The Safe House - Expositions

Makers of ABC's hit spy show say their inspiration for slick gadgets comes from a variety of sources, including TechTV. Watch today at 9:30 a.m., 6 p.m. Eastern.

By Lindsey Arent, Tech Live

ABC's hit television show "Alias" features one hard-core female spy named Sydney Bristow, and a lot of tech gadgets. The gadgets are arguably some of the show's central characters, having a team of professional writers and prop masters devoted to their creation, development, and maintenance. Tonight, "Tech Live" goes behind the scenes of the show.

Jesse Alexander and Rick Orci's main tasks as producer and staff writer are to dream up fantastic but plausible tech devices for Sydney to use as she fights her way to truth and justice as a counterspy for the CIA. "It wouldn't be 'Alias' without all the tech, all the cool gadgets, the complexity of the missions," Alexander said.

So where do these guys come up with the crazy devices they bring to the show's plot lines each week?

"TechTV," Orci said, in all seriousness. The show's creators also tap other sources, including the Internet, spy and military-oriented magazines, and research books. Orci and Alexander create the ideas for possible weapons, devices, and other concepts for the writing staff to weave into the scripts.

They have license to go beyond reality. "An example is a sonic-wave emitter used as a distraction in one mission," Orci explained. "It emits a sonic pulse at the resonance frequencies of glass so that it shatters a window. Stuff like that doesn't really exist, but it could."

The creation of specific gadgets and props then gets directed to Chris Call, prop master for "Alias." Call makes several sketches of what he thinks the writers are looking for -- say, a medieval clock with moveable parts that reveal an ancient code. He then hands the drawings off to Neotek, a set and prop studio, to make the final product. Neotek is used to turning the ideas into real gadgets in less than a week.

Call said his job is all about thinking beyond the ordinary. In one recent episode, he said, "They wanted 'a bomb that stuck onto the side of the rafter to blow it up.' So that could be anything. I like to come up with something cool and something different."

He made a star-shaped bomb that Sydney could slap on the wall, then flip the top, switch on a light, and blow the place up.

Given the show's rigorous schedule, Call said it can be tough to be inventive with gadgets all the time. "It's insane," he said. "I have no life, but it's the challenge of coming in here... and getting these gadgets and having them made, and seeing them on the show, and having them work. It's very satisfying."

Meanwhile, Orci and Alexander have crafted a bevy of websites to complement the show's conspiracy-theory theme. There's an online CIA recruitment game where users can "chat" with an automated IM version of Agent Weiss from the show. Another site, ConspiracyChick.com, is devoted to spying tactics.

Despite their hectic schedule, Orci and Alexander both say there's no better job than the one they have. "It's the greatest thing ever," Alexander said. "We get to talk about the stuff we love."

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