Chris Chulack interview on Blog Talk Radio (Dec 6, 2010)

The executive producer of SouthLAnd—which found a new home on TNT this year after being canceled by NBC—talks with Tomorrow Will Be Televised host Simon Applebaum about the acclaimed police drama’s 2011 season.

Now you can download this interview for free on iTunes.

He answered the questions from @LvmyJags & @kharleys

then look for 12/6/10.

Thank you for the link, Cathy!!

Sit back, relax and have some fun with Michael McGrady, Kevin Alejandro, Shawn Hatosy, Tom Everett Scott, Ben McKenzie, Michael Cudlitz and series writer/creator Ann Biderman in Los Angeles; and Regina King & Arija Bareikis in New York.

On March 2, TNT will roll out never-before-seen episodes of John Wells’ Southland, a critically acclaimed police drama that was canceled by NBC. Having been bumped from its 10 p.m. slot by the network’s similarly short-lived Jay Leno Show, NBC’s loss became TNT’s gain–or so executives from the Time Warner ( TWX – news – people )-owned cable network hope.

In the meantime, the multiple Emmy award-winning show-runner talked to Forbes about the series’ cancellation, NBC’s troubles and why he still loves broadcast television.

Forbes: What’s been the biggest change to the TV medium since you started two decades ago?

Wells: The first huge change was the relaxation of the fin-syn [financial interest and syndication] rules, which meant that the networks were free to own their own programming. Even though there were promises made at the time that it wouldn’t change the environment, it’s completely changed it because now companies primarily buy from themselves. I guess they all buy some things from other people because they want to spread the risk on certain kind of shows. They tend to buy the very expensive shows from other suppliers so that the deficits can be handled by others.

Read the full interview at:  http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/17/southland-tv-nbc-business-entertainment-wells.html

We all had a great time and it was fantastic to meet everyone from Twitter in real life, especially since we had 4 different cities represented, including one person who was completely new to SouthLAnd with us. However, that’s an entirely different post. This post is all about what happened after the screening – the Cast & Creator Q&A!

Hosted by DJ Lisa Foxx from local Los Angeles radio station 104.3 My FM (who can also be heard in San Diego and San Francisco) who hosted the screening at Cinespace, we were treated to Shawn Hatosy, Regina King, Michael McGrady, Chris Chulack (Creator and Primary Director of the show), Tom Everett Scott and Michael Cudlitz answering questions from Lisa, then at the end questions from the audience.

What follows is video that I took in full HD on my Kodak Zi8 pocket camera from beginning to end, broken into 4 parts so it will fit on YouTube. I apologize in advance for any shakiness (my arm got tired a few times) and any side conversations that might pop up during the Q&A. I tried to adjust the volume to make up for the lack of a microphone, since they had issues with the sound system in the theater – luckily we were only in the second row, so it was all captured pretty well.

If you want to view all the videos in full HD, please visit my YouTube channel directly at http://www.youtube.com/southlandtvfans – I will also be posting several shorter videos there, also in HD, that were taken by @merlyn during the Q&A that are close-ups of the various actors and Mr. Chulack while answering questions.

And so, on to the video – Part 1

One week from today, Southland will return to the air, commercial-free, on TNT. Southland was probably my favorite show to premiere last year, and I will never forgive NBC for unceremoniously canning it. Who cares about Jay Leno at ten!? Anyway, TNT was smart enough to pick up this great show and will be reairing it from the first episode on January 12. The new, unaired episodes will begin March 2nd.

Last month, TNT held a press conference with Ann Biderman, Chris Chulack, and members of the cast. Have a look below for answers to questions ranging from how the Southland team reacted to the cancellation and the subsequent TNT pickup, to Southland’s philosophy on depicting romantic relationships in their character’s lives. (And bear with us; with so many people on the call, sometimes it’s hard to distinguish a voice!)

And remember to tune in to Southland on Tuesday, January 12 at 10:00pm on TNT; a strong showing could help promise a new order of epsiodes.

To read the full article with the transcript of the press conference, please visit http://raked.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/southland-returns-welcome-back-press-conference/

Note: This press conference is the same one that took place earlier in the day and is referenced in our 1-on-1 interview with Michael Cudlitz.

The event will take place at Cinespace (6356 Hollywood Boulevard) in Los Angeles on Monday, January 11 at 7:00pm with all available cast members and the producers. If you would like to attend this event, or any of the others, please email eventsrsvp@turner.com with your phone number and email address TODAY, and they will contact you.

For updates on all the screenings, be sure to check out our screenings page, and the newly created TNT Facebook Screenings page.