The cast of the CW's LIFE UNEXPECTED
With my own experience in the television writing game, I’d been told for years that to get a TV show on the air, to quote Gypsy, ‘you gotta get a gimmick if you want to get ahead.’ High concept, procedural format, follow the latest trend (vampires anyone?) and never forget that character dramas don’t sell. Well, while I polish my latest family drama script, I am more than a little thrilled to see a character driven show like the CW’s new Life Unexpected come along.
The ads have been touting the new hour-long drama, which premieres tonight at 9/8c, as a cross between Juno and Gilmore Girls. Accurate? Well, yeah. But, more importantly, I’m glad to report that fans who have felt a void since GG or Party of Five or any other character-driven drama left the air will soon feel that void superbly filled. Life Unexpected focuses on a foster teen named Lux (played pitch-perfect by Britt Robertson) who is reunited with the 30something parents (Shiri Appleby and Kristoffer Polaha) who don’t happen to be a part of each other’s lives. What follows is how the three of them (and a few supporting characters) adjust to these surprisingly new directions in all their lives. Sharp, realistic dialogue, good stories balanced between humor and drama as well as solid acting have the reins here and, if there is any justice, Life Unexpected will be around for a long time and spawn more character dramas.
Many moons ago when Life Unexpected creator Liz Tigelaar was working on Dawson’s Creek, I was working as an Executive Assistant in the drama department at Sony Television and our paths nearly crossed more than a few times. Through a mutual friend and having that Dawson’s connection, I reached out to Liz and we chatted about how she got the show on the air and what fans can expect from Life Unexpected.
Robertson and Appleby hash it out as daughter and mother
Jim Halterman: How on Earth did you get a show on the air that wasn’t a medical/legal franchise or filled with vampires?
Liz Tigelaar: I literally don’t know! I’m kind of shocked myself. I think for the last season pick-ups we were the only show that wasn’t like that so I don’t know how we lucked out. I think in a way the similarities to Gilmore Girls helped us. We were pitching it as Knocked Up fifteen years later and based on what was happening at the time it worked in our favor. We started developing this about two and a half years ago and it seems so long ago but it’s just how it worked out. I think with Gilmore Girls leaving the network there was a bit of a space for a show with that kind of feel – a young parent/teenage kid vibe so we kind of slid into it. We felt really lucky.
Shiri Appleby, Britt Robertson and Kristoffer Polaha
JH: Tell me about shooting the pilot presentation and how that won the CW execs over.
LT: I think a large part of it was Gary Fleder, who directed the pilot. We actually got the money to do it as a presentation [Note - a pilot presentation is a scaled down version of a full pilot; usually only about 20-30 minutes for an hour-long drama] and we all talked about it but Gary knew most of all that if we shot a presentation we weren’t going to be competitive with their other stuff so we needed to create a pilot. The script was cut down to under 40 pages for the presentation and then we kept slowly adding pieces back in until we were a normal 42-minute pilot. That was all Gary and it was his great idea. We have a very streamlined pilot but it wasn’t truncated and nothing was missing from it. We never added any scenes to it when it got picked up. What people will see on Monday is the pilot we shot.
JH: As a television writer, I have always been told that family dramas don’t sell well but people still talk about great character dramas like thirtysomething and Party of Five.
LT: I agree. I met with a lot of writers for this show and writers who were really great and had a lot of choices to make, which type of show to be on and, of course, there were flashier shows and remakes of TV shows. I remember talking to one writer in particular and I said “We as writers always say we want these types of shows on TV but if we don’t make the decision to forgo the flashier shows for this kind of stuff, it’s never going to get on TV.” Luckily, I have a fantastic staff and I think we, as writers, have to believe in it. I think when something works you can’t deny it and this is one of those things and at least I hope so. You can’t deny when something is good. Friday Night Lights? Nobody can say that is not beyond an amazing show. You feel something and that’s obviously a show based on a book and movie but it never feels like that in terms of a gimmick. I love that show more than anything. Everything about that show is amazing – the writing, the acting, the set design, the lighting, directing, casting…it’s just amazing.
Appleby and Kerr Smith share a sweet moment
JH: The cast is really strong but how easy or difficult was it to cast Lux? It seems like she’s the one that you had to make sure you got right for everything else to work.
LT: Actually, Britt was the very first person we cast and she was the first person we saw for the show. The CW called and said ‘We’ve got a girl and she’s got a lot of buzz around her and people are offering her stuff so you have to act fast.’ And, of course, I said ‘We’re not going to cast the first person we see. I don’t want someone forced down our throats because we hear that we’re going to lose her before we even see other people.’ We met with her and she walked in and she read three scenes on camera and myself and the other producers just looked at each other and were like ‘Done!’ We did see some more people while we waited for her deal to go through, because it took awhile, but when we saw her I said, ‘There may be another girl out there who is even more Lux or even better for the part but I don’t think there is and I don’t care. This girl embodies the character.’ I really wanted to cast somebody blonde probably because I’m blonde. You see certain characters a certain way and I always pictured her as a light-haired character. Britt couldn’t have nailed it more. Someone can audition and can do a good audition but she never misses. Every instinct she has is right. She does things that I didn’t even write on the page. She was so amazing. She knew every line to the pilot before we even got to Vancouver.
JH: Talk to me about some of the choices you made with the other characters. The fact that Cate (Appleby) and Ryan (Dawson’s alum Kerr Smith) are a very likeable couple is surely going to make it harder for fans to root for Cate and Nate (Polaha) to get together.
LT: It’s funny. That was a triangle that very much evolved when Kerr (Smith) came in to audition for the part. We offered it to him as a recurring but he would only do it if it was a series regular. He did that to branch out the part and that really changed the dynamic a lot. It made us invest more in Ryan. It didn’t change what happened in the pilot but the character of Ryan was always a good guy, a guy you liked to see Cate with but the fact that he was going to be even more integral than we imagined changed how we approached Ryan and especially Ryan’s relationship with Lux. Kerr, as an actor because of who he is, Kerr is so dead on in his choices, too, and he brings so much to the character. Kerr is so likeable and he’s made choices of how he’s going to play things with Cate and Baze and Lux that really work. We also really wanted to make it where every bit of logic says that she should be with Ryan. I love the idea that the guy who knocked you up in high school is your soul mate; it’s illogical. But what if he is? Whereas the guy who is the stand up guy and patient and mature and good guy and compassionate…that’s the guy you should marry so that is one thing that we really wanted to explore. I believe she should be with Ryan. I have no question but that doesn’t mean I don’t her to be with Baze.
JH: Besides the love triangle with the grown-ups, can we count on Lux having some romance of her own?
LT: Definitely. Pretty early on in episode two we find out that she has a boyfriend, Bug, and it’s a kid she’s dated for a few years. He’s not exactly who you’d want your teenage daughter to be dating. He’s older and tattooed and shaved head so it’s not your kind of dream. She’ll also get involved with the quarterback at school and there’s going to be a big pull between her old life and her new life. We’ll see that she had a plan when she tried to get emancipated to move into her boyfriend and her best friend, who was also trying to be emancipated, and Lux wanted to make them a family.
JH: Did you have much experience with the foster care system?
LT: I was in foster care for about a week from when I was adopted. The agency I had been adopted from puts you in a private foster care with a nurse to kind of transition you from the hospital to a family but obviously I don’t remember any of it but from what my parents have told me it was a very loving, great experience and I was only in there for a week. I thought it was important to the show. When you’re adopted, you kind of have this ingrained feeling of not being wanted. On the other hand, when you’re adopted by somebody you have this other feeling of being super wanted, wanted more than anything so you go from feeling not special to being extra, extra special. It was important for me that Lux never got to feel extra special. She only had those feelings of being wanted and that was the story I was interested in telling in how there are many ways to not feel wanted. It’s like the way Cate feels just as unwanted as Lux did but her feelings were different.
Life Unexpected premieres tonight on the CW network at 9/8c.
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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Great interview. Check out our chat with Liz for our podcast series MIPtalk – Conversations with the World’s Most Interesting People.
Join the conversation at:
http://www.miptalk.com/?p=384
Thanks, Brad. Great work with the podcast, too. Fingers are crossed that the show is a hit!!