Future of TV - Pam Douglas

8/10/2019 Future of TV - Pam Douglas

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T H E F U T U R E O F

T E L E V I S I O NYOUR GUIDE TO CREATING TV

IN THE NEW WORLD

PAMELA DOUGLAS

M I C H A E L W I E S E P R O D U C T I O N S


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Published by Michael Wiese Productions

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Manuactured in the United States o America

Copyright 2015 Copyright Pamela Douglas

All rights reserved. No part o this book may be reproduced in any

orm or by any means without permission in writing rom the author,

except or the inclusion o brie quotations in a review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Douglas, Pamela.

Te uture o television : your guide to creating V in the new world / Pamela Douglas. p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-61593-214-6

1. elevisionProduction and directionHandbooks, manuals, etc. 2. elevision

broadcastingHandbooks, manuals, etc. 3. elevision seriesAuthorship.

4. elevision authorship. I. itle.

PN1992.5.D68 2014

791.450232dc23

2014018908

Cover design by Johnny Ink www.johnnyink.com

Interior design by Jay Anning

Copyediting by Gary Sunshine


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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

T H A N K Y O U T O :

Joe Peracchio or brilliant research assistance or this book;

Bear McCreary or connecting me with

pioneering makers o digital series;

Raya Yarbrough or designing and drawing Te Old World,

Between Worlds, and Te New World landscapes;

John Spencer or all his support;

And the many writers, producers, and executives

who generously contributed their experiences

and insights to this project.


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C O N T E N T S

I M A G I N I N G T H E F U T U R E 8

W H A T I S T E L E V I S I O N ? 1 2

Y O U A R E H E R E 1 7How We Got Here

Todays Indie TV/Charles Slocum

Net Neutrality

Conclusion We Are Here

T H E O L D W O R L D 3 3How Network Shows Work

Trey Callaway

Front Doors to the Networks

Carole Kirschner

Jennifer Grisanti

Running Your Own Show

Back Doors to the Networks

What Can the Networks Do?


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B E T W E E N W O R L D S C A B L E T V 5 1Basic Cable Channels

FX

AMC/Charles Collier

IFC/Dan Pasternack

Niche Cable

Genre

Premium Cable

Starz, Showtime, and Cinemax

HBO/Michael Lombardo

The End of Cable TV?

Conclusion

T H E T R A V E L E R S 7 6

T H E N E W W O R L D

E M P I R E S O F T H E N E W W O R L D 9 6Netflix/Ted Sarandos

Hulu/Andy Forssell

DirecTV/Chris Long

Yahoo

Amazon

Under Construction


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B I G B R A N D S K Y S C R A P E R S 1 4 6Machinima/Aaron DeBevoise

AwesomenessTV/Brian Robbins

T H E B O A R D W A L K 1 6 1Overview

Web Fest/Michael Ajakwe

Kickstarter/Matt King

Enter the Executive Producers

Producer Amy Berg

Jane Espenson & Bradley C. Bell

The Top Tier

T H E F A R F R O N T I E R 1 8 5Story Worlding/Brian Seth Hurst

T Bones Response

Transmedia/Jay Bushman

Interactive TV Alliance/Allison Dollar

Mickey Mouse

C O N C L U S I O N 2 0 2

R E S O U R C E S F O R Y O U 2 0 3

R E C O M M E N D E D R E A D I N G 2 0 4

C R E D I T S 2 0 5

A B O U T T H E A U T H O R 2 0 6


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8

PREFACE

I M A G I N I N G T H E F U T U R E

IWAS CHARMED BY HE SREELIGHS. How quaint, I thought,that they still had them in this time. Oh, wait. Im in this time. A mo-

mentary time-travelers panic swept me: How will I get home? O course,

I reconciled mysel that I actually do live in this era, and I was standing at

my own ront door.

No doubt I was influenced by research or this book. Trough 2013

and early 2014 I interviewed heads o programming at both new and tra-

ditional platorms ranging rom Netflix to Youube channels, rom pre-mium cable to newcomers like DirecV, and individual showrunners and

writers. elevision today eels like the moment afer the Big Bang with cre-

ation spinning out at near-infinite speed. And the new crop o V execu-

tives sound like theyre riding these atomic broncos shouting whoopee!

ranslating all this down to earth: more quality dramas and comedies

o more kinds in more lengths will be made in more ways on more venues.

Its part o Te Great Convergence, long anticipated and now arriv-

ing. In theory, it comes rom melding television with the Internet, but in

practice its so much more because this is not a mere technological change.

Someone asked i I think the new V outlets and shows will kill each

other off, i competition will inevitably whittle them down to a top ew, as

happened with traditional networks. Apparently not. It seems that the en-

tities are defining niche audiences and other ways to identiy themselves in

the crowd. In the past, the only option was to reach the broadest audience

with material that would offend no one, and that mandate may continue


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THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION


on the legacy networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox). But the reedom to

program or distinct and passionate interests has reed writers and pro-

ducers to make series elsewhere that would have been impossible in the

past. Tats been happening on cable or years, and its amplified with the

growth o ully proessional digital platorms and subscription-based V.

As or ways o succeeding, when people ask is it this way or that or

some other way, my answer is simply yes. Its all o them. Everything is

happening at once and everything is possible.

Tats not the uture. Tat is now. But its such a new now that many

people are still catching their collective breath.

And many are araid.

ry this: Picture the uture. I dont mean your job or amily in the next

couple o years. Imagine whatever sounds uturistic to you, maybe 2050

or 2100. What do you see in your city? Burned-out buildings collapsed

and overrun with ravaging animals? Bizarre insects that survived a ca-

tastrophe? Carcasses o cars that dont run? Skies too dank or sunshine?Te crown o the Statue o Liberty on a deserted beach? attered remnants

o the Hollywood sign? Humans beaten back beore civilization or en-

slaved by machines?

Whether those dystopian images result rom environmental disasters

fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, polar shifs, alling meteors or

wars or disease or alien conquest or, let us not orget, Te Zombie Apoc-

alypse this horrific uture has been relentlessly portrayed in movies,games, comics, and on V.

I wonder why. Who gains rom persuading the general public to be-

lieve the uture is to be dreaded? Who profits rom people who eel hope-

less or terrified, overwhelmed by orces beyond their control? o whose

advantage is it to create a narrative that the way to survive is by finding a

hero with super-powers to lead or save you, or by attaining magical pow-

ers yoursel, thus bypassing an actual path to power in current time?

Tink about it.


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PAMELA DOUGLAS

10 I M A G I N I N G T H E F U T U R E

Certainly the message has been well sold. Every single term at the USC

School o Cinematic Arts, among the many gifed and original writers,

a ew screenwriting students pitch dystopian postapocalyptic stories in

my classes. Te clich-ridden antasies are usually the same. Tey used to

mostly be knockoffs o Buffy, but I established a rule against shows about

teenagers with super-powers who save the world, so those pitches have

ound other ways o imitating visions o the end o the world.

When I challenge those students to find other subjects some o them

reply but thats what theyre buying. Okay, who are they? Sure, in our

time o abundance, someone somewhere is buying more dystopian utures

(Sharknadoanyone?). And blockbuster movies that rely on special effects

are continuing to push these out. But Im telling you, at least in television,

Ive been interviewing them or this book and most o them are buy-

ing character-driven stories. Te apocalypse is old-ashioned, guys. Not

happening.

Recently, a group o scientists were at my house talking about issuesacing colonists on Mars. Tey were meeting with my husband, John

Spencer, who is President o the Space ourism Society. I wasnt part o it,

but I couldnt help overhearing reerences to 2020 as the past, and hearing

them describe a uture ull o possibilities.

So what better uture can we screenwriters imagine? Tats difficult,

right? A positive view is partly uncharted because it has rarely been done

and risks alling into saccharine wish ulfillment. And since drama re-quires conflict, i you are deprived o external disaster, the writer has to

work harder to discover drama between characters.

As a beginning writer, I worked briefly on Star rek: Te Next Gener-

ation. Long beore my time, Gene Roddenberry had created a universe

where humans would be essentially moral. As ar back as the original Star

rek in 1966, characters were to be beyond bias against anyones racial,

gender, or even species background; everyones motives were to be pure

as they searched out new worlds. But perection is really hard to write


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into stories. In act, to find dramatic conflict Next Generationsometimes

resorted to inecting characters with a virus or depriving them o sleep or

inhabiting them with an alien in order to change personalities enough to

drive a collision.

Im not suggesting answering dystopia with utopia. But I am urging

courage to look orward.

We are in a vortex o change where all times are simultaneous. Tats

not only because we can download 13 hours o House of Cardsat once, or

binge on 60 hours o Te Wirenew-to-us nine years afer it went off the air.

And its not Battlestar Galacticas all this has happened beore and all o

it will happen again that assumes a circular pattern. And its not only that

we can instantly be on Mars through a rovers lens.

Te uture is an eternal now. I you try to picture the streetlights ex-

tending into infinity, the possibilities go all the way to the stars. Go with

them.


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12

I N T R O D U C T I O N

W H A T I S T E L E V I S I O N ?

CONSIDER HE ANCIEN PERSIAN LEGEND o Scheherazade.Te tale begins with a king who married a new virgin each day, and

sent yesterdays wie to be beheaded the next day. He had killed

1,000 women by the time Scheherazade volunteered to spend one night

with him. You see, she knew something.

Once in the kings chambers, Scheherazade told a story as the king lay

awake and listened with awe. Te night passed, and Scheherazade stopped

in the middle o the story as dawn was breaking. Te king asked her tofinish, but Scheherazade said they were out o time. So the king spared

her lie or one day to finish the story. Te next night, no sooner did Sche-

herazade finish the story than she began a second, even more intriguing.

Again, she stopped halway through at dawn. You guessed it: the king

spared her lie or one more day to finish the second story.

As time went on, the king kept Scheherazade alive day afer day, as he

eagerly anticipated finishing last nights story. At the end o 1,000 stories,

Scheherazade said she had no more tales to tell him. But during these

1,001 nights, the king had allen in love with her. Having been made a

wiser and kinder man by Scheherazade and her tales, he spared her lie,

and made her his queen.

Now, what did Scheherazade know?

Well, she shouldve known not to consort with a murderer. Putting that

aside, she knew sex sells only temporarily. But she knew something more

important: the power o serialized stories.


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W H A T I S T E L E V I S I O N ? 13

Te ability o episodic storytelling to lure audiences into a fictional

world, and the power to make that world seem real, runs deep in human

history. It reaches rom cave dwellers around a fire to Scheherazade to

House of Cards,and runs throughout television including Te Sopranos,

Mad Men, Te Wire, and teen shows online and off. Always, compelling

characters have created compelling relationships with their audience, and

the more honestly, more insightully peoples true motives and eelings are

written the more deeply the audience commits to them.

Tat kind o intense, personal serialized storytelling is the strength o

television today and in the uture.

I hear some people conusing television with pieces o equipment.

elevision shows have never been limited to the wires and tubes inside a

box. Programming long ago passed rom analog to digital, rom antennas

to cable to Internet, and rom broadcast to everything else. So i television

is no longer defined as a box in the living room, what is it now?

I posed that question to several o the television leaders I interviewedor this book, and here are a ew that hint at the range well cover.

Bruce Rosenblum, Chair o the Academy o elevision Arts and Sci-

ences, told me: elevision is content. elevision is the opportunity or

very talented, creative people both in ront o and behind the cameras to

tell stories in an episodic environment. Whether stories are being experi-

enced on a 55-inch flat screen television or a laptop computer or mobile

device or tablet, they are experiencing that story, interacting with that sto-ry, talking about that story. Its the episodic storytelling thats television.

So House of Cardsis television even though its delivered into the home

over broadband. And the shows on CBS are television. And Breaking Bad

on basic cable, and Game of Troneson HBO. Tose are all television. You

can watch television on a television set or on a laptop or a mobile device,

but what youre watching is the story.

Aaron DeBevoise, ormer Executive Vice President o Programming at

Machinima, preers the term video. Machinima is a game-based online


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PAMELA DOUGLAS

14 W H A T I S T E L E V I S I O N ?

network o original scripted series that sees itsel as developing what it

thinks o as i.p. (intellectual property) that can be explored on many

platorms, rather than individual shows.

In the past, the definitions o the content and the V set were merged.

Now theyre getting broken apart. In the uture were going to look at

a television set as just one o the our devices we have in the house or

video. And that video can be anything rom short orm to long orm to

eature length, to episodic 44-minute hour dramas. Video is anything on

any screen and a television set is one o the devices you can get video on,

versus V as being the definition o the content that lives on a television.

Te statement I watched Te Walking Dead on television is going

to be absurd ten years rom now. Why are you telling me the place you

watched it on? Youre just going to say I watched Te Walking Dead.

O course, that assumes people will be watching Te Walking Deadten

years rom now, and that supposes that character-driven serialized story-

telling will continue to prevail an idea no one doubts.Tat compelling connection to continuing story lines has led compa-

nies that never made original scripted dramas to get into the action. Its

good business because people have to subscribe to keep watching night

afer night. Look at DirecV. Tey sell the dishes you see on roos, right?

And suddenly DirecV produces original series.

So I asked Chris Long, Senior Vice President o Entertainment or Di-

recV, what is television? He said, Its a release rom reality. Its an op-portunity to sit at home and orget all your problems and be a voyeur in

somebody elses lie. Tats the beauty o television. Tats what I ell in love

with romM*A*S*HtoAll in the Family it was being a voyeur in their

lives or that hal hour. Im not going to deal with anything else in lie, just

how exciting it is to be in their world. Teres a solace and an opportunity

to learn, identiy with characters. elevision is not bad or you. elevision

takes you to a place youll probably never go in your lie, but it allows you

to get there rom a little box.


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W H A T I S T E L E V I S I O N ? 15

Te last episode o SopranosI was not happy but I ound closure; the

last episode o M*A*S*HI cried, the last episode o SeinfeldI laughed. I

have moments o my lie where I remember where I was.

At its core, our relationship to television is emotional, not only as nos-

talgia but as a component o our current lives. Its our reason to keep Sche-

herazade alive.

So What is television? According to Chuck Slocum, Assistant Execu-

tive Director o the Writers Guild o America, West: elevision is every-

thing that is not a eature film.

Everything, everywhere on every platorm just as long as its not in a

motion picture theater. Opportunity is great but how are you going to plot

a course to everything?

Ah, thats where this book comes in. Lets head out to explore the many

paths on your journey to the new world.


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16


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17

C h a p t e r O n e

Y O U A R E H E R E

THIS IS HE DAY YOU DEPAR. Your home looks nearly the same

as always but the world outside has changed. Most o your screen-

writing riends are packing up too. You look around at the snapshots

o the era o movies in theaters, three networks, and a ew cable stations,

maybe a bit nostalgic. How did it all come to this?

Linda Obst, who produced movies including Sleepless in Seattle, Con-

tact, and Te Fisher King, commented, Tose o us who loved writing

we started saying, Well, where are characters? We looked and we ound

ourselves watching HomelandandMad Menand Te Sopranos. Where were

all the great characters being developed? On television. What was the water

cooler talk about? elevision. Tings that we could never do in movies, we

could suddenly do in television, so all the great writers that could sell their

wares in this new market created a diaspora and moved to television.

Writers have been transitioning rom movies to V or a long time. Back in

1974, critic Horace Newcomb wrote, Intimacy, continuity, and history were

the elements that distinguished television and earned its status as a popularart. Tese characteristics differentiated television storytelling rom cinema.

Ten television, itsel, started to change.

By 2005, at least our different concepts described television: a kind o

electronic public square, like a meeting place or large events; a orum or

people who share special viewpoints or interests; a window on the outside

world; and a gated community available to those who pay to determine ex-

actly what they want. Its this last idea that affects what you can write andproduce, and though a gated community sounds limiting, its one o the

sounds o creative reedom. Ill explain.


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PAMELA DOUGLAS

18 Y O U A R E H E R E

Once upon a time, not long ago, television writers had to appeal to

mass audiences with what Paul Klein, ormer CBS VP o Programming,

called Least Objectionable Programming. LOP not only prevented

creators rom airing dirty words and nudity, but more significantly, the

policy constricted the kinds o characters you could create and interered

with honestly depicting how people live and relate to each other.

Consider the moment in the pilot o House of Cardswhere the main

character kills a dog. Its a perect metaphor or how Congressman Francis

Underwood will act with humans later in the series, but no traditional

network would have permitted it.

LOP shows do continue on traditional networks (and working on those

shows is still an option or writers). But by the mid-2000s, U.S. television

became more like publishing, where magazines are customized or read-

ers with specific interests. Te parallel shif in television happened when

economics met up with technology.

Back in the network era, with limited screen real estate only threehours o prime time on only three or our channels everyone had to watch

what was available and the competition was all about massive numbers. wo

evolvements changed that: Advertiser-sponsored outlets (including cable) re-

alized that large numbers o viewers were not as valuable as desired viewers

niche ans who were more likely to buy the products being advertised. Its

logical: Whats better, one viewer in 100 buying your ancy car or two people

out o ten who are watching the show driving off in it? Allegiance to a show byits ew adoring ans might also translate into warm-and-uzzies or a product,

advertisers figured. But advertising explains only part o the metamorphosis.

Subscriptions turned everything around. Suddenly people could watch

quality original shows with no ads at all, whoopee! Tus spoke HBO,

Showtime, Starz, Netflix, and others. You pay or what you want. And

those outlets dont care i you want everything they run you only have

to want something enough to subscribe. Personally, Im happy to pay my

$8.99 per month or the joy o seeing Orange Is the New Blackand other


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Y O U A R E H E R E 19

Netflix originals even i I rarely check out their catalog, and even i they

make a flop.

iny passionate audiences have power now. In her book Te elevision

Will Be Revolutionized, scholar Amada D. Lotz analyzed: In the new en-

vironment consisting o ragmented audiences and niche-programming

strategies, edgy programming produced in clear affront to some viewers

can more than succeed: it can become particularly attractive to certain

advertisers and accrues value rom distinguishing itsel so clearly in the

cluttered and intensely competitive programming field.

Lotz summarized the overall changes in the first decades o the 21stcentu-

ry: Different business models led to different unding possibilities; different

unding possibilities led to different programming; different programming

redefined the mediums relationship with viewers and the culture at large.

Tats great news or you as a creator. Dont believe people who tell you

to water down your material. Write with honesty and courage, not just

because thats good or you as an artist; suddenly it may be practical, too.But are we all permanently separated in our shrinking bubbles? Well,

an opposite trend is happening at the same time. While we are identiying

with our separate tribes, we are paradoxically interacting more within our

tribes. Beth Comstock, President o Digital Media at NBC Universal, ob-

served: In the digital age, community is all about gathering people with

shared interests and giving them a platorm to interact with each other, to

engage in relevant content and to create something new.Tat raises an issue well talk about later in this book: How do show cre-

ators deal with transmedia and make stories that cross platorms and cul-

tures? We all know, by now, that the shared warmth o the electronic hearth

(as television was called in the 20thcentury) has diminished. Tat is, the time

when a nation elt unified because everyone was watching the same program

at the same time is over (except or major events like sports, significant news,

and a very ew shows). But theres a new version o community where people

connect across the globe by nothing more than shared tastes or interests. In


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


effect, these are larger tribes. As the old connections are lost, new communi-

ties are orming that are even more potent. In the uture, how will you create

or a community that is no longer described by time or place? Well, take a

breath, and look at how television has morphed to fit its space beore.

H O W W E G O T H E R Eelevision has always opened new creative possibilities, and has always

moved orward through content. As Wiredmagazine observed, Some o

the very first programs were created so networks would have something

to air between soap commercials; HBO came up with ambitious series

like Te Sopranos because it wanted to attract more subscribers. Now

Netflix, on a quest to grow its audience, is[giving] us wilder V than

weve seen beore. Not bad or a company created to rent DVDs.

Its not as i were blasting off now in a vacuum o history. elevision

has experienced some sort o upheaval every decade. Te curators at TePaley Center or Media wrote, Despite the dazzling pace o technological

change, it is our belie that content will continue to drive viewer interest,

and thus play the dominant role in shaping the uture o television, just as it

has throughout the mediums history. Content is the reason people rushed

out in the 40s to purchase televisions sets, to watch exaco Star Teaterand

Your Show of Shows, or turned to Friendsand Seinfeldand the rest o NBCs

Must See V Tursday-night lineup in the 90s, or ponied up extra dollars

or addictive, buzzed-about cable shows like Te SopranosandMad Men,

or are now purchasing subscriptions to Netflix or House of Cards.

O course how and when people watch will continue to evolve the

democratization o video on demand is helplessly enticing but what

people watch will continue to be driven by the quality o the content itsel,

just as it always has.

(Well return to the issues o democratization later.)

Its encouraging to think that we as content creators are so important.


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But outside pressures have, in act, tightened or loosened our opportuni-

ties, throughout history. Look at the impact o:

F I N A N C I A L I N T E R E S TA N D S Y N D I C A T I O N R U L E Sake your fingers out o your ears and stop screaming yadda yadda yadda.

I know you want to skip this section because that group o words looks

boring, and, worse, irrelevant. Okay, its true that while youre writing a

script, no legal or business issues should distract you rom living with your

characters in their world. But knowing a little something about the fin-

syn rules can help you navigate the uture because youll have insight into

how opportunities can be built, or obstructed.

In 1970, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) o the U.S.

made rules to prevent the Big Tree television networks rom monopolizing

all broadcasting by preventing them rom owning any o the programmingthey aired in primetime. Tis was a big deal. It changed the power relation-

ships between networks and television producers. Beore the rules, producers

had to agree to exorbitant profit participation just to have their shows aired.

Essentially, the three networks had a stranglehold on the creative community.

With the new rules, gates were thrown open. Some observers think

that brought about a golden era o independent television companies like

MM that produced Te Mary yler Moore Showand Norman Lears com-pany that madeAll in the Family. Four decades later, the rise o those inde-

pendents last century can offer a cautionary tale.

All along, the fin-syn rules were controversial, not only because the

networks didnt want limits on their ability to maximize profits, but also

because very small production companies needed money that was no lon-

ger available rom networks. In the 1980s the rules were relaxed, and in

the 90s they were repealed.

Immediately, media companies like Disney, Viacom, News Corp., and


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


ime Warner made purchases that combined studios and networks to

create new kinds o corporate entities. And the networks populated their

schedules with new shows purchased rom studios they owned, effectively

shutting out independents.

Tat led to where we are today when all networks have their in-house

production companies and they own (or co-own) cable outlets. For

example, NBC-Universal NBCU owns not only NBC network but

also cable channels including elemundo, USA Network, Syy, E!, CNBC,

MSNBC, Bravo, Te Weather Channel, and a 32% interest in Hulu. CBS

owns Showtime and CW, among many other businesses. And so orth.

What does all that mean or you?

wo opposite energies suraced in my interviews or this book. On one

side, it seems like a whole generation is making videos and potential se-

ries on ultralow budgets, posting them on Youube without any studio or

network involved. Some o those shows even have viewers, and a ew have

sizable audiences (or web series).At the same time, every new media executive spoke o expansion. All

the online outlets own or co-own their productions. Almost all think o

themselves as studios, not only distributors. One programmer at an online

service compared himsel to moguls in the heyday o Hollywood in the

1930s. A Youube channel purveyor confided that he dreamed o empire.

Learn rom history. Te current wave o enthusiastic opportunity is still

rising as I write this book. Keep your eyes open or a time when this wavemight crash into corporate control like what occurred beore the fin-syn

rules in 1970, and afer they were repealed. Maybe that sort o stifling mo-

nopoly can never happen again in this era o the Internet with irrepressible

outlets and a global marketplace. But i you like the way this time o unlim-

ited potentials eels, you might want to stay alert to where the power lies.

Now heres the way orward. Te power is with you. Tats not New-

Age-y babble. I you are the source o intellectual property (that means

content worlds and characters the stuff people write), you are in


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power. Really. Te history o television proves it over and over.

You might be encouraged by this tale o the birth o original program-

ming at HBO, with the series Oz, as told by Alan Sepinwall in his book Te

Revolution Was elevised.

om Fontana (the creator o Oz) chose to experiment because it was

HBO and they said you could do anything you want. I had written so much

in the broadcast orm, and I thought, Why not make each episode like a

little collection o short stories? Some weeks, the Beecher story would be five

minutes, and some weeks it would be 15 minutes. Te reedom to be able to

do it differently every week, and decide what order they were coming in, was

very liberating rom a storytelling point o view. You werent bound by, Oh,

Ive got to get to this point by the commercial so that I can get them back

rom the commercial, or I havent serviced this character in the second act.

None o the old rules applied, and it was wonderul. Oh, you can just tell the

story or the length o time it needs to be told in this episode.

One o the great things about the guys who did the first couple obig drama and comedy series on HBO is almost all o them had a lot o

schooling in network series, said Carolyn Strauss (ormer HBO execu-

tive). Tey knew the rules o series television. Tey knew how to tell sto-

ries, knew the rules they needed to keep and knew the rules they could

throw out. Tey had a lot o un with that. Tere was a kind o spirit, in

terms o going at it in a whole new way.

Ozpremiered in 1997, but that description o HBO in its youth is theway television eels today, doesnt it?

Los Angeles imestelevision critic Robert Lloyd asked, Has television,

so long considered the lowest medium the boob tube, the idiot box, the

old vast wasteland, corporate and irrelevant finally become hip? Is it

the new rock?

Lloyd says yes because: Beore Louie, Louis C.K. made a ew short in-

dependent art films; on his FX series, he makes art 12 weeks a year, and it

is widely seen and celebrated. Te independent films Lena Dunham made


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


are what got her the chance to create HBOs Girls, but V, which has im-

ported her sensibility unscathed, is what made her a star.

Like pop music, television today is multiarious and actional, and

with the expansion o cable and cables leap into original production, it has

acquired something like an indie or alt-V component to complement

its still substantial mainstream.

Los Angeles imes television critic Mary McNamara summed it up:

elevision is the most significant voice in popular culture because that is

where writers are allowed the most reedom.

T O D A Y S I N D I E T V I interviewed Charles Slocum, a longtime executive o the Writers Guild

o America, West. Trough years representing the interests o proession-

als who write or all kinds o screens, Slocum offers a perspective so in-

sightul I want to share it with you as spoken:

C H A R L E S S L O C U M

Charles Slocum:Teres a category I call in-

dependent television, which didnt ormerly exist. ra-

ditional television had to be motivated by the channel

its going to be on. But now we have the business modelyler Perry did withMeet the Browns, a sitcom on BS,

and Ice Cube used to launchAre We Tere Yet, andAnger Managementwith

Charlie Sheen, and the new George Lopez sitcom sold to FX.

Heres the difference: these channels BS or FX did not develop

and pay or a pilot. Te talent developed the show on its own. Tey ound

money independent o the channel to produce ten episodes. And then with

that investment, they go to a channel and the channel agrees to put it on the

air. Te channel is not out any money. Teyre out their airtime or ten epi-


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sodes. Tey get advertising during it that helps pay back the investors. I the

ten episodes do well and the channel picks it up, they pick it up or 90. Ten

you know youre going to have your syndicatable number. Its still a gamble

on the ten, but its independent in that theres unding brought to it.

Pamela Douglas:From the point o view o somebody who is

a writer, who is not a big money person and who doesnt know about get-

ting investors, how is this good in terms o knowing how to proceed with

the new opportunities?

CS:Tere are different doors to knock on. You can knock on doors

o people who will handle the rest o the rights. Tis is the way V used to

be. Youd go to a studio and they would take you to a network, back beore

the financial-syndication rules were taken away. Te networks didnt own

the shows. When the rules went away, they could own the shows.

What this means is you have an outside third party and youre not stuck

with the network you originally develop it with. Now when they pass on

it, its hard to get your show away rom the network you first developed itwith. Its going back to the way it was rom the 1970s to the mid-90s when

the ownership rules were taken away.

So-called independent V is just our shows. Teyre just the begin-

ning. But theyre the beginning o change.

PD:So or writers you see a greater variety o paths?

CS:A greater variety o paths or your work to be made and get to the

viewer.PD:Does it affect the kinds o work people might do?

CS:O course it does. I you develop it yoursel and have a third party

financing it, writers have a lot more reedom to do what you want to do.

Youre not just getting notes rom a network that you have to ollow or else

youll be replaced.

PD:What do you think o the idea that the Internet has ar more real

estate, so instead o pitching to a network that might have only one time

slot open, online the possible spaces are unlimited.


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


CS:Tats true and not true. Netflix, or example, has a programming

budget. iunes, on the other hand, has truly unlimited real estate because

iunes isnt giving you any advances. I you produce it, theyll sell it or you.

But they dont produce anything. Netflix doesnt have time slots; thats true,

but they dont have an unlimited budget. Te same is true o Amazon be-

cause theyre investing.

PD:Would you say its similar to the days o indie eatures?

CS:Te more you go to people or private financing, its more like

traditional estival films that might or might not make any money back. Iwould advise people to be realistic with your investors and let them know

how risky it is. For the truly independent television mode, the lower the

budget the better because o the high risk. Te value o the 10-90 deal is

youre dealing with somebody who will pay the bills eventually.

PD:In these so-called independent orms, are we ollowing the tra-

ditional model that a writer comes up with a pitch, writes a pilot, some-

body produces it, and i the pilot does well, it is picked up or series?CS:No, none o these have pilots. In the 10-90 deal, the ten episodes

are done. en episodes are enough content to know what you have.

But pilots are still the norm at networks. And people would argue in a-

vor o them because you get to tweak what youre buying. And the Netflix

shows are rom scripts.

PD:In the independent V paradigm, what would people do who are

truly writers? Tey put words on pages and create characters and stories.

Teyre not necessarily businesspeople or cinematographers.

CS: Te more you want to control your uture the more you have

to stretch out into these other areas. Te more you are just a writer with

a piece o paper the more other people are going to control your uture.

I you want to have a career purely as a writer youd have to understand

youre not the whole package; youre an employee. Te reality is that i you

cant get the job you want as an employee, the opportunity is to stretch into

these other areas and become the entrepreneur.


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I understand some writers are introverts and they dont want to deal

with all the people who are production managers, accountants, location

scouts, and so orth. Fine, so partner with a producer who loves all that

and doesnt have the patience to sit down with a blank page. Tats the path

to being an entrepreneur in a partnership.

PD:How does that differ rom the olden days where a writer would

go to a studio or backing?

CS:Te executive at the studio became your partner. Te classic ex-

amples are great writer/showrunners who work under the umbrella o a

production company. We need the Grant inkers o this age who are going

to run the company, deal with the network, and try to keep the network at

bay as much as possible and let you do your creative work.

You have to be very sel-aware and supplement the skills you dont

have. I youre close enough you can stretch to become the producer type,

but i its too big a stretch, partner with somebody.

PD:Would you say theres more opportunity or more kinds o story?CS:Yes. One o the advantages o these new distribution methods is

theyre not advertiser-supported. Advertising support creates two different

pressures. One is to be as popular as possible. So you want to alienate as ew

people as possible and be broadly appealing to as many people as possible.

Te second thing is you need to be as similar to the other product as

you can be. Te classic example is broadcast V where what they have on

at eight they hope is compatible with what they have on at nine so theykeep the audience. Its audience-flow programming strategy. Te good

news is that individuals pay or HBO and Netflix. So i your base is sub-

scribers, your goal is to have as many different subscribers as you can.

Tat means when you have one show like House of Cards, you want the

next show to be as different as possible. On broadcast the priority is to be

similar. On subscription V the goal is to get as many different people as

possible to be happy to pay the monthly bill. One series, maybe two can

lock you in or the whole 12 months.


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


Te mandate is to be as compellingly interesting to a narrow group as

you can be. Not to be blandly popular with as many people as possible and

not offend anybody. Please offend some people to be that compelling to

others who become loyal ans. I you can get ten loyal groups you have a

lot o subscribers and youre happy. Its an opening to be more different.

PD:It sounds like a great opportunity or writers because you dont

have to censor yoursel.

CS:It is. Weve seen this growing over the last years in basic cable where

hal o the money is subscription. Its still hal advertising, but hal o their rev-

enue is rom subscriber ees. So they have a mixed motive. Tats why AMC

can love Breaking Badas much as Te Walking Dead, even though Breaking

Baddoesnt have as high ratings, but it has really loyal ans who are happy to

have AMC on their cable system, so AMC can ask or more money rom the

subscription. Tey know the cable companies will hear rom their loyal ans.

We saw this all along with HBO, and now Netflix, and also Starz, where

the motive is to be as compelling as possible to your subscription audiences.PD:Tats a good suggestion or show creators: I you want to pitch

something to a subscription-based channel, dont give them the same

thing theyve got.

CS:Te goal is not to be homogenous. Tis is the story o why broad-

cast series get shut out. Te reason cable is recognized as more creative is it

has more reedom. Its not about skin or language. Tats wrong. Te reason

they can be more creative is they dont have to be like the other programs.

N E T N E U T R A L I T YBy the time you read this section a catastrophe might have beallen the

Internet. Or nothing might have happened even afer all the sound and

ury surrounding the issue called Net Neutrality. Or the whole matter

might still be unresolved. Or perhaps a reasonable compromise or settle-

ment will have been ound. Beore this book goes to press in all 2014, I


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dont know whether the Internet will remain neutral, giving equal access

to all, or i a ew telecommunications powers will charge such high rates

or effective access that all but the biggest will be relegated to poor-quality

signals and effectively squeezed out: ast lanes or those who can afford

the top tier, and slow, interrupted dirt roads or the rest.

Tis is scary stuff, olks. Some content providers (ranging rom pro-

duction companies to individual writers and video makers) call it extor-

tion. People are also worried that control by the giants will have the effect

o censoring or suppressing original content online. Your creative options

might be in the balance.

Or maybe not. Te ISPs (Internet Service Providers) like Comcast,

ime-Warner and Verizon, are saying this is all simply a matter o mod-

ernizing transmissions and clariying regulations. All the better to see you

with, my dear, the wol said to Little Red Riding Hood. Being honest,

their supporters argue or their right to get as much profit as they can. In

the United States, the decision rests with the FCC (the Federal Commu-nications Commission), which has a broad mandate to regulate broad-

cast-television stations, phone companies, and cable companies that serve

tens o millions o subscribers with Internet service and email.

I asked mysel why deal with this difficult subject when its likely to be

different by the time you read it. Afer weighing the significance o the po-

tential challenge to people who create shows in the uture, I decided to go

ahead and describe the issues. Even i this particular FCC ruling becomesmoot in 2015, the overall questions will continue.

Lets start with the basics. Net Neutrality is an idea that an open and

ree Internet must treat all content equally. No ISP should decide which

content Internet users can see and when. Tey shouldnt arbitrarily block

access to certain websites just because they dont want consumers watch-

ing video rom a competitor. Tey also shouldnt be allowed to discrim-

inate in how they handle Internet traffic, avoring one site over another.

Attorney Marvin Ammori, an expert in Internet reedom issues, ex-


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


plained, I the FCC ends up implementing its ast lane/slow lane scenario,

the vibrant, innovative Internet as we know it is likely to ade away. It would

destroy independent creativity and it would be a lot more expensive. You

would have to raise money beore you distribute products, not only create

them. Tere would be ewer buyers o your work essentially. When you have

ewer companies that own more and more channels and programs you have

less leverage. So i you wanted to launch a web show and needed reliable

video service, you would have to go to Comcast and Verizon and offer to pay

them or give them an equity stake in your company.

A Special Report to the membership o the Writers Guild o America

stated, At a time when media conglomerates are already stifling compe-

tition and narrowing options, the Internet represents a new, and perhaps

the last, rontier or work opportunities. Te low-entry barriers o an open

Internet have spurred innovation, and writers are benefiting rom new on-

line video platorms that also give consumers more choices. Tey can sell

their content to bigger companies like Amazon and Netflix; and 10 to 15similar companies expected to sprout up in the next ew years will provide

even more outlets or their work.

Our show got a huge boost rom viewers who streamed it on their

computers, tablets, and phones, says Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.

Im not sure we would have made it beyond the second season without it.

WGAW President Chris Keyser summarized the stakes: As content

creators, we succeed when we reach our audience. We succeed artisticallybecause the broader the conversation between us and our audience and

the less that conversation is subject to censorship the more we have

ulfilled our desire to communicate our point o view. And we succeed

financially because we are usually compensated based upon the size o our

audience. Anything that comes between us and the audience in a ree and

unettered Internet is bad or writers. It is bad because we lose consumers

o our content and because someone else has decided which work o ours

will be promoted and which will be withheld.


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What can you do? First, inorm yoursel by googling Net Neutrality

and reading the latest developments. As I write this, the FCC is collecting

public comments, and, wow, have they been coming in. At one point, the

huge volume o emails over the proposed ast and slow lanes crashed part

o the FCCs computer system. Afer youve learned all you can you might

choose to pile on.

Te uture is ull o opportunities just now emerging. You can help

keep the gates open.

C O N C L U S I O N W E A R E H E R EAll that is just now coming into ocus in the distance. Were not there quite

yet. For most o us, right now, today, what is our reality? According to

David Carr o the New York imes:

So this is how we end up alone together. We share a coffee shop, but we are

all on wireless laptops. Te subway is a symphony o ear-plugged silence whilethe amily trip has become a time when the kids watch DVDs in the back o

the minivan. Te water cooler, that nexus o chatter about the show last night,

might go silent as we create disparate, customized media environments.

Or maybe we are all on the way to someplace new.


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


I N T E R A C T W I T H C H A P T E R O N E

Expand your experience o how television is changing by trying

these:

Ralph Kramden in Te Honeymooners (1950s), Archie

Bunker inAll in the Family(1970s), and Homer Simpson

in Te Simpsons (running since 1989), can be seen as acontinuum o a certain kind o character. Create a contem-

porary character that reinterprets this role in current time

on any platorm.

Watch pilots o Oz (HBO, 1997) and Orange Is the New

Black(Netflix, 2013). Both are prison dramas available on

Netflix, HBO GO, Amazon, and elsewhere. Compare the

ways characters are introduced. How do the shows differ

in their portrayals o women and men? Does the differ-

ence in tone affect the kinds o stories that are told?

On the Writers Guild o America website, find the guide-

lines or new media in the 2014 Minimum Basic Agree-

ment (MBA). How do provisions in new media differ rom

conventional agreements?


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33

C h a p t e r T w o

T H E O L D W O R L D

JUS BECAUSE YOU LEAVE A PLACE doesnt mean it isnt there.

raditional networks continue to build citadels, or to erode like sand

castles, depending on whom you ask. Despite the excitement o the

new new platorms, new technologies, new audiences, new kinds o

programming, new ways o financing television most people watch the

same ree broadcasting stations as they did in the 20thcentury. And those

mainstream audiences tend to watch similar sorts o shows plots that close

(complete their episodic stories), offering comort within their hal-hour orhour time slots, and are viewed once a week on the network schedule.

For example, the number one scripted series in 2014 was NCISon CBS

network, a military-legal procedural that attracts almost 20 million viewers

in its hour each week. Overall, each o the our legacy networks ABC,

CBS, NBC, Fox averages nearly 10 million viewers per prime-time hour.

Tat means 30 to 40 million people are watching the our traditional outlets

each hour o prime time every day. Tats a whole lot o people.In comparison, the top cable show, Te Walking Dead, gets around 12

million views in its first run on AMC (a little over hal o NCIS). But even

award-winning cable shows likeMad Mentend to be in the 2 to 3 million

range when first aired. (Delayed viewing adds to everyones numbers, o

course.)

Now look at web series. For the moment, lets set aside Netflix shows

that are in a premium subscription category o their own, and numbers

are not available. An average scripted web series (meaning a ully written,


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34


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T H E O L D W O R L D 35

ull-length original show, not cat videos) may count itsel a blockbuster i

it has a million viewers, and successes on Youube are in the hundreds

o thousands; in act many have an bases o just a ew thousand.

As a snapshot, compare 10 million viewers on a broadcast hour to 2

million on a cable hour to 200,000 on a non-premium web series. Tose

proportions are changing ast, and certain Youube shows claim numbers

in the millions or short unny videos i they go viral. But be wary. As ex-

citement rises when new islands appear on the horizon, keep perspective

on the magnitude o the continent receding behind you.

While were talking numbers, heres a stunner: 30% o all people watch-

ing anything in prime time are watching it on Netflix. I was told that by a

researcher at Google/Youube, who had nothing to gain rom these statis-

tics. Later I checked it at a network that agreed. Netflix doesnt release sta-

tistics, so it remains more like a rumor. But, i accurate, the second part o

the research is even more striking: many o those people watching Netflix

instead o broadcast stations are actually watching broadcast shows. Oldones. Sometimes very old and long off the air.

Whether theyre watched on Netflix or Hulu or DirecV or Amazon

or iunes or Roku or somewhere else, interest continues in long-departed

series. Te persistence o these reruns brings us to a completely current

reality: all eras are one on television; we inhabit an eternal now.

Tats not to say television is static. Change is upon us, and with the

ascent o quality original content on premium cable and online, tradition-al broadcast networks seem to have lost their mojo among creators and

critics, i not the middle-o-the-road audience. Te networks know it, and

theyre deensive.

In my interviews or this book I spoke with executives in both old and

new media. Among network leaders, two comments exempliy the prob-

lem. Soon afer the 2013 Emmys, in which no broadcast network won a

major award, a Senior VP complained to me, I dont know why we dont

win anything. Were as good as anyone else. Tat was ollowed a ew sen-


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PAMELA DOUGLAS

36 T H E O L D W O R L D

tences later with I wed tried to make Breaking Badhere, wed all have

been fired. Apparently, he didnt notice the connection.

Every year in May, in a ritual called the upronts, all the networks go

to New York to compete or the next seasons advertising dollars. Teresan air o urgency or the suits at the legacy networks, the L.A. imesre-

ported in 2013. Teyve been rocked by an ominous first: a basic cable

program AMCs zombie drama Te Walking Dead outperormed ev-

ery scripted show on television this season in the advertiser-coveted 18- to

49-year old demographic. And zombies are the least o it. Competition is

closing in rom every corner and on every device. DVRs are rustrating

advertisers by allowing viewers to skip ads. Netflix, Amazon, and a host oonline web services are producing original are.

Te networks are losing because they dont have the tolerance or risk,

according to Kevin Aratari, Managing Director o the ad firm mOcean.

Tey cant put a million dollars or more on an episode and have a show

flop. Interviewed at the upronts, Aratari summarized, Its like the Wild

West a bit right now. And no one has nailed it down.

o understand what all this might mean to you as a writer-creator, you

first need to know:

AMCs zombie dramaThe Walking Deadoutperformed every

scripted show ontelevision this season inthe advertiser-coveted18- to 49-year olddemographic.


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H O W N E T W O R K S H O W S W O R K

I you want to write or television old, new, or anything in between you first need to be able to write. Like any other proession, skills and ex-

perience are essential to launch or advance a career. With the prolieration

o film schools, screenwriting classes, and development workshops, most

people bring well-honed portolios to the table. Tats especially true at the

traditional networks, where most o the jobs still are.

Dont be ooled. Te antasy o breaking into Hollywood on luck,

charm, and an idea is just that a antasy even in this era o expandingopportunity. First learn your craf.

Probably youve already read my earlier book Writing the V Drama

Series, Tird Edition (2011). Tats the essential companion to this one.

In it, I walk you through every step o the process. Chapter wo o that

book tells how shows get on V and details two years o V seasons. Te

network system is explained on pages 4577. Chapters Tree and Four

describe exactly how to craf a proessional episode rom pitch through

outline and first and second drafs. Tis would be a good time to review

those chapters so youll have a context or what is changing.

Continuing with whats new, I spoke with rey Callaway, Executive

Producer on NBCs successul series Revolution.Here are his candid an-

swers and his advice.

T R E Y C A L L A W A Y

Pamela Douglas:Is your process o pitching,

developing, or running a show any different rom

what it was a ew years ago?

Trey Callaway:I think it is in a lot o re-

spects. One change is not entirely healthy in that theV business is borrowing rom the eature business in that their source


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


materials become extremely important, in some cases too important. Its

not enough to have a great original idea or a series. Its ofen as important

to have source materials behind it a book, a comic book, a previous

television series, based on a It gives networks and studios a comort

level, eeling like theyre plugging into an existing track record.

Tere are certain cases when Ill have an original idea that Ill then

reverse-engineer to a certain extent and go find source materials that can

semi-support the idea. I can make my whole pitch and then throw the

book down on the table and say oh, by the way, heres this historical figures

biography that unctions as a bible or eleven seasons o the series.Along with that, attachments have become more important, like in the

eature business. Tats all reflective o working or the same five or six

media conglomerates, so the strategies those companies use start to mir-

ror each other. It becomes important that youre connected with this or

that producer or that piece o talent who has an existing deal. Considering

that V is, and continues to be, a writers medium, there are a lot o other

people you have to pull onto your bandwagon with you, elements you haveto stack in order to beat the increasing odds.

Networks are about whatsthe big franchise-able idea. Revolutionproducer Trey

Callaway


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And theres another new wrinkle, though not necessarily a healthy one.

Because networks and studios are about whats the big ranchise-able idea,

whats going to justiy our costs and run twelve seasons, because theyre so

ocused on that, theres an increasing tendency to buy ideas rom people

who have no previous television experience, whether thats because

theyve been in eatures or theyre literally baby writers. Tere are two

people working a lot right now in the business: kids that are literally resh

out o USC (in some cases, still students there), and the Oscar-winning

heavyweights. Te middleman gets closed out. Te working-class writer

who keeps the guilds alive and the craf alive gets pushed out.

I think its easier now than its been in a while or new voices, new talent

to rise quickly. Its not necessarily the best thing or them, and they inev-

itably get partnered with people who are experienced, so theres that job

classification available or working writers. With the increased number o

venues theres an increased demand or content.

PD:Tis model that fits the networks with high concept and broadaudiences is actually contrary to whats happening online.

TC:Tese big companies tend to move like slow-moving cruise ships

and it takes them a long time to adjust their courses. As attractive as Game

of Trones is on HBO, when you compare the viewership o that to the av-

erage viewing audience o NCIS, its an entirely different experience, so its

hard to ault the big networks or a broadcasting model because theyre

connecting with tens o millions o people every night.PD: For talented young people with no credits graduating out o

school into todays world, who want to do television, where do they start?

TC:Tis is another seismic shif in the V business. I dont think its

healthy but in the last ew years Ive seen the elimination o the staff writer

position. Tats tough on kids just beginning their careers.

I understand that i Im a showrunner because o budget pressures and

increasing competition rom other shows, staffs are smaller than they used


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


to be. I have X number o dollars to spend on a staff, and as much as Id

love to experiment on new voices and to bring some o my ormer stu-

dents up along the ranks, i I only have X dollars to spend its in my best

interest to hire as many high-level proven writers as I can. Tese are peo-

ple who have great track records on turning in drafs and know the game

so I can hit the ground running and I dont have to teach anybody the V

business. From my own perspective I want to mentor people, but increas-

ingly thats not the case.

Its ar more important now or beginners to find writers assistant po-

sitions. Tey unction in a similar way as staff writer positions used to

because youre getting into the room and exposed to the process and are

able to contribute to the process. Youre not being paid or credited as you

would be as a staff writer, though. But then where theres a call or vol-

unteers or that reelance episode over Christmas that nobody wants to

write, youre in the room. You turn to the people who already are in the

room. Tey may need some hand-holding on their first execution, stillthey know the voices and the process and thats valuable.

PD:Besides getting on a staff, what about developing? A lot o people

may go off-network or their first break.

TC:Tere are more opportunities off-network, and theyll take more

risks. I say tell and sell your story wherever you can find a willing audience.

F R O N T D O O R S T O T H E N E T W O R K SIn Writing the V Drama Series youll find a whole chapter on how to

break into traditional media. So this is a good time to read Chapter Six

rom page 227 to 239. Updating that advice, I spoke with Carole Kirschner,

a ormer CBS executive and author o Hollywood Game Plan, who also

heads the CBS elevision Writers Program and runs a consulting service

called Park on the Lot.


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C A R O L E K I R S C H N E R

Pamela Douglas: What would you tell ayoung person who came to you, a good writer who

asks I want to break into television, what do I do now?

Carole Kirschner: First you write in-

credible material and you make sure its incredible by

having someone in the business read it. Ten, i you qualiy, you get into

one o the network programs. Tats the astest way to get representation.

PD:How do they get into that?

CK:Tey apply in the spring. For CBS they need an original piece

o material such as a pilot, plus a spec episode. NBC and ABC both re-

quire specs, and ABC also wants other things. Warners requires a spec

and backup material. Also Fox. Tey need to know you have a body o

work, so you wouldnt even apply until you have a whole body o work. o

get that body o work people should take classes. Its presumptuous to sayIve never written anything but I watch television so I should be able to

write television. Its just not true. Tey should learn how to write and then

practice writing.

Another way to go is do everything you can to get a job as a writers

p.a., not a writers assistant because thats five steps up. Writers assistant

is the entry point; it used to be staff writer, but now its writers assistant.

Find somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knowssomebody who will take your application to be a writers p.a. Sometimes

you can do it cold, though, by asking i you can apply May I send my

resume? I they say no, you ask, May I call you back in a ew weeks? It

always helps to have someone recommend you.

And absolutely enter every writing contest you can. Win the first or

second prize, but dont put down that youre a quarterfinalist because no

one cares.

PD:Im hearing a degree o impatience rom showrunners. Tey say


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


we need writers to be skilled by the time theyre here so they can hit the

ground running.

CK:Tats not everybody. Tere are different kinds o showrunners.

Some are willing to take people with talent and bring them up. But there

are ar smaller writing staffs, so when they hire somebody they do need

that person to perorm well. Still, Im hearing we dont look or baby writ-

ers to be writing drafs; we just expect them to sit and learn. Teres more

room or that in cable the staffs may be smaller but theres more time to

make the show, so theres more time to work on the scripts.

I also ound practical advice or you rom Jennier Grisanti, an instruc-

tor or NBCs Writers on the Verge development program. Author o

Change Your Story, Change Your Life, Grisanti runs a private consultancy.

J E N N I F E R G R I S A N T I

Pamela Douglas:Many o your recent clients

have placed pilots. Would you talk about their process?

I have a eeling it was close to the traditional methods.

Jennifer Grisanti:When clients sell pi-

lots its a village coming into play. People come to sto-

ry consultants to learn about how to develop stories in the strongest way

possible. Its never an overnight thing, as much as people want to believe

that. Its working together to get a script to the best place possible and then

utilizing a manager or agent to get it to the network or studio. And then its

a matter o the script deal. Out o the 20 pilots my clients have sold, only

two have gone to series. Its just a step toward that process.

PD:Are they selling to traditional networks or where?

JG:85% traditional network and 15% cable. I havent had anybody

sell a web series.PD:I a beginner came to you with writing skills but no agent or man-

ager or any connections, what would you advise?


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JG:I love when people have had another career and then come to me

because they have something to write about. For a new writer its all about

creating a portolio. Its also about managing expectations. I they imagine

theyre going to write one pilot and make it I help them understand how

our business works. Tis could be a five-to-ten-year journey beore any-

thing happens. A manager once said i youre not going to give it five years,

dont give it five minutes.

Being a writer is like being on a roller coaster. When you get that first

staff job, that isnt the end. Its the beginning. You may need to learn socialskills because youre going to be working in a writers room with the same

people ten hours a day.

I tell writers to plan to have three original scripts in their portolio and

current spec scripts. I believe they should have current spec scripts. Ive

staffed 15 shows and Ive had showrunners who would not read pilots; I

also had showrunners who would read pilots but afer they read the pilots

they wanted to read a spec script to understand i the writer knew how tomimic somebody elses voice. Tat hasnt gone away. I wouldnt recom-

mend having only original material. Youre hurting yoursel i someone

asks or a spec script and you dont have one.

Te writers I work with who have the most success have a number o

scripts. Tey send their submissions to programs and hope they do well in

a competition or get into a program and that leads to getting an agent or

manager and that leads to staffing.

R U N N I N G Y O U R O W N S H O WWhat i you really want to create and run your own show? Be careul what

you wish or.

Te news or writers who have already been on network staffs is a

program run by the Writers Guild o America, West. In 2005 the Show-

runner raining Program (SRP) began to teach the next generation o


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


writer-producers how to make the leap to top management. You apply

through the Guild and competition or the ew spaces each year is stiff.

Jeff Melvoin, the programs ounder, Emmy-winner or Northern Expo-

sureand a veteran o Remington Steele,Hill Street Blues,Picket Fences, and

Alias, noticed that the number o scripted programs were expanding,

creating an unprecedented demand or showrunners. At the same time

opportunities were dwindling or writers to learn on the job through long

apprenticeships, according to Written By(the WGA magazine).

Melvoin describes the top job as hiring, firing, handholding, scold-

ing, cheerleading, negotiating, cajoling, firefighting, inspiring, and then

repeating all o these things to the point o either exhaustion or cancella-

tion. His advice: Stop thinking like an employee and begin thinking like

a CEO.

John Wells, showrunner on ER,West Wing,Shameless, and Southland,

cautioned, a network will be handing you $30 million and telling you to

hire people, start in eight weeks, and produce something in seven months.Undaunted, lets say youre going out with an original pilot and a ull

head o steam. Well, Yvette Bowser, creator o the Queen Latiah sitcom Liv-

ing Singleand many comedy pilots, advised the SRP that odds are against

success. You have to want it but not want it too much. I youre getting 10%

o your pilots picked up, youre golden. And you have to realize that.

Tats not meant to be discouraging, just real, as you contemplate

opportunities in the mainstream. Aron Coleite, whose resume includesCrossing Jordan, Heroes, and Te River, told Written By: Te reason I

wanted to be a television writer is because I love the writers room. You

dont have to sit alone. As a group, you can share the wealth o the torment

among riends. Tats how you create something, and thats how you create

a community o artists.Were all sort o programmed to want to become

showrunners. We all want to have our own shows, yet theres so much

more to do than simply crafing the writing and the creative vision.


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B A C K D O O R S T O T H E N E T W O R K S

Nowadays, the ways to get into traditional networks are no longer traditional.Carole Kirschner observes, Tere are lots o 22-year-old agents as-

sistants who spend their lives going on the web looking or the next new

voice. So someone could potentially get discovered by having his or her

work online. Te way people get representation or find their way in is still

writing contests, which have been going on or a long time. But having an

online component is whats new.

Some broadcast outlets are creating their own minor leagues o newseries online. For instance, the CW launched CW Seed as a subsite on

CWV.com, with the tagline Whats Next. I think this is a kind o a

unique thing or a broadcast network to do, to have an incubator to really

look at and get eedback rom the ans, said Rick Haskins, CW Executive

VP o marketing and digital programs. We can test out new talent, test out

new ideas, test out new ways or finding exciting new opportunities or

advertisers and moving [the successul shows] to the mainstream CW.

Success is counted in new ways too. Te Vampire Diarieson the CW

had around 17 million Facebook likes by the end o 2013, compared

with around 18 million or NCISand 20 million or Te Walking Dead.

Its fifh-season premiere garnered 278,000 tweets. For the young-skew-

ing CW audience those numbers might mean more than traditional

Nielsen ratings, and gives young writers a clue to building buzz or a

show o their own.

Can you really tweet or blog your way to a show? For a legacy network,

these sources can be seen as ways o keeping up with the times or acts o

desperation. Te test is i the blogs and tweets are able to work as storytell-

ing over enough hours. Tat is, can 140 characters embody enough narra-

tive potential to roll out even one season, even a limited series o eight to

12 episodes? How about a umblr blog consisting mostly o hand-drawnmusings about being 20-something?


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


At this writing, NBC has put in development F*ck! Im in My wenties,

as a hal-hour comedy series based on Emma Koenigs umblr blog about

just that. Heres a sample o one o Koenigs entries, hand-written: When

anything VERY GOOD happens to me, I can only enjoy it or so long be-

ore I think: COUNDOWN O PEOPLE RESENING ME: 5!4!3!2!1!

Okay, students, heres your assignment: From that raw material find the

inciting moment that will drive action in the pilot. Delineate the antago-

nist and his or her goals and internal conflict. Develop the worst case

break in the story that will culminate the rising conflict. Create a twist

in the resolution o the pilot that leverages the next episodes. Ten sug-

gest how those potentials play out over an arc o a season with emphasis

on arcs or supporting cast in addition to the protagonist. Ten, afer all

that is done, demonstrate opportunities or humor and clariy the kind

o humor (satire, arce, situational, and so orth) that completes this as a

comedy series. Can you describe hilarious moments or write jokes drawn

rom this premise?No doubt NBC is on top o all that and more by giving Koenig experi-

enced co-writers and top executive producers. Since Koenig hersel is not

going to run the show, or write it, that makes me wonder what it is they

bought, and whether they were really afer the imprint o someone in a

desired demographic as opposed to actual television writing.

Nor is that the only umblr blog to get a V adaptation. Earlier, Lau-

ren Bachelis Hollywood Assistantsblog was set up as a comedy at CBS.Te show titled 20-Nothings has a similar profile o attaching experienced

talent to run it. And the same question arises: Apart rom the sourcing,

how much is this kind o deal actually development rom a nontraditional

venue, and how much is it a very traditional development rom an idea,

similar to the way shows have been developed rom pitches or decades?

Are tweets and blogs just a new orm o pitching to traditional net-

works? And do they work?


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No, according to Justin Halpern, creator o the witter eed Shit My

Dad Says. Halperns tweets got so many ans that he expanded his dads

irascible quotations into short stories that he collected into a book. And

then CBS came calling. Te network picked up the tweets and book to

make into a standard multicam sitcom. Tats when everything ell apart.

Halpern explained to Splitsider(an online site), In this case, my dad

is a guy who is not trying to be unny, which is why I think the wit-

ter eed and my book were so successul. Hes not a guy whos jokey. In

multicam, you tend to play to the joke, its more setup/punchline, just by

nature o shooting in ront o a live audience, and that kind o cuts the

nuts off my dad as a character. So even when we shot the pilot, I thought,

uuuuuuuuck. Tis is not my book. Tis is not working or this character.

Halpern also claims he elt silenced by the network, who didnt think

audiences would want to watch a wacky older guy talking about atheism

or swearing. I realized this wasnt my ather afer I got the Standards and

Practices notes when we turned in the first script and we couldnt say ANYo the words my ather uses, nor discuss any o the things my dad discusses.

His final assessment to Splitsider: Te network gets scared because

they invested a ton o money into the show. And when they reak out,

the notes get larger and suddenly you have 12 people saying, Why is that

plumber walking through the ront door? and youre like Fuck I dont

know, hes the plumber. I guess this needs a page one rewrite?

W H A T C A N T H E N E T W O R K S D O ?Okay, reality check. What i witter is not really all that? Or webisodes

either.

Remember the 30 to 40 million people watching the networks? Teyre

still watching. And the numbers seem to be growing now that networks

have quit deending themselves against DVR (digital video recorders

delayed viewing on other platorms) and learned to embrace the audiences


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PAMELA DOUGLAS


who may not sit down at the same time and even those who skip the com-

mercials.

For example, a week afer its premiere on NBC, Te Blacklisthad been

seen by around 18 million viewers, once the 6 million or so who watched

later were counted. Where are all those people watching? Well, not on the

same network that first aired the show because it isnt there. Broadcasters

have made deals with online services like Hulu and Amazon, where audi-

ences now find network shows. But, hey, they find them.

ABC was ahead o the game in 2005 when they reached an agreement

with Apple Inc. to sell Disneys V shows through the tech giants iunes

store. Te liaison came just a ew months beore Disney added Apple chie

Steve Jobs to its board. Later that year, ABC became the first network to

offer its programs to viewers on the Internet.

So instead o competing, broadcasters are trying to figure out how to

exploit the digital platorms without losing those viewers rom their own

channels. Its tricky, but possible.For example, catch-up viewing o shows people have missed can drive

people back to the network that originally televised the show. Alternate-

ly, a big opening on a network can be engineered as an event to drive

audience to continue the series on a smaller outlet (like a cable station or

online) owned or licensed by the network.

Another approach is or the legacy networks to proudly own their main-

stream identities. Maybe the time is over or them to be the places or inno-vation, niche programs, and passionate ans. Instead, they can become more

like todays movie theaters that attract crowds to a ew ranchise-driven

blockbuster events while ceding lower budget character-driven stories to

spaces that dont need so much spectacle.

Or maybe the networks will keep fighting to be more like the cable

channels. For example, Extant, executive produced by Steven Spielberg

and starring Halle Berry ventured into premium quality on CBS in the

summer o 2014.


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Les Moonves, Chie Executive o CBS Corp., says he plans to imitate

cable and offer shortened seasons where the creative quality is easier to

maintain. Compare the 22- or 24-episode season at a network with the 12

episodes per year that are normal on Showtime or AMC or HBO. From a

writers viewpoint the shorter season allows breathing room to think and

rewrite. Tats good news or you.

Or maybe CBS doesnt have to do anything different because its profits

are rising just fine. Commenting on the networks profits, Moonves said,

Success was led by our content businesses, which continue to prove that

this is a golden age or those who have the best programming. And, in

act, huge numbers o people are watching television o all kinds.

So, the Old World traditional networks might remain pretty much as

they are or quite a while. O course, they are no longer the only places

or writers to work, and i we quit expecting them to be what they arent,

maybe we could just accept them as one more option in a universe o

possibilities.


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PAMELA DOUGLAS

I N T E R A C T W I T H C H A P T E R T W O

Using the tweet rom F*ck! Im in My wentiesquoted in

Chapter wo, take the challenge presented and create a

way to expand the tweet into a series.

In the book Writing the V Drama Series, read the sec-

tion on procedurals (pages 145154). Find a current-daysubject that involves clue-driven stories that can close in

an hour. Use the principles o procedural writing to orm

your show in a way that could fit the legacy networks.

Te Big Bang Teorywas the top-rated network comedy in

2014. Compare its geek characters to the 2014 HBO com-

edy Silicon Valley. How do interpretations o this subjectdiffer?

Still considering computer- and geek-centric stories, how

would you do an original series about characters immersed

in this world? How can women and girls be involved in

these male social groups?

Documents

Future of TV - Pam Douglas