The temperature's dropping and the leaves are starting to change color, which can mean only one thing--the new fall television season is fast approaching. One of the most highly anticipated new shows of the year, Chris Carter's virtual reality-themed Harsh Realm, won't premiere for a few weeks, but Cinescape recently spoke to cast member D.B. Sweeney about the series and his role as cynical Harsh Realm player Mike Pinocchio.

Q: The cast and crew of Harsh Realm have been filming in Vancouver for the last six weeks or so. How is everything going so far?

A: It's going great. It's been really long hours and the crew is tired, but I think when the show goes on the air and people get to see it and hopefully respond really well to it, that will give everybody a lift. But we're all working about 80 hours a week right now.

Q: Can you tell us anything about your character on the show?

Pinocchio's meant to be a little mysterious, but some of his background gets revealed in the first few episodes. He's a top special forces-type soldier whose been badly injured. In the real world, he's in a coma like all the other soldiers [who are playing] Harsh Realm. Plus, he's got some dark secrets back in the real world.

Q: What first attracted you to this series?

A: Well, I did this TV show called C-16: FBI two years ago and it was really a strong TV show-- I mean, it wasn't anything outstanding, but I'd say it was better than 90 percent of what was on TV that season. And we got stuck on Saturday night at 8 pm and we didn't have a strong executive producer so the network didn't really take care of us. I started to look at which shows work and which shows don't. And Chris Carter and David Kelley and Steven Bochco and Dick Wolf and maybe a couple of other guys are really strong producers and if they're attached to a project, it gets taken care of. You get a chance to build an audience, you get a good budget, you get good actors and good directors. And that's just the way the TV business works. So the initial thing that really attracted me was Chris' involvement.