“Comic Book Men,” the reality series documenting the transactions and overall geekery that take place at comedian/filmmaker Kevin Smith’s comic book store, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash in Red Bank, N.J., may be closing out Season 1 tonight, but Smith already has plenty of plans for a second season, should it come to pass.
Season 1 was “all about introducing the boys and hoping you get to love them to warrant Season 2,” Smith says. “And then on Season 2, you want to bring out f—ing chicks, put a girl in the store.”
Smith reveals that AMC “originally wanted to put a girl in the store.” He explains that the “Comic Book Men” crew shot a presentation for network heads that included a female employee, but higher-ups changed their minds.
“‘We like the girl but it’s too early,'” Smith recalls AMC executives saying. “‘We should get to know these boys before we start adding elements — plus, if you go to Season 2, that gives you somewhere to go.’ So they’ve been really like, f—ing smart about it,” Smith adds.
Keeping those savvy TV folks happy is something Smith is keen to do. In fact, he’s intimidated by them, just a little.
“It’s scary because everything they do is f—ing good,” Smith says of the AMC powers that be, “and you could be the one show that everybody hates, you could be the shark-jumping show. Like, I don’t want to be the guy that hurts AMC.”
“Comic Book Men” has yet to receive renewal for a second season, but Smith is remaining optimistic.
“Being in the wake of ‘Walking Dead’ is tremendous for us,” he says. “The network’s already told us, ‘You don’t have to pull huge f—ing numbers with this — [retain] a quarter of the [‘Walking Dead] viewership], we’re going to be over the moon.’ So I was like, ‘I could do that! Just tweet the motherf—ers, ‘Tune in, stay tuned in!'”
You can tune into the season finale of “Comic Book Men” tonight at 10:30 on AMC.
