Police procedural for ‘golden age’ of TV
Trey Callaway
“I like saying that I’m really a 10-year-old boy at heart—and when I sit down to write, it’s usually driven by what I’d like to watch on TV, and what episode would be the most fun to produce on set,” said TV writer-producer Trey Callaway, in an e-mail interview.
“Most of the time, this is something with a lot of heart and pulse-pounding action,” added Callaway, who penned the screenplay of the 1998 slasher flick, “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.”
Counting “The Rockford Files” and “Magnum, P.I.” as his inspirations, Callaway wrote scripts for and coproduced “CSI: NY” and “The Messengers.” He is one of the showrunners of the cop procedural “APB,” which airs on 2nd Avenue (Tuesdays, 9 p.m.), and stars Justin Kirk.
“APB” stands for all-points bulletin, a term that refers to a police broadcast with information on suspects.
Excerpts from the interview:
What are the challenges in developing action shows? The biggest challenges are often the compromises—you write the coolest action scene you could possibly imagine, only to realize you’re going to blow your show’s entire budget on one sequence if you shoot it the way it’s written. You have to figure out how to get the same effect within the parameters of what’s possible.
How is “APB” different from other current shows? “APB” is a new twist on an old genre. There are plenty
of cop shows out there, but we think of ourselves as one [for] the 21st century. We deal with issues confronting the police in America, but we’re doing it with new technology and methods.
So maybe we’ll have a cop interrogating a suspect like you might see on another show, but on “APB,” she does it with the help of a biometric chair that monitors a suspect’s heart rate and other vital signs. [Or] we’ll do a car chase, but instead of a cop car blazing after a bad guy, there will also be a high-tech drone in the air and a high-octane electric motorcycle on the ground.
What makes Justin Kirk ideal for the lead role? Quite simply, Justin was born to play Gideon Reeves. He strikes that perfect balance between arrogance and vulnerability, charm and awkwardness.
Gideon is a larger-than-life [but human] character, and Justin captures [those qualities].
How has TV changed, as a format and outlet? Television is the most dominant and relevant storytelling medium these days. When I first started working in the industry, that used to be film. TV budgets were smaller, the talent pool was more shallow, and the stories were far less varied.
But that paradigm has completely flipped. Now, TV series are as numerous and diverse as the audiences who watch them. The end result of all that is the new golden age of American television.
What is the most fulfilling part about writing and corunning “APB”? Seeing fans [in social media] saying things they love about an episode that we had said ourselves while breaking it in the writers’ room. Knowing that they’re not just watching, but really getting it—that’s the most fulfilling part of producing any show.
Justin Kirk (right) and Caitlin Stasey
