And the network thought that I was alluding to something that was too overtly sexual between the two of them. And I didn’t mean for it to be, because I was like, they’re saying they’re going in an office. It’s a glass door – what do you think is happening in there?

But they wanted it to be less sexual. So I put in “I’ll get the can opener” just as a throw away line. And then everybody on the crew and the cast and the director is like you’ve got to say what they do with the can opener. And I said, are you crazy? If we say what they do with the can opener, no one will ever remember it. If we don’t say what they do with the can opener, everybody’s going to want to know. They don’t really want to know, they want to want to know.

And it turns out – I mean there’s a Facebook page called the Can Opener. It’s crazy. But I don’t think that that night involved a can opener.

What can we expect to see in terms of a back-story of Donna and Harvey and how does the relationship play in the grand scheme of things?

Excellent question. Currently they’re, I mean their relationship as Harvey to Donna, boss to secretary, obviously is a pivotal key going forward.

We don’t currently have any plans through the end of the 16 [episodes] this year to take them in a romantic direction moving forward. I think that would be tough to do in the early seasons of this show because I think it just would.

I mean I was a huge fan of LA Law and I know Arnie Becker, when he got together with Roxanne – I think was her name – it had to happen late in the season because what did that guy do once he’s with her? It caused problems for me.

So I don’t think in the near future they’re going to be getting together. But as far as shedding light on their past relationships, we’ve got a lot of exploration of that in the next few episodes coming up. Their past history is going to be at least danced around. And their feelings towards each other are going to be explored in [episode] five, a little bit [in] six, seven, not too much [in] eight and then more in nine. So you’ll definitely get more light shed on their relationship.

What tends to happen I will say, and I’m not sure if this is my style because I don’t really consciously mean to do this, but oftentimes the more we answer a question the more it just leads to more questions. And I like that we do that, but I don’t really mean to do that on purpose.

And I’ll use for as an example when Rachel and Donna are talking in the finale last year and Donna gives her [the[ cryptic answer, “Because you can never go back.” When it was originally written it was originally [meant] to communicate they never fooled around. They made a decision one time not to do it and this is why. But the way [Sarah Rafferty] played it, it just opened a lot of questions. It was like, is she telling the truth or what really happened? So that tends to be how they play it and how it comes out.

And do you think that affects Harvey’s opinion of Mike and Rachel?

Oh, that’s a great question. Yes, now that you mention it. I don’t know that I thought of it in those terms but yeah, it probably does. But the thing is, Harvey has his own opinions on what’s right and wrong.

But what I love about Harvey is generally he doesn’t judge other people’s moral choices unless they affect him. So in my mind, I don’t think Harvey would care if Mike went out with Rachel or not. But the problem is that Mike’s got a big secret and he’s got a big mouth. And Harvey knows that to reveal that secret to Rachel at work is a big risk.

So Harvey might have an opinion on Mike and Rachel vis a vis his relationship with Donna, but I don’t think that would drive his telling Mike he can’t be with Rachel.

One of the things I really enjoy about the show is the pop culture references, and not just any pop culture references but lots of really geeky ones. Is that something that you put in intentionally or is that just sort of your background of what you’re interested in? Where do those come from?

Yeah. It’s because I’m a geek is what it is. I mean I’ll say this – probably 90% of the references are – I know them. Because if a writer puts a reference in that I don’t know, I tend not to like it so I’ll replace it with one that I do know [laughs]. Once in a while I’ll put in one that I don’t know.

I don’t generate them all but most of them are something that I at least would know. But many of them come out in the rewrite process when I’m one-on-one with the individual writer. And my whole life I’ve read a ton, I’ve watched a lot of movies, I’ve watched a lot of TV. Things make me think of movies all the time.  So that’s where they come from, is in my life I’ll say “Hey, that reminds me of this movie or that movie,” so it just comes out.

I always wondered why people don’t do that more in the things they write, because it’s what me and all my friends growing up – that’s all we did was quote movies and do things like that. So that’s where most of it comes from.

I can absolutely tell you that Harvey is a Captain Kirk fan because I lived for Star Trek when I was a kid.

As a writer you must have billions of ideas going through your head all the time. How do you decide which stories are worth pursuing?

Good question. It’s really just a gut feel type of thing. You try to think it through but most of the time.

At the beginning of the year I’m in the writers’ room with the writers and we’re all thinking together. And I’ll go home and I’ll literally just close my eyes and just start imagining things.  At some point something will hit me and I’ll say, “This is what we’re going to do for the beginning of the year.” And then we’ll kind of arc out the season together.

But usually people are pitching me ideas, and I just try to synthesize them and kind of say, this is what feels right to me. But then as the year goes by, I am able to spend less and less time in the writers’ room because I’m rewriting the current episode or casting or editing or whatever.

And then the writers take over and they really pitch me a few episodes in a row. And then I’ll respond just with a gut feel to which of the things I like and which of the things I don’t. Most of the time I like it all. It’s more a matter of just, we can’t do it all so we have to pick and choose. And then I’ll give them feedback and then they’ll work with that. And I’ll come back in and that’s usually how it works.

And then once we get into the rewriting of the individual episodes, we don’t make huge changes. But we’ll sometimes say, “Look, I don’t like the ending of this. I don’t want it to be like this. I want to change it.”

So that can always happen, and then that’ll have to ripple through to the next several episodes.

So since “Suits” is your baby, your own idea and everything, do you find it difficult to hand it over to the creative team?

Yes. But there are only so many hours in the day…. It is not possible to maintain control over every aspect of a show. It’s just – it’s not humanly possible. Editing, writing, casting – no way. So you have to pick and choose where you’re going to be at any given time. And the good news is that the writers are amazing. Like when I go in there the things they pitch me, I’m just like, “That’s amazing. Let’s do that.”

So, obviously would I love to be able to have more of an impact on everything? I would. But what I try to do is the final write of every script. I have a big impact on that obviously, which impacts dialog and jokes and quotes and things like that. And then in the edit phase I make a lot of choices about what we’re going to do.

But the writers just generate so much and I need them.

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About The Author

Bell Peloquin is a Blast staff writer. He writes the Film and Television Buzz blog.

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