SyFy’s Warehouse 13, which saw record ratings for the network in its first season, will return for a second season of thirteen new episodes on July 13th.

Regular cast members Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, Saul Rubinek, and Allison Scagliotti are returning, and CCH Pounder will continue to make “guest” appearances.

A new addition to the cast, in a four-episode storyline, is Todd, “a tech savvy local who takes a special romantic interest in Claudia” and whose “budding relationship is put to the test by the secrets they are forced to keep from one another.” Nickelodeon star, Nolan Gerard Funk (Spectacular, Drake & Josh) plays Todd.

Warehouse 13 tells the story of two Secret Service agents, a straight-laced woman and bend-the-rules man, who are transferred to a massive, top-secret storage facility in windswept South Dakota which houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) are given weekly assignments by the Warehouse’s caretaker Artie (Saul Rubinek), who usually has them exploring paranormal activity in connection with the search for new object for the Warehouse.

Warehouse 13 proved to be a massive hit Syfy last year, becoming the most successful series in the network’s 17-year history.

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In the new SyFy Channel show Warehouse 13, Eddie McClintock plays Pete, the looser, laid-back half of the show’s Secret Service agent duo assigned to protect the magical artifacts stored in South Dakota’s mysterious Warehouse 13.

But in reality, right before being cast in the show, the enormously appealing actor was coming to a cross-roads. The 42 year-old Ohio native had been kicking around Hollywood for more than a decade, consistently working in guest spots on shows such as Friends and Felicity, and even starring in four short-lived shows of his own.

But he’d never “broken out,” and with two young kids, he had mouths to feed.

To hear Eddie tell it, things were getting pretty dire toward the end — so much so that, in a nice bit of synchronicity, it took future Warehouse 13 co-star Joanne Kelly to talk him down enough that he could even finish the audition for the show.

And like the plot out of an actual TV show, it may have been that moment they shared in the audition waiting room that led to their both being cast on the show in the end.

But hey, it’s better to let Eddie tell it:

TheTorchOnline: Congratulations on the fact that the show’s a hit. Are you surprised?

Eddie McClintock: I’m not so surprised, but relieved. This is my fifth series in twelve years, and I’ve never had a hit. I’ve been going and going. I like to think of myself as one of the more successful anonymous guys in Hollywood. I’ve continued to work, but nothing has ever hit. So when people use that word “hit” with me, I’m, like, I don’t know, because I’m gun-shy.

TTO: The actors all have great chemistry. Was there right from the beginning?

EM: It was from the beginning. I was coming off my seventh test refusal. I’d gone through six or seven [rejections] in a row.

TTO: Ouch.

EM: But you can’t let that show [on your next audition], or they’ll read it right away. I had gone in a few times [for Warehouse 13], and there was  a mix and match — there were six Petes and six Mykas. Which was depressing, because you expect maybe two. You see that and you say to yourself, “Wow, they still don’t know what they’re looking for.”

So I had gone in and came out, and I came down to me and this other guy. And the other guy was standing there, and the director came out and put his arm around him and they walked down the hall together.

And I said, “That’s it! I can’t take it!” I took off my tie, I took off my jacket. And Joanne [Kelly, my future co-star] was sitting there, Indian style in the chair, relaxed, which is interesting, because her character is so different. And she’s, like, “Dude!”

And I said, “No! You don’t get it! I have these two little boys, they’re like baby chicks, and I’m supposed to fly in and spit up the worm, and I got no worm, you know? And I can’t deal with that anymore.”

And then the producers come back and say, “Eddie, you’re coming back in.” And I’d already taken off my tie and jacket, and Joanne and I had been talking, and she’d basically talked me down, off the clock-tower.

And we were standing there reading, and she blew a line. She was supposed to call me a “showboat,” and she called me a “shoi-boit.” And then I made it into a robot thing, started acting like a robot.

You know, actors are terrified of screwing up in those rooms. We ended up making a thing out of this gaffe. And apparently when we walked out of the room, they said, “There it is.”

TTO: So the chemistry really was there right from the very beginning!

EM: [laughs] Yeah.

TTO: So why do you think this was the show that finally connected?

EM: I think there’s a certain amount of luck and timing. A large portion goes to the fact that the writers have created something that is right for right now.  I think people want to escape — the economy is terrible, people are losing their jobs. Who wants to turn on the TV and watch people shoot other people, dead bodies? That’s what life is, man.

Our show, you get to escape into this world where there are these unexplained artifacts. It’s funny, it has a heart, it’s about family, it’s suspenseful.

TTO: I think a big part of it is the humor. There’s been a lot of serious sci-fi fantasy, and there still is. I’m curious if you get self-conscious about the comedy on the set, if you were confident that everyone else was going to think it was funny?

EM: No! I had no idea. I usually do something, and if people laugh, that’s funny. They’ll say, “Keep doing that. Whatever it is, keep doing that.”

At the beginning, I don’t think we were sure, because you’re just finding the show. In the writing of the show, there’s not a whole lot of comedy that’s on the page. They don’t write the comedy, they just sort of let it come as we find it.

Jack Kenny, our executive producer, one of the producers on one my first show, [is] brilliant and really funny. David Simkins is the other side of it, he’s the sci-fi guy, he’s the gadget guy. So together they’ve been able to create this great blend of both.

But when Jack is on the set, and I’m working, he’ll come up to me and say, “Hey, try this.” Or I’ll come up to him and say, “Can I try this?” Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but I’ve think we’ve found a pretty nice balance.

TTO: So when do you go back to work?

EM: They haven’t picked us up yet.

TTO: But they will.

EM: I think so. But again, don’t get my hopes up!

TTO: Is there a particular moment you’re most proud of in these first thirteen episodes?

EM: The episode “Burnout” was probably the most challenging for me as an actor. I was faced with having to make a huge decision as a character, and then in doing so, having to make a huge decision as an actor. I would either fall on my face, or people would go, “Wow, that was really good.”

TTO: What was scene exactly?

EM: The artifact affects Pete in such a way that he makes a decision to take his own life. The scene leading up to that decision was very emotional and powerful for me as the actor and the character, and I’m pretty proud of just being able to trust [the moment]. It was  real milestone for me as an actor.

Warehouse 13 airs Tuesdays at 9 PM/8 C on the SyFy Channel.

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Some actors make it look so easy, stealing every scene they’re in, generating laughs with gestures both big and small.

Of course, it helps if you’re as talented and experienced as Saul Rubinek, one of those long-time actors who everyone recognizes, but many people can’t quite name.

In Rubinek’s case, he’s appeared in everything from the movies Unforgiven and True Romance, to the television shows Star Trek: The Next Generation and Frasier (where he played Donny Douglas, Daphne’s fiance).

But more and more people are remembering his name these days, now that he’s been cast as Arthur “Artie” Nielsen, the hilarious, socially awkward caretaker on Warehouse 13, a break-out hit for the newly-renamed SyFy Network.

Recently, I got a chance to talk to the veteran character actor about whether he’s a geek in real life, how it might have been very embarrassing if the show had tanked, and the serious business of being funny:

TheTorchOnline: When did you realize that the show was going to be so funny?

Saul Rubinek: When they hired me. If they wanted the show to take itself seriously, they wouldn’t have hired me. Or Eddie McClintock, for that matter.

[The producers] always knew that they needed to have a grain of salt, they needed to walk a tightrope. If they take themselves too seriously, they fall over. If they don’t take themselves seriously enough there’s no tension in the show.

TTO: How much of the humor comes from the script, and how much do the actors contribute?

SR: The show’s are written, and the writers are wonderful, and they have a great sense of humor. And some of the jokes that look like they’re off-the-cuff are because the writers happen to be very funny, and we [the actors] try to make it look off-the-cuff.

That said, everybody’s been given an edict to let the actors loose a little. We’ve been hired to invest the roles with our own senses of humor, our own personalities, and our own dramas — we’re let loose on the serious side as well. Occasionally, if [we say] a funny line, if [executive producer] Jack Kenny is on the set, he’ll make it funnier, trust me.

TTO: Are you surprised that the show is such a big hit?

SR: I’m pleasantly surprised. I was hoping against hope that it would be, because I love doing it. If it’s a hit, that means we get to do more of them.

The executives are very happy. Look, it was their flagship show, rebranding an entire network, huge for them and for us.

TTO: In other words, it could’ve been very embarrassing if you’d tanked!

SR: Could’ve been, yeah!

TTO: From my point-of-view as a non-actor, it seems to me you have the best role on the show, because you get to steal every scene you’re in, but you’re not in every scene. True?

SR: I only have the fun of having a character that doesn’t have to carry the weight of the action the way Eddie and Joanne do. Luckily, they’ve thrown Allison [Scagliotti] to play Claudia Donovan into the mix, and it gives me kind of a daughter. Artie had no life, he’s been married to the warehouse, his children are the artifacts, he has no life. And now he’s got an ethical responsibility to this very young person, who’s brilliant and a trouble-maker.

We all are scene-stealers in our own way [on the show]. They’ve given us that opportunity.

TTO: Are you a geek in real life?

SR: I like to play chess, I’ve always liked good story. I haven’t run after sci-fi. I like science fiction if it’s well-written. I like so many different genres that I wouldn’t call myself a geek. I’m a lover of great stories, and I’m even more a lover of acting them out.

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Three Torches (Out of Five)

There are two kinds of programs on the Sci Fi Channel: those like Battlestar Galactica that are better and more sophisticated than almost anything you’re going to see on the traditional networks, and those like Sanctuary that, while they may have a certain campy charm, simply don’t hold a candle to the more established network shows in terms of acting, production values, and, especially, writing.

Now that I think about it, Battlestar Galactica might be the only Sci Fi Channel show to fall into the former category. But definitely put Warehouse 13 in the latter.

The show isn’t a disaster. But given that it’s Sci Fi’s Big New Show — the one they’re rolling out with much fanfare on the day they’re changing their name to “The SyFy Channel” — it’s also a bit of a disappointment.

Pete and Myka, two seemingly down-on-their-luck Secret Service agents, are assigned to work a secretive facility in South Dakota, a warehouse where mysterious magical items and inventions are stored by the government. Artie, an eccentric caretaker (veteran character actor Saul Rubinek), tries to make sense of them all.

“It’s an invitation to endless wonder,” says Mrs. Frederick (CCH Pounder), the enigmatic woman who oversees the project.

Awkward hyperbole aside, it’s a great premise — part X-Files, part Indiana Jones.

What works in the show?

The producers have definitely gone the “Ken and Barbie” route in casting oh-so-pretty Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly as Secret Service Agents Pete and Myka, but the two have a nice, easy-going chemistry together.

Rubinek steals almost every scene as Artie, and Pounder is terrific (as usual) in a small, but effective part.

Likewise, the show really embraces its humor, which is a nice change after decades of earnestness and angst in similarly paranormal-themed shows like The X-Files, Fringe, and Supernatural.

What works less well?

Well, too much of the humor falls flat. A “wishing pot” creates a ferret whenever the holder wishes for something impossible? And compared to shows like The X-Files and Supernatural, Warehouse 13 has very little subtly and doesn’t miss a chance to dumb things it down.

Many of the items in the warehouse combine lousy science and with outright hokiness. A car built by Thomas Edison runs on body electricity (to the show’s credit, it’s the slowest-moving car ever created — but, weirdly, this isn’t played for laughs).

Artie keeps in contact with the agents with something called a “Farnsworth” — an awkward, bulky video communicator built in 1929 by the inventor of the television. But wouldn’t a cell phone adapted for use in Warehouse 13 be a whole lot easier?

It’s not just the humor that’s broad; the plots and characterizations are too. The central mystery in the two-hour premiere episode involves an ancient Italian comb that turns the wearer in a power-hungry despot and … well, let’s just say the episode won’t be winning any Peabody Awards.

(And can I just say? It seems bizarre to me that the show pairs an ultra-competent, “by the books” woman with an easy-going, rakish guy — a dynamic that already a cliche way back when The X-Files did it. Why make The X-Files comparisons even more inevitable?)

But this isn’t a show that was made to be seriously pondered. It was made to be fun.

And for the most part, it is.

Warehouse 13’s two-hour premiere movie airs Tuesday, July 7th at 9 PM. Future installments will air on Wednesdays at 9 PM. Check out their genuinely clever website here.

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