I read the very first episode of Schuyler Falls and thought it was great. I'm going to read through them all so I can catch up with everything. Really nice website to and it's fun reading things about the town. The big three part first story was well done and I could see the scenes playing out in my mind.
Welcome, Matt! (Man, that pun never fails to amuse me. I'm easy!)
I really appreciate your taking the time to introduce yourself and give such encouraging feedback. When the site launched, my coproducer and I spent tons of time and thought putting together the background materials for the town and its residents (the map, official city website, bios, family trees, and descriptions of Schuyler Falls' history and its various landmarks), so I'm thrilled whenever someone says that stuff's come in handy.
The first introductory episodes were a hoot to write but also took so much effort, I guess because we were angsty about making the best impact right off the bat. Of course, the stories and writing have both developed a great deal since then, but you never forget your first, do you?
It takes a lot of perseverence to get through all these eps! Of course I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of these older episodes if you like. Or if you have any questions or tech issues, just give a holler. Thanks very much for reading and posting about the series!
LOL at your little pun there Thanks for the nice reply I was going to read the season recaps but I really wanted to start reading from the beginning. You will catch up more easily but you won't know the characters as well. I'm intrested in how the whole thing was created how did you and your co creator come up with the idea? are you both from the real schuyler falls? thanks
LOL at your little pun there Thanks for the nice reply I was going to read the season recaps but I really wanted to start reading from the beginning. You will catch up more easily but you won't know the characters as well.
Very true! There's quite a lot of detail in the recaps (probably too much, as usual) but the nuances of both character and plot developments are at a minimum. Plus, dialogue is awfully important in learning who these people are -- each has his or her own vocabulary and stylistic tics -- and of course, all this stuff is missing in the recaps. So ideally, slogging through the episodes is the best way to get the full experience! Still it's quite understandable that people give it a miss, considering how flippin' lengthy these episodes can be.
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I'm intrested in how the whole thing was created how did you and your co creator come up with the idea? are you both from the real schuyler falls? thanks
Actually there's a little description of how the series started on our F.A.Q. page, and if you want an incredibly detailed version you could check out an interview with the EpiGuide (the web entertainment community where this forum's hosted) for their Get Hooked On... About Schuyler Falls week. The downside of that interview is that it was done with the assumption that readers would be jumping in with the latest episode (#4.37 at the time), so there were plenty of spoilers for plot developments throughout the four seasons. So if you want to avoid knowing what happens before you read it in the eps, you should either skip the interview or stop reading once it gets to the question about my favorite characters.
If you don't trust that you'll be able to avoid the spoilers, here's the relevant section -- spoilered only to save room, not because there's anything that gives away the plots:
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When and how did you start creating About Schuyler Falls? Is it your first attempt at online entertainment? Tell us about how the series came into being.
Yes, ASF was my first attempt! The clock began in 1995, when I, Cassie and another friend named Victoria were bored at work. All of us shared a love of daytime/nighttime dramas and missed the days when characters had some depth and storylines drew on the characters' emotional lives and histories. After talking about various storylines we missed -- I recall both Cassie and I especially missed Jack and Jennifer on Days of Our Lives, for example -- we began an email round robin, where I'd write a few paragraphs, then Victoria, then Cassie, and back again. I started things off by introducing a redheaded waitress sitting in a bar, closing up for the night. And in the next paragraph, Victoria killed her off! (Bitch. ) But we were all hooked, and the round robin continued for several months. And I think Victoria's murderous instincts have been proven correct, so she had the last laugh!
At first it was all improvised, but gradually Cassie and I began to pair up to plot stories with more care. (Victoria had left the company by then.) As we reread older stuff, Cassie and I realized the story had real potential to interest an audience. I'd just gotten AOL, and we decided it'd be fun to place our work online, even though neither of us knew anything about webpages. So we began reevaluating the story, stripping out the most absurd elements -- ghosts, magic crystals, floating vampires, ridiculous over-the-top characterizations, obvious ripoffs homages of specific DOOL plots* -- and re-imagining the cast of characters, adding new subplots, motives, backstories, and so on. Eventually we rewrote everything, though there's a surprising amount of the original tucked in there.
* Hell, I was still mourning the firing of Matthew Ashford as Jack on Days of Our Lives, and that had been two years ago at that point. The character of Tristan -- the second one I created -- was sort of a little gift to the actor whom I most envisioned playing him. Original Tris was even more obviously inspired by Jack ... and the influence isn't exactly obscure even now.
I learned the basics of web design and developed a basic framed site on AOL. We launched on November 12, 1997. The relaunch to our new skyfalls.com domain was in June 1998, and things really took off then -- Yahoo noticed us, awarding us their Site of the Day; then came Netscape, ABC Radio, The Mining Company (now About.com), and Access Magazine. Awesomeness. Plenty of stops and starts over the years, but ASF is still here, presenting our screwed-up characters to the world.
Finally, there's a real Schuyler Falls, but I've never been there, and it's not actually the intended setting (though it's not that far away from it). The fictional Schuyler Falls is pretty much an amalgam of several small communities within the hundred mile radius surrounding Albany, which is where I went to college. I don't know if you know the area, but it's loosely based on places like Glen's Falls, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady, although geographically we located it further south, closer to Poughkeepsie and Kingston. It had to be far enough from a large city to be its own center of the universe, not a satellite of Albany or NYC.
Thanks for showing so much interest, Matt! Your enthusiasm is a breath of fresh air and is greatly appreciated.
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