An Interview with Huff Creator/Executive Producer Bob Lowry (Page 2)

Q: How about the series regulars, did you create their roles specifically for them?
Bob: "I didn't. I wrote the script as a spec, which is something a writer does when he needs work. I was on a show called Any Day Now with Annie Potts on Lifetime. I was on that show for four years and between year three and year four, during hiatus, my agent said he needed either a West Wing or new material. I didn't want to do a West Wing (I like the show very much), but I wanted to do my own thing. I went to Hawaii and wrote Huff in three weeks. It was intended to be a script for my agent to show people my writing abilities and here we are. Showtime bought it and a year later we went into production and we got seven Emmy nominations and here were are with Angelica Houston and Sharon Stone!"

Q: Is there a limit on how many seasons you'll continue to keep this show going?
Bob: "I do not. We don't know of we've been renewed for year three. We will know that May 2nd. I think as creator, it would be a tragedy creatively to lose an ensemble of this caliber. To not be able to capitalize on Blythe Danner, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria, Faith Prince -- When has a cast like that ever been assembled in television?"

Q: What can you tell us about what's coming up on the show?
Bob: "Hank Azaria does ecstasy with Angelica Houston's character. She gives it to him as a clinical psychologist. It's not so much as Hank and Angelica take Ex as what happens within that entire episode. Teddy falls in love, he finds a girlfriend, Ashley Williams, another terrific actor, who does seven or eight episodes for us."

Q: Do you have any other series in the works?
Bob: "I'm executive producer now with Paul Haggis and Bobbie Moresco -- they won an Oscar for Crash and they have a TV show on the fall schedule on NBC and I'm working with them now. I've been over there as E.P. for about two months."

Q: What is the most challenging part of being the creator and executive producer?
Bob: "Maintaining an even keel in my head and heart. Not taking silly sh*t personally and always creatively pushing the writers to be entertaining and truthful and come up with things we haven't seen before."

Q: If you could be the executive producer of any other show on television, what would it be?
Bob: "Grey's Anatomy. Grey's Anatomy and Lost, those are my two favorites. Shonda Rhimes, I've never met her, but I'd love to have lunch with her. I am a huge fan of hers for so many reasons and my hat goes off to her."

Q: How has Huff Changed your life?
Bob: "Huff has put me in the league of creator/show runner, which is a whole new game. I definitely would not have got this job with Paul Haggis without it. It has given my work attention and has moved me forward I believe, creatively. It has instilled a lot of confidence in my work. I finally can say I'm a good writer. Not that I don't have stuff to learn, not that some of my stuff isn't crap. I launched a show with a lot of help from the network and studio. I launched a show with low viewership that got seven Emmy nominations - that's huge!"

Q: Is there anything you'd like to add?
Bob: "Buy Showtime, watch Huff!"