An excerpt from Tim's interview with Creative Screenwriting:

Metaphors and Murder: Tim Minear on Reinventing Angel and The Inside BY JASON DAVIS

In handing the Angel characters the power of their former enemies, they discovered their metaphor. "Once you're out of college," showrunner Minear observes, "you go into the real working world to work for Greenpeace -- and now Shell Oil has offered you a job. Does it mean that you have to give up your values, or does it mean that you can actually apply your values to the thing that you thought was corrupt? That does seem like a metaphor."

While re-imagining Angel proved to be a case of focusing on an idea already present, Minear's work in bringing The Inside to television was a little more complicated. Often described as a twenty-first-century 21 Jump Street, The Inside had a lengthy development before Fox executives brought Minear onboard. The network executives "didn't necessarily want it to be a high school every week. They wanted Rebecca Locke [series lead Rachel Nichols] to go undercover every week.

"My feeling was that it's impossible -- you can't do that every week," responds Minear, detailing a common problem in the television industry. "When networks buy these show ideas, what they're really buying is an episode of a show. If the premise of the series itself sounds like it could be an episode of a show, it's probably not a series idea. CSI is a brilliant concept for a series, but it's not an episode of a show." According to Minear, the key to creating a television series is that "it's specific, but at the same time it's very broad."

I think you need to buy the magazine to read the rest (and the other article).

"Point of Origin" creeped. More I say, more.

A small update to TMnet: Allyson talks to Tim about stuff.

"Once you're out of college," showrunner Minear observes, "you go into the real working world to work for Greenpeace -- and now Shell Oil has offered you a job. Does it mean that you have to give up your values, or does it mean that you can actually apply your values to the thing that you thought was corrupt? That does seem like a metaphor."

You know, I was thinking about this quote the other day. Evidently, the final moral of AtS? Get a job at Shell Oil, and then burn it down to the ground and off the board of directors.

Which? Kind of appealing, on a visceral level.

So does the fact Drive is filming so late mean it's doomed to being a mid-season show or is there hope for the fall?

And does anyone know if the Pony Man returns in the finale of The Inside? "Point of Origin" had a great cliffhanger.

Speaking of "Point of Origin," if you would like to ♥ me, you should e-mail me.

So does the fact Drive is filming so late mean it's doomed to being a mid-season show or is there hope for the fall?

I hope right after baseball, which means no showus interruptus, and ads during baseball.

I'm in the UK so I'm not sure on dates but a Google search said baseball ends in October... Is that right?

Yes Jackal, with the championship being played toward the end of October. The play-off series and the championship series are the games that caused problems for Firefly.

So does the fact Drive is filming so late mean it's doomed to being a mid-season show or is there hope for the fall?

I dunno about "doomed." 24's done pretty well as a midseason show.