Coastlines: After Dark

Coastlines: After Dark

Punblished by BestBookPublication.com

All contents copyright respective authors

Dedicatorium

Thank you Sean Duffield for the magnificent cover art, and John Robbins for the final cover formatting.

This book was helped to birth by Patreon patrons over the years: Artemiy Kondratiev, Arsalan Haider Ali, Alan Rowell, Benjamin Stone, Andrew Gallagher, Ian Lawther, Donal Fallon, Amanda Rodriguez, Claire Dickson, Dave Cromie, Richard Huang, Ljerka Jemric, Chell, Sonia Andree, John Robbins, and Andrew Bolster.

To the Belfast Nights watch party: Ian Lawther for loyal friendship, to Jonny Porter for his courage, and to Neill Stringer of many facepalms. To the Evenings with Mitch Buchannon podcasters: Nick Box, JP Matthews and Chris Hines, for welcoming me into their club and part-inspiring this project. And to Allison Pregler persevering with diligence, bravery and comedy in the Movie Nights Baywatching series.

FOREWORD

BY ALLISON PREGLER

What does a Coastguard know about being a detective? Everything, stupid!

When I was approached to write the foreword for Coastlines: After Dark, the second tome (twome) covering Coastlines: After Dark, frankly, I was confused, much like audiences were at the time of airing. Coastlines was a televisual event unsurpassed by any other show except for, of course, Coastlines: After Dark, whose essence can't possibly be contained on the written page. It is an experience for all six of your senses: you must see the dimly lit monsters, hear the expertly crafted five minutes of exposition (minimum), smell Mike O'Hannon's sea salt musk, touch the mighty hair on his chest, taste the spine-tingling fear, and psychically bond with an alien child via lightning strike should the need arise. However, much like Mike O'Hannon in season one, I am but a scrappy upstart in need of money and a good cup of coffee, and so I'll humor everyone and half-ass something here.

Coastlines: After Dark (the book, not the show) is the ultimate extension of the ultimate series, a cornucopia of trivia, stories, and other detritus that you never imagined you needed in your skull matter (Skull matter, as you may recall, is Jack Cage's clever euphemism for brains, as first said in season two, episode 6, The Upsetting). Never before have we had such an insider's look at one of the most lauded television spinoff's second season's third retool. I must warn you, the stories contained within are both frightening and bewildering, and if you aren't sitting, well, perhaps you aren't human. Perhaps you are from the sea. Perhaps there's a knock on your door...and Mike O'Hannon has some vague questions for you. And Valhalla help you if you look too closely at your chair, for it may be a Yugoslavian Wood Creature in disguise, and Blake McClean's science will not be there to protect you. After reading this book...your coastlines won't ever look the same again.

Pretty spooky, huh folks?

Coastlines: After Dark is a hilarious book where Baywatch meets Garth Marenghi, a love letter to a cheesier time. Reading it was a wild ride, and fans of horror, beach shows, and silly old TV will enjoy it too. Some people might say that's a niche interest, but if Baywatch Nights made it to air, I think there's an audience. Go forth bravely, and may this save be yours.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to a very special behind the scenes look at Coastlines: After Dark, season two. Some of you purchased the volume covering season one but as it can no longer be found in Barnes & Noble, here is a short introduction.  Of course, you need no introduction to the parent show, Coastlines. With the most watched television series in the world we asked our audience, what does a coastguard do? And we kept asking, over 595 episodes and 11 straight-to-video releases. Our viewers came to appreciate that a coastguard guards the coast. Even today 'Coastlines' is slang among Spanish children aspiring to become coastguards. The show was dedicated to new levels of drama, equality, and talking about the tough issues which face us all. It featured an ensemble cast of talented people who entertained the whole family with their daring exploits. And the show launched a number of carers.

​The only known quantity was our lead, Brad Wangletarp. Brad shot to fame in the 1980s as Zack Falcon in hit show Road Falcon. Each week audiences would tune in to see Brad driving an advanced technology motorcycle which was bigger under the seat than on top. In Coastlines, Brad played Coastguard Mike O'Hannon: a tough ex-navy SEAL and single father working to guard the coast and provide for his young son. Recall, Coastlines was broadcast a full fifteen years before Coastguard Alaska and dozens of other shows in the coastguard genre. They'd no doubt thank us for being brave enough to break the taboo on coastguard related material.

AFTER DARK

At the time we concocted After Dark, Brad was already our lead actor, and a writer, director and executive producer. For years he'd been asking, what does a coastguard do at the coast when they don't guard the coast? He literally repeated this for years and I sent him for a medical. They were always looking at things, he'd say. Could they be detectives too? Well, the thought stayed with us. At the same time Coastlines was a phenomena comparable to Beatlemania, and so the studio were keen for a spin-off. This new show would be a gritty adult drama about the After Dark detective agency based in the town of Coastlines.

​Mike O'Hannon would partner up with series regular, Police Officer Morgan Willerby, played by Gar(ret) Lee Mayanez. Willerby was a natural hit with viewers and the two men had an electric chemistry. His character was a horror movie buff with an interest in UFOs, who liked nothing more than having fun, and eating hot dogs. The third investigator was a new character: Blake McClean, played by Zoe Thorp. Not just a detective but a lady scientist! It was almost unheard of in 1997 for television to feature strong women, not least ones with brains. Women who could handle a microscope, with a test tube in her other hand. Zoe has spoken fondly of her time on After Dark and has gotten much fan mail. You may be familiar with one story. As its an ongoing case it would be a breach of the law for me to comment further.

​We added another three actors in recurring roles. Fashion model Serenity Smith played Serendipity Soteria, the feisty landlady who boldly helped out After Dark on cases. Brad had a friend in global blues legend Bo Raims and he joined us as small-time blues club-singer, Bo Rains. We also had local community leader Al Gambino playing various police officers.

​Our first series was a quirky, upbeat and charismatic detective show. Episodes involved serial killers, chicken rustlers, motorcycle bandits, jewel thieves who used hand-gliders, a supermarket siege, a casino operating out of the back of a cheese shop, and ice-skating bank robbers. We had a great time but we knew season two had to be different. A complete 380. New stories, a new look. So we let go of Gar, Serenity, Bo and Al: with some sadness I might add. If we’d known that was a breach of contract which would cost us tens of thousands of dollars we might have thought twice. On the other hand, this bold innovation triggered the contractual cast reunion in the acclaimed sixth episode, The False Church. But enough about them. As you'll soon discover season two of After Dark went even further: it went after dark after dark.

COASTLINES AFTER DARK WON'T EVER LOOK THE SAME AGAIN

It began with a simple question. If in Mike O'Hannon we had a self-made hero, a Zeus-like Adonis, what if O'Hannon had to battle Zeus himself? This initial concept never made it out of the writer's room Christmas party but it led the way like a candle-lit lamp in a storm. Brad and I decided at the stroke of midnight in Blitzer's we would push the envelope right off the table and onto the next one. We could follow in the footsteps of Star Trek, Lost in Space, and newcomer X-Files. All that weird stuff that is just so zany, so weird, like honey to bees of those people who use computers and read comics. In some ways all those freaks were right. Not so much about science-fiction, a genre pioneered way back with Orson Welles' book, War of the Worlds, in 1948. Our eureka moment came in combining sci-fi with horror. Monsters under your bed. The tales your great Uncle Ralph used to tell you, with his vodka-soaked breath and lazy eye. Half-true stories and that fear of the unknown. We were on the cusp of genius if I'm honest. Let's face it, the appeal of mystery is universal. Even more-so when it concerns the spine-tickling goolies. Don't you want to know if Bigfoot is real, Easter Island, or Tarzan? When Brad and myself conceived of this radical new direction we knew we were ahead of the curve. You may remember stories in the news when bouncers threw us out of that nightclub. Of course, they didn't know why Brad was stood on the table screaming, 'Super-Nature!', but they soon would. The whole world would know.

​In Coastlines, Mike was used to saving women from The Sea so it was only natural he'd be After Dark's septic. He represented our audience as much as any tough ex-Navy SEAL, single father, coastguard, detective and ghost-hunter can. The new format also gave Zoe more ways to shine in each episode. Not only was Blake a woman, and therefore prone to big scares, but also a scientist who could explain things to our viewers. Our female audience gravitated towards this plucky single woman and understood her apprehension.

​Towards the end of Season 1 we hired two unknowns who would join our supporting caste. When Serenity checked into rehab, Bonnie Enna took over as coastguard-in-training Bonnie Carlo. The other actor was Johnny Molenz who appeared in the episode, 'Garbage Man'. Johnny played a schizophrenic Gulf War veteran employed by the city for waste disposal, a job his character used to assemble clues in criminal investigations. He impressed us with his portrayal and we re-cast him as Rip Chase, a mild-mannered courier working part-time for Mike and Blake.

​To really sell the new angle of paranormal dicks, as Brad put it, we needed an inside man. The sort of guy who'd photographed fairies or went fishing for the Loch Ness Monster. Zoe recommended Frazer Nelson, her fellow patron with the charity, 'Stop, Children!' Frazer was a Shakespeare-trained actor. He'd performed Arthur Millar plays on Broadway, and The Pirates of Penzance. Well you can't get more Coastlines than pirates! Initially Frazer had doubts, but we managed to cast him as Jose Piaget, Mike's point of contact with the unknown. A West Coast hipster who was troubled by scampi, but also a mystery wrapped in a secret, like a shadow. Frazer liked the idea of portraying someone who only appeared in the occasional episode. He had one request, that his character's name be changed to Jack Cage. Of course we loved that! Frazer brought a somber portrayal to Cage and this was controversial at times, but we weren't afraid. Once we saw him in the first few episodes we knew we had to reach out to his agent, Antonio 'Strongarm' Corleone. We were right: Jack became a fan favorite, and Frazer too. We knew our audiences wanted more of this mystery man and we gave them so much more, but not too much. As the series went on, Frazer appeared regularly, but tensions developed between him and Brad. Parts were re-written to right the boat and reassure our star he was sailing on a smooth sea, pun intended. The rest, as they say, is history.

THE CREW

We had many talents with us. The highly imaginative Damon Krull worked as our set designer, overseeing props and special effects. I saw Damon last week and told him I was writing this introduction. He felt I should compare After Dark to The Wire. It's a show I have not seen, although we did use plenty of wire on our sets. There was Bobby Brisket, the eccentric old ex-jockey who ran the Kraft table. He chewed our ears off with requests to give him a show of his own. Well, despite Bobby's handwritten mud-stained notes the network did not commission a series about a hot dog vendor who solves mysteries.