Chris Sheridan has spent a good portion of his career working on the very successful Family Guy. He worked on the show until its eleventh season and the show was nominated numerous times for an Emmy.
Chris Sherdan is an executive producer on Resident Alien. Resident Alien is a series on SyFy based off of a comic book series created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse The series has been published by Dark Horse Comics. The story follows a stranded Alien Harry who must integrate into the small town of Patience in order to buy time until he can finish his mission.
Screen Rant had the opportunity to speak with the executive producer on the new show, how easy and necessary it was to adapt. He also spoke on how amazing it was to have Alan Tudyk and Linda Hamilton a part of this new series.
The new series stars Alan Tudyk premieres January 27th on Syfy.
Congratulations on the show. It’s hilarious. And it’s like the perfect time for a series like this to come out. For you what stood out about the comic that made it so easy to adapt.
Chris Sheridan: I fell in love with comics. I think Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse did such an incredible job with that. You know, what I love is this, this outsider coming to this town and observing humanity. I thought, you know, learning about humanities with the eyes of an alien was a great concept for a TV show. And I was excited to maybe explore that and that, that really stuck out to me and they did such a great job and it had to make some changes in the show, I wanted to keep that piece of it because I feel like that’s sort of the soul of what Harry was doing and, and it, it was done really, really well. And the graphic novel.
Now, when imagining the role for Harry, what made Alan the perfect choice to bring this character to life?
Chris Sheridan: Yeah, Alan Tudyk is just an incredible actor. We had auditions for several dozen actors before Alan walked through the door and I did not, I knew of Alan and knew his work. But I was sort of blown away when he came in. I actually had a conversation with him the night before when David Dopkin, who directed the pilot. We Skyped with them the night before. Because we were up in Vancouver getting ready to shoot and he was in LA and we met him and talked to him about the role because he was going to audition the next day. And we gave him some thoughts that we had about us. We could work overnight. And even from that first conversation over Skype, we got off the Skype and looked at each other and said, we think this might be the guy. And then the next day when he came in, he just brought such a great energy to it. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s hard to put into words, but he, he walks this perfect line. There were some actors who came in and just played it like a leading man. And there were some that came in and played it, you know, like an alien, a little more robotic, like a very alien. And he had picked. He walked the line down the middle where he played it oddly enough that you can buy that this guy is an alien, but he also has an Alan himself and has so much humanity in him. That humanity comes through in his performance, which grounds the character and also makes them feel human in a way. So he’s ultimately, you know, as I realized as the show, you know, we’re shooting the episode one on he’s, he’s played that very childlike, you know, he’s, he’s learning as he goes along and he plays it so magnificently, it’s really fun to watch. And it’s fun to see him to see the world through his eyes as an alien.
The show is a perfect mix of drama and comedy, which is a small departure from your previous work. Did you draw any inspiration from anywhere else to help achieve this balance?
Chris Sheridan: I’ve spent many, many years on Family Guy and a lot of other comedy shows, but the last 10 years while working on Family Guy, I’ve also been really studying a lot of dramatic shows, everything from Breaking Bad, The Wire and Sopranos and Game of Thrones. I just watch everything and study how they do it. And so, yeah, I mean, there’s, there’s elements of this you know, that I, that I learned from watching what Sean Ryan did with The Shield stuff on this that I learned from watching Vince Gilligan, David Mills, like there’s just so many people that I’ve sort of studied watching their shows. As many of the other writers in the writers room have as well just, you know, try to find the balance. And ultimately you can tell dramatic stories. And if, if the comedy comes from true character moments, it will always feel like it fits with the drama. So it seems to, it seems to have worked, which I’m happy about. Amazing.
Now, the last question tells me about working with Linda Hamilton and how excited were you to have her be a part of this project?
Chris Sheridan: Yeah, I mean, I was thrilled to get into Hamilton. She plays General McAllister who sort of knows that this craft has crashed from his and after our alien. She was my first choice and she said, yes. And I was so thrilled to get her. She’s obviously iconic, but she also, you know, a great actress and truly a really, really nice person. So it was great to work with her and, you know, hopefully this season will do well and we’ll get another season and we can continue to work with her moving forward. She’s fantastic.
