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What's Inside Warehouse 13? We've Got the Keys!

We open the doors to Syfy Network's newest TV series and introduce you to the agents who hunt down the supernatural objects

By Drusilla Moorhouse Jul 07, 2009 6:25 PMTags
Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, Warehouse 13Philippe Bosse/SyFy Channel

To unlock the doors of Syfy's newest series, Warehouse 13, we went directly to the show's secret keepers—executive producers David Simkins and Jack Kenny—for an exclusive look inside.

Here's what we've learned about the government's classified storage facility and the agents (played by Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly) assigned to track its supernatural artifacts.

It's More Than Sci Fi: Warehouse 13 is the rebranded Syfy network's first series premiere, and it's definitely not just science fiction. Warehouse 13 appeals to all fans of fun. If you like Reaper, Bones, Fringe, Indiana Jones or the madcap romance and charisma you'd find in a Cary Grant movie, you'll enjoy Warehouse 13. Pinkie swear.

Dream Team: Stars Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly have wicked chemistry—and a refreshingly nonromantic relationship—as secret-service agents Peter and Myka, the investigators who head out each episode to track down the artifacts and talismans that are meant to be impounded in Warehouse 13.

"I think it's so much more fun to play the brother-sister 'Odd Couple' aspect," executive producer Kenny tells us. "They know how to push each other's buttons, they know what they fight over, they know what they love and they know how to make each other laugh. They just know so much about each other already that it'll be a fun surprise if we ever do suddenly land them in a romantic relationship with each other, but it won't be for quite a while. If it happens at all."

Philippe Bosse/SyFy Channel

The Keymaster: McClintock says that highly regarded character actor Saul Rubinek, who plays warehouse gatekeeper Artie, is his "actor sensei." In fact, the whole cast seems to celebrate a special lovefest. The unreasonably modest McClintock puts it best: "You know, coming from Ohio and being an insurance agent out of college for seven months—before I got fired by my uncle—to working in a great series with Joanne Kelly and Saul Rubinek and CCH Pounder and Allison Scagliotti [who plays Artie's sidekick]...I'm living the dream." Aw.

Star Power: In addition to the "superfoxy, delicious" (per Eddie McClintock) Tricia Helfer, other notable guest appearances on Warehouse 13 season one will include Mark Sheppard (Dollhouse, Medium) and Eureka's Joe Morton, Niall Matter and Erica Cerra.

The producers also confirm that we'll see Gabriel Hogan again (after the pilot) as Sam, Myka's dead former partner. Fun fact: The actor's father, Michael Hogan (BSG's Colonel Tigh), and mother, Susan Hogan, also appear on Warehouse as Myka's married parents. "So we've got the whole Hogan family on the show," jokes executive producer Kenny. "Hulk Hogan's gonna be on the finale!"

About Those Artifacts: Myka and Pete will be hunting down Pandora's box and Lewis Carroll's mirror (Joanne Kelly is a huge Alice in Wonderland fan), but according to Jack Kenny: "The artifacts are almost always connected to people, and what they want out of life, and what gets in their way...Our characters tend to carry around their own artifacts: the photograph of Sam that Myka carries is her own artifact, and Pete's [artifact] is the badge, relating to his father, who died in the fire. We all have these things we carry with us—personal histories that have a powerful effect on our lives, and the way we operate in our lives. And that's the metaphor of the warehouse itself, that it's full of these objects of incredible personal import to people."

Comic Relief: Metaphors aside, executive producer Simkins points out that Warehouse 13 is not all weighty subject matter: "There are a lot of laughs. Pete and Myka are going after dangerous objects, but there's a sense of 'Really?! This is nuts!' And they play it like you or I would, like we'd all play it, like this can't really be happening. And then you go on the ride and it's a lot of fun." Adds Jack Kenny: "Plus, you can't have Eddie McClintock in something and not smile."

Warehouse 13 premieres tonight at 9 on the new and improved Syfy network.