Tim DeKay on what could have come next on Carnivàle

by Keith McDuffee

When 'White Collar's' Tim DeKay sat down with us for a round-table interview, I had to take my chance and see what he could tell me about the fate of one of my favorite, ill-fated shows, 'Carnivàle.'

Tim DeKay was definitely one of the coolest people I had the pleasure of talking to during this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. In fact, everyone involved with USA’s White Collar was open, honest, fun and exuding the feeling that they were genuinely happy to be there.

Besides playing the role of Detective Peter Burke in one of my current don’t-miss shows, White Collar, he played the role of Clayton ‘Jonesy’ Jones in HBO’s fantastic but cut-short series, Carnivàle. It was said that the story of Carnivàle was to be told in three “books,” each being two seasons long, and that creator Daniel Knauf had at least a good portion of the rest of the story mapped out.

So, besides asking questions about his role on White Collar, I had to start things off and see what DeKay had to say about any activity with the future of Carnivàle, as unlikely as that would be. Fortunately, he was very forthcoming, though some of what he had to say has been mumbled here and there at various fan gatherings, just maybe in not as much detail. Like a story told by a campfire, we huddled in as DeKay spoke the tale of what Knauf told him some of what was to come in the third season of Carnivàle, had it continued on-screen.

Me: Your character died at the end of Carnivàle … I don’t know if there were further plans for him. Do you know, and do you know if there are plans for anything going on with that show at all?

DeKay: (Nodding) No…. Unfortunately, there’s not. It would’ve been great. I loved that show. I loved being on that show. Such a great character. What was to happen was … third season was five years later. Samson is still trying to get to Brother Justin and the root of the evil. And the scene opens with Samson going to a baseball game, and he sees Libby with a five-year-old boy who looks a lot like Jonesy. She sees Samson, and Samson says … there’s a moment, and he looks out on the field and there’s Jonesy, and he’s pitching. And he sees Samson and Samson says, “I need you.” And Jonesy walks to the dugout, puts his glove down, and they go fight evil. We find out that Brother Justin’s sister helped Jonesy back to … she cured him. So he didn’t die.

Me: Did you have a script that you saw this in?

DeKay: No, Dan Knauf told me.

It sure looked like DeKay had a love for the show as he told us that short story. There are a lot of us who’d love to see the series continue in some form — written or otherwise. Hopefully that little tidbit gives you fond memories of the old show and thoughts of what it could have been.