Writing the TV Drama Series 3rd edition. Pamela Douglas
come back to the reality of the medium. It’s at home, not a darkened theatre. No one is captured, and the viewers might be eating, painting toenails, doing homework — you know how it goes. As the creator, of course you want to make the screen so beguiling they won’t turn their eyes away, but if the “viewers” have to get a point, put it in dialogue. People may be listening to the TV more than watching it. That’s not such a bad thing. Whereas viewers are distanced from the screen in theatrical films, voyeurs to other people’s stories, television drama has the effect of people talking to you, or at least talking to each other in your home. It’s compelling in a different way.
When students ask whether I advise them to write for features or television, after I tell them to try both, I ask about their talent. Do they have an ear for the way people speak naturally? Are they able to convey the illusion of today’s speech while actually writing tight, withheld lines? Can they write distinct voices for dissimilar characters? If they don’t have the talent for effective dialogue, I nudge them away from TV because action would be easier for them.
As you contemplate the differences between gigantic theatrical entertainment and what works on a family-sized TV or personal computer screen, take the next step: what sort of storytelling and filmmaking is likely to be successful on a screen the size of a cell phone?
So, no, television is not a small version of movies; it’s a different medium; and it’s bigger. Yes, bigger. The most successful features are seen by millions of people in theatres, and more when the movies are downloaded from websites, rented as DVDs, and rerun on TV. But even a moderately successful series, if it continues for enough years to go into syndication, is seen by hundreds of millions — all those lights glowing from screens around the world.
MYTH 2: TV IS CHEAP.
Well, I don’t think $5–$20 million to produce a single hour is all that cheap, or more than $100 million for a full season. Sure, when you compare that television hour to a two-hour feature whose budget is more than the GNP of several small countries, maybe it doesn’t seem so much. But at the high-end no one’s hurting in TV, and for writers, being on a series is a way to get rich (more about staff work in Chapter Six). Of course, not all series are on the high end, and the business side of television is more like a manufacturing company than an entrepreneurial venture. Pay scales (at least the floors) are set by guilds and unions, and a budget for the year is managed by the show’s executives. It’s a lot of money, but it’s all allocated. So toward the end of a season, some shows do tighten their belts. One showrunner gave me a single instruction as I joined his series: “It doesn’t rain in this town.” After he had sprung for high-profile guest stars, overtime shooting, and sweeps week specials, he couldn’t afford to make rain on the set for the rest of the year. You may have noticed another sign of overrun: the “wrap-around” episode — the one where the main character relives his previous episodes. Chances are, those memories were triggered not by nostalgia, but by the need to use clips instead of spending on production.
That said, series budgets are ample for what you want dramatically within the world of the show. As a writer, your investment needs to be in the quality of the story and depth of feelings you can elicit rather than production dazzle, so avoid: distant or difficult locations, special effects, extreme stunts, large guest casts, crowd scenes, and CGI (computer-generated images) unless those are part of your series. If you write them, they’ll probably be cut, and by tightening you gain focus on the main characters, which are the strength of television drama.
MYTH 3: YOU CAN’T DO THAT ON TV.
Come on, you can do anything on cable television — language, nudity, controversial subjects or lifestyles, experiments in ways of telling stories. However, broadcast stations are licensed by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), which obligates them to operate in the public interest. So local stations are susceptible to pressure from groups which might threaten their licenses when they’re up for renewal; and the networks, which also own stations, are sensitive to public mores — though those cultural standards change with time. Certainly, public norms have come a long way since the 1950s when married couples had to be shown fully dressed and sleeping in separate beds. Now even the least adventurous television is closer to real life. And none of this applies to HBO, Showtime, or other cable outlets.
The old days of censorship are past — but not entirely. In 2004, network censors stunned the creators of ER. It involved one episode where an 81-year-old woman is having a medical exam — an emotional moment in which the elderly woman learns about cancer, and some of her aged breast is visible. Essential for the dramatic impact of the scene, the show’s producers argued, but the network pressured them to re-edit the scene so the breast could not be glimpsed.
A new level of accommodation was reached when HBO’s bold drama The Sopranos was sold into syndication on A&E. Having planned ahead, HBO filmed alternate scenes and lines during the original production. While most of the “sanitized” episodes retain their power, some bizarre moments result, like Paulie (a tough gangster) cursing about the “freakin” snow while they go off to kill someone. That sort of thing drives some serious writers to cable where they can practice their art without interference… although, even there, Syfy Channel’s Battlestar Galactica made do with “frack.”
So, yes, on broadcast television some limits still exist. But here’s my advice: Don’t censor yourself as you write your first draft. Have your characters talk and behave the way people actually do today. Stay real. If a word or image has to be edited, fix it later, but keep the pipeline open to how people truly are, because that’s the source of powerful writing.
MYTH 4: ALL TV SERIES ARE THE SAME.
I once heard that statement from a producer who’d been successful in the era before audiences had unlimited channels and websites to surf. Now, with competition for fresh programming, a show that rests on formulas and conventional prototypes risks going unnoticed, cancelled after four episodes.
But television series do follow rules, and you’ll find a list of them at the end of this chapter.
MYTH 5: TELEVISION IS A WASTELAND.
In 1961, Newton Minnow, an FCC Commissioner, declared television a “vast wasteland,” and the epithet stuck. Minnow was referring to shows such as Bonanza, The Flintstones, and Mr. Ed in an era when three networks, each smaller than now, shared airwaves that were considered a scarce commodity, dedicated to informing or elevating the public. The talking horse just didn’t do it for him.
Well, half a century later, part of the wasteland has become a garbage dump strewn with fake jilted lovers beating up on each other on so-called “Unscripted” shows. The rest ranges from televangelists to pornography, political pundits to purveyors of snake oil, sports to scientific discoveries, wannabe singers to singing animals, and includes fiction of all kinds that may be funny, freaky, fascinating, or familiar. And some is brilliant literature, on a par with the greatest writing and filmmaking created anywhere. Those are the shows I focus on when teaching hour drama, because I believe that you learn best if you learn from the best. As to the wasteland — with a thousand channels and sites, and access to programming from every era of television history and from all over the world, television is whatever you choose to watch.
Nor is television monolithic, even within American primetime. I’ve heard people disparage TV as aimed at 12-year-olds. I answer Yes, TV shows are aimed at 12-year-olds — if you watch certain stations at 8 PM. Pre-teen and teen programming fills the early evening shows on the CW, Fox, and some cable outlets, attracting viewers whom advertisers believe are especially susceptible to their commercials. Beyond sales of acne medications and cosmetics, some of those shows even link to websites where viewers can buy the clothing styles worn by the actors.
I don’t recommend emulating those shows as you learn to write, but I do understand that very young writers may be more comfortable with characters close to their own age. If a student sincerely tells me that she hasn’t had