Clyde Phillips leaving “Dexter”
Talk about leaving on a high note.
The ratings record-breaking “Dexter” finale Sunday, which capped the Showtime drama’s highest-rated season, also marked the last episode for the show’s executive producer/showrunner Clyde Phillips, who is departing the series.
So that was the real season-ending plot twist, huh, Mr. Phillips? For us uber-fans of “Dexter,” you’d better have a damn good reason to leave the show!
“I lived with the people on the show for four years that were the high point of my career,” Phillips said. “But I was missing out on my family.”
For the past four years, Phillips would spent nine months in Los Angeles, where “Dexter” is produced, and three with his wife and his daughter, who turns 13 in January.
“I need to be part of my own life, immerse into my own life,” he said.
Family?! Clyde, you’re leaving our beloved “Dexter” to spend time with your family?!?! That’s the standard excuse politicians give when they’ve been exposed for financial improprieties or diddling interns. Not for an award-winning writer to leave an award-winning TV series!
[Scott hits keyboard. Paces room. Meditates. Hums “Kum-Bah-Yah.” Returns to keyboard.]
Well, okay, fine, Clyde. Go have fun getting to know your wife and daughter again. At least we can be sure that someone who has been with the series and knows its ins-and-outs really well, like Melissa Rosenberg, will take over as show runner, right?
“Clyde Phillips has made an enormous contribution to the phenomenal success of ‘Dexter’ for the past four years, but we know he needs to spend more time with his family on the East Coast than he spends with the Dexter family in L.A.,” Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt said. “We reluctantly say good-bye to him at a turning point in the series, but fellow ‘Dexter’ executive producers Sara Colleton and John Goldwyn have chosen a great successor — Chip Johannessen, who has been a key producer of ‘24’ for the past two years. We’re confident that he will bring intelligence, emotion and great storytelling to the next chapter of ‘Dexter.’ “
“24” meets “Dexter”?
[Scott envisions next season, Dexter chasing serial killer / terrorist who uses nuclear bombs to annihilate his victims — as well as tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Mushroom clouds over Miami! And Scott pounds head on his keyboard… over and over and over…]
Which “Dexter” fans among you is going to talk me down off my metaphorical ledge?
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