Sunday, January 08, 2006

Ken Levine posts a reassuring list of prior credits for the Sopranos writing staff. Great stuff, like the new Flipper and The Secret Squirrel Show.

So my question for Ken is, what went right?

I meant, obviously these writers didn't suddenly become good writers. They were either good writers writing crap on those other shows, or they were crap writers and David Chase taught them all how to write. Or, he has a Magic Bird that sings him the scripts at night.

What went right in the Sopranos writing room that makes the show so good. Is it all David Chase? Or was it chemistry? Was it a lucky shot at a great template? Was it HBO letting them alone to do their work? Etc.

Moreover, is a question of shows being good until they go wrong? Can you blame bad shows on network interference, coke and divorces? Or are shows bad until the showrunner makes them good? Do you need to create a certain environment -- visionary showrunner, passionate network exec, strong, well-funded writing room -- and do many other things in order for shows to go right?

I have my own ideas, but I wanna hear Ken's, 'cause he's a couple dozen writing rooms ahead of me, by my count.

Technorati tags: screenwriting; TV

10:21 PM

4 Comments:

That is interesting. Couldn't strong characters also be one of the factors? By giving the writers such fantastic characters to work with, that has to make the overall product better and stronger (and dare I say, easier to achieve a higher level of writing?)

I've found that when I do create a strong character, the writing process flows faster and better than when I'm struggling with an undefined character that just isn't 'speaking'.

By  Kody Chamberlain, at 11:03 PM  

what went right is it is more fun to write for Tony and Silvio and Paulie Walnuts than Rocky The Squirrel misplacing his nuts

By  Anonymous, at 9:34 AM  

There are a lot of good writers writing crap for money.

Keeping your kids in diapers is a good thing.

By  FizzWater, at 4:15 PM  

I'm writing an answer to Alex's question and will post it later tonight on my blog.

kenlevine.blogspot.com

By  By Ken Levine, at 8:56 PM  

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