MANCUSO'S SHOP OF HORRORS By: Marc Shapiro Taken from Fangoria #84. Used without permission. Transcribed by Alyse Micki Wax (Micki13th@aol.com) _Remember when "Friday the 13th" meant bad luck? Frank Mancuso Jr. does. Gleefully._ When executive producer\co-creator Frank Mancuso Jr. first approached investors and syndicators with the idea of "Friday the 13th: The Series," they reacted as if he had just said something nasty about their mothers. "People would just kind of get this funny look on their faces," recalls Mancuso, "and then say something like, `I don't want to see anything like that on television.'" Mancuso relives the show's trial by doomsaying in his Paramount Studios office moments after taking Fango on a trip down "Friday the 13th" memory lane. People were convinced nobody would want to see those movies, either. The producer wears a vindicated smile as the conversation switches from big screen "Friday the 13th" to small screen "Friday the 13th." Despite early "It'll never fly" predictions, "Friday the 13th: The Series" has come to the conclusion of its second full season. The new time slot has helped in the ratings, and the stories have, for the most part, been worth the tune-in. You might say that Frank Mancuso Jr. is having the last laugh. "I don't know if I'm laughing all that much," he answers. "But I am satisfied with the way things have gone. It's been interesting to watch what happens when you take something people have a particular understanding of, present it in a different way and watch people's perceptions change. `Friday the 13th' used to mean bad luck. Then all of a sudden, you said `Friday the 13th' and people said `Jason.' Now when you say `Friday the 13th,' people may think any number of things, any of which could be valid." Mancuso remembers that from its very inception, "Friday the 13th: The Series" was never intended to have ties to the "Friday" films. "Oh, there was talk about having a hockey mask figuring prominently in one of the regular sets," he allows, "but from the beginning, it was everybody's intention to totally cut the Jason thing off from this show. We wanted the TV show to exist within its own world. Any reference to the movies would have done nothing for the series and would have done nothing for the series and would have messed with the audiences expectations, which was something I did *not* want to do. "To be perfectly honest, the series didn't start out with `Friday the 13th' as its intended title," he continues. "We knew calling the series `Friday the 13th' would create a lot of unnecessary baggage, so in the beginning, we threw around titles like `The 13th Hour.' Upon reflection, we realized when you're entering a new world like first-run syndication, you need a title that instantly creates awareness and curiosity. At 11:00 PM, a show called `The 13th Hour' might be easily dismissed. We finally agreed that a late night show titled `Friday the 13th' would not be so easily dismissed." The premise of "Friday the 13th: The Series" -- a trio of good guys attempting to retrieve the cursed stock of an antique store -- seemed ripe with possibilities. Mancuso, in assessing the show's first season, feels like the lion's share of the possibilities were realized. "In general, the first season worked on a conceptual level," declares Mancuso. "The show's premise was smart, and the ideas we were trying to get across were interesting. Where the show sometimes failed was in its execution, but that was understandable; I had never done television before. The first season was pretty much on-the-job training in a lot of ways. We learned as we went along. Basically, it took the first three or four episodes to figure out what we did and did not want to be doing." Mancuso plows on into particulars of "Friday's" growing pains. He cites the question of humor, and how much of it, as a regular topic of conversation at meetings. "The first season was not as cinematic an experience as it could have been, and the reason was that we used too many television directors," the producer frowns. "Because those directors were used to doing television a certain pat way, every show tended to look the same. We were constantly pounding it into these directors' heads that this was a different kind of television and that it could be filmed in a more imaginative fashion. Everybody we used, however, did a reasonably good job. The only real problem we had was one director who basically had a condescending attitude toward television going in." Mancuso, as the talkabout continues, is quick to shoulder much of the blame for the often cardboard characteristics of Jack, Micki, and Ryan (Chris Wiggins, Robey, and John D. LeMay), who frequently faded far into the background in favor of some fancy FX. "The characters were definitely too thin at times," he agrees. "That tends to happen when you're not really sure of yourself. When we weren't comfortable with how the characters would play in a certain situation, we tended to go for a big visual display, and nobody noticed anything else. But as the first season went by, we began to become more cast-dependant and allowed our characters to grow and experience different things. We've learned that it's not necessary to have all three characters involved equally each week. We learned the hard way that you wind up with three talking heads and it's very distracting. From now on, if a particular episode is one person's story, we're going to play it that way." In Fango #70, an unnamed former show employee bent this writer's ear on the FX screw-ups that were plaguing the series. The producer addresses those Deep Throat disclosures. "I read that," nods Mancuso. "For openers, the effects budget for the first season was never as low as $3,000 per episode. What was actually going on was that early on, we went though some difficulties with one of the effects crew. Quite simply, we had situations when special effects were not ready when they were supposed to be. "This isn't a `Friday the 13th' movie, where you have the option of shooting around things," the producer argues. "This is a television show. We had to shoot eight or nine pages of script a day. There was not time for `Gee, I forgot.' What effects problems we had were less about budget than about things not being ready on time." Time was something Frank Mancuso had little of when it came to dealing with the media during the first season of "Friday the 13th." He deliberately turned his back on the press during year one. "I knew going in that I would be bombarded with stupid like why Jason was not on the show, and I wasn't ready to go through that," Mancuso defends. "I told the studio to give the show a year to be in front of everybody. If it was picked up for a second season, I would do some interviews at that point. You know, it's funny; I was worried about answering questions about Jason, and all people wanted to know is what I think about the Freddy show." Well, OK, Frank. Since you brought it up.... "There's always been something very countercultural about Jason and Freddy," Mancuso genuflects. "When they start to become too pop-oriented, they lose a lot of what it is that made them work in the first place. Freddy, with the presence of the TV series and the different direction the "Nightmare" films seem to be taking, may be beginning to lose some of his appeal. "It was never my intention to have Jason turn up in the series," he reiterates. "I believe, for better or worse, the character of Jason has remained consistent throughout the seven `Friday' films. People have accepted Jason for what he is. To tamper with the character would be a big mistake. I mean, how would you feel if Jason started cracking one-liners the way Freddy has been lately? Granted, people hoot and holler and laugh every time they see Jason, but in essence he's still an object of fear. Freddy Krueger is no longer a fear object. I'm sure the people at New Line know what they're doing, because the `Nightmare' films and the TV series have been successful, but I wonder what impact the things they're doing now will have on Freddy a year or two down the road." Mancuso has no qualms about where the fine-tuning of "Friday the 13th: The Series'" second season will lead his brainchild. He offers the occasional appearance of Rasheed (Elias Zarou) as an example of the series finding another place to go. "We've also got a better handle on the stories," he adds. "Last year, we sometimes lost the basic notion of simple stories and of simple stories, and often ended up with overcomplicating things. What we've now discovered is that the more basic the story's theme, the easier it is to tell a compelling tale. We now understand the show well enough that we are not wasting as much time and energy." Establishing genre names will continue to play a bigger role in future "Friday" installments, including directors Tom McLoughlin, Francis ("Alfred Hitchcock Presents") Delia, and Armand Mastroianni. "We've also been talking to David Cronenberg about directing another episode," Mancuso beams. "We're not so much searching out genre people as we are seeking anybody who is willing to contribute to taking this show -- and television in general -- to a new level. People are afraid that if you attempt to push the envelope, you're going to turn audiences off. Well, `Friday the 13th' is trying to do that, and we think it will turn people on. This series in an endless franchise. It gives us the world to play in." Mancuso's world, big screen and small screen, continues to thrive. "Friday the 13th, Part VIII" is filming as we speak and "Friday the 13th's" small screen ratings continue solidly. "Friday" films still have the horses to go on for quite a while, though Mancuso hints that their television counterpart could reach a saturation point. "But I don't see the series reaching that point any time soon," he says. "We're playing in a different space each week. The basic premise alone could keep this show going five or six years, and I'd be very happy to be involved in it for that long, if I knew creatively it was going to grow." Finale.