Season 2 Premieres
Sunday, June 23 at 10/9c

Writer’s Room: Blowing Smoke

By Gretchen Hansen | Posted on September 21st, 2012

Kevin Deiboldt offers a glimpse inside the ‘Copper’ writer’s room, where they’re reviewing…fart sketches?

A constant source of joy on Copper was watching other departments bring aspects of the scripts to life. Even the smallest detail was something they took great pains to faithfully capture.  Take, for instance, this scene between our gangs from episode five – the O’Connell Guards and the Rodrick Gang:

INT. GANG HIDEOUT – NIGHT

CARWYN, SMILING HUGH and MEMBERS of both gangs crowd around the lockbox. CARWYN shoots the lock, opens the box. He looks inside: a drawing of a man bending over with a puff of smoke emanating from his butt. Nothing else.

That drawing you saw on screen (done by talented Art Department Apprentice Julii McMillan) was just one of about ten different options we were presented with – all equally hilarious, by the way. We settled on these two finalists:

This is the beautiful absurdity of my job – I get to have in-depth conversations about which sketch worked the best (the top one, there’s just something whimsical about the way his arm flails and the arched back raises the butt into the air), while learning about the actual history of “fart drawings” (Julii showed us 200-year-old Japanese paintings of fart battles called “He-gassen”), and discussing which of our heroes would have been the one to actually draw the picture (O’Brien, natch).

Still makes me grin to visualize Andrew – sitting at his desk in the precinct, pencil in hand, taking the time to make sure the drawing looked juuuuuust right.

Have questions or comments for Kevin? Leave them below! And for more of Kevin’s ‘Copper’ musings, check out his personal blog, Ithaca Mafia, and follow him on Twitter at @Kluv32.

| 4 Comments
  • Dee

    i was intrigued by the idea of this film but the violence has become overwhelming with little or no other story, such as a real love story . Also i find it very disturbing that the child is still in the film and acting like a whore. ENOUGH ALREADY !! It was soo unnecessary to have her dance with a man and act like that! The child molester was killed the kid should be out of the picture! Send her to a boarding school or reform the child! What kind of mother would have her child mentally and emotionally ruined just to make some money from a film !!! I am done watching unless you take the kid out and have more of a STORY than constant violence. Maybe the doctor and his wife can move, and have a child?!

  • http://www.facebook.com/peter.koenig.35 Peter Koenig

    Blowing smoke indeed. Writers, spend less time on cartoons and more on basic historical research.
    In this episode, Morehouse says he saw Corcoran in NYC firing on the Draft Rioters. You folks wrote that Corcoran was in the 71st NY Volunteer Infantry – entirely plausible, as the 71st NYVI enlisted men were mainly immigrant Irish Catholics.
    At the time of the Draft Riots, shortly after Gettysburg in July 1863, the 71st NYVI (Excelsior brigade) was in northern Virginia. They weren’t in NYC, and did not fire on any civilians.
    Now, there was a different “71st regiment” in NYC during the Riots – the 71st New York National Guard, and they did fire on the rioters. Problem is, the 71st NYNG was a “Know-Nothing” regiment composed exclusively of native-born New York Protestants. It’s absolutely impossible for Corcoran to have been a member of “that” 71st regiment – unless he’s secretly an immigrant-hating, nativist, native-born Protestant himself? Wow, what a plotline…

  • 2fortheroad2

    Absolutely GREAT! It’s edgy, dark, violent – everything that NY was at that period. Captured the evil and corruption that was rampant. This is definitely NOT for young people, nor adults who abhor violence and “nastiness” (aka whore house happenings). So for those who object – please find another channel and watch some “reality” garbage and leave Copper to us who can understand and appreciate the talents of the writers and actors who are here to entertain us.

    • http://www.facebook.com/peter.koenig.35 Peter Koenig

      Verisimilitude it has, and “atmosphere.” That’s why I watch. Just don’t believe everything you see. The writers take liberties with history.

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