Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, showrunners for NBC’s freshman fantasy Grimm, took some time out of their schedules to speak with SciFi Mafia about the show and its future, other networks’ fantasy projects, and the best and worst of making the series.
SciFi Mafia: Good morning gentlemen. Thanks so much for being on the call.
David Greenwalt: Thank you. Hi.
SciFi Mafia: Hi. Congratulations on your terrific show, and on the ratings for this last week. I hear it was the highest since early November.
Jim Kouf: Yes.
David Greenwalt: We’re pretty excited. People came to the party. It was very fun.
SciFi Mafia: It was a great episode too.
Anything you might be able to announce about a Season 2 today?
Jim Kouf: I wish.
David Greenwalt: Well, we’ve got plenty of mythology waiting for Season 2, and we’ve got plenty of good things to happen. So you know, as soon as we get it we’ll know.
SciFi Mafia: Good. Well, we’re very excited to hear about that.
How many more episodes do we get this season?
Jim Kouf: We got a back nine.
David Greenwalt: We have a back nine, so we’ll do 22 total this season, and we’re shooting one – the 16th episode as we speak.
SciFi Mafia: Last week we started hearing about the group of those who do not approve of Monroe helping Nick. Are we going to be hearing a lot more about them?
David Greenwalt: There will be some issues with that coming up for sure.
SciFi Mafia: Anything you want to tell us about?
David Greenwalt: Well, it’s going to fold over into the next year, some of these troubles that haunt him.
Jim Kouf: Yes, it’s a pretty deep mythology, so we’re just cracking the surface right now. Some of that will become more apparent in the episodes that are coming up here very soon.
SciFi Mafia: I have a friend who lives in Germany who loves the show but totally cracks up at the names you give the creatures.
David Greenwalt: We hope so.
SciFi Mafia: Yes. Yes. He says they don’t always work, so he was wanting me to ask you how you come up with the names.
Jim Kouf: We make them up.
David Greenwalt: We make them up, but sometimes we use a dictionary. But we make them up sort of.
Jim Kouf: And sometimes they’re not supposed to be a direct translation of what the creature is. Sometimes it’s a direct translation, and other times we’re just putting together what we think the personality of the creature is.
Jim Kouf: It’ll be odd combinations.
SciFi Mafia: Thanks, I’ll pass that along to him. Be assured that you’re tickling the people in Germany.
I presume you’ve heard about Beauty and the Beast, with a few pilots having been given a green light from ABC and The CW?
David Greenwalt: Yes.
SciFi Mafia: You know, I’ll take every single one of the fantasies the networks want to put on as long as it’s written well like yours is. But from your standpoint, is that a good, more the merrier thing, or does it kind of dilute the pool?
Jim Kouf: I don’t think it really matters.
David Greenwalt: I think it’s a neutral move or something like – because like you say, the – you know if a show is good is what matters. The rest doesn’t really you know matter.
Jim Kouf: Yes. Our job is to keep the writing strong and the shows strong, and hopefully we’re delivering good entertainment every week. So that’s our job.
SciFi Mafia: Well, you’re clearly doing that. What’s been the biggest challenge and what’s the most fun about this show for each of you?
Jim Kouf: The biggest challenge is producing the shows because we’re writing actually what we feel are movies that they’re producing on a TV schedule. So hats off to our production team in Portland who actually is you know given the task of making these things, and they’re difficult. They’re physically challenging to make. That’s the hardest part.
The most fun for me is the mythology that we’re getting into and the chance to explore some fun stuff coming up.
David Greenwalt: And for me the most challenging thing is to get to the office before noon. And the most exciting thing is seeing these shows on television and when they come out really good and they really work, and they’re dark and psychological and kind of funny. And that feels very satisfying and encourages me to get up in the morning and get in and work with Jim.
SciFi Mafia: Great. Well thanks so much for such a great show.
David Greenwalt: Thank you so much.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
Thanks again to Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt for taking the time to talk with us.
Grimm airs Friday nights (tonight!) at 9/8c on NBC.
