With Dead Like Me Behind Him, Callum Blue is Now Starring in The WB's New Comedy-Drama Related

People write and tell me it changed their lives. It changed their theories about death, their concepts of life and death.

The premiere tomorrow night of The WB's new comedy-drama Related will mark the return to series television of Callum Blue, who starred for two seasons as undead rascal Mason on the Showtime series Dead Like Me. As luck would have it, Related has been scheduled on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET directly opposite CBS' Criminal Minds, a crime thriller featuring one of Blue's Dead Like Me co-stars, the veteran actor and singer Mandy Patinkin.

On Related Blue portrays Bob, the husband of one of the four sisters around whom the show revolves and the only male among the principal cast in the show. It's quite a departure from his Dead Like Me role as Mason, one member of a group of dead people known as "reapers" who guided the newly deceased through surprising experiences in the afterlife. MediaVillage entertainment editor Ed Martin met Blue at a recent party celebrating all of The WB's new and returning fall shows and informed him of the undying loyalty being expressed by fans of Dead Like Me through thousands of e-mails to MediaVillage. A beaming Blue was thrilled to hear of this massive support and revealed that he, too, continues to hear from distressed fans of the show. "I get tons and tons of letters every week," he said.

Blue was all too happy to discuss the short life and abrupt end of Dead Like Me. An edited transcript of Ed's exclusive interview follows.

Ed Martin: During the last few months MediaVillage.com has received thousands of e-mails from all over the world in support of Dead Like Me. We didn't solicit the early communications. Your fans found us and realized network executives would hear their voices if they contacted us.

Callum Blue: You're kidding! I'm glad to hear that!

EM: Do you have any idea why the show has so large and vocal a cult following?

CB: It was just such a great show. I think anybody could relate to it. The characters really grew in the two seasons it was happening. There was a great dynamic with the cast. It had a great following. And it had great ratings on Showtime.

EM: So why was it cancelled?

CB: I think the only reason it got cancelled was because of politics or egos. All that stuff, you know? It's just a shame that such a great show wasn't allowed to grow because of that. A new guy [Showtime entertainment president Bob Greenblatt] came in [to the network]. He wanted to do all of his own shows and even though we had great ratings he thought if [he] didn't create this show [that was the end].

EM: So you're saying you were the victim of a regime change?

CB: A victim of ego, that's how I would say it. [laughs] But don't worry. I dug [Greenblatt] in the ribs the other day. I saw him at a premiere and dug him in the ribs. "Sorry," I said. It was great!

(Editor's Note: In an interview last spring with MediaVillage, Dead Like Me creator Bryan Fuller placed the blame for the demise of the show squarely on MGM-TV, the studio that produced it, and not Showtime. That interview, which ran on June 6, 2005. In an earlier column that ran on May 16, 2005, a senior Showtime executive dismissed the cancellation of the show as "old news.")

EM: Do you still hear from fans of the show?

CB: I get tons and tons of letters every week. Tons of them! All telling me how much they love the show and how upset they are that it got cancelled. You know, we had a huge following. It's unbelievable we would get cancelled. I'm really upset about it because it was a good show!

EM: Did you realize early on in the show how important it was to so many people?

CB: Absolutely! [The show] took such a huge subject and put it into such an interesting context. Life and death. Who isn't going to relate to that? The audience was smart and they loved it for all the right reasons -- not because everybody was pretty, because they weren't. It was because of the context of the show, which is a gift.

EM: Do you think the show spoke to people about their beliefs?

CB: Yes. People write to me and tell me it changed their lives. It changed their theories about death, their concepts of death, of life and death.

EM: How did you end up on Related?

CB: I did a movie between the two seasons of Dead Like Me -- Princess Diaries 2. They saw me in the movie and wanted to get me in. Related is four beautiful women and me. I'm on my own with four women, which is so lovely.

EM: Are you in touch with your Dead Like Me co-stars?

CB: I speak to Jasmine [Guy, who played "reaper" Roxy] all the time. I speak to [Dead Like Me creator] Bryan Fuller all the time. Mandy [Patinkin] lives in New York so I don't speak to him as much.

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