Aha! The world is going to end this year. Just not in the way we expected:
So here’s the deal. According to Toni Fitzgerald of MediaLife, broadcast viewing is continuing its slide. With the exception of NBC, which is up 23% in the ratings so far this season, the broadcast networks are down a total of 11% among adults 18-49. (Ooh, that’s TVWriter™’s demo. We’re so damn significant!)
Ken Levine says this is the best comedy writing book evah…and who are we to disagree?
If anybody ever had great credentials for a book about comedy – what it is, what it ain’t – Dan O’Shannon, Emmy winning showrunner of MODERN FAMILY, former showrunner of FRASIER, former executive producer of CHEERS is the guy. His approach – analyzing the “comedic event” as opposed to examining joke structure, makes you wonder why anybody ever even thought of looking at what’s funny another way. To O’Shannon, context is everything…and he’s convinced me of it too.
With that in mind:
I’m sure we could all learn way more than ten lessons from Dr. Who, but this is a blog post, not a self-help book.
Ten Life Lessons From Doctor Who
by David Weedmark
I bought a new pair of shoes a couple weeks ago. They’ve been a tremendous help to my sanity. They’re just a pair of plain Converse sneakers to most people, but to me and a few of you, there is a special significance to this brand of shoes. Because Converse sneakers, like a bow tie, or even a fez, are cool. I’m referring of course to the BBC’s Doctor Who. It is one of the few television shows to which I’ll admit I’m a fan. Because, like a few great works of drama, it is entertaining (funny at times, scary at others, and often simultaneously) and is a constant reminder of what is important. The most important things, I’ve often said, are also the things we tend to forget the most easily.
I grew up loving stories about Robin Hood. Were these tales based on the exploits of a real outlaw? There might have been a number of Robin Hoods in the original region, including some women. It’s an open question if he really lived or not, but what an inspiring symbol. Each of us knows someone, or about someone who’s been dealt an injustice and had to go into some sort of hiding. Many of us become outlaws ourselves, as children or as adolescents.
From the safety of the dense woods, Robin and his band lived simply in Sherwood Forest, shared everything and redressed the crimes visited upon local peasants by an unjust elite who support an illegitimate ruler. That “rob from the rich, give to the poor” catchphrase isn’t entirely accurate. The rich in these stories got rich through unfair laws and taxes they alone benefit from. The serfs and villagers do all the work farming, maintaining the estates and manufacturing goods, and they are starved and thrown in jail if they object to the injustice. It’s a situation begging for revolt, and always relevant, especially in our age of Capitalism, Corporatism and heartless avarice.
…But we’d feel a lot better about this project if rather than “consulting” with the original writers of the Emmy-winning episode, Rod Baker and Glen Olson, the producers had hired them to write it as well.
Instead, current Executive Story Editor Joe Halpin did the job, for which he got paid his weekly salary plus the script fee, which is about five times what it was 40 years ago when “Hookman” was first produced. (That would be 1973.)