There's a genre of kid's show where the kid lives in both a magical world and the mundane one. The kid has a door to the otherworld and uses it, but doesn't stay there. The narrative problem is relating the stakes in the magical world to the stakes in the mundane world. If he becomes king of Erewhon, but stays a picked-on kid at school (he's always picked on at school), what has he really gained? Because, after all, even kids know that Erewhon is really Nowhere spelled backwards. So traditionally, the structure of this kind of show is: kid has a Problem at School; escapes into the magical world; learns a Valuable Lesson (such as Stand Up For Yourself or Eat Your Peas); and returns to the mundane world where this Valuable Lesson turns out to just the very thing to enable him to solve the Problem at School.
Lisa and I have been working on a doctor show, so we've been watching a lot of HOUSE episodes. (Enough that Lisa has started becoming a bit of a hypochondriac on Jesse's behalf. I'm beginning to suspect that some of the problem with the American health care system is the plethora of doctor shows. People watch them and then expect the doc to MRI their bunions. But that's another story.) I was struck by how HOUSE has adapted this format.
The show has a medical A story, full of barely comprehensible jargon, and a dramatic, personal B story involving House and, sometimes, a member of his team. I've noticed that the A story often contains a resonance with the B story. A man whose right brain can't talk to his left brain because the corpus callosum has been severed appears in a story where we discover that House is delusional -- the intellectual side of his brain has made up a story to account for the actions of his irrational side. In another, a father has given leprosy to his son; meanwhile, Dr. Chase gets a visit from his toxic dad.
And, often, House figures something out from the B story that gives him the answer in the A story.
How very clever of Mr. Shore to adapt this structure for an adult doctor show!
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Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
What's the Frequency?
Just spent an hour chatting with Lisa about a science fiction show concept I'm having trouble with. She wants to change the main character from a 35-year-old [snip] struggling with what he does to a 17-year-old [snip] struggling with who he is. Her point was: who's the audience? What network is this on? And she had a very good point, because while I think I have an interesting show concept for the 35 year old guy, it is hard to imagine what network it would be on. It's a very pay cable network. But The Movie Network has a primarily female audience who probably wouldn't relate to the thing that the guy does, and the SF networks have a much younger demographic.
The point here isn't the details, which I haven't told you, but the process: you don't want to create a show that doesn't have a natural outlet. In TV there are very few outlets, and they are fairly well-defined. In the US there are the broadcast networks, which have slightly different flavors. There's HBO and Showtime. There's AMC and F/X. Lifetime. And then the family and youth channels. You will rarely have a show that's right for broadcast and pay cable; and even if you do, you'll need broadcast and pay cable versions of the show.
Who's the audience for your show? Who's going to sit down and watch it? There's a reason there are so few broadcast shows about old people. It's not because old people are boring. It's because the audience for broadcast is young. And young people spend money on toothpaste and cars. Old people tend to watch TV less, and tend to spend money on ... well, medicine, mostly.
If you're going for a network with a female demographic, do you have a female protagonist? If not, is the show mostly about relationships?
As networks and cable channels define themselves better, it gets harder and harder to pitch the same thing across the board. Instead, you find yourself working up a perfect show for, say, ABC Family. Or something that can only fly on HBO. It's more work that way. On the other hand, both HBO and ABC Family want shows that reflect their branding. HBO wants shows that can only air on HBO -- e.g. transgressive shows about dysfunctional families. So if you do the work, you can give yourself a good shot at the one network the show is right for.
Sometimes the "natural" form of your show isn't the ideal form for any network. Unfortunately, you'll have to rethink it so that it does fit a network. You may need to make your protagonist a girl instead of a guy. Or young instead of old. Or make your protagonist an intimate antagonist and create a new protagonist who's a foil. (It worked for Melville, didn't it?)
Try to see the show through your potential network exec's eyes. Sure, your show sounds fun. But does it fit the network's brand?
The point here isn't the details, which I haven't told you, but the process: you don't want to create a show that doesn't have a natural outlet. In TV there are very few outlets, and they are fairly well-defined. In the US there are the broadcast networks, which have slightly different flavors. There's HBO and Showtime. There's AMC and F/X. Lifetime. And then the family and youth channels. You will rarely have a show that's right for broadcast and pay cable; and even if you do, you'll need broadcast and pay cable versions of the show.
Who's the audience for your show? Who's going to sit down and watch it? There's a reason there are so few broadcast shows about old people. It's not because old people are boring. It's because the audience for broadcast is young. And young people spend money on toothpaste and cars. Old people tend to watch TV less, and tend to spend money on ... well, medicine, mostly.
If you're going for a network with a female demographic, do you have a female protagonist? If not, is the show mostly about relationships?
As networks and cable channels define themselves better, it gets harder and harder to pitch the same thing across the board. Instead, you find yourself working up a perfect show for, say, ABC Family. Or something that can only fly on HBO. It's more work that way. On the other hand, both HBO and ABC Family want shows that reflect their branding. HBO wants shows that can only air on HBO -- e.g. transgressive shows about dysfunctional families. So if you do the work, you can give yourself a good shot at the one network the show is right for.
Sometimes the "natural" form of your show isn't the ideal form for any network. Unfortunately, you'll have to rethink it so that it does fit a network. You may need to make your protagonist a girl instead of a guy. Or young instead of old. Or make your protagonist an intimate antagonist and create a new protagonist who's a foil. (It worked for Melville, didn't it?)
Try to see the show through your potential network exec's eyes. Sure, your show sounds fun. But does it fit the network's brand?
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