Flashing into the future: a dozen things you don't know about FlashForward

FlashForward, the buzzed about sci-fi thriller on ABC, was honored on Thursday, March 11 at PaleyFest, the annual festival honored the best shows on TV.

The audience got sneak peek at the first 20 minutes of the return episode. Then cast and crew came on stage for a panel discussion. Here are a few things they revealed.

1. After being on hiatus since early December, the show returns on Thursday, March 18 with a two hour episode. A catch-up episode recapping everything that has happened so far airs on Tuesday, March 16, following Lost.

2. There are 12 episodes remaining in the season. Producers promise each episode will have big answers and will delve deeper into the characters.

3. The show was originally developed for HBO. However, HBO passed on it after a regime change, so producers shopped it around. Many networks were interested but ABC proved to be the most interested.

4. The pilot script for the HBO version was virtually identical to what aired on ABC. Biggest difference was the HBO version had more nudity.

5. The cast is as anxious to see the show on Thursday nights as the audience. They work on separate storylines and don’t get to see what happens on other storylines until it airs.

6. The kangaroo that appeared in the pilot episode proved to be difficult to work with. Producers had to digitally remove the trainer leading it around on a leash before the episode could air.

7. All of the voices in the “Tim Tim and Squirrelio” cartoon series that airs within the show are done by cast members. Sonya Walger does the voice of Squirrelio.

8. The flashfoward scenes are filmed differently from the present day scenes. For example, the Mark Benford scenes where he was drinking in the future were shot with a hand crank camera to give it more of a choppy, disoriented feel. The Olivia Benford post-coital scenes with another man were shot with a lens that created many lens flares.

9. When Gabrielle Union was filming her flashforward, producers neglected to tell her it wasn’t really wedding. So, she initially performed the scenes very happy and excited until producers told her it was really a funeral. She had to reshoot the scenes as being very somber.

10. “Shirtless may just be 2 small word on the page, but for me, it means 9,000 sit ups,” – Jack Davenport on having to do shirtless scenes as his character Lloyd Simcoe.

11. In the book upon which the series was based, the flashforward is 20 years into the future. Since that wouldn’t work for TV, they chose to flashforward about 6 months. The April 29 date of the flashforward has no significance. It was chosen at random.

12. Dominic Monaghan tries to find an animal to represent the characters he plays and then crafts his performances to how that animal would behave. He uses a praying mantis for his Simon character on FlashForward. He used a monkey for his Charlie character on Lost.

Photos by Kevin Parry, The Paley Center for Media.

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