How much have the actors gotten involved in creating these characters? Have any of them changed considerably from where they first started out on the page or are they more or less what you guys created? Jeffrey: Not really, a lot of the characters, like the original Lynna character was sort of more of a Mary Tyler More, kind of a sunny blonde, happy-go-lucky character, and then we met Heather in New York and she was starring on Broadway in a show called "Doubt" and she came in and she was this kinda of quirky and interesting, kind of dark, kind of weird character persona. And because of that, we started writing to those traits and to her strengths, and it turns out she's a fabulous physical comedian and so we've been giving her a lot of physical things to do. David: Yeah, I don't think the actors get very involved with our process, but certainly once you start to understand who the actors are, you do as Jeffrey says, start to write toward their strengths. So that's how the character of Lynna changed and Nicole as well. When we wanted Andrea, we knew Andrea brings a kind of girl next door, real kind of natural quality, you could have easily gone the way of a bimbo trophy wife, but she's solid and real and so in that case we kind of tweaked where we were going to go to accommodate her style. Do you guys have any thoughts about your initial scheduling in front of How I Met Your Mother, and then the eventual swapping of places? David: We're much happier where we are now. As much as one's ego would like to believe that the show is great enough to launch at night, I think it puts way too much pressure on any new show to start an evening. And especially our show, which is a quirky show. It's unusual, and it takes people a little bit of time to get to know us and know all the characters and so I think we're much more comfortable in these somewhat more protected time slots. Were you surprised when CBS put you at 8PM instead of How I Met Your Mother which was already pretty established coming into the year? Jeffrey: Yeah we were surprised, we were sort of flattered.... David & Jeffrey: And we were very intimidated! Jeffrey: And we kind of said going in, "Listen, if this doesn't work, you can't not move us. If we don't take off right away, you have to understand." And they said we totally get it and we love the show and we'll do whatever we can to support you. David: And what's great is once they discovered that in fact, no, they had it right the first time, we should be at 8:30, they made the switch and committed to it. Do you guys ever go on line and read fan forums and what people are saying about the show? David: I absolutely won't, cause I...it's too confusing to me. Jeffrey does it all the time. (Laughs) Does that inspire any storylines or any changes you make? Jeffrey: Well, you know, a lot of stuff I was reading was talking about when are these characters going to connect more. And that did have an effect, it made us think, "OK, that was always our intent," but we decided to sort of speed up the process. And it has actually helped out the show enormously and now, although not every scene has all eight classmates in it, they're, like we said earlier on, they're interconnecting in fun and unusual ways. So that was totally on line. How often do you guys look at the Nieslen Ratings? And, as a result, how confident are you in The Class's future and CBS's confidence in you? David: What's wonderful is CBS really believes in the show. They love the show creatively. So we hope that sustains us. Do you guys have any sneak previews of the stories coming up for the fans on BuddyTV? David & Jeffrey: Hmmm. Ummm. Hmmm. Jeffrey: Well there's a big crisis in Riches life that's coming up and everything changes after this particular incident. It's a BIG change. Yeah... Well, thank you guys for your time and talking to us. It was great! David & Jeffrey: Thank you guys, we really appreciate it. Part 1 / Part 2 This interview is the first in a series of BuddyTV interviews with the creators, writers, and producers behind many of TV's hit shows. Next week, check back to BuddyTV for an exclusive interview with Hank Steinberg, creator of The Nine and Without a Trace.