a man Grillo-Maxuach calls "the godfather of 'The Middleman'".
"Paul has this comic book called 'Jingle Bell' and he’s got this other one called 'Mutant Texas', and he’s sort of a guy who, in addition to his work with DC and his work in animation and his work in prime time, really has kind of fostered his own identity as a comic book writer and as a comic book creator," the producer said. "Of course, I was a huge comic book fan already, but something about talking to Paul and realizing here’s a guy who’s doing it sort of inspired me to say, 'Here I have a property that, in a comic book, without the constraints of budget, would be spectacular. So why not go in that direction and try to fulfill this creative need that I have to see this thing made?'"
In spite of how happy he was to be working on hit show that netted him an Emmy, Grillo-Marxuach saw an opportunity to bring his own characters to life in comics.
"After you’ve done [series television] for a while you want to write your own thing, and the comic book really gave me a window to do that."
Now, just four years later, the show is airing on ABC Family. It features the adventures of a young temp, Wendy Watson, who is recruited into a partnership by a mysterious operative known only as The Middleman. Together they team up to battle monsters, villains and other threats the rest of us thought only lived in comic books.
Sounds pretty ambitious for a made-for-cable show. Suddenly those budgetary and creative concerns come back into play...or do they?
"Honestly, this isn’t one of those comic book adaptations where you watch it and there’s nothing there except for like the name of the character and maybe some piece of the costume. This is straight up 'The Middleman' that [artist] Les McClain and I put in the comic book and that is the pilot that I wrote ten years ago."
But things have evolved in since 'Middleman' was first conceived.
"For example, when I wrote the pilot back in ’98 and ’99 it was Wendy and her peer group were a little more Gen-X in terms of their attitude. I was still dangerously close to my years of slackerdom and school and all that, so I think the characters had a little bit more of that attitude," Grillo-Marxuach said. "One of the notes that came from ABC Family when they bought the pilot was that they really wanted the characters to have more of a millennial sensibility, which makes sense because it’s been ten years since I wrote the thing."
Of course, adapting for television had its own challenges, some of them unexpected.
"I would say, 75% to 85% of what’s in the comic book is in the pilot, and the other things that changed are things that we did for budget or for other reasons.
"For example, the apes in the comic book were originally chimps, and we found out that first of all ABC will not use chimps in any of their programming for ethical reasons. They actually have a relationship with Jane Goodall and it was very important that we portray the apes with dignity and that we show certain things about the apes and send a certain message about that, so that was important to do to begin with," he explained. "and for ethical reasons we really couldn’t use trained chimps to do this, and CGI chimps were cost-prohibitive, so we wound up changing that to a gorilla and it’s one gorilla as opposed to 20, and the Jim Henson Creature Shop did the gorilla."
Having seen the pilot episode, C2F can say that the sensibilities of the comic remain intact for the show. Grillo-Marxuach credits ABC Family as being a supportive host for the program.
"I think ABC Family is trying very hard to create themselves as a network that has smart, very individual shows that represent a certain point of view," he said.
"ABC Family was also just the people who were willing to take a chance on the show and say, 'We understand that you have a very individual perception of what this show needs to be, and we'll go with it,'" he continued. "I couldn't believe that, even after the comic book – and the comic book had a fair amount of attention – I'm being allowed to do the things I'm doing on the show.
"I remember during the pilot I would call the executives at ABC Family and say, 'Guys, there is an ape in the show,' and they’d be like, 'Yes, we know,' and I'm like, 'It’s not a metaphorical ape; it's an actual ape with a machine gun and in a tracksuit, who runs a mafia,' and they're like, 'Yes, we know.'
"So I think it’s really that perfect storm of a network looking to define itself by having shows that are specific and shows that are quirky and shows that really kind of are brand defining. I think it was finally being in a place in my career where I could really say, 'This is the show. This is how I would run it. This is how we would do this.'"
"This" is Gangster Gorillas, amorphous tentacle monsters, android receptionists, giant ray-guns...and that's just the first episode of 'The Middleman'. Where does the show go from there? We'll find out staring June 16th on ABC Family.
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