Greeting extended to everybody!

Welcome everyone once again an exciting and antibacterial edition of Eberts Files! My name is Mike and it is absolutely thrilling for me to be able to share my thoughts and memories on I-Man with you. I’ve done this now for over thirty times and it still is as exciting as ever. So let me borrow a few moments of your busy schedule and we’ll begin.

Hey, I really liked Germ Theory! I know that there are some logic questions, and sometimes things got a bit silly, but who cares. Sometimes you just gotta chuck the rules out the door and have some fun. Germ theory was Farce in the true sense of the word and I hope that you came along for the ride.

So let me tell you of some of the fun we had…

This episode had only two other actors in it, and both of them were smaller parts. It’s sort of a ‘bottle show’: a show with few sets and guest stars designed to save money. It was also a chance for the six of us to really strut our stuff and explore our characters and relationships with each other. I know that everyone was very excited at the chance to have fun on this episode.

Everybody except me! When I mentioned the farce aspect earlier, I was referring to my scenes. They we wonderfully hilarious and sometimes even non-sequitur (which I love) but I was concerned about them sacrificing character for laughs. Fortunately, Shannon pointed out that being out of character helps define your character (if that makes any sense) and that helped me buy into the fun of the scenes.

Wadja eats (as in ‘what did ya eats?’) was actually a taco shop in downtown San Diego. It was well...quaint is a nice term. For those of you unfamiliar with the health code system of California, all restaurants are required to post how sanitary they are. An ‘A’ means 90-100%, ‘B’ is 80-90% and a ‘C’ is 70% and BELOW! I’ve never seen a restaurant with a ‘C’ rating (although I never found out if that ‘C’ sign was the restaurant’s or ours!) and hope I never will.

Paul and I ordering was actually cut from the final production. Paul orders the burger and I order a Cobb salad with a wine spritzer. The cook just glares at me and I instead order a diet soda and three chopped tomatoes. Paul’s ‘gimme that tomato’ was an ad-lib

Another line omitted from that scene. It kinda shows what I meant by non-sequitur: As Paul is talking to me about being a partner I am looking off to the side and not paying attention. Finally I remark "Is that a dead raccoon?" Paul doesn’t respond to it and the scene continues.

This episode has a very special guest director. George Huang is most noted for his indie classic "Swimming with Sharks" with Kevin Spacey. George is a fan of the show and called to ask if he could direct an episode. Of course we said yes and he came in and did a fabulous job. George is a funny guy with a great laugh that can have everyone laughing even at 7 in the morning.

Vince has the hardest job sometimes, other times it’s a lot easier. Case in point: the scene where he’s totally invisible in the lab with us as we review our options with the quarantine, Vince went home. Strings moved the chair and his lines were provided by his stand-in Richard.

Continuing our alphabet File today I give you the ‘B’ story. The B story is a secondary story designed to give the main story a break. It’s usually not as important and doesn’t necessarily tie into the ‘A’ story. Eberts and Hobbes filing is a perfect example of a B story. I-Man is a little unique in that we rarely have true B stories.

My speech to Hobbes was actually longer. It included the line "For contrary to popular belief, America’s colors are not red, white and blue but pink, buff, mint and occasionally goldenrod!" I loved that line. Unfortunately a lot in this episode had to be cut for time.

Paul does not really have a scar on his leg. Credit Dungeondan, the make-up man and make-up head Julz for the life like scar. Same deal with the glass in the arm.

Germ Theory 2: Paul thought he had a cold during the scar sequence. I still shared the water bottle with him. Luckily, it was allergies and all were fine.

The movie madness. Many of you correctly spotted the scar comparison scene with the one in "Jaws". The "I love the smell of toner in the morning’ is from "Apocalypse Now". The Music during my scar monologue is from "Patton" and the Freedom line is kinda from "Braveheart". Finally, (and I can’t remember if it made the cut) the line "The world will little note nor long remember what we do in these hallowed halls" is from the Gettysburg address.

A lot of people (including my friend in Michigan and my wife) remarked that they were disappointed about Eberts leaving in the crisis. I agree with you 100%. I don’t believe Eberts would ever leave The Official like that if our lives were on the line. I had considered making an issue of this but I knew that it would require a re-write of the script. I also understood that Hobbes letting me go is the tag to our ‘B’ story showing that we’ve bonded a bit. Don’t worry though, next time I’m sticking with my boss!

Welcome to Weights and Measures! Some of you sharp eye I-maniacs noticed that we’re not at HHS anymore. Surprise! I know it kinda looked like we were trying to sneak that one past you, but there’s an explanation. Sense of Community needed a few additional shots and so had to be bumped back to later. It was actually shot before GT and it is there that we make the move. I know that all the web masters are grumbling at having to change the logos again for their site, but hey, we go where the money is!

I think it was pudding that Shannon ate. She was spectacular portraying QSM.

I loved Eddie punching in the hallway.

Santa Clause came to town! One day during shooting I see a large man wearing brown pants, a red spandex top, beard and his whole face painted red. I had no idea who that was or what he was doing until I just watched the episode and realized it was Eddie’s invisibility double! All the invisibility and half-Eddie shots were done by him later on. If there’s an Emmy category for best lower half acting in a sci-fi show, I give to old St. Nick!

Well, that’s what happens when I have a lot to do in an episode, you get flooded with tidbits! Hope this has sated your appetite for I-Man for the moment. As always, thanks for being such great fans. You infect us with your enthusiasm (pun intended) that makes us want to make this show the best that it can be. Thank you.

Mike