From KCRW, Santa Monica and KCRW.com, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to the treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. It's probably a natural thing that in 1994,

Noah Wiley was asked to play a character

named John Carter on ER because in this current series, Falling Skies, he is an adventurer,

but a family man. And it's good to have you here. No, thanks to what you're doing this.

It's such a pleasure to be here. This is a long time in coming. I'm very excited to be here. I'm excited to have you here. And one of the things I was just thinking about is we were talking before we got started between ER and the librarian series

and now Falling Skies. You've so often played a guy who's kind of an audience surrogate. I mean,

in ER, you introduce us to the hospital and the librarian, you're kind of our way into all these

adventures. And as Tom Mason on Falling Skies, you you kind of explaining the world to us.

Now, wonder what attracts you these kinds of characters?

I guess probably being raised on Jimmy Stewart movies and enjoying that kind of every man character.

And also, those are the roles I tend to get cast in, which also tends to inform your

preference, oddly enough.

I like characters that have a sense of nobility

about them and a sense of morality who are resistant to accepting large amounts of responsibility,

but then in a moment of need or crisis rise to the occasion. I have an affinity for those types of

characters. But these are also guys too who in a way tend to explain these situations to the audience.

Have you noticed that, these are guys who get to do that.

That's true.

And usually in the beginning of those character arcs, that's the other thing you look for.

John Carter didn't start off being a very proficient or knowledgeable doctor.

He was the bumbling, stumbling intern on his first day of work.

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