I love the Zucker brothers' films - 'Airplane!,' 'Top Secret' and 'Police Squad!' - are my formative experiences.
I never consciously do any work directly influenced from any movie, unless I'm doing a parody.
I don't think 'Freak Dance' is a parody; it's more reference than anything. People don't think of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' as a 'Frankenstein' parody. It's kind of like that.
I love 'Airplane,' the 'Naked Gun' films; everything the Zucker brothers have done is just awesome.
If you aim for parody right off the bat and it misses, no offense to the filmmakers, but it is Meet the Spartans.
It's a fine line we walk on 'Warehouse 13.' We really earn our dramatic moments, but our tongues are always firmly in our cheeks. If we take ourselves too seriously, we get into trouble.
With parody, you're referencing and sending up a particular genre, and mostly your material is going to be taken out of that genre.
'Spinal Tap' is interesting because it created a genre of film and ended it - all in one motion. If you do a mockumentary, you are always going to be compared with that film, and you are never going to be as funny.
