TVSquad

Everybody's talking about CBS's vampire private investigator show Moonlight. Moonlight's fans are sending garlic to producers and conducting blood drives in an attempt to force executives to knock the show off the bubble and into a second season. AOL's Kelly Woo had a chance to interview Alex O'Loughlin and Jasoh Dohring (Mick and Josef) at New York Comic Con recently, and both stars reported being overwhelmed (in a good way) with fans' dedication to the show. Dohring reported that he's sign up to give blood himself, because it's such an important thing to do anyway.

I got a chance to talk to Jason Dohring, who plays 400+-year-old vampire Josef on the show, last night when he appeared on Shaun O'Mac's internet radio show on BlogTalkRadio (Bob Sassone from TV Squad appears on the show each Wednesday evening to talk TV, and Shaun is a great host-- you should definitely check out the show!).


Compared to a conference call I attended a couple of weeks ago, I was able to ask questions via both calling in and a chat format, in which Shaun reads questions from recalcitrant fans and asks them. I thought it was a rare opportunity to talk to Dohring himself, though, so I went ahead and called in.

Dohring is highly personable. He clearly loves the show, and he is enjoying the ride very much. He couldn't speak highly enough of his co-star Alex O'Loughlin. He has traveled to Australia to visit, and they hung out together in New York City for a few days during ComicCon. I asked whether he thought Josef's long lost love Sarah was supposed to be revived at some point, or whether she served as a cautionary tale to Mick about turning Beth. He replied that he'd love to see something done with Sarah, but he thinks Josef will get a new romance soon.

I also asked a question that had been heatedly debated in comments to the reviews I write for the show: Several fans believed that Josef was involved with Coraline during the 1950's and was present in her living room when Mick showed up one day in a jealous rage and broke the glass window with a chair. Dohring said he was not the man in the room with her. Mystery solved. He also praised O'Loughlin's acting in the scenes in which he has first turned into a vampire, saying he creates another character for those scenes.

I was also able to ask how much input they have with the writers on the show. He told me that O'Loughlin was able to suggest the bloodlines story we saw in the last episode, in which we saw Coraline's family and learned that they were an old and powerful vampire bloodline. On other notes, Dohring said he and O'Loughlin laughed in amazement on the set during which Josef's character is surrounded by scantily clad women. The women are Victoria's Secret models, and so outside their own personal realm of experience that having them on the set was surreal and funny. Dohring is married, so he is pretty far from Josef's playboy character. He is also taking piano lessons, a detail I found charming.

Several fans called into the show, and Dohring was unfailingly graceful and appreciative to them all. Several fans are planning a Moonlight Conference in Los Angeles May 24 and 25 at the Westin Hotel. Dohring couldn't commit his schedule at the time of the call, but promised to try to make it if he were in town.

Moonlight fans should tune into Shaun O'Mac's radio show next Wednesday at 6pm ET because he is going to try to get Sophia Myles and Alex O'Loughlin on the show. Also (like you could forget) the show returns with new episodes FRIDAY APRIL 25! 9pm ET on CBS for new viewers. Dohring promises an emotionally intense episode for which a 30-piece orchestra was hired.

Finally, don't forget to check out Kristin Sample's great set visit, with pics and interviews with the cast.