The Point Radio: ARROW – Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Thrives?

This new season of ARROW promises a major thrill ride for characters on the show and fans as well. We talk to the creators and cast who reveal a few secrets on what’s to come (i.e. Black Canary dead or ??). Plus comedian Adam Ferrara is in the driver’s seat for another season of TOP GEAR and he shares with us just how deep his passion for cars really runs.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Rod back from the convention that pretty much has shown San Diego the east coast knows how to pack them in. Lots of news to share, plus a visit to the set of Arrow to talk to the cast and creators about this new season of What's On The Way.

Plus comedian Adam Ferrara is back in the driver's seat in a new season of Top Gear and he talks about that. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio.

Get The Point Radio. Arrow is back for a new season on The CW and this year the show gets back to a little bit of its mystery elements in an overlying story arc that covers pretty much most of the first part of the season. Executive producer Mark Guggenheim explains.

Those are things that we really wanted to bring into season three that was present in season one but wasn't really a part of season two because of the nature of season two was the element of mystery. Season one had a lot of mystery to it and like you know there was the undertaking, there was the well-dressed man who we revealed was John Bowerman and then we revealed what

he was up to and the conspiracy and there was a sense of like cloak and dagger that season two because it was a more straight up revenge story didn't have and we one of the things that we decided at the beginning of season three was to inject, re-inject that element into the show and certainly John's character Malcolm Merlin allows us to do that because A, he's a mysterious figure but also his agenda is mysterious and certainly we

ended season two between him and Thea on this note of ooh what's going to happen next and we're actually going to show you the remainder of that scene in the limo and what she said to him and what he said to her after basically they looked at each other and we cut out so you'll get a chance to see but a big part of the fun of season three is the mystery of where is Malcolm, what's Malcolm up to, you know what's Malcolm up to specifically

vis-a-vis Thea, that's going to be something that will evolve and roll out slowly over the course of at least the first ten episodes. Co-EP Greg Berlanti explains you can add a little romance element to that too between Oliver and Felicity. In terms of Oliver and Felicity, you know obviously they've grown in closeness through

the years and she, you know even though he said what he said under certain circumstances at the end of the year last year, there was a truth to it that we explore early on and a large part of Oliver's journey this year is dealing with whether or not he can have it all as it were, you know or is he just commissioned himself to a life of crime fighting and that's it, you know what about the life part of it and the fuller life.

And then there's a baby for Diggle played by David Ramsey who says the new arrival certainly changes the dynamic of his character. It's going to cause some tension because he has some things at stake. I don't think that Diggle is really going to have a problem, I think Oliver is going to really have a problem with the idea this guy's a father and he's risking his life every

day for his crusade which Diggle does to take great offense to. But yeah there will be some tension. I don't expect Diggle to be a stay at home dad, there are big plans coming up for him. I think that's the challenge, I think that's where the writers want to take this, they want to make the stakes higher.

How does he get more involved with not only Team Arrow and Suicide Squad and Argus but also have a family, have a child. Some of the things that Oliver wants to do, you're going to see that happen with Diggle this season, some of those balances of his personal life and this crusade, Diggle is going to start doing this season.

I think Oliver is going to see some of what Diggle goes through and have to make some choices as well. It's interesting because both these men have problems forming relationships I think and Diggle has kind of gone through some of these things. He's had a crucible, he's had an island in Afghanistan already that he's kind of dealt

with and he's further along with dealing with some of his demons. David also reminded us that the main character in the show is starting out the year in a pretty good spot. Well Oliver is in a good place right, he's got the baddie without killing him and he's officially become like a hero that doesn't kill and brings him to justice.

Now you've got to pull the carpet out from under him right and that's the idea of the season. The big bad guy, that's going to test Oliver and the whole team in a way we haven't seen it and in terms of this whole we're not going to kill and we're going to do it the right way all that will be challenged this season.

Now without being too spoilery don't count out actress Katie Lutch yet. Mark Guggenheim explains. This is what we love Katie and she's amazing and she really was such a big part of season two. We actually had to bring her back for season three and we made a recurring deal for three

episodes but we've got ideas and sort of a need certainly beyond three so you're just going to see her in a recurring role the same way we have, the way John Barramund was a recurring in season two and sometimes people are regulars and sometimes they're recurring and they go back and forth and when they're recurring just contractually we have to work around people's schedules but we do that dance and we juggle everything around and

as Katie is available you know one of the things we want to do for certain has been on our bucket list since last year as we want to do a flashback story that basically takes Sarah from the shores of the NU after the Amazah went down to Nada Parvat and becoming a member of the League of Assassins. Everyone's excited about the Arrow's sister show The Flesh and you certainly can expect

some crossovers between the two shows as the season progresses. They'll come at all shapes and sizes too as Greg tells us. I think for me the joy of it is like the comic books. You just don't know when or how it's going to happen really and that there should be different versions of it like mini versions where it's just like I'm calling Starling

City and someone is on the phone you know. We did like a little one like that at the tail end of last year in Arrow where we brought in Cisco and Caitlin before you know we did the pilot and they were shooting the pilot like the day before and then they were running over and doing there's a lot of that. The smaller ones and then also some you know wanting to do some bigger ones obviously where

there's villains that go across and you know I mean I think those are always the most those are incredibly evocative. While they won't be speedy in name, Golden Hanes is now a fully costumed member of the Arrow 10. Yeah I mean it's the good thing about the show in a way is it's not just about the side

page you know. You know Felicity does more than any of us and then anyone really gives her credit for it. So it's nice to digle as well so it's more of a team than just sidekicks but Roy brings the street cred to it.

He knows the areas. He's also kind of a logical thinker you know he can admit his faults and admit when he's wrong but this season we're going to see Roy maybe not trusting everyone as much as he normally has and maybe possibly setting off on his own little private missions to see if he's being told the truth.

And he still is kind of learning how to handle that bow. I'm good if I can stay still and shoot but if I have to do like a run and shoot it's pretty much I pretty much just owe everything to my son double Curtis for coming in because I always say that I'm his dialogue bubble because he basically is the reason why I look so cool.

You can see it looks like every cast member has a big moment or two coming up in the new season and nobody's happier about that than Siri star Stephen Amell. It's certainly going to be different and I'm excited for that. I'm so fired up for Willa Holland. She's such a wonderful actor and she's getting the car keys this year and taking the show

for the spin a little bit and as she should Emily's getting that opportunity too with an episode. We saw what a wonderful job Katie lots and Katie Cassidy and David Ramsey did last year when they had their centric episodes. It's always such a joy for me aside from the fact that I get a couple of days off.

I'm so proud of our cast and I feel like most of them are older than me but I feel like a proud dad when they get their episodes. So I'm excited for it. New episodes of Arrow every Wednesday on The CW and catch up with more right now on Hulu and Hulu Plus.

The flight radio. It's official New York Comic Con has passed the number of attendees of San Diego Comic Con. With all that there's plenty of news to share from what went down in New York City. Marvel dropped no less than a few big chunks of news on the New York Comic Con audience

including confirming the end of the Fantastic Four as we told you with number 645. The original numbering returns with issue 642 which will begin the story arc that will end the series. Writer James Robinson promises a stellar moment for all the major characters and promises also that it won't leave a bad taste in the mouth of fans.

Again, that's to take place about mid-year next year just before Fox releases their rebooted Fantastic Four film directed by Josh Trank. Not totally unexpected that there's a new Ant-Man series underway. Nick Spencer writes it. Ramon Rosanas will draw it.

It will debut for Marvel in January. And another addition to their Star Wars universe as well with the last Padawan series which will tie directly into the Star Wars Rebels animated TV show that debuted just a few days ago on Disney's XD network. That will take place in a new comic that will be written by Greg Wiseman and will debut

sometime early in 2015 as well. Not everything that came out of New York Comic Con as far as news was pretty straightforward. For example, heads are still being a little shaken over the Archie Meets Predator crossover announced by Dark Horse and Archie comics as well. That will take place in spring of next year.

Dynamite announced a new series with popular author Jim Butcher to debut sometime next year as well. It will be Butcher's Downtown and it will be an original comic book mini series more than likely in stores in February from Dynamite. And our favorite story for the weekend takes us right back to Marvel for the release of

a new Secret Wars series that will take place in the Marvel universe sometime next year. Jonathan Hickman again will write this series as well which will of course have huge merchandise tie-ins for the company. And it falls on the 30th anniversary of the original Secret Wars which took place in 1984. Not much else is known about the project right now but there is a teaser illustration

done by Alex Ross easy to find anywhere on the internet or of course at Marvel.com. Actress Katie Holmes reprises her role as Jackie Kennedy Onassis. In the new follow up to the Kennedy series from Reels, this one will continue to cover the life of the former first lady. Katie will also direct an episode of the mini series which is called After Camelot and is

set for Reels the cable channel sometime in 2016. Stars has renewed the original series black sales for a third season even though we're a few months away from the debut of the second one. Meanwhile CBS has dropped the ax again on their series Unforgettable. As you remember it was revived as a summer series with some success over the past couple

of years. However there won't be a new run of episodes next summer on CBS. And as a cherry on top of what's already been a pretty big news week, Marvel released an image of Civil War. It seems like it's a new version but not much is known about it other than in the image

there's Iron Man, Captain America and Spider-Man. All this on the heels of a new secret wars should be cool. Actor-comedian Adam Ferrara is back for a new season of the popular automotive series Top Gear on the History Channel. And I ask Adam when sandwiching this in between all these other jobs is all that because it's

a labor of love for him? Yes it is. My father had incredible mechanical ability, loved cars and anytime you wanted to spend time with dad when he wasn't working he was in the garage. So I have very limited mechanical ability.

My job was to hold the light pretty much that's what I had to do. But I got to be with my dad and he would explain that everything worked and that's how I got my emotional connection to cars. Specifically I like 60s and 70s cars that's kind of my wheelhouse. I just bought, actually bought from the show.

I bought the, we did an episode about Land Bargas which was large cars in the 70s and to prove how big it was I put a piano on the top of a 1970 Buick Electric 225 and drove around with a guy playing it. And I actually bought that car, I had to take the piano off Mike, but I bought the car and I'm restoring it now.

At the final stages I just got to get the exhaust put into it. But it's great. It's 18 feet 5 inches, 18 feet 6 inches. I have 3 garages in California in my house. It doesn't fit in any of them.

It's huge. I have to signal for a turn in that car a week in advance. So as a real gear head what would be his ultimate dream car? We don't have the time Mike. Where do you want to start?

First we're going to start with the GTO. I'll start with the 65 GTO, 68, 390 fastback, the Bullitt car, the Steve McQueen car, 59 Caddy, 62 Coupe de Ville. My father had a 57 Starfire Old with a Continental kit with a J2 in it. I would buy that.

And then pretty much the new Lamborghini, like I said, drove last night was great. The 458 Italia, the Ferrari, it's just an achievement. I mean that car was so, it's perfection, that car. So I mean I would have Jay's garage if I had his budget. We'll put it that way.

As we said, in addition to Top Gear, Adam also acts and of course still loves comedy. I ask you how he got started in that. Was he always the funny kid in high school? Yeah, it was funny on the bus and it was, I saw Richard Pryor when I was like 12 years old.

We went to one of those, you know those parties you used to go to when your parents would trip and you'd get the warning in the car when your mother would look in the back like, now don't behave like animals. Your father does business with these people. So they all went in and watched the Richard Pryor on videotape.

It was the Santa Monica concert and the kids weren't allowed in there. Then they went to have coffee and I snuck in and I rewind the tape and it just blew my head off, Mike. I remember saying out loud, look what this man can do. He just held an audience in his hand and I didn't know I wanted to be a comic but I

knew that that moment had such a profound effect on me. So how did you migrate that into acting? Well I was doing stand up on Long Island and I always wanted to see if I could do it. You had to be on television and see if I could act. But I knew I didn't know how to do it and I was very afraid to learn how to do it because

I didn't really know why it was funny. I knew I enjoyed being funny, I didn't know what made me funny and I didn't want to screw that up. So it took me a while to actually give up the courage to try and learn something new and I studied with an acting coach, Steven Book, who is still my acting coach through

this day and I realized that I can do both. So I just studied that and was fortunate enough to get a couple of jobs and be permitted to allow to do it again. So with all this plus some pretty successful writing for television as well, has he ever thought about directing?

Yeah, I wouldn't. If the opportunity presents itself then I feel like I could do a good job. It's something I would like to try. You know, it's like I'm a renaissance man. I'm actually building a flying machine as I speak to you Mike right now.

Adam Ferrara leads the pack in new episodes of Top Gear every Tuesday on the History Channel. See more episodes right now at HistoryChannel.com. That does it for the podcast. We're back again in a few days once we get unpacked and recover just a little bit. And lots more to share with you on websites like ComicMix.com, MichaelDavisWorld.com,

GetThePointRadio.com. And of course you'll always find us in the iTunes podcast directory as well. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Go to The Point Radio and we'll see you right back here.