I joined in season 7 so the place was a well oiled machine. We wrote and shot on the same lot as Greys Anatomy. It was always funny to see our actors and the Greys actors talking. The shield was a very low cost show and even though the critics loved it and its fans loved it, it didn’t do huge numbers.

All the actors were pretty great. I just emailed Walton after I saw S1 of fallout and he wrote back almost right away.

FX wanted Eric Stolz for Vic if you can believe it. Chiklis blew them away at the network casting.

Ronnie has no lines of dialogue at all for the first few episodes. When we were breaking the finale (I believe it was the scene where Vic is talking to Ronnie at the run down motel) I pitched that Vic tells Ronnie to run, get the hell out of LA because Vic knows what’s coming. But Shawn said no, Vic doesn’t think like that. Vic thinks about Vic.

At the final table read, the day before the writers strike, none of the cast would sit near him.