The cast of WHITE COLLAR (DeKay, Thiessen, Bomer, Garson)
USA’s White Collar is one of the biggest hits in cable right now and as the first season races to a conclusion next Tuesday, creator Jeff Eastin took questions from journalists during a press call to reflect on the series, how’s he’s using social networking sites like Twitter, what’s in store for season two and how the show is going to deal with Tiffani Thiessen’s real life pregnancy. [White Collar airs tonight at 10/9c on USA]
Jim Halterman: Since the first season has done so well with the viewers and ratings does that take the pressure off or does it actually add more pressure for you to kind of keep the momentum going for season two?
Jeff Eastin: I would say both. It’s a different kind of pressure. There’s a certain pressure you feel when the ratings are sliding and every week they go down. That’s not a good pressure. It’s sort of usually a debate whether you’re going to work on the show or start sending out resumes. And the pressure we’re under right now, I much prefer. It’s really the pressure to keep the show going the way it’s been going. To keep people happy. As a lot of you probably know, I’ve spent a lot of time on Twitter lately…and the one thing I like about it is it really connects you to people that watch the show. I mean, you get to see what people like and don’t like. But just by putting a face on it like that, it really does, I think, increase the pressure to do it right. I mean, there’s several people, I don’t actually know them by name. I sort of know them by the handle or their Twitter icon. But there’s definitely a sense that we’re doing the show for them. And it’s very gratifying.
Matt Bomer's star is on the rise with WHITE COLLAR
Jim Halterman: What surprised you the most about filming the first season? Was there something you weren’t expecting that kind of popped up, either in the filming or in the story breaks or anything like that?
JE: I think, in a vague sort of way, I would say it was the reaction to the show. You never know. You go in expecting certain things. You do the best job you can and then you just put it out there. I would say, I expected Tim [McKay] and Matt [Bomer] to really pop. I mean, the whole show was really designed for those two guys to pop. I think I was surprised by sort of the Matt Bomer’s star quality. I mean, we always had our fingers crossed, but the reaction to Bomer was pretty shocking to me regardless. I mean, having traveled out to New York several times and seeing his picture up everywhere was kind of neat. But then seeing the reaction to it was even better. From a story standpoint, I think probably the most refreshing thing that happened was we’ve been making a real effort to try to make an intelligent show, to do a show that tries to stay smart. I mean, we may not always succeed, but at least that’s our goal. And I wasn’t quite sure how that would be accepted. I mean, we’re constantly—we have a lot of chess games. We quote Dostoevsky, things like that. I didn’t know how things like that would be accepted. Last week’s episode which dealt a lot with sort of the nuance of wine. Again, in an MTV world, I wasn’t sure if people were going to like it. And the fact that people do, the fact that people seem to really be buying into that and enjoying it, where a lot of shows rely really heavily on action, we obviously don’t. We don’t rely much on girls in bathing suits and we haven’t done that. And it was refreshing to really not have to and to not be pressured to because people have really reacted well to—so I guess, maybe the more intellectual pursuits that we’ve done on the show. That’s been really nice.
Tiffani Thiessen and Bomer in the WHITE COLLAR pilot
Question: Can you could maybe talk a little bit about planning for [season 2], what you might do different and are we going to get a major cliffhanger leading into that?
JE: Yes. We have a pretty major cliffhanger coming up here in two weeks. And what we’ve done in season two is really—we’re right into it now. The writers’ group has been going about two weeks now and most of that time; we’ve been just working on the mythology moving forward into season two. What I did, really, was looked and say what we thought we really did right in season one and just try to duplicate that. Luckily, I was sort of surprised, but most new shows, there’s usually a few shows you’re sort of not happy with and I’ve got to say, I mean, just amazing case, amazing crew. We had some really good directors this year and we got really lucky. I mean, I can’t really think of any show in season one that I wasn’t happy with. I mean, I’ve got my favorites. But even the ones that are my least favorite, I still think came out pretty good. So I’m pretty happy about that.
I mean, we have been dealing pretty specifically with Tiffani’s pregnancy. That’s something we’re really trying to deal with in season two. We’ve decided not to bring it up on the show. So working around that has been a real challenge and very interesting, but kind of fun to find out technologically what you can do in terms of green screen and things like that to be able to work around that. So those are the challenges we’ve got going into season two.
But for the most part, the way I’m looking at the show right now is it ain’t broke and we’re not going to try to change anything major-ly in season two in terms of dynamic. For me, the show is really about Peter (DeKay) and Neal (Bomer) and that’s where the focus is going to stay, supported by Elizabeth (Thiessen) and Mozzie (Willie Garson), and that’s really where we want to keep it going into season two.
Question: When you’re writing a show that has so many characters. I mean, when you put your four main characters named Peter, Mozzie, and Elizabeth in a room, they are the four smartest people period. How hard is it to maintain a level of excellence writing for that kind of a cast?
JE: It can be difficult. What we’ve done is we’ve really broken it down to each person has their own sort of specialty. Peter’s specialty is usually sort of the puzzle solving, the putting the pieces together that an FBI agent would be good at. And Neal, I always look at Neal as somebody who can sort of look at the problem from outside the box and approach it in a way that most people wouldn’t think to. Mozzie adds his own expertise, which usually that sort of that street level guy who knows the way that criminals do it. And Elizabeth has a certain amount of emotional intelligence that we try to play off of. She’s going to see things from a human perspective that a lot of times Peter won’t see or Neal won’t see. So it can definitely be difficult, but I have to say that at times, we put all four of them in a room has been some of my favorite scenes. In “Bad Judgment,” for example, when Elizabeth finally meets Mozzie. Mozzie walking in and debugging their house is one of my favorite sequences so far, I think, in the series.
Question: On an earlier press call with Burn Notice’s Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar, they particularly mentioned specifically White Collar in regards to a crossover episode and they talked about the potential of how the characters and the whole tone of the shows were so similar. What do you think of that?
JE: I mean, Matt Nix, [who] created Burn Notice, and I are pretty good friends. Yes, if we’re going to do a crossover that seems like the one to do. It will be interesting to talk to USA about it. I know there’s been some joking about it, but I think in terms of a crossover that would be by far the most logical and the most fun. I guess the interesting thing would be would we send Michael to New York or would we send Neal to Florida? So as they say stay tuned. But that would be something that would be, I think, pretty awesome.
Question: I’m wondering if we’re going to start seeing more of Mozzie’s connection to this underground world coming up in season two.
JE: Yes. Yes, we are. We’ve got that. We’ll also find out a little bit more about Mozzie. For example, why he’s called Mozzie, which I can’t tell you. And more of his back-story, which definitely deals with that world. And yes, I mean, he’s really evolved as one of the most fun characters. I mean, I think, as one of the executives told me we’d turned in a scene. This was last year at some point. We’d turned in a scene and a USA executive had called me and said you know what I love about these scripts? Every time I see the word Mozzie in a script is I know something fun is going to happen. And I think that’s really a huge part because of Willie Garson has really become the gauge, whenever it’s Neal and Mozzie get together and Mozzie or anybody together, it adds a certain special spark to that particular scene. And really, really pops.
The penultimate season ender episode of White Collar airs tonight at 10/9c on the USA network. The season finale will air next Tuesday at 10/9c.
Jim Halterman spends his days interviewing the top tier of talent and creative forces in the television world and then, because he's that kind of guy, he brings it all to YOU! And, because we all like free stuff, check back often for giveaways!! 
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