Month: December 2015

2015: The Year Television Figured Out How to Present Mental Illness

TV has always featured crazy characters. Now, however, television writers are finally being allowed to present mental illness as it really is. Could the Dark Ages when sufferers were depicted as either still or evil be over at last?

illness

by Alison Herman

Television’s defining trait as a medium is its length. We spend anywhere from four to 24 hours a year with our shows, which breeds both intimacy (hence, “our shows”) and inevitable frustrations. It’s no coincidence that we refer to so many of the shorter, pricier series found on cable and streaming, and the more deliberate visual style they allow for, as “cinematic” TV; we still think of the perfunctory direction that comes with cranking out episodes as the price we pay for weekly entertainment. It’s also no coincidence that TV’s greatest leaps forward involve using the platform’s extended, open-ended nature to its advantage.  read article

10 Things I Learned Producing a Web Series

The following ultra informative article about producing, prepping, and just plain being in showbiz is cleverly disguised as hype for its writer’s web series, CONFESSIONS OF….  Don’t be fooled: This is good stuff.

And, so, actually, is  CONFESSIONS OF A BARTENDER. Whadaya know?

by Cheryl Texiera

Anyone who has ever produced anything knows the title ‘producer’ can also mean: writer, director, actor, wardrobe, casting director, prop master – you get the picture. Amongst all those titles, I got the lucky experience of adding ‘editor’ to my list. read article

Larry Brody on Characterization

Admit it. You used to love these guys, right?
Admit it. You used to love these guys, right?

The TV Writer on TV Writing
by Larry Brody

When writing for television, the key to creating a successful series is populating it with characters the audience wants to come back and see again and again. This means that the characters – especially the leads – have to be, at the least, interesting, as well as realistic. I say “at the least” because over the years I’ve found that words like “quirky” and “weird” have described some of TV’s most popular heroes.

In the ’60s, for example, we had Ironside, the wheelchair-bound detective, running a team that could help him solve any crime and capture any crook. In the ’70s there was Wonder Woman, a woman who dominated every scene of the show, and pretty much every man in it as well. The ’80s gave us the A Team and the guys on MIAMI VICE. The ’90s brought the buddies of FRIENDS and SEINFELD to the fore. And the 2000s – well, I don’t know where to begin. Every successful show for the last decade and a half has featured characters far different from your standard neighbors next door.

Notice that I haven’t said that your leads need to be likeable. Once upon a time, network executives demanded likability, but characters like ALL IN THE FAMILY’S Archie Bunker (way back in the ’70s) and NYPD BLUE’s Andy Sippowitz (a ’90s icon) cracked the mold. And more recently the casts of THE SOPRANOS, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, GAME OF THRONES, BREAKING BAD,and all the other cable network anti-heroes have totally shattered that misconception. read article

Streaming TV Isn’t Just a New Way to Watch. It’s a New Genre.

Ooh, we love it when The New York Times gets all thoughtful about TV. Particularly when it runs an article about TVWriter™’s all time favorite showbiz paradigm shift:

tvupsidedownby James Poniewozik

At some point during Netflix’s “Sense8” — a gorgeous, ridiculous series about eight strangers scattered across the world who use a psychic connection to aid one another in fights and at one point have a virtual orgy — I had to ask myself: What am I watching?

I didn’t mean that the way I usually do when reviewing a baffling show. I meant what, in a definitional sense, was this maximalist, supersized, latticework story? A mini-series? A megamovie? To put it another way: Is Netflix TV? read article

XANDER THE SLAYER: The Spec That Started Steven DeKnight’s Career

What would the Christmas season be without success stories? For that matter, what would showbiz be without them? Join us now as TVWriter™ presents the warm, uplifting tale of how Steven DeKnight went from wanna be to showrunner (of DAREDEVIL). Dude’s winnin’, y’know?

Buffycastby James Bean

If you want to work in TV, you have to prove that you can write for somebody else’s characters.This can be difficult, especially when the characters are as beloved as the ones found on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and especially when the name of your speculative episode is “Xander the Slayer.”

It’s actually a well-known rule that you shouldn’t spec a show that you want to work on for exactly this reason: Showrunners and writers know their own characters too well to judge a spec fairly. There will always be something that doesn’t sound quite right. A line of dialogue that doesn’t ring a hundred percent true. read article