After finding success with the espionage based Burn Notice in 2007, USA Network is once again looking to the government to mine a wealth of untapped TV potential with In Plain Sight, which makes its debut on June 1 at 10pm on USA. Featuring a fresh blend of comedy and drama from creator/executive producer/writer, David Maples (Home Improvement, Huff) and executive producer, Paul Stupin (Dawson’s Creek, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place), In Plain Sight follows the professional and private life of U.S. Marshal Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack), who's attached to the Federal Witness Protection Program with her partner, Marshall (Fred Weller).

With the buzz building around the upcoming series, The Deadbolt dialed in to a conference call with In Plain Sight creator David Maples and executive producer Paul Stupin to find out a few surprises about the real Witness Protection Program, what fans can expect from the story and cast, and what it was like to shoot in New Mexico.

THE DEADBOLT: When you were researching the U.S. Marshals, what was the most interesting thing that you discovered that you didn't know before you started the process?

DAVID MAPLES: Well, it was a revelation for me early on that in fact it was the Marshals who administer the Witness Protection Program. I think there were a couple of things. One, which makes the show so much fun to write, is the improvisational nature and the autonomy that these WITSEC inspectors operate under. In a lot of instances they kind of make it up as they go along, because there are so many unique situations that arise with these people. So the WITSEC inspectors have to be very inventive in dealing with these people’s personal lives. Because every problem that might arise in a person’s life can have an aspect to it that puts them in some jeopardy or conflicts, confounds, their agreement with the Marshal Service and their status in the Witness Protection Program.

So I think Mary [McCormack] at one point in the pilot script says any given day she gets to try on one of many, many hats she has to wear, which is priest, rabbi, marriage counselor, therapist, best friend, you name it. So that part of it is very interesting as a writer, because you get to explore so many aspects of the character’s professional life.

The other thing that I found out, and was one of the things that made it difficult for us, is the distinction between U.S. Marshal and U.S. Marshal/WITSEC Inspector. Because early on, it wasn’t difficult to talk to people in the U.S. Marshal Service, but they operate quite separately from the WITSEC Inspectors who are also Marshals, but they have this hyphen to their job.

And I would talk to U.S. Marshals around the country and they would say, "Well, obviously we know there are WITSEC Inspectors here. We know that there are people placed in the Witness Protection in the area, but we don’t know who the WITSEC Inspectors are. They don’t work out of the same office as the Marshals." They have their own separate facility or separate room, office, and usually it’s a small isolated place that they work out of.

The guy said, "We sort of have an inkling who these people are. We’ll see people out on the firing range, and we know they’re Marshals, but we don’t know who they are so we just assume that they must be with Witness Protection." So even within the Marshal Service the WITSEC Inspectors maintain a certain amount of anonymity and distance from even the people within their own law enforcement agencies. And that was fascinating to me. I don’t know, Paul, was there something that struck you?

PAUL STUPIN: Yes, I’ll tell you. Not only everything you said about the sort of role of the Marshal and how that worked within Witness Protection, it was also interesting for me the demands and the challenges that the witnesses face. Like in my mind, I had always figured that they give them a new identity, they get them a job, they set them up in a particular part of the world. And there are elements of truth in that, but there’s also a lot of the responsibility to reinventing themselves that’s placed on the witnesses themselves. They basically have to go out and get a new job for themselves and help create their identity. And there’s a lot of the training that the Marshals are given that’s focused towards helping the witnesses help themselves. And some witnesses are quite capable of it and other witnesses have a lot of difficulty and get into a lot of trouble doing it.

MAPLES: Fail spectacularly.

STUPIN: Yes, they fail spectacularly. And one of the things we found is it’s not determined upon quality of education or sociopolitical elements to who they are. It’s that the most successful people with the most amount of money can really bomb out in the Witness Protection Program. And sometimes the people from the other end of the spectrum succeed. And a lot of people stay in the program and after a number of years some people actually leave. And when they leave, they’re opening themselves up to the potential consequences of that, which in some cases might be life and death.

"In Plain Sight" with David Maples and Paul Stupin Page 2