This interview is a continuation of one conducted with actor Michael Ironside about his role of Ham Tyler in the "V" franchise. Said interview was conducted while "V": The Series was still in production.
Ironside sees the series as an ensemble show and wishes there was more production time to bring out the different sides of the many characters who comprise the regular cast. "It's hard to have a semblance of relationship between the characters and have action," he muses. "It's like trying to have what Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere have plus have the action of the A-Team. In seven days of shooting that's very difficult. 'V' should really be an eight or a nine day show. We don't have a strong second unit which can shoot other major scenes simultaneously, like cars going over cliffs. Our special effects are strongly tied to the main characters.
"We help the director with the characters' backgrounds since there hadn't been time to put together a program bible," Ironside continues. "So our job is to hold constancy in our characters. The directors have their job to do, which is to film the show in seven days and then they're off to another assignment. And yet the pace on 'V' is still slower than what I was used to working on features in Canada. But during filming of The Final Battle, somebody came up to me and apologized for the great rush in producing a television show, because they assumed I was used to the slower pace of producing a feature. But I'd been thinking, 'Boy, is this slow,' because in Canada features are done for a million or a million-two and have a quicker pace of work than even American television."