- the story of the second series -

Production for the second series began before the first series even started it's broadcast on KRCL.  Knowing Dan (Greg) was due to leave on his mission soon, we agreed that we would have to write him out of the show in episode five.  We decided to send him back home to his wife, and handed his role as the announcer voice at the beginning of each episode over to Dave (Graham).  I was almost done writing the script for episode five by the time the first series had completed airing on Variables.  We recorded all the voice for Dan's farewell episode in April of 2000, and he left for his mission in Italy that May.
 
 

Dan (Greg) gets to preach the word in Italy
while we talk into socks

Episode five always kind of stands alone in my mind as I think of the history of the second series, simply because it we did it so early by itself like that, before any of the other scripts were even written-- we didn't resume recording for another eight months.  I worked on the script for episode six in the Spring of 2000, introducing the new characters Sasha (played by Sonia) and Miniver Cheevy (played by Joel).  I originally thought there would only be four episodes in the second series, so I hoped to finish the other two scripts and record & edit everything before school got so all my high school friends could hear it.  But I wouldn't actually finish the series until 10 months after the school year ended.
 
 

Clok (Bowen) sporting his BIS shirt at a NY harbor

After a summer intern trip to New York that brought no new Bowen in Space script, I headed to Ephraim for my freshman year of college and began writing again.  Except for the first small scene, I wrote all of episode seven's partying script in just a few days over the Labor Day weekend.  It was then I also decided to up the number of episodes in the series from four to six, to better fit in all the action I had planned.  It was I wise decision - I had to end up cutting out parts due to time restraints even with six new episodes to work with.  Soon after that I went home for a weekend in September to record some parts of episodes six and seven.  Unfortunately, we had some equipment failure, so we scrapped the whole thing and went to breakfast instead.
 
 

Josh (Soul), Clok (Bowen) & Dave (Graham) going to breakfast instead

I included a new character in episodes seven and eight named Terrance that I wanted my old buddy Gerald Lott to play.  He was game to take the part on, but was due to leave on his mission soon after I offered it to him in September.  So, the day before he left for the MTC and mere hours before he was set apart as a missionary, he printed the scripts from an e-mail and headed over to my bedroom in Kearns.  Over the phone, I coached him through his very own personal recording session / digital editing crash course.  I had even forgot to include one of the scenes in the e-mail I sent him and had to recall his lines entirely by memory.  He did an excellent job, and is one of the key comical elements in the seventh episode.  My many thanks go out to Gerald for spending his last hours as a civilian recording his parts for Bowen in Space.
 
 

Gerald (Terrance) sacrificing his last hours as a civilian for BIS

That fall, I spent many hours in the writing lab of the humanities building at Snow College, typing out the lines for the eighth episode of the show.  I wanted to finish all the scripts before I went home for Christmas break so we could record them all then, but once again didn't quite attain my goal.  I had tried out for and obtained a the webmaster position at the local student radio station, so I would be taking my computer down to Ephraim with me the next semester, making it impossible for us to record in Kearns after Christmas break.  I managed to outline the rest of the story for the series, but had only completed the script for episode eight by the time I was home for the three week break.  I arrived  knowing we had a lot of Bowen in Space recording to do.
 
 

Dave (Graham) preparing to talk into a black sock

Now is when I must praise the Bowen in Space crew for their amazing dedication and hard work those winter weeks.  As I realized more and more just how much recording really needed to be done, I demanded more and more time and effort from my friends.  Dave, Sonia, and Josh came to my house practically every day for two weeks straight as we threw down the lines for the final five episodes of the show.  It took complicated planning to work around each actor's schedule and get everyone together at the same time to record the scenes their characters were in together.  Often we would end up recording some peoples' parts separate and leave putting them together until post production.  Night after night the acting crew would spend hours in my room tackling another taxing recording session; after they left I stayed up late and cranked even more lines for to come and record the next evening.  My many thanks go out to Dave, Sonia, Josh, Adam (who made the three-hour trip from Idaho just to record his bits), Joel, and Angie for their dedication over that break.
 
 

Clok (Bowen) & Dave (Graham) - recording day seven

The end of 2000 / beginning of 2001 was precisely the time when Josh was busy preparing for his mission, so it was even harder to for him to find time to make it.  When he was came to do his final recording session on a Thursday night in early January, I hadn't even completed writing all of his lines for episode ten.  I was leaving with my computer the next week and there was no way we would be able to get together to record again.  So, while Josh caught some sleep on my bed, I put on my headphones and cranked out a few dozen phrases I was sure the Troubled Soul would say throughout the rest of episode ten.  I would end up writing the rest of the episode's script around the  phrases we threw together that night.  He recorded them superbly, just as he did every other one of his lines for the show.  He went back home and resumed preparation for his mission in Munich, Germany, where he is serving today.
 
 

Josh (Troubled Soul) enthused & ready to record

With the bulk of the voice recorded, I packed up my computer and headed back to Ephraim.  Angie came down for a weekend in February and recorded all of her narrator parts in one day, along with the final Eustacia scene.  Joel and I ended up doing all the left over voices that couldn't get recorded in Kearns (the drunkard guys and all the muttering voices in episode seven).   I then proceeded to edit my life away.  Hours and hours of stringing the voice together, perfecting the sound effects, mixing it all with music, and assembling it to tell a story.  I can't even estimate how many hours I put into each episode.  Countless hours were spent to bring your favorite radio drama to your ears.

In April I recruited Snow College actor Adam Knapp to play the part as DwizzleDwarf the Nomad after seeing his work in a local production.  I also managed to recruit one of the Kage's most notorious DJ's, Vale White, to play the Voice From the Past in the tenth episode.  I recorded both Adam's and Vale's parts in my office, this time without the socks.  And one of the final and most interesting recording sessions took place in the office next to mine, where I had Gretel Bergevin read her lines as Greg's wife over the speakerphone with my microphone next to it.  We went to many lengths to get the best actors to play their parts in "Bowen in Space".

There's one more thing to be noted about the second series, and that's the music.  Aside from the returning theme songs and Graham's bass jams, every musical segment of the second series is original.  Some of these segments were the result of live jam sessions Dave and I held in my bedroom, featuring all sorts of guests: Caroline Gardner, Josh Clark, Lucas Johnson, and Aubrey Lott (most of those selections are found in episode five).  Adam Talbot and I had our own jam sessions and cranked out a few pieces, the most famous being Eustacia's love theme in episode six.  James Russell composed a great deal of the pieces found in episodes six and seven, and Michael Stirland took the bulk of the music writing responsibilities - his compositions found everywhere in episodes eight, nine and ten.  That's yet another thing I never could have done on my own - all my music kids deserve a huge thanks.

And that, as they say, would be that.  I traveled a long and twisting trail of two years to bring to life Bowen and his friends and their quest for the Fretless Wonder.  I am now preparing to serve and LDS mission, so I must leave Bowen and his pals for good.  Vale (the Voice from the past) is going to be playing BIS on his Friday night classic rock show in Ephraim while I'm gone, so give it a listen then.  If you own the CD's, take them out everyone once and a while, give them a spin, and get reacquainted with your old friends.  A million thanks goes out to you, the listener, for taking the time to listen to the show and visit this site.  Make sure you check everything out while you're here.  Thank you for taking an interest in Bowen and his quest!
 

- J. Clark Gardner
Ephraim, Utah
May 2001