TCA TV press tour: 'FlashForward' live blog

ABC showed TV critics the pilot of "Flashforward" Saturday, right before the cast and producers came on stage for a question-and-answer session. That should make for a lively panel, and we'll be live-blogging it starting about 1 p.m. Pacific time.

On stage are stars Sonya Walger, Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, Courtney B. Vance and Dominic Monaghan, co-creator David S. Goyer and executive producers Jessika Borsiczky Goyer and Marc Guggenheim.

First question: How many questions will you answer in season one? David Goyer says most of them, including a big one at the end of the pilot, will be answered. He adds it would probably need about three seasons to get to everything.

The show is (loosely) based on a novel by Robert J. Sawyer, also called "FlashForward," which David Goyer's producing partner (and wife) Jessika found and optioned several years ago. Series includes several different characters from the novel.

Jessika Boyer also says the bible for the entire series was worked out when they pitched it to ABC.

Lessons learned from "Lost"? David Goyer: "I'm an enormous, enormous fan of 'Lost' ... and it proved to me there could be a place for a show like that" on network TV. What it taught him is that you can do a show with a big cast and tell a big story that "traffics in shades of gray." He doesn't know if the what-not-to-do lessons of "Lost" will apply here, since "FF" isn't on the air yet. He does say, however, that he and his crew think about their obligation to viewers in telling the story.

Dominic Monaghan says there are obvious similarities between "FF" and "Lost," but there are "distinct differences" -- this show's mythology isn't as complex, he thinks.

Monaghan told his agent that "I don't want to take a deeply American part away from someone who's authentically American" after reading the "FF" pilot. Fellow stars Walger and Fiennes feign leaving the stage. "He has higher standards than you," Guggenheim cracks.

Seth MacFarlane has a small role in the pilot as an FBI agent -- maybe four or five lines. "He'll be popping in and out," David Goyer says.

Sawyer gave his blessing to the producers to play with the novel, and he's writing an episode later in the season.

"The kangaroo's behind it all," Fiennes whispers into his mic. "The kangaroo is a thing," Goyer confirms -- although what kind of thing, and how significant it is to the story, is unclear. It'll be back in episode six, apparently.

Guggenheim: The signficance of the flash-forward date of April 29, 2010, is one of the mysteries of the show, so they won't give up why that is (though it is a Thursday, when the show airs). Goyer promises they know where it goes after that.

Characters are broken into three categories: those that fear the future, those that want to make it happen and those who aren't sure because they haven't figured things out yet.

Fiennes is happy to be playing a character that lets him "get off a horse and out of a flouncy shirt."

Goyer says the producers haven't shared more than is necessary for comprehension with the cast, because he wants their reactions to the material to come more naturally. He cites Hitchcock as an example of having worked that way.

Courtney B. Vance is asked about leaving one long-running, still-airing show to go to this. "I left 'Law & Order[:Criminal Intent]' three years ago," he says. "So those are reruns."

Vance also says he's gotten very excited about reading scripts down the line. Guggenheim: "You never thought you'd do things like that to a kangaroo."

The sci-fi part of "FlashForward" is "cool," Goyer says, but what he really wants people to tune in for is the character-based stuff about how people deal with the visions of the future they see.

Walger says what her character sees in her vision is "completely fascinating" to her. She also can't/won't say if she'll be back on "Lost."

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Related:

Gabrielle Union hits 'FlashForward'
Comic-Con: 'FlashForward' welcomes Dominic Monaghan
'FlashForward's' showrunner-approved spoilers
Pilot Light: ABC's 'FlashForward'

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