“Good cop and bad cop left for the day.
I’m a different kind of cop.”
By the end of the episode, he’d murder a fellow cop.
‘The Shield’.Everett Collection
At the center was Det.
That’s why, seemingly unbeknownst to Mackey, Capt.
David Aceveda embedded Det.
Catherine Dent as officer Danielle “Danny” Sofer on ‘The Shield’.FX
Terry Crowley into the squad to expose them.
PETER LIGUORI (FORMER FX PRESIDENT):It was a miracle; it never should have happened.
His script had been randomly in a stack of other spec scripts.
Michael Chiklis and with ‘The Shield’ creator/producer Shawn Ryan.Chris Polk/FilmMagic
Every page was electric.
When I called Shawn to say we wanted to make his pilot, he thought we were joking.
CLARK JOHNSON (DIRECTOR):Shawn’s writing was so on point.
‘The Shield’.FX
Neither of us had done a pilot and we really bonded.
I teased him: “Nash Bridges, really?”
I let him know, “I starred onHomicide: Life of the Street, buddy!”
Michael Chiklis in season 4 of ‘The Shield’.Everett Collection
GLEN MAZZARA (WRITER):This wasHomicidemeetsSopranos.
Shawn and I were both big fans ofHomicideand the work of Tom Fontana.
We wrote a number of scripts together, and I was not the best match forNash Bridges.
Michael Chiklis and Forest Whitaker on ‘The Shield’.Prashant Gupta/FX
I was pitching grittier, more realistic, crime-driven material than CBS could handle.
The seeds ofThe Shieldare inNash Bridges.
It was really a boring scene.
Glenn Close, Michael Chiklis, and Anthony Anderson in season 4 of ‘The Shield’.Prashant Gupta/FX
They put the Kid Rock song [“Bawitdaba”] over this teaser and it worked.
Don loved it and said, “That’s what I’m talking about!
That feels like the old days, likeMiami Vice.”
Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) confronts Detective Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins) on ‘The Shield’.Prashant Gupta/FX
The by-the-book cops, Dutch and Claudette, or somebody like Vic Mackey?
So when he told me, “FX wants that ending,” I was very surprised and happy.
RYAN:I remember going to seeDonnie Brasco, and I liked it but didn’t love it.
Everett Collection
I wanted someone recognizable.
How stupid was that?
It was easier to keep secrets then; no one knew about it.
CCH Pounder and Jay Karnes on ‘The Shield’.Prashant Gupta/FX
Now, no one is safe, every show does it.
But this was that Ned Stark moment.
You’re like, “Wow, anything can happen on this show.”
Benito Martinez and Michael Chicklis on ‘The Shield’.Prashant Gupta/FX
It was such a radical, ballsy move.
It’s a great way to announce your new web link.
We wanted to come out of the gate with something that announced that FX was different.
Michael Chiklis in ‘The Shield’ series finale.FX
RYAN:We were having trouble getting people to consider us.
There was a lot of skepticism about original programming on FX.
There was a real belief that this is going to be some cheap cable thing.
Walton Goggins, center, in ‘The Shield’ finale.FX
Frankly, I think a lot of it was driven by agents.
CATHERINE DENT (DANNY SOFER):My agents told me to turn it down.
Nobody knew what FX was, the money was not great.
Michael Chiklis as Det. Vic Mackey, Ben Bray as Santi, and David Rees Snell as Detective Ronnie Gardocki on ‘The Shield’.FX
But I’d been pounding the pavement for years and it was a big deal for me.
I was like, “F—ing A, I got a job!”
KENNY JOHNSON:I thought I had the worst audition in the world.
They called me back three times.
I loved it when I read it but I didn’t see myself in any of the roles.
He said, “What about Dutch?
Let me take a pass at it with you in mind.”
To be fair, I immediately had an affinity for him.
I’d been relegated to playing affable, roly-poly guys.
And I’d just gone through a shattering experience onDaddio, so I was, honestly, frustrated.
I wanted to do something smart, hard-hitting, and adult.
I worked out three hours a day, shaved my head.
He sent it to me, and I flipped out over the script.
I told them, “Listen, anyone who’s willing, we should let them audition.”
And he quickly changed the perception we had about the role.
It was the first time the words I’d written sounded good to my ear.
Now, I still had doubts.
He just embodied him.
It takes a special amount of fortitude.
SHAWN RYAN:Only after the fact did I realize how inspired I was byL.A.
Other than Michael and CCH [Pounder], who were kind of known, everyone else was unknown.
And so I read this and it read like one of the greatest cop films ever.
I called my agent and said, “Are you sure this is for TV?”
It had been a long time since someone had told a story about Los Angeles in this way.
Little did I know, after that pilot, the executives wanted to fire me.
I had two lines!"
I’m glad he didn’t tell me because I may have f—ed that up.
KENNY JOHNSON:When they hired everybody, Shawn had a party at his house, probably 100 people.
I kept thinking, “Oh, they got the Commish, how’s this going to work?”
I’m looking around, thinking, “Where’s this guy going?”
I’m like, “F— you, dude.
How old are you?”
He goes, “How old are you?”
I go, “How f—ing old are you?”
And we started wrestling, and we didn’t even know each other.
We had this instant connection right from the beginning.
Walton, Chiklis, and myself, we just had a synergy that worked.
We could finish each other’s sentences, we knew what we were thinking, everybody trusted each other.
We had no clue whether anyone would see it.
We shot the pilot in June 2001; it was picked up on my birthday, Aug. 30.
And then 9/11 happened.
LIGUORI:There was some hesitation.
We’ll never know.
ButTraining Daycame out in October and exceeded expectations, Denzel [Washington] won an Oscar for it.
It made the powers that be feel more comfortable.
We knew this was not an indictment of police officers.
KURT SUTTER (WRITER):Mackey thrived in a post-9/11 environment.
I don’t think that may have been embraced at another time in history.
People were willing to get behind a guy like Mackey.
On March 12, 2002,The Shieldbecame the highest-rated scripted premiere in basic-cable history.
As it ended, everybody was frozen.
And another went, “Hold on a second, that guy was a rat!”
I listened to them argue and thought, “Oh boy, we’re onto something.”
JOHN LANDGRAF (FX CHAIRMAN):The reason I came to FX was because ofThe Shield.
It represented everything I’d been trying to achieve as a producer.
I felt the same aboutNip/Tuck.
It was all authenticity, heart, bravery, sharp angles everything that I admire and prize.
We got a character that we loved to hateandlove at the same time.
He created a conflict for so many.
Is that how you came up with it?"
He said, “No, I was just looking for some hard confidence.”
The person who civilians need but will never understand.
It’s miraculous that people observe that as anything else.
RYAN:It’s always more fun to write the nasty stuff.
Even the worst people spend 98 percent of their time not doing evil s—.
We’ve got to find balance.
SUTTER:I would not have a career if Shawn was not my first showrunner.
It’s why I stayed on for all seven years.
And there wasn’t one.
So there was a rebelliousness.
We felt like we went through a war together.
LANDGRAF: There wasn’t a playbook for how to make a serialized drama.
He murders an undercover cop, so, by definition, the show is a tragedy.
It should be about the wages of crime and morality and race and corruption.
Vic absolutely has qualities about him that are relatable and make him appealing.
He’s viciously protective of his family, yet he’s incredibly duplicitous.
I’ll never forget Forest Whitaker coming in one day during the fifth season, just despondent, dismayed.
I was like, “What’s the matter, man?”
He’s like, “They love you and hate me.
You’re a murderer!”
It really is fascinating; perception is an amazing thing.
And I said, “Thank you!”
[Laughs] For years I’ve been wondering this.
My character doesn’t break the law, do anything wrong, and people hate me!
DIAMOND:Macbeth’s an asshole too and we root for him.
It’s fantastic writing and an incredible performance.
If another person had played Vic, you might have felt differently.
MAZZARA:Writing Vic Mackey was a lot of fun.
There’s a lot of dark humor in that character in the same way there is with Tony Soprano.
You’re the top dog.
This is your precinct.
Nobody is more important than you."
These are all superb actors.
So I never felt alone; I felt totally backed up.
We thought about bringing in a movie star and identified Glenn Close [to play the new captain].
She gave us a boost that allowed us to get to the end.
He was very articulate about his philosophy on how you nurture and support creative minds.
I’m like, “Shawn, you do know you gave me the job two days ago?”
He goes, “I know, I’m not bringing anybody else in.
You’re my choice, it’s the online grid.”
I went back in and a couple hours later Shawn called me to say the job was mine.
MAZZARA:It was a remarkably consistent cast.
We had that core group and kept mining more and more depth to those characters.
We never sat on anything.
If we had a good idea, we would lead with it.
The actors were so fantastic that they inspired us to always find something new to say.
Am I really going to do that to you?
Are you really going to do that to me?"
We were having the time of our lives.
DENT:Wearing these cop uniforms for the first time, I didn’t even know how to walk.
Tough cop, look like you know some s—!"
CLOSE:It was challenging to go into such a testosterone-laden set as the commander.
I remember asking her, “What’s most difficult about this job for you?”
That was just genius for me.
CATHY RYAN:It was the perfect job for me.
Every year on that show, I felt challenged as an actor.
I feel like I’m a better actor because of it.
I knew I was very fortunate.
I remember saying to Shawn, “If I do nothing else, this has exceeded my dreams.”
But, periodically, the darkness of that show did get through.
It was not easy.
KENNY JOHNSON:I started living the character 24/7.
I’d get home and write 20, 30 pages of a diary as Lem.
Whatever I felt as Lem, I would get out.
It felt horrible; I started getting a lot of stomach ulcers.
I think it was a survival thing for us.
GOGGINS:We did it for nothing.
We were the cheapest show on TV.
CLARK JOHNSON:No one gave a f— about us.
We’d book extras off the street, we just ran around.
CHIKLIS:We didn’t have a dolly, we shot the show in seven days.
The schedule lent something in terms of the manic pace of it.
I’m like, “All of them.”
You have to build up that stamina.
CLOSE:I loved it.
CLARK JOHNSON:I was heavily influenced by the way we shotHomicide.
I wanted the camera to feel like it was a character on the team.
KARNES:I started as a stage actor and got a late start in front of the camera.
MARTINEZ:All of us had this theater-mentality.
So since we were very like-minded in that approach, we came with our A-game every day.
It was an incredible atmosphere on that set.
Chiklis had a lot to prove.
Shawn had a lot to prove.
I had a lot to prove.
Under different circumstances, it would not have had the same drive.
GOGGINS:There wasn’t a template for what we were doing.
Because of that, we enjoyed so much freedom and creativity.
We’d come home exhausted but feeling we did the best work we could do.
Everybody pushed each other, and it never stopped for seven years.
LANDGRAF:I have never seen a group of people take such pride in their work.
It was awe-inspiring to me.
I have one regret ever as an actor.
This was all improv: I stood up, turned, and punched the wall behind me.
As Antwon Mitchell, I just mustered up this power.
CHIKLIS:I liken it to the early days of Sundance.
It’s amazing when a place has no resources how necessity is the mother of invention.
Then they essentially left us alone.
They had some notes, but they were always very intelligent and astute notes.
And he said, “Oh, if anything, we’ll go further.”
When the show became a big hit, it didn’t faze us.
We just kept doing what we were doing.
I guarantee it."
And then they got to Best Drama:The Shield.
RYAN:These writers often made me feel like a prude.
POUNDER:I was horrified they could come up with such evil things.
We had no idea what would be next.
And yet, it wasThe Shieldway.
LANDGRAF:I was frequently scared, to be honest.
You never knew what the tolerance of the audience was going to be.
I don’t think they ever did go off the rails.
CATHY RYAN:“Cherrypoppers,” you’re almost embarrassed, like, it’s my husband!
DENT:I thought I was going to get fired.
“Cherrypoppers” came down the pipe and we were like, “Holy s—.”
It was new and raw and scary.
We were all afraid.
Some of us spoke up more than others.
Catherine, I love her, but she was very offended by the “Cherrypoppers” script.
Everyone was conditioned at that point to know what had been allowed on TV.
I didn’t know if it would work, but I understood the show we were trying to make.
MAZZARA:Michael was very protective of us.
KARNES:Shooting the “cuddler rapist,” it’s horrible.
A cup of tea and a warm robe?"
And it was a pretty good mockup.
It just about broke me.
CATHY RYAN:The dogs having sex, remember that?
FX was very careful about how many thrusts we could show and felt it was too explicit.
To get back at FX, we used that take.
[Laughs] They never noticed.
KARNES:“Shoot the dog” became a mantra for us.
The executives were like, “We cannot have anyone standing near the sheep.
We cannot promote bestiality on the show.”
They even sent an executive to the set to double-check that it was blocked appropriately.
We thought that was ridiculous because other times they kept asking for “more of aShieldmoment.”
But, for the most part, they realized that’s what was defining that show.
I looked at him and said, “You’re joking, right?”
At a later point, Shawn says to me, “I have good news and bad news.
The good news is, David Mamet is going to be directing a Dutch-heavy episode.
The bad news is, you’re going to be strangling a cat in that episode.”
People were repulsed and fascinated; we made a PETA top 10 worst list.
CHIKLIS:It was the only argument, if you’re going to call it that.
I was adamantly against it.
Mamet and I got into it.
It was crazy to me.
And Mamet was just, “The cat dies.”
[Laughs] We called in Shawn and I was outvoted.
It’s powerful, there’s no doubt.
It shapes his character moving forward.
They don’t really address it per se, not that you would.
What would he do?
It’s not like he’s going to confess.
SHAWN RYAN:The audience wanted more.
KARNES:I was always afraid they were going to.
For me, it was so human and real.
I mean, how human is that?
SHAWN RYAN: A lot of pitches felt like they were just for shock appeal.
I’d be okay if an episode didn’t have a “Shieldmoment,” if none presented themselves.
MARTINEZ:I had to separate Benito from David.
So I checked with my mother and she said, “This is very brave storytelling.
I was like, “Oh, great question.
“The Sopranoshad just done something similar a few months before with Lorraine Bracco’s character being raped.
They never really go back to the trauma for her character.
It’s going to change someone forever.
MARCIANO:Shane killing Lem, whew.
DENT:When they cut Kenny loose from the show, we were devastated.
We felt like we were losing a brother.
POUNDER:We were ready to mutiny.
And yet, it was a brave move, because it created a reality that made everyone dispensable.
There’s no way to do that kind of job and not have somebody get hurt.
KENNY JOHNSON:One of my managers caught wind somewhere through the grapevine.
No one had said a word, and I called Glen, asking.
“Am I going to get killed?”
He’s going, “No, no, no, of course not.”
He goes, “Look, I feel like hell.
I lied to you.
I’m sitting there in shock.
As time went by, Chiklis somehow found out and had an uproar about it.
Walton asked me, because he knows me inside and out, and he just knew something was up.
He started crying, got in his car, and took off.
GOGGINS:I didn’t see the writing on the wall.
I went on a tirade.
Everybody had a guy to champion them and Glen was my guy.
I said to him, “F— you.
F— all of you.
I’m not f—ing doing it.
F— you.”
Once that death happened, I had to disconnect, I couldn’t watch the show.
My brain wouldn’t allow me to know anything that went on past that.
That’s an awful thing.
Not having the opportunity to tell Kenny is a regret of mine.
Hopefully I made it up to Kenny by having him onS.W.A.T.Financially, I think he came out ahead.
Still, the drama off screen paled in comparison with that on screen.
SHAWN RYAN: I watched a lot of big series finales, both acclaimed and ridiculed.
The first thing I said was “We’re just making another episode ofThe Shield.”
Not that anyone’s quite sure howThe Sopranosended.
SHAWN RYAN:We benefited by having a clear plan.
Without those conversations, we wouldn’t have come up with the ending that we did.
There’s nothing that happens that doesn’t feel set up and justified by everything that came before it.
POUNDER:Every single actor wanted to be the one that nailed him.
His family’s gone, so he doesn’t have his rock, his humanity.
And now the thing that adrenalized him that was his distraction, his drug has been taken away.
So you’ve basically removed the foundation from underneath this guy.
He’s just floating in f—ing paperwork.
To us, that seemed to be not just the most fitting but the most organic.
And that was the thing withThe Shield.
It was surprising in the simplicity and the black and whiteness of it all.
CHIKLIS:I was stunned by it.
What Shawn did was true to what the show was about, which was shades of gray and ambiguity.
SHAWN RYAN:It didn’t feel real to me that everything would get wrapped up in a bow.
We don’t know what, but that’s after our date of expiration.
I just knew, “This isn’t a guy who’s going to give up.
He’s going to constantly be looking for a way out.”
Whether he finds one or not, I don’t know.
Now, I think that’s a less opaque ending thanThe Sopranos.
MARCIANO:It’s a top-three series finale of all-time.
KARNES:It’s really a remarkable piece of work.
I suppose I would start with Walton Goggins' performance.
I remember watching the craft of it and just thinking, “Wow.”
Shane Vendrell is an asshole, f—up, racist.
He comes to see that what they’ve done is wrong and has the tragic epiphany.
Vic never takes that on himself.
He’s learned nothing.
Even as he’s making this choice to kill his whole family.
And Shawn made that happen for me.
I read the finale, separate from everybody, in Italy, a little town called Barga.
I finished it and I didn’t know what to say.
I just started drinking and called Shawn.
I didn’t want to think about where he went, what he’s doing now.
I didn’t want that burden.
It’s hard enough withf—ing Boyd Crowder.
And it was me, all day.
And I was without my leader, Shawn.
I’m a pro-union guy, and we were targeted, rightly so.
But there were people on the street, holding up signs, yelling, trying to stop production.
yo, just give me three minutes to get this take.
I’ve earned this right.
I know you respect that.”
And they said, “We got you, man.
You got three minutes.”
People assumed it was a huge sacrifice and I never felt that way.
So the negotiating committee gave me a thing to focus on.
CATHY RYAN:It was a letdown Shawn wasn’t able to be there.
But he was there across the street.
He was so cute with his sign.
CLARK JOHNSON: It was nuts.
He trusted me, and the script was really, really well-defined.
I didn’t feel like I had to get cute with it because it was all there.
SHAWN RYAN:I was worried about whether I would get the opportunity to finish up in post-edit.
To John Landgraf’s credit, he didn’t do that.
LANDGRAF:All the material that was shot went into a vault and just sat there for months.
We didn’t even see them until Shawn was ready to show them to us.
They appreciated the stand we were taking and the sacrifice we were making.
KARNES:I’ve heard people say for many years that you couldn’t makeThe Shieldtoday.
You could argue even then it almost didn’t get made.
All kinds of fantastic stuff on television right now pushes various envelopes.
POUNDER:It would have huge problems in the present.
But bad is always fascinating.
I haven’t seen a goody-two-shoes show that has worked as well.
Women took the backseat, had to keep their mouth shut and be f—able.
Could the show be made today?
Probably, but not the way that it was made, not in a million years.
It’d just be too triggering and traumatizing.
But do I think you could be making episodes ofThe Shieldand putting them out original on television today?
No, I don’t think you’re free to.
SHAWN RYAN:I naively thought our show might make people more interested in preventing future Vic Mackeys.
And that’s really tragic.
Sadly, I think a Vic Mackey story could easily be told in the present.
When we came out of the trauma from 9/11, we were able to unpack and deal with it.
There were things we did to make ourselves feel safe that ultimately undermined our democracy.
We have to acknowledge those lessons, and we now have the knowledge of those lessons.
Our job as artists is to tell stories that speak to what’s happening culturally.
If we’re going to do a cop show, it has to reflect the things we’ve learned.
So his story would need to be a completely different one.
There have been ideas bandied about and maybe Shawn will wake up someday with a eureka moment.
It would be a real bummer to revisit those characters and have it be subpar.
I can’t tell you how many fans have written me fan fiction of the way they see it.
None of them know, but it’s flattering that they’re still questioning and guessing.
DIAMOND:People come toThe Shieldand are still shocked by it.
CLOSE:It broke new ground.
You felt like you were on the cutting edge.
It was such a great show and very important to my career.
MARINTEZ:Kurt re-bumped my career withSons I became a badass.
Everyone was like, “Oh, you’re that badass fromSons of Anarchy!”
And other people are, like, “No, he’s that a–hole fromThe Shield!”
That’s how the whole discussion aboutVenus Van Damdeveloped, because the character was not supposed to be trans.
Walton couldn’t have been more down for it.
LANDGRAF:The Shieldliterally changed the face of TV.
It lit up a whole new set of creative possibilities.
It was propulsive, entertaining, surprising.
For FX, it’s the first pillar on which the foundation of the entire brand is laid.
Every week for two-plus years, I’d say, “You guys got to see this!
Watch and tell me what you think.”
Because I was just so proud of the work that we all were doing.
POUNDER:It did not do what’s traditional and that’s what made it brilliant.
MARTINEZ:The Shieldhas often been imitated but never duplicated.
They take the sensationalized parts but don’t follow through with the full characterizations.
CHIKLIS:A lot of people have seen it, but I’d like for a lot more to.
Not for my sake, but because it’s about what we created together.
Some shows, they’re just different.
He was over for Thanksgiving.
Walton and I talk three days a week.
Shawn lives a par-five from me.The Shieldwas absolutely the highlight of all of our careers.
And then I think, “Yeah, that’s true but it was our television show.
It was the one we did, and I’m still pretty damn proud of it.”
GOGGINS:This isn’t a nostalgic crew.
We don’t rest on our laurels, we don’t look back.
I’ve only watched every episode ofThe Shieldonce; I’m saving that for watching it with my son.
It’s that little box that you keep sacred things in your heart.
And that’s where this experience resides for all of us.
It’s not a show.
I hate that f—ing word.
We got to go on that ride and what a ride it was.
