Dean's War at Home Blog

Hello again! This is Dean Collins from The War at Home. This week's episode is called "A Bitter Pill to Swallow." My character decides to take up fencing to escape the influence of his father. This particular episode was probably my hardest week on the show. Before this episode began production, I received a call from our creator and executive producer, Rob Lotterstein. He told me that he had pitched the idea of my character learning to fence to the Fox network and they thought it was great. He told me the basic story, in which my character develops an interest in fencing. I told him that it sounded like a lot of fun and I would love to do it, but then he mentioned that in order for me to look like a proper fencer, I would have to take a week and a half's worth of fencing lessons. This sounded like a fun experience and I was ready to take on the challenge.

Over the weekend, I went to the Warner Bros. Studios to begin my training with my fencing instructor, Anthony De Longis. The first lesson was two hours long and after this session ended I began to realize how hard this was going to be. Over the course of the next few days I received five hours of fencing lessons. Although it was really hard and exhausting, in the end it was a rewarding experience. If I'm ever walking down a dark alley way and some vagrant attacks me, I will whip out my fencing sword and use all the moves Anthony taught me. When we finally filmed the episode I was more than prepared to execute the required fencing moves. This week I also went to the movies with Michael and Kyle. We saw Zodiac, and it was really good. David Fincher is one of my favorite directors. I loved Se7En and Fight Club, so Zodiac was really exciting to see. It was a really long movie, but it maintained my interest throughout. After the movie, Kyle, Michael and I all went to Sweet Lady Jane's and ate cake. They have some of the most amazing cakes in Los Angeles. I highly recommend it. So, be sure to watch The War at Home this Sunday at 7:30 pm/ET so you can see me hit Michael Rapaport with a big sword. Thanks for reading this blog, and I hope you enjoy the episode.

Hello, again! This is Dean Collins from The War at Home, writing my second blog for TVGuide.com. This week's episode of The War at Home is entitled, "Take This Job and Bleep It." Instead of airing this Thursday night, we're moving back to our usual Sunday night schedule at a new time, 7:30 pm/ET. Sorry about the confusion, but I assure you this is our last move. Be sure to catch this week's episode at 7:30 pm, Sunday night on Fox. This week's episode is about Dave losing his job. My character doesn't clean his room because he's lazy. When Anita Barone (Vicky) yells at Mike to clean his room, he just brushes her off.

Recently, I went to the premiere of The Number 23 after work. My best friend Logan Lerman is in it, so he took me to the premiere with him. It was an awesome movie. I did not get to meet Jim Carrey, but he sat right behind me, and it was quite an experience, considering he's my favorite actor. I love his dramatic films and this was really cool because it's the first time he's ever been in a thriller. I loved Eternal Sunshine, Man on the Moon and The Truman Show. My best friend Logan has a huge part in the film as Jim Carrey's son.

Logan and I make a lot of our own short films for YouTube. If anyone reading this is interested, go ahead and check out our films here. We've made eight short films so far, and have purchased two really nice HD cameras, which we plan to use in the production of our first full-length feature. We're writing the script right now, and I hope anyone reading this will tune in to YouTube and check it out when it's done. Michael Rapaport agreed to be in our movie, and Logan and I are both acting in it. We're still in the process of casting supporting characters right now, but plan to be finished with the film by January 2008. This coming weekend, Logan and I are filming an in-the-studio style music video for my brother Blake, who's a singer/songwriter. It will be a great learning experience considering that I've never shot anything dealing with music before. If anybody is interested, be sure to check out YouTube and see the full video or check out my brother's MySpace page.

Blake has been making music since he was 15 years old, and has now turned his apartment into a complete music studio. He's really talented and has performed all over Los Angeles and London at venues such as The Roxy, The Whiskey and The Key Club. If you check out his music, I'm sure you'll love it.

That's all I have for today, so be sure to check out The War at Home at our new time, 7:30 pm this Sunday, on Fox.

Hello, everyone, this is Dean Collins from The War at Home. (I play Mike.) I've never written an official blog before, so here goes.

The next episode of the The War at Home, airing Thursday at 8:30 (on Fox), is called “No Weddings and a Funeral.” For this episode, we had a bunch of guest stars, including George Segal and Jamie Farr, who were both awesome to work with and totally down-to-earth. We also had to construct a mock airplane set, which made filming a much more complicated process than it usually is.

Normally we film in four-camera, which means that each camera can get different coverage simultaneously and as a result we can finish a scene in just a few takes. In this particular episode, the plane set forced us to shoot more like a one-camera show, requiring many more takes than usual. But we did it, and it turned out great!

Since I was on that plane set for such a long time, the prop master on the show (John) gave my character a Gameboy to play with. It was a Nintendo DS, and it kicked ass! It had Metroid on it, and I sat there playing for hours, until my costar Kyle Sullivan stole it from me and bogarted it for the rest of the day.

In Season 1, it was established that Mike has a fear of flying, so in this episode flying on a plane for a second time is not easy for him. Hillary torments me on the plane, and I have a panic attack. The show is really funny and I had a good time shooting it. There are only a couple more episodes left to shoot, so do me a favor and keep watching the show. Hopefully we will get picked up for a third season next year! Thanks for all the support and I look forward to writing for TV Guide next week!