Her City View

To celebrate Women’s History Month and the return of NBC Timeless Series, airs Sunday’s on NBC at 10/9 central, I attended a premiere event hosted by PEOPLE & Sony Pictures Television at the New-York Historical Society. It was so amazing!

Note: I was invited as media to the premiere event and screening. This post was sponsored by the Role Mommy Writer's Network. However any personal views expressed are always 100% my own.


We started the day with a peek at the costumes from the show before sitting down for an intimate round-table interview with Abigail Spencer (Lucy), Marney Hochman (Executive Producer), Arika Lisanne Mittman (Executive Producer) and Mari-An Ceo (Costume Designer).



Now when I say this was an intimate round-table, I'm saying I sat right next to Abigail. Like 'RightNextToHer'. And before I could even ask a question, Abigail greets the group with a hello and bright smile, before turning to me and asking my name. Like seriously. She was so warm and down to earth.



After taking turns introducing ourselves to Abigail and Mari-An Ceo (Costume Designer), the group started asking the duo all the questions!

About Season 2 Changes and Women’s History Month

Abigail: When I started, they had basically mapped out where we were gonna go for the season. For this season, we only visit women and people of color. I thought that was really timely. There's something happening in the world. We need an over correction to achieve balance. That's all we're saying. We need to be more balanced.

We have to really be more intentional about the stories that we tell. We're very intentional with Lucy. We're very careful to not sexualize her, how we dress her, how we do the costumes, etc.

Both Mari-An and I are parents. Its nice that families can sit down and watch the show. No one is worried about what their kids might see or any kind of influence in a negative way.

Really it encourages conversation about historical moments. It really has for me and my son. I'm just very excited to be a part of that change. Part of taking the role of Lucy was about wanting to be an active part of changing how we see women on television. I think this show does it really beautifully in a digestible way.

After hearing Abigail speak so amazingly about her role and what happens in a few upcoming episodes (most of which is hush hush, sorry!), I couldn't wait to speak with Marney Hochman (Executive Producer) and Arika Lisanne Mittman (Executive Producer).

About Women’s History Focus in Season 2

Marney Hochman I think the show always tried to focus on the people that the history books might have forgotten. Or that interesting story slightly to the side of the story that you already know.

Often, that's women and people of color because their not as widely recorded. But still very important and true. So that probably led the decision more then just a desire to tell a story.

Arika Lisanne Mittman It wasn't a decision we had to fight for or anything. It's a natural progression of the show. Because our show looks for stories that maybe haven't been told. Or maybe you think you know the story, but you only know a part, etc. As Marney said those stores of women or people of color tend to be less told or over simplified.

How they balance highlighting real history with making an adventurous story-line

Arika Lisanne Mittman First, we look for the interesting less told stories. Then we have to see which ones are going to fit into the model of our show. We look for those moments that could change history. Those pressure points of little moment where we can say "If this didn't happen", everything changes!

Marney Hochman And it reflects that characters too. It's about trying to find stories in history and then having a personal connection with either Lucy, Rufus or Wyatt.

Arika Lisanne Mittman For instance in our first episode, we meet Marie and Irene Curie, while we're telling a mother and daughter story for Lucy and Carol.

Speaking of that premiere episode “The War to End all Wars”, after the group interviews, I was able to fully screen it before the ladies join a Q&A moderated by Editor in Chief of PEOPLE Jess Cagle.


SYNOPSIS: “The War to End all Wars”

After barely escaping an explosion at Mason Industries, Wyatt (Matt Lanter) and Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) chase the Mothership back to a French battlefront during World War One to rescue Lucy (Abigail Spencer) from Rittenhouse. There, they discover that Lucy has recruited Marie Curie (guest star Kim Bubbs), the famous French scientist and the only person ever to win two Nobel Prizes, to help save the life of a wounded American soldier, only to learn that the soldier is Lucy’s own great-grandfather who Rittenhouse is bringing to the present to be their leader.


The episode is well done and has so much of what the fans enjoy about timeless but with a few new twists. Like was shared during the interviews, the focus is a woman who affected history. Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and her invention that plays an important part in the story-line.

But Marie and her daughter also plays as an example of what Lucy and her mom could have had if things didn't go, well you know from Season One. How does this affect Lucy? Be sure to watch the episode to find out!



After the screening, it was time for the Q&A with Timeless star Abigail Spencer, co-showrunner Arika Lisanne Mittman, executive producer Marney Hochman, costume designer Mari-An Ceo, and Vice President, Chief Historian & Director of the N-YHS’ Center for Women's History Valerie Paley.

During the panel they discuss the importance of highlighting women in history, the impact they have on today’s culture, and how these trailblazers are illustrated in Timeless.


It was an amazing panel, which was recorded during a facebook LIVE. You can watch the replay via the Timeless Facebook.

To learn more, visit - www.nbc.com/Timeless

Facebook - www.facebook.com/NBCTimeless
Twitter - www.twitter.com/nbctimeless
Instagram - www.instagram.com/nbctimeless