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March 05, 2003
Drama Writers Discuss Craft, Diss Reality Shows
by Daniel Fienberg
Zap2it, TV News
Tue, Mar 4, 2003 07:10 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - For months now, naysayers have warned that scripted television is on its last legs, but for an endangered species, the panelists at the "Creating Drama" session of the Museum of Television and Radio's William S. Paley Festival seem a feisty lot. Between them, Steven Bochco, Tom Fontana, Dick Wolf, Aaron Sorkin and J.J. Abrams have helped reinvent the television drama, picked up too many awards to count, and may stand as the last line of defense against the reality show encroachment.
Bochco opens the Monday (March 3) session with a clip the landmark drama "Hill Street Blues," followed up with a clip from the much maligned "Cop Rock." When the audience chuckles nervously, Bochco shoots back, "Yeah. Yeah. That's why I brought it. I don't think there's enough courage in our business."
At first, the five writer-producers are hesitant even to address the issue of the scourge of reality programming and how the unscripted glut has affected their ability to make the shows they want to make. That hesitation fades fast.
"Sometimes I think, 'Where is the religious right when you need them?'" asks Sorkin ("The West Wing," "Sports Night") of the increased degradation of reality shows. "We are now using humiliation of others as entertainment. It's embarrassing."
Bochco ("LA Law" , "Murder One"), who pointedly calls reality shows "those horrible things" bemoans that, "The trouble with democracy is that you get the shows you deserve."
Looking around at the panel, he quickly notes, "There's extraordinary work going on on television in spite of television."
The men on the panel suggest the myriad possibilities for breaking into television writing. Bochco describes his training ground as "puberty" and spent 15 years as a staff writer, rewriter and associate producer before becoming an "overnight sensation" creating "Hill Street Blues" in 1981. Fontana ("St. Elsewhere", "Homicide: Life on the Street," "Oz") was an unsuccessful playwright until the late Bruce Paltrow convinced him to come out to Hollywood. Sorkin also began as a playwright, became a successful screenwriter ("A Few Good Men," "Malice" ) and finally turned to TV writing when he couldn't shape what was to become the ABC series "Sports Night" into a feature script. Wolf ("Law & Order," "Dragnet") worked in advertising for 10 years, came to Hollywood and wrote unproduced screenplays for years before moving to television. Abrams ("Felicity,""Alias"), son of TV producer Gerald Abrams, had his first script ("Regarding Henry" ) produced at 25 and still alternates between film and movies.
Just as the panelists approach the medium from different backgrounds, they also approach the creative process in different ways.
Bochco remembers in his earlier days writing 15 or 20 episodes per season, but now he prefers to help with story development, while encouraging "younger, fresher brains to do the heavy lifting."
Abrams, at 36 the young turk of the panel, still subscribes to the process of delegation and compares the writing process to walking in the fog, sometimes going blindly, sometimes finding new paths, but just hoping you get to the right point by the end.
Wolf, who kids, "I'm the only one up here who doesn't write characters," attributes his love of procedural writing to early experiences with Arthur Conan Doyle. He also praises the show runners on all of the "Law & Order" permutations for keeping the shows going strong, stressing that he sees his role as steering the first 13 episodes of a series and then stepping back.
"The key is staying out of the way, as opposed to ..." he looks at the highly prolific Fontana to his right and Sorkin to his left, "I'm flanked by two maniacs."
"I want to give the staff their due praise, but some of them are here," says Sorkin. Even this kind of nod to the staff is rare for Sorkin, who is legendary for controlling every script. Still, he adds, "Writing is something you have to do by yourself with the door closed."
Bochco's response to Sorkin's moment of humility: "The problem is that if going home tonight Aaron gets hit by a bus, 'The West Wing' is f**ked."
In this cycle of gross-out extreme TV and inane relationship programming, heads nod in agreement when Sorkin explains the risks of producers making shows they wouldn't deign to watch themselves.
"The notion that the people who watch television aren't as smart as the people making television is a dangerous one," he warns.
Nobody argues, though, when Dick Wolf distills the essence of their profession.
"The first task of anyone, lest you get canceled, is to entertain people," Wolf admits, "Because they ain't there for message."
Posted by Jo at March 5, 2003 06:58 AM