October 7, 2003
By Derek Miner
Last year, I wrote a pilot for a television show.
The stories of Robert Rodriguez selling himself into medical experiments and Kevin Smith liquidating his comic books convinced a friend of mine to put his own cash up and make a pilot. Over some late-night Denny’s meals (I recommend the Buffalo Chicken Strips), we pounded out a script, but with little knowledge how this was usually done in television.
While my friend set about casting and shooting, I dug up some books on the television industry and passed them along to the “producer.” Having read a lot about film production over the years, I figured the TV biz would be very similar. I never expected to discover so many rules and rituals unique to television.
One genre of television that often breaks those rules, is sketch comedy. There was a time when SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE was cutting edge, you know. And let’s not forget about THE KIDS IN THE HALL or THE STATE, comedy troupes that confounded CBS executives but maintain loyal followings to this day. But there is only one show that can draw book-jacket raves from Janeane Garofalo, Garry Shandling, Conan O’Brien and Dave Foley, and that is MR. SHOW, which ran on HBO from 1995 to 1998.
The history of that groundbreaking series is chronicled in MR. SHOW -- WHAT HAPPENED?! by Naomi Odenkirk (Globo-Chem,$22.95). Described by the author as “a little archival time caplet for comedy nerds of the future,” the book turns out to be about more than just a show. We
discover the roots of MR. SHOW in the alternative comedy scene of the early ‘90s. Odenkirk’s pre-MR. SHOW career included stints at SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and Chris Elliott’s GET A LIFE. David Cross was wooed to THE BEN STILLER SHOW by Boston pal Janeane Garofalo.
While Bob and David get individual attention in WHAT HAPPENED?!, they are quick to point out MR. SHOW was more about good ideas rather than personalities. The book does an excellent job profiling and praising the various other collaborators that made the series memorable. For those interested in how MR. SHOW was made, a solid 20-page section of the book is devoted to the process of writing and performing an episode, but the extensive episode guide collects many more anecdotes and memories. True fanatics will appreciate the book’s design, which incorporates plenty of script pages, props and other show artwork.
One might wonder, since the book’s author is married to the Bob of Bob & David, whether WHAT HAPPENED?! is sugarcoated. Well, the book offers nothing about the darkest chapter in MR. SHOW history -- the battle over the movie RUN RONNIE RUN -- however there is open commentary about sketches that didn’t work, the difficulty of working on a low budget, and HBO’s controversial choice to move the show to a Monday timeslot.
The fall of 1998 marked the fourth and final season for MR. SHOW. I will point out that this fact is not mentioned in THE SHOWRUNNERS by David Wild (Perennial, $14.95), a book that chronicles many other series on TV during 1998 and 1999. Wild does, however, mention the swift death of THE SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, the 100th episode of FRIENDS, and the launch of HBO’s Next Big Thing, THE SOPRANOS.
I came across THE SHOWRUNNERS on a bargain table, but don’t judge the book by the markdown tag on the cover. This really is essential reading for anyone who has an interest in the television industry. “Showrunners,” for
those unaware, are the producers responsible for overseeing all aspects of a TV show from script to screen. Wild’s book opens with perhaps the most recognized showrunner of all time, Aaron Spelling. Most of the other interview subjects, however, are virtually unrecognized outside of Hollywood, to the point where they aren’t even referred to by name on the back cover. This isn’t to say the people aren’t interesting, and Wild’s fly-on-the-wall observations make them even more compelling.
The jacket suggests THE SHOWRUNNERS is “the ultimate channel-surf through one tumultuous season.” The description is appropriate, considering the short-attention-span format which shifts focus constantly. The book is structured month by month from the launch of the 1998 season in August through the networks’ “upfront” presentations in May, 1999, which set the scene for the following fall. The closest thing to a traditional narrative may be the regular progress reports on Paul Simms, creator of NEWSRADIO. Over the course of the book, we see Simms revitalize NEWSRADIO after the death of Phil Hartman and simultaneously develop an ambitious new pilot.
THE SHOWRUNNERS is also a curious historical document. The period covered happened to coincide with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which occasionally prompts Wild to digress into corny commentary. On Lewinsky’s ABC interview with Barbara Walters, he writes, “Never before has a medium so visual been impacted so profoundly by an act so oral.” Blech.
For me, the most bittersweet story in Wild’s book centers on CUPID, a witty drama that starred Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall. It’s fascinating and heartbreaking to get a look behind the scenes of the show, knowing its ultimate fate. Interestingly, not much blame is thrown around as to why a show does or does not work. There is a general theory that viewers’ tastes can only be left to chance.
Though not featured in David Wild’s book, Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin were also in the television trenches during the 1998/1999 season. The duo was showrunning CBS’s DIAGNOSIS MURDER at the time. They have now collaborated on a book called SUCCESSFUL TELEVISION WRITING (John Wiley & Sons, $15.95). Some might laugh and ask whether you should learn TV writing from two guys who used to be story editors on BAYWATCH, but when you want to know the art of the business rather than the business of art, there is a lot to be learned from writers who get steady work.
Goldberg and Rabkin obviously love writing for television. The opening of their book recalls a youth spent admiring the charmed life of a television writer on THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW. They wanted to be writers the same way other kids watched THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and wanted to be spies. Eventually, a spec script for SPENCER: FOR HIRE gained Goldberg and Rabkin their first paid gig.
SUCCESSFUL TELEVISION WRITING, the duo suggests, is “going to give you all the information no one gave us when we started out.” Like any book on writing for TV or film,
this one will tell you it’s not easy to break in, but Goldberg and Rabkin don’t make it sound so impersonal as to make would-be writers depressed. In fact, the duo writes so honestly and astutely about the job of a TV writer, the enthusiasm is contagious.
“Every TV drama series is the same,” Goldberg and Rabkin assert, and proceed to prove it with examples as disparate as BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, THE WEST WING, and even BAYWATCH. The strength of the book is the combination of theory and practical advice. Sure you might know how to tell a good story in the four-act structure, but if the star of your TV show refuses to do your script (twice!), forcing a rewrite (twice!), you should have an idea how to approach that as well. There is also advice from the front lines on what spec scripts to write, how to choose an agent, and how to work with producers. There is also a textbook element, as each chapter concludes with exercises that help novices analyze the structure and style of TV dramas.
SUCCESSFUL TELEVISION WRITING is a quick read, but that doesn’t count an invaluable 70-page appendix with actual writers guidelines, pitch ideas and full “beat sheets” from some of the series Goldberg and Rabkin have worked on. Previously, the only image I had of writing for TV was the sitcom writers’ room, with a group of guys sitting around a big table pitching jokes. I didn’t know about breaking a four-act story, or what a show’s franchise was, or how the writers dealt with the executive producers. I learned all that from this book.
I just wish I had learned it before writing that pilot.
Derek Miner aspires to one day have a credit arbitrated off a script by the Writer’s Guild of America.
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