CW network gives vote of confidence to ‘Girlfriend’

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow premieres Thursday, Jan. 21 at 8/7c on The CW. “Whenever this group of characters is on the bridge [of the time-traveling ship, Waverider], talking about their adventures, either prior to or after, they’re sort of this dysfunctional family, and I’m not sure I had that thought, or any of us did, as we started fleshing it out”. “Because they’re a band of time-traveling rogues, it’s harder for Arrow and Flash to be connected story-wise to it throughout the season”.

“The characters were really interesting to us, and we never felt that we had enough time on Flash or Arrow to delve into their lives…And we looked at the landscape and felt there really wasn’t a classic team-up show in this genre”.

“If there was an actual rulebook we could read and learn, we would follow that”, he said at the CW’s presentation for the show at the Television Critics Association press tour. What surprised him as the show evolved, Berlanti said, was how much it evolved beyond the first discussions that he and his fellow executive producers had.

Berlanti, a man who has five shows now on the air, added that he tries to remain conscious of time travel rules established on other programs – but more as a point of comparison more than for inspiration. He hasn’t chosen them because he likes them. The note, “Time travel isn’t real, so there is no real rulebook that we can follow”.

“As Andrew [Kreisberg, executive producer] always says, as far as we know, time travel isn’t real”, Berlanti quipped, “so there’s no rule book for it”. So the stakes and consequences are real.

The CW DC universe has brought characters back from the dead before, but executive producer Phil Klemmer expounded upon why time travel isn’t going to be an easy way to rewrite key moments in the shows’ histories. “I’m very hopeful that we’ll see it again”. “But at this moment past year, Legends of Tomorrow didn’t really exist, so time will take its toll…” “I don’t think we want a homogenized version of that show”. “Arrow can be pretty dark, and Sara out of all the characters was pretty dark”.

“As we said since we started out doing ‘Arrow, ‘ our heroes need to represent the people that they’re saving”.

One revelation as the program took shape, added Berlanti, is “how much of a family show it is”.

With Vampire and Originals on Friday, the network now boasts “the best schedule since I’ve been on The CW, ever”, said Pedowitz.

“I would love it, a lot of things would have to go right and people would have to say ‘Yes, ‘” Berlanti said. “But we believe there is a place on our schedule today for a show like this and we’re going to give it a chance to get seen”. The producers opened up about how they got around that by grouping off the various legends “into different little subgroups” so that they could all shine around different team members. Falk Hentschel plays Carter Hall/Hawkman, and says, “She’s very different from what he’s used to”, but that their on-set chemistry is dynamic. I don’t know when it’s going to come. “I don’t think we’ve seen a stoppage of people watching these shows”, he said.

Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN.