Richard Hatem

Birthday:
November 2, 1966

Birthplace:
St. Joseph's Hospital, Burbank, California.  Directly across the street from the current ABC building where Miracles was born.

Occupation(s):
Writer. Was a waiter (only one letter difference) at Tony Roma's on Lake Avenue in Pasadena, CA for many years.  Also taught comedy traffic school for five years -- Honest.

Quotes:
"When you're going through hell -- keep going."
Winston Churchill

Favorite Food:
Anything Indian

Favorite Book:
Too many to name, but here's two from way back:
The Main by Trevanian and Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

Most influential
person in my life:
A small group of friends from high school and college, the smartest, funniest and most creative people I've ever known, who helped me believe I could do anything.

What is most important:
My kids, of course, and...  Maintaining the excitement and interest in the world that feeds my desire to create.

36 Questions with Richard Hatem (continued - page 2)
 

11.  What was the best thing about your experience with "Miracles?"

The people I worked with, no question. 

From the studio execs at Touchstone and Spyglass, to the department heads (who possess a level of talent and creativity that shocked me), to the writers, the directors, the actors, the absolutely amazing guest stars, the office staff -- I couldn’t wait to go to work in the morning.  If you loved "Miracles," it’s only because these people loved it first and dedicated themselves to making it as great as it was.

12.  What was the worst?

The worst parts of the "Miracles" experience were probably the same things all of you dislike about your jobs -- moments of feeling like others don’t understand or appreciate your efforts, etc.

13.  If you could say anything to ABC right now, what would you say?

Uhhhhhh... "I’m really, deeply, passionately excited about season two of Dragnet."

14.  Do you have any “magic juice” (like gummi-bears), that gives you super creative strength?

I like to start the day with a coffee shop counter, breakfast, coffee and the newspaper.  That puts me on course for the day. 

And there was a while, during the dark month of last November, at the toughest point of mid-production, that I’d resort to a vodka tonic at about two in the afternoon on Fridays.  But then I’d fall asleep in the editing room and end up drooling on Greenwalt’s sleeve until he woke me up to go to casting or whatever. Candy bars (especially Nestle’s Crunch) were also comfort food.

But while I’m actually writing?  Nothing, ‘cept maybe a diet, caffeine-free Pepsi.  And some black tar heroin.

15.  What’s the one moment in your life that led to “Miracles?” Where did you get the idea?

I feel it’s important to de-mystify the creative process at every opportunity -- it’s mystifying enough on its own without my help. 

So I never tire of pointing out that “Miracles” the TV show was not my idea at all.  There was a wonderful screenplay written by the brilliant Michael Petroni called "Miracles" -- it was more of a drama than a supernatural thriller.  I was approached by Touchstone and Spyglass who handed me the screenplay and said, "Do you think you could turn this into a TV pilot, sort of a spiritual X-Files?" 

So I read the screenplay and thought, "These people are crazy -- this is a beautiful script -- just go make this movie."  But, as a courtesy, I took a meeting with Suzanne Patmore (Touchstone) and Megan Wolpert (Spyglass).  Also, it was about six weeks before a possible WGA strike, and I simply decided to take every meeting offered and try to get any job I possibly could.

Then, just before heading out the door for the meeting, I grabbed a book off my bookshelf and brought it with me -- Herbert Thurston’s The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism, a study of "miraculous phenomena" (I have a huge collection of ‘paranormal’ literature).  Often, holding a book from my own collection is like holding a security blanket -- so I brought it into the meeting and used it as a jumping-off point for the discussion.  And a meeting that I assumed would last about twenty minutes went three hours.  Suzanne and Megan’s enthusiasm carried me, thank God, and before the meeting was over, much of the series had been figured out.

Please also keep in mind -- ABC knew about the idea for the show and had shown clear interest before I was ever brought aboard.  This was something they were extremely high about producing from the very beginning.

16.  What was it like to work with Greenwalt?

Working with Greenwalt was a living, breathing hell from minute one.  His virulent anti-Semitism and constant flatulence alone would drive any sane man to murder.  But when he starts in on Native Americans, or "Red Skinned Savages" as he calls them, well... all bets are off.

Oh, you mean David Greenwalt.

David Greenwalt is terrific.  David got the show immediately; he knew what we were trying to do and he knew how to do it.  Creatively, as far as big-picture things, we were in step from the very beginning. 

He is a very driven guy, very "Type-A" -- much more so than I am, which makes him a perfect show runner.  He has opinions, and he’s not afraid of expressing them.  Creatively, he knows what he wants -- but he’s always willing to listen, and he’s also the first to pull a one-eighty when he hears a better approach.

David understands the difference between a story and an "almost story" -- which is roughly the difference between an ice cream sundae and the words "ice cream sundae" written on a chalkboard.  (You’d be surprised how many working writers do not know the difference.  An easy way to tell?  Taste their ice cream sundaes...)

David and I are still currently working together.  Even as he gears up another big TV machine as show runner for Jake 2.0, he and I spend a few days each week writing a feature for Spyglass Entertainment. 

Our meetings go like this:  First, there’s an exhaustive account of our personal lives and all the painful, embarrassing events that have occurred since we last saw each other.  Then, a wrap-up of the day’s news.  David and I are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, so that’s always fun. (I’m dead serious -- hours go by in just this fashion.)  But this is part of our process.  This must be done before the work can be done.  In a way, we’re like dogs.  We have to sniff each other each time we meet.  Once the formalities are over, the real work begins, which is...

More talking.  But now it’s about story.  David offers up a lot of good ideas, I piss and moan and reject them.  Then, a spark.  He says something.  I get quiet.  Then, instead of pissing, moaning, or rejecting, I add a little.  Then we pass the idea back and forth like a snowball, adding to it each time.

On the episodes we wrote together, we’d work together all the way through a very detailed outline (often running as much as twenty pages).  Then we’d divide up and each write two acts.  Then we’d trade, give each other notes, rewrite separately and boom -- a script.

17.  Were any of the episodes based on your own real-life experiences in any way?

Not a single one.

18.  What episodes were your personal favorites?

Of my own episodes (the ones I wrote), my favorites are the pilot, because of Matt Reeves’s direction, and an episode that did not air called "Saint Debbie," in which Keel has an "almost" love affair with a small town waitress who just might be a saint.

I loved Greenwalt’s episode, "The Patient."  Christian Taylor wrote two episodes, both among our best; my favorite of his is "Mother’s Daughter," in which a young Amish woman is slowly over-taken by the spirit of another young woman who committed suicide ten years earlier.  My favorite Estrin & Levinson episode, also un-aired, is called "The Letter."  It is loosely based on events in Christine Levinson’s life, and it concerns a woman who begins receiving letters from her dead father.  And my favorite episode by David Graziano, also un-aired, is "The Battle At Shadow Ridge," and it concerns Paul and Keel running afoul of a "time slip" in a small southern town.  I really love this episode.

In fact, I love them all.

  >>  Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4  <<

June 1, 2003  © Copyright 2003-2004 MiraclesTV.com.  All Rights Reserved.