We did not build the whole creature full scale — only his head with its horn. However, S.S. Wilson estimates he was about six feet long and about three feet tall at the shoulder.

Actually, we had not come up with too much beyond the thirteen episodes. It was all we could do to get them written and into production. One idea which was floated, however, was mysterious MixMaster modified bugs which eat all the rubber (synthetic and otherwise) in town. All the faucets leaked, cars’ fanbelts broke, etc. SciFi thought it was too goofy.

The later episode ideas hadn’t been worked out by the time we knew Michael Gross would not be in them, so there were no scripts done in which Burt had action which then had to be changed. There was no version in which he fought the chicada bugs, for example. The exception was “Water Hazard.” Burt was originally part of the end action of that show, but had to be written out so Michael could leave in time to get to pre-production on Tremors 4.

Charlotte had done a big commercial in which she had an exclusive deal. That means she was not allowed to play other characters while the commercial was on the air. Unfortunately the deal covered the time when we had to shoot the series and we couldn’t get her out of the contract. Both she and we were disappointed. But we did get to meet and work with Marcia Strassman.

One thing we wanted to do was reveal that Rosalita was in fact an imposter, that she wasn’t really related to the Tony Genaro character, Miguel, (Tremors 1 and Tremors 3). She got in trouble with gangsters in Vegas, heard about Miguel’s land, and impersonated a relative to get control of it, so she could hide out from the mob. That’s why we had all the jokes about her not liking her cows and not knowing how to run the ranch very well.

We were going to have Burt get into an online romance, only to find out it was with Nancy.

We were going to find undestroyed areas of the Proudfoot labs and reveal more of their experiment in altering DNA.

Ah, the future that never was.

No, Tyler was not in the Armed Services, nor was he a spy for the government. Our idea was that he had a strict military father. But we didn’t get a chance to flesh out that background.

The idea was that he ran back into the house after firing his own musket into the ground. The sequence was shot and cut so roughly it may be hard to see what was supposed to happen.

Not likely. SciFi does not consider the show a success. We doubt that they will promote it or support it in any way. You will note that they have now removed it from their web site.

Well, we had a cool idea for an episode to explain that. We were going have Mindy’s ex-rocker dad show up, much to Nancy’s dismay. We’d find out Nancy was something of a groupie back in the day.

Well, gang, not likely. We just didn’t quite hit those Star Trek numbers.

Great idea for an episode. Wish we were still on the air.

Politics. If Universal Home Video had been willing to delay the start of Tremors 4 two weeks, or if SciFi had been willing to wait until the end of T-4’s 25 day shoot to start the series production, Michael Gross could have been in all 13 episodes. Both sides absolutely refused to compromise, even though they’re both owned by the same parent company. After all that, Universal Home Video then delayed the release of the finished T-4 several months. Go figure.

Burt’s biggest rifle is a Barrett 82A1 .50 cal BMG (which stands for “Browning Machine Gun”, the gun for which the cartridge was originally designed). It is way more powerful than the biggest elephant gun. The device on the end of the barrel is not a silencer; it’s a muzzle brake. When a shot is fired, it deflects the explosive gasses slightly to the rear, which helps soften the recoil (“kick”) of this monster gun.

As I may have explained elsewhere, the Tremors creators (Wilson, Maddock and Roberts) were barred from the editing rooms at the end of series production. SciFi and USA for some reason thought “Shriek and Destroy” was a terrible episode and almost unusable. That’s why they aired it last instead of second. We saw some later edited versions and sent in suggestions for changes, but these generally were not taken.

The editing for that sequence was pretty difficult. Most of the muskets did not really fire. There was not much time to get a lot of footage, etc. I haven’t analyzed it, but it’s entirely possible that Twitchell gets left out of the action. The intention was that he dropped back behind the group after firing his one ineffective shot.

Highly unlikely.

Older answer.  It’s a mistake. We provided all the original sound effects to the sound department on the series, but the editors there didn’t know which sounds went with which creatures. Production was moving so fast, some of the early shows got the wrong sounds put in, like the sick Graboid sound from T-2 being applied to El Blnaco.

Newer answer.  This is a clever one we got from a fan who is trying to expand the rules of the Tremors universe:  El Blanco has lived MUCH longer than any previously known Graboid due to his inability to metamorphose into Shriekers.  Even so, as he ages, he might logically begin making some of the Graboid sounds that lead up to metamorphosis, even though the doesn’t actually change.  It’s like an old age sort of thing.

Of course this is the BIG question. Many many MANY of you have written to lament the cancellation of the series. We thank you and we understand your frustration. The answer of course is that the show didn’t quite get the ratings SciFi wanted (it was very close!) As always, we encourage you to fire off those same emails to SciFi network and Universal. They need to hear how much you loved the show. You’re the reason it was made in the first place!

Believe it or not, TV production is so frenetic, you don’t remember what you did. You just write as fast as you can and respond to the daily emergencies. But the show’s script coordinator Suzanne Levine has reconstructed it for us. So, here are the scripts for the series in the order they were written. This was also the order in which we intended them to be aired, but as you all now know, SciFi channel thought you’d enjoy the show more if it made less sense, and aired them out of order.

Episode 1 – Feeding Frenzy
Episode 2 – Shriek and Destroy
Episode 3 – Blast from the Past
Episode 4 – Hit and Run
Episode 5 – Project 4-12
Episode 6 – Ghost Dance
Episode 7 – Night of the Shriekers
Episode 8 – A Little Paranoia Among Friends
Episode 9 – Flora or Fauna
Episode 10 – Graboid Rights
Episode 11 – Water Hazard
Episode 12 – The Sounds of Silence
Episode 13 – The Key

Huh?! I think I need our other fans to chime in on this one. He IS the same actor! His screen name when we made Tremors 1 was Bobby Jacoby. As an adult he decided to change his name to Robert Jayne, but he’s the same actor. We were very lucky and happy that Robert/Bobby agreed to play Melvin in Tremors 1, Tremors 3, and in the series.

No, guys like Melvin always find a way to recover. Trust us, we know; there’s a lot of them in the film business.

We had plans for Larry to work in the store. Writing, shooting, and editing got so rushed late in the season that I don’t know if it’s clear that’s what was happening.

No, Mixmaster does not alter an animal that ingests it; only the DNA of that animal’s progeny.

It, like his fuel and water storage tanks, is underground adjacent to his basement abode. We do not believe it is placed in his former shooting range.

Twitchell and his family live in Bixby, in a “ranchette” style home built by developer Melvin Plug. Twitchell works out of an office in Las Vegas. Yes, he is level GS 13 in the U.S. government, and would normally have a staff, but the position of monitoring Perfection valley, the world’s only designated Graboid habitat, is so unusual, and the people in the valley so few, the powers that be placed him in charge alone.