Some people seek angels. Others have "Angel" thrust upon them.
With a resume including such genre shows as "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," "Charmed," "Dark Angel," "Roswell" and "FreakyLinks," it's not a huge leap to believe that writer-producer David Simkins runs the show on the supernatural drama "Angel."
Still, he didn't lobby for the job.
Shortly after the announcement that "Angel" -- a spinoff of UPN's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" -- would return this fall on The WB, David Greenwalt, who co-created the series with Joss Whedon, signed a deal to run the ABC midseason paranormal drama "Miracles." Logically, the next step would have been to promote his fellow executive producer, Tim Minear, to pick up the reins on "Angel" (airs Sunday, 9 p.m. ET), which stars David Boreanaz as a vampire cursed with a soul, determined to do good in Los Angeles.
However, Whedon created a science-fiction show called "Firefly" for FOX and tapped Minear to help him with that project. That left "Angel," which just came off its third and arguably best season, without a hand on the tiller.
In stepped Simkins, who had held show-runner status on "FreakyLinks," a short-lived FOX series about a Website that investigated tabloid tales.
Asked what he's doing on "Angel," Simkins says, "Good question. I'm not really sure. I have an overall deal with [20th Century Fox Television], and there is that influence, that 'Let's take care of the guy with the deal' situation."
"But I met with Joss, Tim and Chris Buchanan, who runs [Whedon's production company] Mutant Enemy. We had a pretty good meeting. Apparently, when I left the room, there was a good feeling all around."
"I found out a few days later that Joss said, 'Hire the guy.' So, yeah, that's how it happened. I was touched -- and I'm so happy to be touched. This show is great. And it's my job to bring it down in a crashing, burning flame," he laughs.
For those who fear "Angel" will run off the rails without full-time attention from Greenwalt and Minear, Simkins says, "No, no, Tim is here. Believe me, trust me. There's so much continuity here. This is one building. Tim is on 'Firefly,' but he's consulting on 'Angel' quite a bit. Not a day goes by that he's not down in the writer's room. Tim is very much involved."
"David is also still very much involved. He's doing 'Miracles,' as you know, and it's midseason, so he's got a little time. He's putting his show together, breaking stories, but he's also still here as well and consulting."
"We're all in the room together: Joss, Tim, David, me, the writing staff-- Jeff Bell, Mere Smith, Steve DeKnight. It's the usual suspects."
"Angel" ended season 3 by sending one character down, one up and one to Las Vegas. Angel was last seen in a crate headed to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean -- thanks to his misinformed, vengeful son, Connor (Vincent Kartheiser). One of Angel's team, the prescient part-demon Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), was tapped for duties in a higher realm of existence and floated heavenward. And Rat Pack-esque crooning demon Lorne (Andy Hallett), tired of having karaoke clubs wrecked as a result of Angel's crusades, decided to pack it all in and try his luck in Sin City.
Elsewhere, ex-team member Wesley (Alexis Denisof) continued in a relentless slide toward the dark side, leaving happy couple Gunn and Fred (J. August Richards, Amy Acker) wondering where everybody went.
Along the same vein, fans were wondering where Carpenter went after her character vanished for a month's worth of episodes. On the show, Cordelia was on vacation with her warrior lover, Groo (Mark Lutz). Where Carpenter was during that time has been the subject of speculation, along with whether the actress would return this fall.
Asked the question, Simkins merely says, "She was on vacation with Groo. But she's back. She is back, back, back. As you might expect, Angel is up from the depths. He comes up in the premiere. We will be featuring Cordy in the first few episodes, but she's not quite all there yet. We're going to hold off on her a little bit, because we're using her to good effect where she is."
"Without giving too much away, Cordy has her own duties where she is, up there. She's not altogether happy to not be part of the gang and ends up doing a thing, which causes a thing and, well, she ends up back with our guys. I have to say there's a little hitch in her giddy-up. She doesn't come back quite altogether Cordy."
As for Lorne, Simkins says, "You'll be seeing him in Vegas in Episode 3. It's Lorne as Wayne Newton meets Tom Jones. He's having a great time."
Whedon tends to give themes to different seasons on "Buffy," whether it's "Oh, grow up" for last year, or "Buffy: Year One," for next. Asked if "Angel" has a theme this season, Simkins says, "Yeah, we do, but again, if I told you, Joss would kill me. Seriously, it hasn't really been mentioned what this year's theme is. I guess if I could say anything, it would be, 'Look out.'"
"We did end the third season with a lot of chess pieces thrown off the board. We're going to spend some time putting those pieces back on the board in the right positions. Just about the time we do that, oh, somebody might come along and upset the board again."
