Well the main reason is that it’s August 19th. So today marks five years since the first entry I made on Dead Things ON Sticks.
I was not a young man when I started blogging, by any means. But boy, I was naïve. Through the ride, and now with a bit of time away from it, I realize that what I miss the most is talking about the flame.
So, to celebrate the 5th anniversary of my leap into the blogosphere, I’m not going to take the bait on stupid stories about the CRTC or the continued craven doings of TV, Canadian style… let’s crack off one more good-old fashioned craft post about the joy of discovery and how the flame you protect leads to great television.
Right now it’s pitching season down here in L.A. People are out honing their ideas and their concepts to try and sell. I’m working stuff up, others I know are working stuff up, the guy who delivered the Orange Chicken for lunch is working stuff up.
Here’s a return to the old, “where do you get your ideas?” question. The hardest thing for civilians (TV viewers) and new writers (the ones who are afraid that the staff of so-and-so-show might steal your genius spec idea) to get straight is that your best ideas are not unique & beautiful flowers.
This all has to do with the odd & unique position TV occupies in the world of creative products. It comes into your home. You don’t have to go out to get it. That creates a different, hazier vibe around “what works for tv.” TV works best not when it’s completely different and original; TV works best when it’s a combination of original and familiar. It’s new wine in old bottles. The idea is not nearly as important as the execution of same. In TV, writers make big money because of their ability to execute.
For all the praise The Sopranos got, the idea of the mobster with analysis and anxiety issues is – exactly the same as Analyze This – which was out at the same time. Same basic idea. Different executions. Alias. Covert Affairs. Same idea. Different executions.
In every show that works, there is a flame. There’s something about it that lights the way toward the most effective execution of the idea. A nice little flame leads to a show that works. And if you don’t have the flame clear in your mind, and you don’t nurse it…no matter how good a writer you are, no matter how hard you work – the show’s not going to work, because you don’t know what people are supposed to be excited about.
Good writers are the people who can identify the flame and nurture it through development (or who can inspire their room to do the same.)
It’s not to say the writers are the only ones who can find the flame, it’s just that, like truffle-locating pigs, we're the ones most likely to find it. If you let us. Mmm. Truffles.
(And if you don’t let us – you could have 19 writers in a room for eight months, and you’re not gonna come up with a show that people love. Sorry Chester.)
So sometimes when they do these remake shows that someone somewhere thinks are a slam dunk, (Bionic Woman? Knight Rider?) and they arrive inert, it’s because that flame isn’t there.
By all accounts, the Hawaii 5-0 pilot is great. When it airs in a couple weeks, watch it and ask yourself: what does this show have that Bionic Woman didn’t?
You may not like the show, you may not think it’s the best thing ever – but as another for instance: Rookie Blue. The flame on that show from the beginning, before there even was a finished script was: Grey’s Anatomy (the old bottle) but with cops. (New wine.)
I didn’t say it had to be, you know, expensive wine. But there you go.
The nice thing about recognizing that flame is that it allows for cross-pollination.
I’m not the biggest Doctor Who fan in the world, but one of the reasons that everyone agrees with (and which is clear everytime you read Russell T. Davies’ interviews about the subject) is that Davies recognized the flame in Doctor Who – which is what allowed him to smartly update it & spark a new franchise.
Which brings me to my most joyous viewing discovery of late.
From the pilot, I was a huge fan of HOUSE. And the flame that everybody saw in that – the brilliant, acerbic Doctor…the male camaraderie, the mystery element – clearly burned brightly.
And it was clearly familiar.
Well, the BBC has gone and giddily gone back to the source, with SHERLOCK. Sherlock Holmes is a consulting detective in Scotland Yard, with his good friend Watson, a Doctor back from Afghanistan. Sherlock is acerbic, brilliant, viewed as a freak by the perplexed police that he helps. He also sends texts, and uses all the 21st century trappings of communication.
It’s SHOCKING, if you grew up with the original stories and the Victorian settings of the old movies, to see how well this works. Cross-pollination from Holmes to House, and now House has returned the favor by showing a way back to beloved characters seen fresh (and more natural to my eye than the Downey Jr. film).
In the same way, Sherlock creator Stephen Moffat was able to recognize the flame in Friends and do a British version, COUPLING, that is arguably one of the only Friends-like shows that ever worked. Because he found something in the Friends formula and married it to British sensibilities seen in edgier sketch comedy shows, where the characters were just MAD. The characters were recognizably, reliably British types.
(Come to think of it, Moffat took over from Davies this year on Doctor Who. Maybe people should just go talk to Stephen Moffat more.)
Interestingly enough, when they imported Coupling back across the pond, it was a flop because it was, to put it kindly, flameless. The characters who were funny in the British version didn’t have any verve in their American counterparts. They didn’t bother to find plausible equivalents.
On the other hand, the American OFFICE succeeded because they found the American equivalent of the British characters. It took a while, but they did it. (Go back and watch the British show again, and it’s amazing how different Jim is from Tim, Pam from Dawn, and Michael from David).
And it’s not just a British-American thing either.
Canadian series Slings & Arrows was licensed for Brazil, in a Portuguese language version. When it premiered, it got something like 18 million viewers.
One more thing. Another British show, starring Idris Elba, is bananas. LUTHER. Oh man. It’s just…great.
Anyway, that’s my disjointed, running to the room, sunburned thoughts on the anniversary. Keep the flame burning in your scripts. Don’t let it get noted or developed out of you. And don’t let people snuff that flame. Or you’re not gonna have no fun and your show won’t work anyhow.
Let’s see…what else… oh yeah, in INCEPTION, the top totally stops spinning just after the cut to black.
Don’t get used to this, kittens. But hope you’re all well.
Now. Gotta go attend to the flame.
Hopefully I'll see you before the next Friedman.