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« David's Traveler Blog
And Our Special Guest Is...
Hey, guys. Thanks for all the great comments last week. Nice to see the interest in the show picking up. Now, as the title of today's entry suggests, I've invited a special guest to join us here at Dave's Traveler blog. This coming week's episode, "The Tells," offers you the first heavy dose of Will Traveler since the pilot. I've reached out to the man who brought Will to life on the small screen, Aaron Stanford, to write this week's entry. Aaron and I are both young guys who established our careers in film. (You probably recognize Aaron from his work in the X-Men movies or in such indie faves as Tadpole.) We both made our first foray into television with this show. As you may have picked up from my earlier blogs, this is not an easy transition. And I thought it would be cool for you to hear about the challenges of making Traveler from an actor's perspective. So without further adieu, here's Aaron's entry to the Traveler blog. I'll make sure he's got the URL so he can check out your comments. Enjoy the read, spread the word about "The Tells," which is a great entry point for new viewers since it retells the events of the Drexler bombing from Will's perspective, and I'll see you down the road. — Dave
Hello friends, fans and those of you just trying to stave off boredom for a few more moments by reading this blog. First, I would like to thank you all for caring enough about the show to continue watching it and to continue voicing your support. It's nice to know that all the time and effort spent in production wasn't for nothing. Dave asked me to scribble down a few words for you all about what it was like to play Will Traveler: a double-dealing, backstabbing, low-down snake in the grass. My answer? It was liberating! But seriously, there's not a whole lot I can tell you without revealing tidbits and kernels of information that you're meant to work for and sweat over in the course of the eight episodes that will (hopefully) all be airing.
Preparation for playing Will proved complicated. This was my first real experience with TV (aside from a few day-player parts) and the insanely fast pace of production caught me completely off guard. I would be given a backstory and a history for Will one day, begin researching and coming up with ideas, only to be told a week later that the backstory had been revised. Dialogue could be changed five minutes before we began shooting it. I soon realized that the best thing to do was learn to roll with the punches. I focused on moment-to-moment interactions between Will and Jay and Tyler, and tried to work with the basic unchanging elements of Will's character such as his duality and the fact that he had been living a lie every day for the past two years of his life.
The most important thing I learned — and for you to know about Will Traveler — is that he is a survivor, as illustrated at the end of Episodes 3 and 4. The details of how he managed to survive the Drexler bombing, along with other key facts about Will's identity, will be revealed in the next episode, "The Tells," this Wednesday, June 20. Yes, fans! The namesake of the series will actually have a sizable role this week, thus proving to my friends and family that I actually do have a part in the series beyond flashback cameos dripping with suspicious subtext and hidden double meanings.
When all is said and done, Will is an interesting and complex character and, if I've done my job correctly (along with the writers), he will end up surprising the lot of you... unless you are so terribly clever that you've already figured out where this twisted plot of dark shadows and deep rabbit holes is ultimately headed. Which is entirely possible. Audiences are extremely clever these days, and I have an especially high estimation of the Traveler audience. However, I hope we have stayed one step ahead of you.
Once again, thank you all for supporting the show. A lot of people worked very hard under difficult circumstances to make a show that we hoped would be worthwhile. I, for one, am very happy that you have deemed it worthy of your time. If you keep on watching, and writing in, they'll keep showing them. I hope you all enjoy the next episode, where the real Will Traveler is finally revealed. Till then! — Aaron
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Jun 15, 2007 12:57 PM
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Aaron and David, thank you again for bringing us such a fun-filled, fast-paced show. I'm enjoying watching it. Am I out of line to say I think that Will/Daniel is trying to figure out how to make good out of bad? It's almost like he was trapped in a situation not of his making. After all, he could have let Tyler and Jay die in the explosion - but he didn't!
It's good to continue to hear from you, and I hope you'll continue to share your thoughts with us as we move the first season to its conclusion!
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Jun 15, 2007 8:44 PM
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You know, Traveler has kinda sneaked up on me. I didn't think I was very invested at first, but now I'm waiting for the next episode. Plus, the hour passes more quickly than anything else on TV this summer. Thanks for the great work!
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Jun 15, 2007 9:43 PM
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Thank you both for this entry!
It's so nice to hear from people working on this great show.
Last episode was really good and I can't wait for more!
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Jun 15, 2007 9:46 PM
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I am enjoying your show very much and more so with each episode. I will be extremely happy when you let me know whether I like Will Traveler or not.
Thank you for sharing.
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Jun 16, 2007 12:44 AM
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Aaron, thanks for the great behind the scenes looks at Traveler. I think the show is fantastic, and I'm really sad that at this point it will be over in only 4 more episodes. But you've all done a great job and it has really been an exciting ride so far. I can't wait to see how this all turns out!!!
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Jun 16, 2007 11:23 AM
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I am such a huge fan of this show. The writing, the acting, the directing, everything about it is simply top-notch. Everyone involved with the show is doing an amazing job. I am doing everything I possibly can to make sure it gets renewed. I'm in the middle of organizing a postcard campaign via Traveler-Forum (http://www.traveler-forum.co.nr), there's a petition out there with 1153 signatures at last count(http://www.petitiononline.com/willtrav/petition.html), I've emailed and snail mailed TPTB, I've talked endlessly about the show to anyone who will listen, and I have a website that I'm promoting (http://www.traveler-tv.info). Anything else that comes along, I'll do that as well.  Keep up the great work and the fans will do all we can from our end. 
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Jun 16, 2007 12:25 PM
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i hope you guys are enjoying vancouver!
i'm so excited to watch the next episode
the last one had me jumping up and down--literally.
i live in downtown vancouver, so i'll be watching the episodes carefully for some familiar places!
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Jun 17, 2007 5:20 PM
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I'M HOOKED... & it just keeps getting better! Keep it up, guys!! A Fan in PA
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Jun 18, 2007 5:43 AM
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A big thanks to both David & Aaron this week. Especially Aaron for his view on the show and his character. A very good read. I have a lot of respect for actor's that actually care about the roles they play and that are nice enough to do something like this for the fans.
David, thank you for keeping us updated every week. And for the Q&A's. You've been so great to the "Traveler" fans. And regardless of whether or not the show makes it or not to a second season(I hope it does), this has been one of the most thrilling shows I've seen in a while. I usually try so hard not to get attached to new shows. But I made an exception with this and I'm glad I did.
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Jun 18, 2007 4:23 PM
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Aaron and David,
love the show. Got my honey to watch with me last week. Glad to here new people can jump on this week, I'll tell my dad. He has been biten by the "my show was cancelled" bug one too many times to trust the network, but I know he will love this show so I'll get him to watch Wednesday.
Keep up the good work. It's good to have another great show on Wednesday to look forward to.
Thank god there's something good on in the summer!
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Jun 18, 2007 4:41 PM
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I love this show. I do not watch TV at all, except for my kids PBS stuff, but I am hooked. I am enjoying so much trying to figure everything out. It is fun to watch, thank you. Aaron, I enjoy your work. Thanks.
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Jun 18, 2007 11:30 PM
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Aaron, thanks for sharing your experiences with us! Let me extend my kudos for a fabulous job. I am LOVING Traveler - I can hardly wait for the episode to air every week.
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Jun 19, 2007 3:02 PM
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David and Aaron,
I was excited to see two decent-sized sections about Traveler in the new issue of TVGuide when it arrived yesterday. But when I read the second one, I was horrified to see the line about how if the journey should end early that David would post in this blog what the intended ending would have been. While I was glad to see that you (David) would do that, I was not happy at all with the idea of the journey ending early. By "early" did you mean before these original 8 episodes have finished their run or did you mean before you get a chance to tell the entire story that you'd like to tell? If it's the former, what can fans do to encourage ABC to at least show the original 8 because they are great?
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Jun 19, 2007 3:41 PM
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