This was one of the first times we began to realize what a force we had with Ben Edlund, who pitched the idea. Very few ideas are actually pitched to me. I tend to come up with them myself or in concert with Tim or Marti Noxon or David Greenwalt. Or I tend to come in with at least some idea of, “You know, I think we need to feel scared. I want the insecurity of....” It’s usually a process of developing the idea from something I’ve pitched out. On Firefly we were hearing pitches and would have had more opportunities to do stuff that came directly from the writers. But Ben is one of those guys who comes up with ideas - and he’s doing it on Angel, too - where you just go, “Uh, yes. Okay, I’ll just be here, go ahead.” By the way he wrote a hilarious script and a really nice song. I really love that show and Adam wasn’t exactly unhappy either. For some reason he felt good about the episode. He’s an amazing character and to get underneath without sort of lying, without saying he’s the sweetest thing that ever lived. He’s basically somebody who’s decent enough to be frustrated at the fact that people think he’s more decent than he is. That, to me, is a fun character.

We had interviewed a bunch of writers at the beginning of the year. Ben came in. He had created The Tick and now he’s on Angel. So he came in, pitched a bunch of ideas that weren’t actually right for the show, but I knew immediately that we should hire this guy. He was really funny and really smart and I just thought, “Okay, this guy’s perfect for Firefly.” And it turns out I was right. He came up with the idea for that episode, but it’s not that often actually that somebody just comes up with a right idea for an episode of the show. Usually it’s Joss who comes up with the basic idea, but I remember that Ben had come up with the idea of Jayne as Robin Hood, basically, or a Robin Hood that didn’t mean to be Robin Hood. And then there was the whole idea that there were mud farmers - everything about it was just perfect. You know, when Firefly got cancelled, I said, “Ben, you have to come to Angel with me,” which I wish I hadn’t done because I wish I’d brought him over to Wonderfalls.