Where Do We Begin?

Caroline, Leo and Dierdre get cozy in Season Four.

The first episode of each season is always a challenge to create. From a storytelling point of view, we have to make sure we cover as many bases as possible in 10 minutes or less.

Who are the MAIN characters this season?
Who are the NEW characters?
What is everyone DOING?

And, of course:

Where are the MISSING characters from last season?

Not every question can be answered immediately, but enough information must be available so that returning viewers feel "caught up" (to an extent) while new viewers don't feel like they walked in mid-storyline. These are the times where we start running closer to the structure of a nighttime soap (like the OC) than a sitcom, if only to keep things moving forward.

This season we have a LOT of new faces to introduce -- more than ever before, and certainly more new faces than old ones. Rather than introducing the new cast all at once, we'll be rolling them out over the first 6 episodes or so. This allows the audience to get familiar with everyone in waves while also re-introducing the returning characters from last season.

Since Caroline is the show's closest comparison to a "main character" -- hard to do that when you're an ensemble -- it made the most sense to introduce all of her new coworkers first and allow the rest of the cast to trickle in over the next month.

But the biggest problem we ended up facing?

Uploading the finished file.

I moved into a new apartment last week and have yet to secure a reliable internet connection. Thus, after failing to upload the episode on a shoddy wireless connection for 5 straight hours on Monday, I left my own housewarming / Labor Day party for 45 minutes and uploaded the episode from the Crazy Mocha cafe in Shadyside, which has free (and reliable) wireless.

Oh, the things I do for love. And STBD.

I'll tackle yesterday's other problem topics this weekend while I'm at PodCamp in Boston.