HOLLYWOOD — Ask a simple question, get no answer.
Colin, the character that Mike Erwin plays on the made-in-Utah WB series "Everwood," might be dead. Or he might not. So, which is it?
"No comment, man," Erwin replies with a laugh.
"That's what he was instructed to say," says series creator/executive producer Greg Berlanti, who adds a "No comment" of his own to the question about Colin's fate. (The character underwent risky brain surgery in the season-ending cliffhanger back in May, and we don't know if Colin survived.)
"I can tell you that people try to get that answer out of me when I'm drunk, so you're certainly not going to get it out of me when I'm sober," Berlanti says with a laugh.
But, wait a minute, Mike. Doesn't the fact that you're at the WB's press party indicate that you're going to be back on the made-in-Utah show when it returns in the fall?
"Ummmm . . . you can't really interpret that either way, either a yes or a no," Erwin says. "And I'm not going to tell you."
Not that having to say nothing was making Erwin uncomfortable. "Actually, I like it because that turns to my favor. Because now you don't know what to ask."
And not answering questions is one of the lesser challenges of playing Colin. When the show began, the character was in a coma, having suffered a serious brain injury in an earlier accident. Dr. Andy Brown (series lead Treat Williams) performed surgery that brought Colin out of the coma, but the teenager had no memory of his previous life. So Erwin was playing a character without a past who was trying to fit in with people who loved him — people he didn't know.
And, eventually, complications from that first surgery resulted in personality disorders, anger and violence.
"They took me full circle. I enjoyed every minute of it," Erwin says. "I was very fortunate because a lot of times an actor in one character, you get to do kind of the same thing with different situations. But they made me just go up and down, left and right and all that."
At least they didn't make him shave his head for that brain-surgery scene in the season finale.
"No, that was all makeup," Erwin says. "Oh, the makeup lady was so awesome."
But does the fact that he still has a full head of hair mean that he won't be back to play Colin in the fall?
"No comment," Erwin says.
HAPPY HOME IN UTAH: Berlanti couldn't be more effusive about producing a network TV show in Utah after the first season of "Everwood."
"It was better than I could have hoped," he said. "Salt Lake is incredible. It's the best experience."
Berlanti remains based in Los Angeles, but he travels to Utah twice a month during production, spending about three days in the state each time. And the ease of travel between L.A. and Salt Lake is part of the attraction.
"People can come down here when they need to, and they can be up there when they need to," Berlanti said. "The writers are up there for every episode. It really feels like the hour flight away that it is. It's really close.
"And we couldn't be happier that we decided to go there."
SECOND SEASON: The basis of "Everwood" will be shifting a bit in the second season, which only makes sense. When the series began, Andy and his children, Ephram (Gregory Smith) and Delia (Vivien Cardone) were mourning the recent death of their wife and mother and had moved from Manhattan to a small town in Colorado.
"I think that if last year was a lot about grieving, this year is a lot about healing," Berlanti said. "And there's two new women for the Brown men."
Dr. Abbott's sister "comes back from the Far East where she studied acupuncture. She becomes the third doctor in Everwood." And a potential love interest for Andy.
Meanwhile, the Browns hire a babysitter to care for Delia and help around the house. "She's a 20-year-old who Ephram develops a crush on," Berlanti said.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com