Date:  8/28/2000
Subject:  Eberts' File: TOIM

Hey everybody -

 I guess the word "Wow" comes to mind after watching TOIM. To be honest, I've been sitting on this one, waiting patiently for it to air and hoping that everybody would enjoy it. Obviously, everyone did.

 This ep definitely had it all, suspence, action, humor and drama. It also had a great meeting of talent: Josh directing, Craig writing and Vince acting it. I've watched this several times and I still like it.

 So with all that in mind, here's a few notes...

 * VVSBer's, is that what you've wanted? I hope so. Vince gets a little embarrassed doing scenes like that, so don't expect it every episode.

 * The rap was fabulous. Craig sent Vince a tape of himself doing the rap. At the end Craig pauses then simply ends it with "Word." A bright, witty writer that we are lucky to have.

 * You want a blooper? In the scene in the keep where I tell Darien that The Official is doing fine, I'm supposed to exit right after Hobbes enters. In one take, Hobbes enters with the agents, but before I could leave, the door closed. Since I was stuck in the Keep I did everything I could to play it off and look for an escape route. Meanwhile Shannon is looking at me and wondering what's goin on and trying not to laugh. Finally, 45 seconds into the scene Josh yells "Cut! Mike, weren't you supposed to leave?" At which point Shannon, Myself and several others broke out laughing.

 * Lucky Eddie Jones. Most of this episode he does nothing but lie in bed and groan. I teased him about this being his best work to date. He just smiled and reminded me that he still gets paid to say nothing. That rat!

 * I wasn't in the last episode and R2 (who I hope is feeling better) has stumbled upon the partial reason. I did get married during that week and so it wasn't such a bad thing. Evidently you've discoverd this by visiting my seldom updated website (If you look closely, my javascript countdown until my wedding proclaims I will be married in negative 83 days!)and that's embarrassing enough. But I can tell you that the wedding was beautiful and I married the prettiest girl in the world.

 * We do at last find out a little nugget about Eberts. His past somehow involves the IRS. Figures. We also see that he's pretty much lost with out the Official. It was cut, but I did have a scene where I just stared at the Official's chair.

 * The original location of my lair was scrapped because the building contained asbestos. The agency hallway doubled for it.

 * The African-American agent (Whose name escapes me as I type) is an accomplished stunt man. you've seen his bone-jarring flips in "Jerry McGuire" as Cuba Gooding Jr's football double and "Any Given Sunday" as Jamie Foxx's. Nice guy and very talented. It was just hard to believe that we're the same age and our body are...well different.

 Well, there's probably more I could tell, but I 'll hold on to some for a rainy day. As I said eariler, the show is really trying to move up a notch. We may not always succeeded, but as Vince once put it: " 'Good' for us sucks! We want 'great'! " We owe it to all of you. Hope we don't disappoint!

Thanks

Mike