Cheryl Heuton

Cheryl Heuton Trivia and Quotes

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Trivia

  • It was announced on September 30, 2011, that Universal Cable Productions has sold a project to NBC from Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci that is based on a short story from Elmore Leonard's When the Women Come Out to Dance and will revolve around a Colombian mail-order bride who moves to Miami and struggles to move on from her past.

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  • On January 7, 2011, the American Mathematical Society presented its prestigious JPBM Communications Award to Cheryl Heuton and Nick Falacci for NUMB3RS' positive portrayal of the power and fun of mathematics, which made the show's fans aware of the ubiquity of mathematics in their daily lives. []
  • According to a National Science Foundation press release dated April 16, 2007, Numb3rs, as well as Cheryl Heuton and Nick Falacci, received a National Science Board group Public Service Award for 2007 on May 14, 2007, at the State Department in Washington, D.C. []
  • Cheryl and Nick met in 1990 while rock climbing in Southern California's Topanga Canyon. They were married a year later and they moved to New York. []
  • The character of Charlie and Don's Aunt Irene, not seen in the episode "Assassin," was named after Cheryl Heuton's grandmother's sister's daughter.
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  • Cheryl Heuton loves to cook. Some of her favorite things to prepare are Mexican dishes, and roasting chickens and turkeys. She loves complex dishes and she loves a simple roasted ear of corn. She likes to marinate things and have Nick barbecue them. She also has a wide variety of pasta sauces. She enjoys spending all day in the kitchen for holiday meals and she makes a mean butternut squash soup. []
  • Many television series made Cheryl realize she wanted to write TV. Among them were The Equalizer, Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, The West Wing, Lucky and Northern Exposure. []
  • One of Cheryl's favorite pastimes is rock climbing with her husband, Nick Falacci, in the mountains surrounding Los Angeles and Pasadena. []
  • Cheryl and her husband, Nick Falacci, wrote and sold many scripts together in the past 14 years, but not a single one had been produced until Numb3rs. []
  • Cheryl's favorite joke:

    A mathematician, a physicist and a biologist are sitting at a coffee shop and they're watching a house across the street. Two people walk into the house and then three people come out.

    The biologist says, "Oh, my God, they've reproduced!" The physicist says, "No, the measurement must have been wrong." And the mathematician says, "I don't know about that, but if another person goes into that house, it'll be empty again."

    Explanation: The mathematician, seeing two people go into a house and
    three coming out, reasons that the population inside the house is minus one. So one more going in makes it zero - the house is empty. []
  • Before moving to Southern California, Cheryl worked at a small magazine in New York City and became good friends with a playwright named Alan Ball, a researcher named Mark Hudis, and a reporter named Lisa Marie Petersen.

    Where are they now? Alan Ball produces Six Feet Under. Mark Hudis is the showrunner for That '70s Show, and Lisa Marie Petersen is a co-executive producer on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. []
  • Cheryl loves coffee, but drinks it lightened with nonfat milk. One of her favorite meals is simple - chipotle chicken, sliced onions, and a glass of wine. []

Quotes

  • Cheryl Heuton: (Entertainment Weekly, November 6, 2009, regarding the series ending of Numb3rs) We will be doing a 16th episode that wraps up storylines and answers questions. It will be designed to stand as a finale, but it won't create story situations that would hamper us if the network should decide to order more episodes. []
  • Cheryl Heuton: (when asked if Numb3rs will have a seventh season) With the reality of what the business is, we would love it to come back another year after this, but we don't know.
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  • Cheryl Heuton: (regarding the state of the television industry one year after the WGA strike) There's a huge change in the business. This pilot season, more shows went to Canada than anyone can remember. Actors are working under their quotes, writers are working under their quotes. The strike didn't cause it, but it exacerbated the process that was under way. We are in a new financial reality, and you can't put the business model of a show together the same way you used to. []
  • Cheryl Heuton: (discussing the evolution of procedurals on television) It is shifting a little bit. People want to see a little more character and a little more comedy. There was a time when people thought comedy couldn't belong [in a procedural] - other than Lennie Briscoe's little quips in the teaser of Law & Order. []
  • Cheryl Heuton: (discussing Stephen Hawkings' guest appearance on the centesimal episode of Numb3rs) We offered him a role on that episode - he had to do it right away because he was going to be leaving in a few days - but we couldn't get a work permit for him in that amount of time. His people were telling us that he loves that we use math in the show and talk about physics a lot. When we couldn't get that work permit, they said he was crushed.
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  • Cheryl Heuton: (discussing Numb3rs) The task each week is finding the balance between the math and the action. Then, because the lead guys are brothers, it pulls in the father. So we also have to find the balance between their home life and the work at both the college and the FBI. []
  • Cheryl Heuton: Nick and I felt that a mathematician could be an exciting TV character because many mathematicians are natural detectives and inventive problem-solvers. Because of their creativity and rigorous training in logic, they often have a unique way of looking at the world. CBS was quick to understand that the amazing things being done with math today could be the basis of a new kind of crime show. We designed it around a family to give it a strong emotional basis, and to show the audience the human side of both the mathematician and his FBI agent brother. The math gave people something new to think about, even though it's already a constant and vital part of their lives. We hope the show brings home that reality, and encourages more people to be excited about math and science. []
  • Cheryl Heuton: (on her husband and their successful partnership) We're a very balanced partnership in terms of ideas and who writes. He's better at production issues and I'm probably better at story planning and story analysis. []
  • The Family Friendly Programming Forum, an umbrella group encompassing many major advertisers, named Numb3rs the best drama series at the eighth annual awards ceremony. Cheryl Heuton said when she developed the series, she expected it would draw an adult audience as well as a cult following, but the chemistry between Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz wasn't not expected as well as the show clicking with school children. She was quoted as saying:

    Cheryl Heuton: That's been really surprising to us. We didn't plan it that way, and we didn't expect it. We're really gratified. []
  • In a press release issued September 18, 2006, regarding the decision by TI and CBS to continue using the award-winning national math education program, "We All Use Math Every Day," for the third season of NUMB3RS:

    Cheryl Heuton: It is rewarding to know that, alongside TI and NCTM, we are continuing to provide resources and tools to help educators inspire their students. []
  • Cheryl Heuton: (on finding the right actor to portray Charlie Eppes) We had some monologues with a lot of math language, and it's very difficult to sound like you say these words every day. We began to think we had written an uncastable part until David [Krumholtz] came in one morning. []
  • Cheryl Heuton: (on being honored with the Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science) Nick and I are honored to be recognized with this award and we continue to be appreciative of the science and math community who have embraced the show. We are proud to support CSSP in their efforts to increase national awareness about science. []
  • Regarding the show and the partnership between Texas Instruments and NUMB3RS, and conducted in association with NCTM, Cheryl Heuton was quoted in a press release, "It is really gratifying to know that 'NUMB3RS' can serve a purpose beyond pure entertainment. We are glad that TI and NCTM see the educational value in our show. NUMB3RS producers and the cast are happy to spread the word that 'Math is cool!'" []
  • In an April 2006 AP wire, Cheryl Heuton explained the premise and concept for romance on Numb3rs. "More than most shows, this show had to tell people what it was about a little longer than most." She went on to say, "It was a different kind of premise, but now I think, and certainly at the beginning of next season, we can finally say 'OK, people know what it's about.' They get how math solves crimes, so let's go on to see where the personal problems are and why." []
  • Cheryl Heuton's first inspiration for Charlie, the math genius in Numb3rs, came from an encounter with "Bill Nye, the Science Guy" in 1994 while covering a TV convention in Las Vegas. In an article in The Seattle Times, Cheryl told Kay McFadden, "Bill got very passionate about there not being enough kids going into math and science to support the national infrastructure," recalls Heuton. Later, "I was reading Genius, about Richard Feynman, and thought, 'I could make a hero out of a character like this.'" []
  • When a student at the screening of the pilot at Caltech asked whether the creators were concerned they would run out of ideas, Cheryl Heuton replied, "Not really. Do you worry you're going to run out of problems? The most fundamental answer is, math can apply to anything." []
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