Question: Is there ever going to be a point in the show where our hero questions the reality of what's going on?  Are we ever going to find out what's going on? Or is it like in STAR TREK where we accept that they're in space and don't worry about the moment that they came up with the physics for it? 

Kyle Killen: On a weekly basis, his [Michael Britten's] interactions with his therapists tend to force him to question the reality of one side versus the other. He makes it very clear that he's not particularly interested in that debate. He wants to live in both worlds as if they're real, and he does his best to treat them that way, and we as writers do our best by forcing him to question that. 

Dylan Minette as Rex and Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten on AWAKE.

Question: Will it get to the point where he does convince his wife, and maybe even his son, that there is another reality? And if so, will they all start communicating with each other even with the therapists? 

Howard Gordon: One of the great gifts and virtues of the show is that Jason's character, Michael Britten, is really a bridge between those two realities. The tension, the frustration, and I think some of the excruciating emotion of the show really is in his attempt to bridge this family that he has in both of them -- but not at the same time.  

Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten and Wilmer Valderrama as Det. Efrem Vega on AWAKE.

Question: It seems unusual to be in a cast with people who, if the pilot is indicative, you will never share screen time with other people who are in your cast. Can you elaborate on that? 

Jason Isaacs: I'm the only person that gets to act with all of them.

Wilson Valderrama: I find myself with the unique gift of playing a character that plays on both sides in two different aspects of his life. I play an LAPD officer in one reality, and his partner in the other. But there are those instances where we only see each other in the makeup room. I think the fun part about this show is that it's so unpredictable and mysterious that somehow, one way or another, we will connect with each other through some story. 

Steve Harris as Det. Freeman on AWAKE.

Question (for Steve Harris): You've done a number of television series. Would you tell us what you look for in a series and what was the appeal of this particular role?  

Steve Harris: The appeal was that it was exceptionally well written. It had the backing of these guys from the very beginning, and then subsequently, you put all of us together, and it looked like a show that was going to be a winner. Basically, it had the foundations of great writing, of great people behind it to push it through, and of us, actors, to make it live. Subsequently, we hope you believe and will take it from there. It was easy.

Jason Isaacs: [Jokingly] You've been in other television series?   

BD Wong as Dr. Lee on AWAKE.

Question (for Cherry Jones and BD Wong): If you could discuss the emotions you go through you as you play these interestingly ephemeral characters in such a unique kind of role.  

BD Wong: It's really interesting and fun to play a character that is having an argument with someone who they never speak to.

Cherry Jones: Who they don't even believe exists.

BD Wong: Yes, we're constantly arguing the lack of existence of the other person, however we never get to express these things to the person who we are refuting the existence of.

Cherry Jones: We’re really like the Bobbsey Twins, because we thought we’d never see each other when in fact, we usually shoot one after the other because we're on the same stage. So we get to share notes, and I get to tell him that I think his approach is ridiculous.

BD Wong: And I covet her furniture.

Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten on AWAKE.

Question (for Jason Isaacs): As an actor, when you're doing a role to convey that believability, do you have to believe it yourself, what your character is going through? How do you get into that mood? I know that you've played in fantasy productions, but is that the same kind of thing? 

Jason Isaacs: That's my job -- to pretend that I have an elf or that I can fly or whatever my job is here. The reason I wanted to do the show is it's a fantastic what if. That's what I've been doing professionally for 20 something years. What if? What if I had these incredibly elaborate dreams, in which neither of them felt like a dream? In some ways, it's less of a stretch of the imagination than anything I've ever done. I have a real world. I have a real life with my wife, and I've lost my son. I have to experience all the things that go with that. I close my eyes, wake up and I’m in another reality just as real, but this time it’s my wife that I’ve lost.

Jason Isaacs (continued): I can't share fully with anyone except the audience what that's like, but it just takes on a great imaginative journey. My job acting is a very easy job, but sometimes difficult to do. You have to be the person in the situation and when you have a well-written story to tell with great actors around you, there's really not much to do. My therapists talk to me, and the writers talk to me about what Britten is doing. I'm not doing anything. I'm just going to sleep and when I wake I’m suddenly, somewhere else in that world. And nothing conscious going on. I'm just quite busy. That's all.

Adrianne Palicki, James Wolk & Eloise Mumford from LONE STAR.

Question (for Kyle Killen): This is the second series you've done where the main character is essentially living two different lives. Did you learn anything from LONE STAR that influenced the way you wrote this?  

Kyle Killen: Yes. There were aspects of LONE STAR that were more difficult to get a wider, broader audience interested in. He was generally an antihero, somebody that you couldn't decide if you liked or hated. Britten's dilemma is something that we're not only sympathetic for, but somehow we want him to win. We're all behind him. The fact that these two therapists and everybody in these two worlds are telling him that he can only have one or the other, we want him to have both. Just changing the way the audience felt about our main character who happens to have two lives is definitely something that grew out of where LONE STAR went.  

AWAKE cast at 2012 Winter TCA.

Question: I think the consensus in the room is that this is one of the best pilots on any of the networks this year.

Jason Isaacs: [Jokingly] Thank you. Talk some more about that and you can all take notes. 

Question: But the worry that some people have is "Where does episode two go? Where does episode three go?" How far ahead have you plotted the series?   

Question (for Kyle Killen): There’s a sort of unspoken rule that you can't have it all be a dream, and you're kind of setting yourself up in a situation. Do you have another way out as a writer?  

Kyle Killen: There's a hundred ways out, but my guess is that 99 of them are unsatisfying to some large portion of the population. Even just discussing it amongst ourselves, there's a lot of debate about what a satisfying ending to a big question like that is. Personally, I think “it was all a dream” is not particularly satisfying. That being said, we'll work hard to at least avoid frustrating ourselves, and hopefully, entertain you, should we have the opportunity to wrap it all up eight or nine years from now. 

Dylan Minette as Rex and Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten on AWAKE.

Question: Is there a reason why Michael wouldn't create a fantasy in which both his wife and son survived?  

Jason Isaacs: Nothing is impossible. That's one of the great premises of this show. It hooked all of those who decided to be in it’s imaginations when we read it and the people who have watched it so far, because whilst it's a thrilling procedural. It's very emotional, and hopefully funny and engaging as well. While there are rules, there are also no rules. If you went into the writers' room, you would see brains and blood all over the walls because it's not like anything they've ever written before. 

Howard Gordon: It's been a lot of fun finding the rules. But it's also been a real challenge. Kyle described it at the very beginning of our encounter, this is a little bit like a vehicle for which there have been no operating instructions. We have written the manual and built the car while we've been going on the freeway at 65 miles-an-hour.

Executive Producer Kyle Killen.

Question (for Kyle Killen): After LONE STAR, which had very good reviews but obviously got a quick hook, does that sour you on the broadcast TV business? Do you linger with that, or do you let it go? Did you want to go straight to cable after that? 

Kyle Killen: No, oddly. I know LONE STAR didn't ultimately find an audience, but the fact that a studio and a network were so enthusiastic about backing it and putting it out there made me sort of bullish on network. And then to literally go from that being canceled to them saying, "Well, do you have anything else you can try?" I actually feel fairly hopeful about the whole network process. It's been good. 

Question: Because there doesn't seem to be a lot of correlation between critically liked and successful shows, do you get nervous when something is critically appraised? 

Executive Producer Howard Gordon

Question (for Howard Gordon): The production on the show stopped temporarily back in October, and then Jason was quoted as saying it might be a little too high concept for U.S. networks. What was going on then, and can you sort of talk us through the challenges you might have gone through at that time? 

Howard Gordon: Well, in a sense, we were very lucky that we didn't have an airdate because good things take time. And this was a very challenging show for us to figure out. We could have kept going. We simply went to the network at the time and only took a three-week hiatus. It was just to get our heads together and to learn from the distance we traveled and move ahead in a way that we felt good about. 

Jason Isaacs: Did I say that? I think I might have said to someone it's a fabulously high concept. I was either misquoted or my teeth got stuck. What I meant was it's a very unique and unusual way to tell a story. They were talking about "How do we differentiate between the two worlds? Is there something we should do cleverly on the screen with different colors and different angles?" I played them an iPhone clip of my 5-year-old daughter explaining the story to her friend in the park. So I think most people get it.

Jack Davenport on SMASH.

Question (for Jason Isaacs): I was curious, is it because he's playing a cop that he doesn't get to keep his accent? Because Jack Davenport [in SMASH] does. 

Jason Isaacs: [Jokingly] There are probably more English theater directors than L.A. homicide cops, I suspect. I don't know. 

Cast of THAT '70S SHOW.

Question (for Wilmer Valderrama) You've got a couple of former stars from THAT '70S SHOW seeing resurgence in sitcoms. And I hear you're going to be guest starring on ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA? 

Wilmer Valderrama: Yeah. Actually, I did. Laura and Tom Werner gave me a little call, and they said, "There's something really funny for you to do there." And I thought it would be fun to be on the same network and stay in the same family. I've been very proud of everything everyone in the THAT '70S SHOW cast has done. And we've all made some really fun, interesting and challenging choices for ourselves and our careers. I've been very proud to land in a new family that, honestly, inspires me to be great, a better actor and a better anything, just like they once did. So it was fun to relive those little moments with a live audience, but I'm even more excited about this new chapter, specifically being mentored by such an incredible cast and having the opportunity to play with a new family. 

Wilmer Valderrama as Det. Efrem Vega on AWAKE.

Question (for Wilmer Valderrama): Were you craving to do a big drama? You're very fine in this role, and that was, frankly, sort of a surprise. I was wondering if you were craving to show that side or if that just sort of was kismet? 

Wilmer Valderrama: After doing eight years and 200 episodes of easily the silliest character anybody could ever create, I was very excited to explore the rest of my skills and sink my feet into different types of roles. I was able to do so with certain films, like FAST FOOD NATION, THE DRY LAND, and LARRY CROWNE. Returning to television was something I was only interested in if I was able to be a part of something that was unique and different with some mystery. I didn’t want to return to television playing a similar role to one I had already played. I’m excited to close that chapter and show the world as well as my fans a different side. I was very blessed that Jason, Howard, and Kyle were able to see me as this character. It's definitely a conscious effort to be able to show another side and return with something unique and different as an actor.

Laura Allen as Hannah Britten on AWAKE.

Question (for Laura Allen) Obviously, your character is in a really strange situation where your husband gets to see your dead son and you don't. You’ve gone through the grief of losing a child, but presumably you're not grief stricken on screen a hundred percent of the time. Can you talk about the balance of grief, jealousy, and getting on with your life that you're playing? 

Laura Allen: I have the benefit of being very clear about my reality. I don't have to go between two worlds. Early on he talks about his dreams, and I really shut it down. It's nothing we discuss beyond the pilot. So him living this other reality is not part of my process at all. And maybe it's causing a bit of a rift in the relationship, but I think we're trying to get past so many things, dealing with the grief and moving forward. I think Hannah's really trying to be hopeful about possibilities of who we might be as a couple now. Losing Rex is devastating, but he's also always going to be with us. And I think I'm grieving in a way that I'm hoping is natural. 

Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten on AWAKE.

Question (for Howard Gordon) Can you guys talk about the significance of the sort of nighttime sleep schedule? Like what if Jason's character pulls an all-nighter? 

Howard Gordon: That’s where laying down some kind of guidelines is plausible for what works, and the symmetry of going to sleep and waking up works, at least for us to all get acquainted. But we absolutely, in very short order, explore that very thing. For instance, what happens when the character is in a mental hospital in a hostage situation and gets hit with a nearly lethal dose of Haldol and starts hallucinating about a penguin?  

Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten on AWAKE.

Question: It seems like the toughest challenge might be to explain this show to viewers in a network promo. Have you seen any promos that have been cut yet, and do you have any ideas on how you can draw people in? 

Howard Gordon: A couple of trailers. Jason’s daughter distilled this to a very simple premise on an iPhone. He's a cop who goes to sleep, wakes up, and he's with his wife. He then goes to sleep, wakes up, and he's with his son. All in the while discovering clues and details that crossover from one world to the next that’s insight helps to solve crimes. 

Jason Isaacs: My 5-year-old daughter didn't quite say all that. 

Howard Gordon: [Jokingly] I added the crime part. But look, it is a fairly gettable concept once you sit down and actually pay attention to it. And whatever learning curve there might be, we hope it's a shallow one. We are optimistic that it is a shallow one and that people will catch onto the vocabulary in short order.

Damien Lewis and Claire Danes on HOMELAND.

Question (for Howard Gordon): I'm wondering how you're keeping your sanity. You've got this here at NBC. You've got HOMELAND. There's 24: THE MOVIE, and I think you've got a book as well.

Howard Gordon: Who said I was keeping my sanity? The only thing that's factual is HOMELAND. Also, I have a book that came out earlier this year, a sequel to one I published last year called "Hard Target." Buy it or download it. However, this really has been my primary. HOMELAND happened before, and it was staggered. And this has been a full time gig for the last six, seven months.

Whiteboard of ideas for "Remedial Chaos Theory" episode of COMMUNITY.

Question (for Howard Gordon and Kyle Killen): How much more logistical work does the fact that Michael is in two different worlds create for you guys in terms of mapping out stories? 

Kyle Killen: I don't know if you saw the COMMUNITY episode "Remedial Chaos Theory". In that, they posted their whiteboard of ideas. It felt so awesome because I was like, "Well, that's the kind of mess our whiteboard is every week." We have that level of insanity where you think you have it, and then it's like, "But he can't be there because…" It’s like putting together a Rubik's cube every eight days. 

Howard Gordon: We actually color coded it very early on in the process, just for us to understand it visually. In Rex's world we had Rex equals Dr. Evans equals green. So anything in that story is green. Anything in the other story is red. So we kind of had a pretty graphic representation of it. But it's sort of somewhere between COMMUNITY and A BEAUTIFUL MIND.

Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten on AWAKE.

Question (for Kyle Killen) Did you make him a cop because having a procedural would, no matter how complex it is, provide the ability to always end at least one story every week? 

Kyle Killen: Sure. When you're begging people to watch episode three, it's hard to say, "If you wouldn't mind going back and catching one, and two, otherwise, you'll be lost," this show has a procedural engine. There's a case every week, and there's something that, whenever you get to it, you're going to engage with and hopefully find interesting. And then it lets a later episode be the hook for going back and catching up.

Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten on AWAKE.

Question (for Jason Isaacs): There's something special about the fact that he’s a cop because most of the time we see him he’s just a confused man. This character is very analytical. He comes up with a well-thought-out process by putting a different wristband, depending on which world he's in, to keep track. Is there something about this guy that makes him the perfect guy to be in two worlds?

Jason Isaacs: It's not a mistake that his mind has come up with this dream. It's not by accident. He's a great cop. He's an instinctive detective and human being. We all wish we had a little Michael Britten in us. He's the perfect person to be in this situation. I think it makes him a better policeman. Even if he didn't have these two realities, he'd be a very good detective because he understands human beings. He observes things. His emotions are closer to the surface.

Jason Isaacs (continued): What's difficult and interesting is that every time there's a case, he has to ask himself, "Am I imagining this? Which one am I making up?" He's not stupid. He's not insane. He knows that somewhere he's creating one of these worlds, but he's not confident enough about which one he's making up to dismiss them, and that's the fun. Every week I get the script and look through it, I imagine the fun the audience is going to have. I hope they have the same fun that I have deciphering it. He's not ahead of the audience at all. You have the adventure with him.

Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten on AWAKE.

Question (for Jason Isaacs): Besides the blue eyes, what qualities do you share with him? Are you a puzzle solver? 

Jason Isaacs: With him? None. He is tougher, sexier, smarter, cooler, faster, stronger, and more American than I am in every way. I wish I was him, apart from the dead relative bit, obviously. 

Michaela McManus as Tara and Jason Isaacs as Michael Britten on AWAKE.

Question (for Kyle Killen): You talked a little bit about the endless possibilities of where the show could go and how it could all end. Are audiences too obsessed with the destination? Would it be better if it didn't really matter or do we need to be invested in some sort of outcome to enjoy that journey? 

Kyle Killen: I think it depends on the show. There are shows that constantly raise the question "What is the end?" That isn't this show. This is actually a show about a man who is actively living in two worlds. Our goal isn't to constantly have you saying, "Well, what happens when this one or that one goes away?" But to invest in the fact that these two worlds have to diverge as they get further and further away from the accident. The drama is that he's a man in the middle trying to keep a foot in both worlds as they separate. Seeing those two worlds become more real as they change, grow and develop into markedly different places over multiple seasons is really more what the experience of watching this show will be than "But how will it end?" 

Jason Isaacs: I think everybody's experienced waking up and knowing that they had a very vivid and powerful dream that was probably interesting and useful for them but then forgetting it instantly. You wake up, and poof, it's gone, and it was so real. This guy remembers it, remembers everything. So in some ways he's living out our fantasies. He's learning about himself by dreaming constantly. One of the questions we've got a lot from journalists is "What is the end? Do you know what the end is?" And the answer is that we do. We've discussed and we have a plan. And we're,[jokingly] never going to tell anyone, so you can stop asking.