Staying In

TVWeek unveiled its Masters of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror picks earlier this week. The list features 12 showrunners, executives and producers who are making their mark in those genres, including Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams, Tim Kring, Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, David Eick & Ronald Moore, and more. I got to interview and write-up Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me) and Eric Kripke (Supernatural).

Master of Fantasy: Bryan Fuller

Like the piemaker at the center of “Pushing Daisies,” creator Bryan Fuller likes to give his shows a special touch.

His first series, Showtime’s “Dead Like Me,” featured a girl who became a grim reaper after being killed by a falling toilet seat from the Mir space station. His second, Fox’s short-lived “Wonderfalls,” had inanimate, animal-shaped objects giving instructions to the show’s heroine.

ABC’s “Pushing Daisies,” which revolves around a man who can bring the dead back to life with a touch, continues Mr. Fuller’s tradition of creating unique cult fantasies that bring comedy, romance and a dash of reality to an epic genre.

“Fantasy is sometimes associated with ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Star Wars,’” Mr. Fuller said. “What I like to do is almost like a whimsical reality. It’s like grounded fantasy.”

Mr. Fuller left a gig as a writer/co-executive producer on “Heroes”—he wrote season one’s “Company Man,” considered by fanboys to be one of the show’s best episodes—to bring “Daisies” to life. The show carries an ambitious blend of the fantastical, dazzling visuals and quirky comedy, carried out with a commitment to making a movie-quality “prime-time fairy tale.”

“I just love production value. I want things to be as well-produced as they possibly can,” he said.

While he’s got more show ideas, fantasy and not, Mr. Fuller, who got his start on “Star Trek: Voyager,” said he would like to make a new “Star Trek” series.

“I think it would be a ball,” he added.

Master of Horror: Eric Kripke

The CW may be synonymous with rich-teen fare like “Gossip Girl” and “90210,” but a horror show is thriving on its Thursday-night schedule against heavy competition from “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI.”

That CW show is “Supernatural,” in which creator Eric Kripke brings the film world’s taste for horror to the small screen.

“We always set out to try to reflect what was going on with horror in features,” said Mr. Kripke. “The only mainstream horror show before us was ‘Buffy.’ I was a huge fan of ‘Buffy,’ but you can’t particularly say they took their scares seriously. We felt when we were starting ‘Supernatural’ that we were a little bit, in terms of television, on virgin territory.”

Mr. Kripke also has given his take on horror a “distinctly middle-American” vibe, with “urban legends, truck stops, diners, old crossroads, blues and classic rock.”

Though the show mostly flies under the radar—“Sometimes we feel we’re the best-kept secret since the Manhattan Project,” he said— its fourth-season premiere on Sept. 18 garnered nearly 4 million viewers, putting it ahead of those much-talked-about teen dramas.

Still, Mr. Kripke is “cautiously excited.”

In the meantime, he’s riding “Supernatural’s” screams. A two-year deal with Warner Bros. TV will keep him on as showrunner and also calls for Mr. Kripke, who’s “very interested in doing the genre again,” to develop new projects.

So how about that remark about a possible spinoff?

“It’s really up to Warner Bros. Would they really want to do an Old West ‘Supernatural’ spinoff? Doesn’t that just scream commercial?” Mr. Kripke said with a laugh.

- Written for TelevisionWeek Magazine