Jan: I wrote detailed notes to the music editor, and we were on the phone constantly.

Ed: Did they Fed Ex you an episode each week? How did you send the finished music back?

Jan: Well, once the series got into its run, Fed Ex was not fast enough, so we had to actually use couriers. And couriers would bring me the video, and then once I was done, I would call up, and they would come pick up and take it to the next plane to L.A. Because Fed Ex was just too late.

I think these days, you can get Fed Ex to pickup and deliver like a courier service, but was not available in 1984.

Ed: Around the third season, there were several episodes that featured a great sounding acoustic guitar sample. How was that created?

Jan: I don't know who created it, but I got it from Fairlight. It was from their library [of samples], and I use it to this day. And I have tons and tons of other guitars sampled at a much higher bit rate and everything, but that one is just wonderful. Actually, it's not that low in quality, because it was from the Fairlight Series Three, so it was 16 bit at that point. So it is a high quality sample, and it's just very organic, and responds to playing-to nuances from [keyboard] playing so well. So I was able to use it, and again I use it to this day.

Escape from Television

Ed: You left the show in the middle of the fourth or fifth season. What made you decide to leave?

Jan: I wanted to leave after the third season. Again, there was another producer who was running the show, and I was getting sort of burned out. I was approaching episode #66 at this point, and you get drained. But also, I was not happy with the mixes, the music was sometimes buried, where it never was before-it was really featured, in the second season, especially. In the third season it got a little spotty. So I just said "enough".

Plus I had offers to do other things. I wanted to sort of branch out and do more features, and whatever.

And they came back and offered me...a lot of money. And as Marlon Brando once said, I didn't have the moral fortitude to turn it down [chuckle]. And that's what happens in TV land: If they want you, they'll get you.

So I stayed for a fourth year. Actually, in the fourth year, I collaborated with John Peterson in the middle of the season, where he took over a little while. He took over for a while, but most of it was using my already established thematic material. But I did the beginning of the season, and then I did some of the ending [ratings] sweeps episodes.