On April 28, 2004, I attended the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' latest "Behind the Scenes" panel with the creator and cast of FX show The Shield. Representing the show were its creator, Shawn Ryan, executive producer Scott Brazil, and cast members Michael Chiklis, Benito Martinez, CCH Pounder, Walton Goggins, Michael Jace, Catherine Dent, Kenneth Johnson, and Cathy Cahlin Ryan. I'll admit, I wasn't a viewer of The Shield going into this panel. I was actually just there to see the second half of the presentation on the other featured FX show, Behind the Scenes of Nip/Tuck. But I'll have to admit, after this panel, I was very intrigued by what I heard. I still think the show seems too violent for my tastes, but the characters seem richly drawn and the stories seem compelling. So at some point, I think I'm going to have to check it out. However, as a non-fan of the show, I'm afraid this report won't be as in depth as my others, simply because I don't know the show well enough to capture all the nuances. But I'll do my best for you Shield fans out there!

As a quick note of general impression, I must say that Michael Chiklis seemed like a really sweet, nice guy. He didn't swear and was just sort of the antithesis of his tough guy character. I guess that means he's a really good actor! And Shawn Ryan, who had a similar look to Michael was teased about looking like the actor. He took that in good humor.

The moderator began by asking creator Shawn Ryan to talk about how he first came up with the idea for The Shield. He said he had worked on Nash Bridges, which he described as a tremendous learning experience as a writer, in a safe atmosphere where he was allowed to make mistakes and grow from them. Once a year the writers were encouraged/allowed to go on a 'ride-along' with real life cops to see their experiences firsthand, learn how they really talk and act and so forth. Unfortunately, Shawn found that everything that he learned that he found interesting and compelling was completely inappropriate for Nash Bridges. Most of what real cops said and did wouldn't work for Don Johnson and Cheech Marin driving around the streets of San Francisco in their convertible! So Shawn had a lot of stories and no place to tell them.

He wound up with a development deal at a studio to write a sitcom pilot, but he struggled to come up with an idea to sell. In the meantime he had moved on from Nash Bridges to go work on Angel. Deciding to put aside the idea of a sitcom for the moment, Shawn was asked what he wanted to write. He had been reading at the time about the Rampart LAPD scandal and other incidents of policemen 'crossing the line', but realizing that in the same places where evidence was disappearing, witnesses or accused criminals got roughed up, drugs were stolen out of police stations, crime was reported as being down in those areas and Shawn found that fascinating (he also cited Giuliani cleaning up NYC as an example of some cops who may have crossed the line, but they cleaned up the city and made people feel safer). Plus he had those stories from back when he was doing ride alongs with the cops. These he felt, were the stories he really wanted to tell. So he decided to put them all together and write them up as a spec script. So he wrote his spec in his spare time "while working on Angel and hoping Joss Whedon doesn't fire me." Now a spec, or unsolicited sample, is not usually intended to be sold in and of itself. And Shawn fully expected his agent to use it merely to get him in the door to pitch other ideas around town. So he was really shocked when his agent called and said "FX is interested in picking up the show." "FOX is?" Shawn asked. "No, FX," said his agent. "What's FX?" Shawn asked. But he quickly learned. He seemed very satisfied with his experience working with FX.

Going into the show, he had no experience in showrunning, but he had a definite vision for the show. He was partnered up with some more experienced executive producers such as fellow panelist Scott Brazil, who also serves as one of the show's directors. Scott and Shawn discussed the visual style of the show, how they wanted not just a 'shaky handheld camera' look, where the camera like in any other drama anticipates who will be speaking or moving next and moves ahead of time to cover that person, but more documentary style where the camera is reacting as if it didn't know what to expect and is a half-second late trying to keep up with the action.

Shawn was asked why did he set the show in a fictional town rather than in L.A. itself, since he shoots in L.A.? He responded that he didn't want to be limited to the Rampart scandal when he was reading about other cops crossing the line in other cities from New York to New Orleans to Cincinatti.

The actors were asked about their experiences with real life cops. Michael Chiklis, after some prodding from the moderator, told a story about an event that occurred in his neighborhood after he had just finished work on his previous series, The Commish. He was home with his child while his wife went out to the market. When she tried to come back home, her block was surrounded by cop cars, helicopters were flying overhead and it was obvious that something was very wrong. She heard something about a child being kidnapped in the neighborhood and was terrified that it was her own. But once she said where she lived, they let her into the area so she could get home and she was very relieved that her child was safe at home. She'd been afraid that all the attention could have been over a celebrity child abduction. Michael himself had had no idea what was going on. But when he heard the commotion, he went outside to his front gate to see if he could find anything out. As soon as he reached the front of his driveway, a contingent of police officers immediately came over to him. "Here's what's going on, Commissioner," they said, and proceeded to inform him of their tactical plans on how to deal with the situation. Now, Michael to this day has no idea if they actually thought he really was a cop or if they were just joking around, but all he said in response was, "Sounds good. Carry on." And the cops went on their way! (Postscript to the story: the kidnapped child was returned safely when the sister of the kidnappers took the child away when they were asleep and dropped the child off at a hospital safe and sound.)

Since working on The Shield, though, cop jokes have gotten a bit rougher on the poor actor. He told the story of how one day he was driving his convertible and pulled up in front of a Starbucks Coffee. Two cops immediately pulled him over and told him loudly and forcibly to get out of the vehicle. He tried to ask what was wrong, but they weren't having any of it. He got out of the car, was told to put his hands on the hood and the cop behind him proceeded to shove him up against the car, pull his hands behind him, then leaned in and said, "Vic Mackey is a badass motherf..." Then the cop let him go and he and his partner were grinning. Michael looked over and saw another half dozen cops sitting in front of the Starbucks laughing as well. A good-natured guy, Michael had to admit, they got him good.

CCH Pounder commented that the main question she gets from cops is "When are you going to catch Mackey?" Kenneth Johnson joked that he's had a ticket fixed, and that when he's gone into a police station, they all come out from behind the desks and say, "yo, Lemonhead!" Benito Martinez said that cops say he's exactly like their Captains: "An assh..."

All the actors have been told that cops love to watch and discuss the show, and many make sure the TV is on in their precincts when it airs. Michael added his favorite observance was from a crewmember on the set early on in production who said, "All cops below Captain's rank will love this show. All cops Captain's rank or above will privately love the show, but publicly hate it." And Michael said he found this to be true.

The moderator asked Michael if he thought Mackey was a hero, an anti-hero or something else. Michael indicated that it was probably in the eye of the beholder. He pointed to the extremely varying responses to the character he got in his fan mail. Some see Mackey as the total hero, doing what needs to be done. Others see his methods as being totally wrong, making him an absolute bad guy. Still others just don't know how they're supposed to respond to him at all. Michael noted that cops say Mackey acts the way they wished they could, that he does what a lot of cops wish they could do to perps to really clean up the streets and make them safe.

CCH was asked about her character's relationship to Mackey and she described a kind of chemistry between her and Michael that happened the first time (and every time since) he looked into her eyes. It wasn't a romantic chemistry. What she compared it to was when Mackey looked at her, she was a mirror to him, showing him what he could have been given other choices.

Benito was asked to talk about a very disturbing storyline where his character was sexually violated. Normally, the writers on the show do not tell the actors what storylines are coming up nor show them scripts too far in advance. But for this episode, Shawn called Benito in to tell him what was going to happen and gave him an advance copy of the script. Benito took it and read it and reread it. He went back to Shawn and asked, "So, umm, what's your plan B?" And Shawn said, "pretty much, that's it, that's what we're doing." He also proceeded to explain to the concerned actor that this wasn't a one-off thing, but the beginning of a character exploration, an emotional journey which Benito felt Shawn has lived up to with his character's storyline. He noted that the set crew worked very hard to be sensitive while this scene was filming, as he tried to emotionally and physically prepare himself to make sure that he was open enough to let the character experience the violation, but not himself, the actor.

When that episode aired, CCH noted that she couldn't watch that scene, it was so painful she left the room when it was on. Catherine Dent discussed the very different reaction to that scene than to daily TV brutalization of female characters. After that episode, she recalled her brother called her and said of the scene, "that's harsh!" Catherine said, "Well, no sh..." She noted she'd played a character who was beaten and abused and nobody called her about it. She observed that violence against and violation of women in television and film is something people are inured to, but violation of a male shows a whole new perspective that makes people really SEE the act of violence again, which they've been numbed to otherwise and she's very proud that the show does that.