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NZ Herald: How Tabasco Sauce And Emails Sved The Show
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Thanks to Jaymz and P. for sending this in from the New Zealand Herald :) How Tabasco sauce and e-mails saved Roswell 18.01.2001 By LOUISA CLEAVE Never underestimate the power of teenagers — especially when they’re armed with Tabasco sauce. Tens of thousands of young fans of the alien drama Roswell are a major reason we’re about to see a second series on TV2. “Roswell is Hot” — which involved sending 6000 bottles of the fiery condiment to the American network executives who were thinking about cancelling the show after it failed to live up to their expectations. And the Tabasco sauce helps the alien life-forms to digest human food. (It also helps most humans to digest food from that part of the world, but let’s not go there.) In last year’s cliffhanger we found out that Max was the leader of his people, who were enslaved on their planet by alien enemies. “It’s no longer going to be a ‘talk around the locker’ high school show. The stakes are now life or death.” There is greater emphasis on the otherworldly powers the characters possess. So far we’ve seen them listening to CDs by holding them up to their ears, and healing fatal wounds. In this season’s first episode Michael blows up small rocks by looking at them. It kind of pales in comparison to his new hairdo — a shaggy Jamie Oliver-type coif to replace his upswept spikes. Jason Behr, who plays Max, has reassured fans who are worried that Liz will reject him for good after learning that Tess is his “destiny” at the end of last year and walking away to let them fulfil it. “He’s had these feelings for Liz all his life,” the actor says. “They’re what got him and everybody else into the situation to begin with,” he continues, explaining the first episode where he “healed” Liz after she was shot in a robbery. “So I don’t think he’ll give that up that easily, let it go without a fight. Nothing that great comes effortlessly. It’s always a struggle.” Roswell producers are also keen to hold on to the romantic connection between Liz and Max. “We’re not throwing the baby away with the bathwater.” Love matters aside, fans may be equally shocked to learn that the earnest Max actually cracks a smile or two this year, an expression that viewers were given a taste of when the character became a bit tipsy. “That was our way of trying to lighten him up,” says Behr, “and after that we tried to incorporate a little more humour into him. We’re going to focus on that this year.” She adds that this does not involve turning into a little green woman. Heigl, aged 23, is the most experienced of Roswell’s younger cast members, having acted alongside big-screen veterans Gerard Depardieu (in My Father, The Hero), Peter Fonda (in a TV adaptation of The Tempest) and action man Steven Seagal (as his niece in Under Seige 2). By comparison, Colin Hanks, who plays Liz’s friend Alex, has a thin CV. He got his break in the rock-nostalgia flick That Thing You Do! but Roswell is his first television job. |