This entry was posted on 1/9/2010 1:30 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
I opened The Los Angeles Times this morning – yes, I’m so
old-fashioned that I still read a printed daily newspaper – and found three,
count them, three articles about Jay Leno and NBC.One article was on the front page of the
entire paper – below the fold but there it was nonetheless.The other two articles were on the front
pages of the business section and the entertainment section.You may have also noticed or even stopped to
actually read articles about Jay and NBC this past week at various sites on the
internet and even in the vaunted New York Times.
In case you’ve missed all of this, NBC seems to have finally
admitted to itself what everyone else already knew, that The Jay Leno Show,
which airs five nights a week on NBC at 10:00 pm,
is not succeeding.About twenty million
people could have told NBC that last summer when The Jay Leno Show was
announced, but more about that later.
If you don’t understand much about how network television
works, or you don’t really care – and if that’s true, what are you doing on
this site? – the main purpose of 10:00 pm
programs on the broadcast TV networks is provide viewers for the 11:00 pm newscasts on local stations.“Really?” Yes.“You mean to say that the real purpose of CSI:
Miami is just to funnel viewers to
the late news on some station in Baltimore?”Yes, that’s precisely what I’m saying, and every
TV executive or ad executive in the world will tell you the same thing.“Why?”Because pretty much all of the money that local stations earn comes from
selling advertising time on their local newscasts.If local stations aren’t making money, they
can’t afford to buy the expensive series produced by the network.(You can read dozens of articles to back this assertion up. I interned in the newsroom at a local TV station when I was in college. I can tell you from my personal experience that the 11:00 pm newscast is the bread and butter of any local station. If the 11:00 pm newscast isn't doing well in the ratings, everyone panics. It really helps a local 11:00 pm newscast to succeed if the network show that comes on at 10:00 pm is popular.) If a TV network like NBC doesn’t have
thriving local stations to air its prime time programs, then the network can’t
charge as much money for advertising time on those prime time programs.The network also risks losing some of those
local stations to another network.The
way to have thriving local stations is to help them promote their newscasts.The way to promote local newscasts is to
provide the local stations with popular series at 10:00
pm, which is the time slot right before the newscasts come on at 11:00. See how it works now?
So, if this site is here to try to help you break into sitcom
writing, why should any of this brouhaha with Jay Leno matter to you?Why am I writing about this today?Jay Leno isn’t the star of a sitcom and there
are no sitcoms on at 10:00 pm.
One of the reasons that I blog on this site is to try to help
you to think clearly about what kinds of sitcoms succeed and what kind
don’t.If you understand what succeeds,
you can write what succeeds.And one way
to possibly encourage you to think realistically about what succeeds is to show
you how thinking unrealistically leads people away from success.
I keep telling you that the series you should be watching
and studying are the series that are the most popular.I keep harping about Two and A Half Men and
The Big Bang Theory on CBS because those are the two most popular sitcoms on
TV, and they are the most popular by a lot.It’s not as if those two series are just barely edging out 30 Rock, The
Office or Family Guy in the national ratings.Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory are miles ahead of those
other shows and way ahead of all other sitcoms in the ratings, and that’s why I think you
should pay attention to those series.Unlike Jay Leno, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory are
succeeding.If you were trying to break
into screenwriting, would you study the movies that flopped and ignore the
giant blockbuster hits?I hope not.So if you want to be a TV sitcom writer, or
even a one-hour drama writer, or even a TV sketch writer, shouldn’t you try to
understand what succeeds on television and not just focus on what your friends
think is hip or what some critic likes?
The lesson I want you take away from The Jay Leno Show is
that the hippest, most aggressive, most opinionated, most confident, brashest,
most in-your-face people are often the stupidest.In fact, those people usually are the
stupidest.We had eight years of proof
of that between 2001 and 2008 with a brash, confident, swaggering, boastful
cowboy in The White House, and the country nearly collapsed because of him and
the incredibly idiotic decisions that he made.We also had boat loads of brash, confident, boastful, swaggering
businessmen running some of the biggest corporations in the world –
corporations like Enron and Bear Stearns and AIG and General Motors and Bank of
America.Those companies are all now
bankrupt or nearly bankrupt.
Well, now NBC is on the verge of collapse because of the
brash, confident, swaggering, boastful executives that have been running that
network for the last few years.
The Jay Leno Show was a bad idea.The network was thinking
unrealistically.When NBC started
falling behind the other networks, they should have looked at the Neilsen
ratings, seen which shows were succeeding, watched those shows, and tried to
learn from their success.But they
didn’t.A few brash, confident,
swaggering executives decided to let themselves be distracted by costs, deluded
by their own ill-considered impulses, and dazzled by Emmy awards and industry
buzz.As a result, they stuck with shows
that weren’t popular, dropped shows that were popular, and made themselves
believe that they could succeed with a bargain basement retread of The Tonight
Show in prime time.It didn’t work.It didn’t work in a spectacular way.If the executives in charge of Comcast
Corporation, the new owners of NBC, are smart guys, they will first fire all of
the swaggering executives now working at NBC, they will open the latest Neilsen
ratings, they will look at what is succeeding on their rival networks, and they
will realistically try to learn from other people’s success.
I’m currently reading a very interesting book called
Dangerously Funny – The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
by David Bianculli.If you are under
forty years old, you may never have heard of The Smothers Brothers, but they
were an extremely successful comedy act back in the 1960’s.They starred in a short-lived but groundbreaking
and wildly successful one-hour variety series on CBS, back in the days when
variety series were extremely popular on network television.The Smothers Brothers were cutting edge
comedians, but when they were awarded their own prime time variety series, they
did not decide to get boastful or impulsive or swaggering.They decided to be realistic. They decided to do what worked.They developed a very traditional variety
series based on other successful variety series on which they had been
appearing as a guest act for years.What
made their series so successful, and ultimately so controversial, was that
rather than thinking outside the box, they stayed in the box and then pushed
hard at the sides of the box.They did comedy
sketches, but their sketches were hipper and smarter.They booked musical acts, but the acts they
booked were edgier and fresher.They
also used established acts and familiar performers.They mixed everything together in a new
way.What made The Smothers Brothers
successful was that they studied what was already successful, then followed the
example of success in their own unique and innovative way.
If you want to succeed in television, look at what is
already succeeding.Look at the Neilsen
ratings every week.See which shows are
the most popular.Watch those
shows.Study those shows.Try to understand why those shows are
successful.Then try to learn from their
success.I’m not saying that you should
never think outside the box.But before
you can think outside the box, you have to watch what’s on the box, and see
what works in the box, and then try to imaginatively and realistically apply
that knowledge to the space all around the box.NBC and Jay Leno forgot to do that, and as a result, they fell on their
brash, swaggering, boastful faces.
1/9/2010 3:08 PM
big bob wrote:
I work for an NBC Affiliate and believe me, our station is suffering because of the local economy and also because NBC is not doing too hot. What do you think NBC needs to do in order to get back to where they were say during the Seinfeld days? Do they need to bring back the 4-camera sitcom? Do they need to bring back good dramas at 10? Southland was a great show and they canceled it to make room for Leno, now TNT is picking up their slack and it'll probably get better ratings on TNT when it premieres this month. Reply to this
1/9/2010 4:35 PM
Sheldon Bull wrote:
As I've said on this blog many times before, the networks need to come up with better shows. As a writer and a viewer I am no fan of so-called reality series, but I can't argue with the success that the networks have had with many of these series. I hear people talking about Dancing with the Stars and American Idol all of the time.
But you can't do all reality all the time. You must mix in some scripted series. The key to the success of scripted series is characters that the audience can root for. Whether it's a police procedural drama on CBS, a teen angst series on the CW, or a sitcom on ABC, the audience has to root for the characters. It may be hip and trendy to create characters who are soulless and cruel or just lost. And that's what I see too often now on broadcast TV. Even the characters on Ray Romano's new TNT series, Men of A Certain Age, are so sad and hopeless that, though I was rooting for the series, I never returned after the first episode. It was too depressing. I can't get through episodes of Breaking Bad or Mad Men because I don't like the characters. I don't think I'm alone. Yes, every critic and TV writer may be watching these shows every week and loving them, but there are only a few dozen of these people. The other millions are turning to cable just for something to cheer them up or give them some hope.
A successful network line-up must include at least one or two anchor series that define the network. In the past, NBC had anchor series like Seinfeld and ER. It was only a few years ago that NBC had six or seven or these series if you include Friends and The West Wing. American Idol defines Fox, but you need scripted series in whom an audience can invest emotion. That is what NBC should strive for.
1/10/2010 1:37 PM
big bob wrote:
So why hasn't it? You'd think that a network like NBC would know what they're doing yet they're embarrassing themselves right now with this whole Leno/Conan debacle. Reply to this
1/10/2010 3:01 PM
Sheldon Bull wrote:
One of my favorite quotes from a movie is from All the President's Men. The screenwriter is the great William Goldman. The quote comes from the character of Deep Throat, played by Hal Holbrook, to Bob Woodward, played by Robert Redford. The quote is: "Forget all the myths that the media has created about The White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys when things get out of hand." Just remove the words, "The White House" and this quote applies to almost every other human enterprise.
Forget all the myths that the media has created about Hollywood. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, period. And now they have really let things get out of hand and shown the world how not bright they really are. In the mid 1980's, when Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show, NBC managed a public relations fiasco in their search to replace him. Ever since NBC decided that it was time for Jay to leave, it has also been a PR fiasco. And why did they ever let Jay leave in the first place? Now the fiasco hits its crescendo with NBC officially announcing yesterday that The Jay Leno Show has been canceled, that they hoped Jay and Conan would stay on at the network, but that they really don't have a plan that their stars have agreed to yet. Wow. That's a lot of screwing up. I'd be cleaning out my desk if I were one of those guys. I imagine that Conan's legion of agents and attorneys are spending a lot of hours on the phone this weekend with each other, with executives at Fox, and with the chimpanzees at NBC over what is going to come of all this. If Jeff Zucker survives this, he's the greatest escape artist since Houdini.
I worked in Hollywood for over twenty-five years. Studio and network executives are really good at one thing and one thing only, and that is promoting themselves and their own careers. When it comes to actually running a network or a studio, most of them do an absolutely terrible job. The only really great executive that I ever saw was Grant Tinker both at MTM and when he ran NBC. NBC dominated the ratings and talent was flocking to work there because of Grant Tinker. Almost all of the rest of them, especially the famous guys who I don' t have to name here, were arrogant incompetents. There's a nice piece in this morning's Los Angeles Times about the Disney studios and their animation department during The Lion King years. I worked at Disney very briefly during that time. Those were aggressive guys who made some really good movies, and they are to be credited for that. But what brought them down was in-fighting and hubris. At the TV networks, most of the head guys are empty suits. Les Moonves at CBS knows what he's doing. Almost nobody else does.
They don't know what they're doing in the corporate suites at General Motors or at Wells Fargo or other places. Why would we think they know what they're doing at NBC?
1/26/2010 11:49 AMJoel wrote:
This is insightful stuff, Sheldon & I really appreciate your book. Since the writers can't control who is running things, and it can get difficult trying to guess what will succeed, what do you advise? Just keep getting better at the craft and writing shows we know? Reply to this
1/27/2010 10:44 AM
Sheldon Bull wrote:
You don't have to guess at what show to spec. Look at the ratings. Read articles to see which new shows have been renewed. All the info you need is on the web. Spec the newest and most popular series, such as Modern Family.
The more you write - and get honest feedback - the more you will improve.
Write spec screenplays, too. There are dozens of incredibly smart writers out there, very young women and men who are aggressive and confident and hungry and extremely creative. They are already at the top film schools like USC, UCLA, Cal Arts, Columbia. They are making movies and videos right now, working with the next generation of film makers, working with teachers who are still active in the business. They are the ones who are going to get the jobs. They likely don't even need my book or books like mine. They are writing the book themselves.
This is the NBA. If you are shooting hoops in your driveway you aren't getting to the NBA. You have to get in the game at the highest level. How you get there depends on the talent with which you were blessed, your creativity and determination to find a way to get into the game, and a lucky break.
2/19/2010 7:03 PM
Danny & Jeb wrote:
I am working with a friend to begin writing a comedy series of our own design. (We just both bought and have begun reading your book.) We are new to writing, but are both clever guys. But to get our foot in the door, should we spec write first? Reply to this
2/20/2010 11:48 AM
Sheldon Bull wrote:
As I say in the book, if you want to learn to write half-hour comedy, the best way to teach yourself is to write a spec episode of a half-hour series that you know really well. Since the premise and the characters are already established, you can concentrate on story and dialogue, and get used to working within the half-hour format.
Inventing a new series can be exciting, but it is about ten times as much work as writing a spec episode. Few inexperienced writers understand how to construct a workable premise and interesting characters for an entire series.
If you want to write a spec pilot that you hope to sell to cable or to network TV, understand that your chances of selling it are about a trillion to one. Series that get on the air are created by professionals. TV networks do not risk hundreds of thousands of dollars on rookie writers.
On the other hand, if you have an idea that you want to write and shoot yourselves for a post on YouTube or somewhere else on the internet, you are free to do whatever you feel like doing. You can try something off the wall, and it may be noticed by someone.
2/20/2010 12:12 PM
Danny & Jeb wrote:
Sheldon: Thank you for your reply. As you could probably tell, I wrote that comment before digging into Elephant Bucks. I am already 1/4 of the way through, and I now agree with you that the way to get our talents on paper AND to get experience writing comedy is to spec write. Now I need to convince my collaborator Jeb of this fact. I'll keep in touch with you about our progress. I really appreciate the attitude you have been able to put into the voice of the book, by the way. As a reader, I can tell that you honestly care about helping others get into this - for them as well as for the chance of the viewing public getting to see a little bit better comedy on TV. - Danny Reply to this
2/20/2010 1:34 PM
Sheldon Bull wrote:
Keep reading. And maybe get Jeb to read, too.
2/20/2010 3:31 PM
Danny & Jeb wrote:
RE: "Jeb reading too" - Jeb already knows this. When I told him that I found the perfect TV-comedy-screenwriting book (third time the charm) at Half Priced Books, he said "see if they have another." They didn't, but he's buying his own. We both already see that your book will be our guide. Now if only I can figure out a way to get my WIFE on board.... Reply to this
2/20/2010 6:44 PM
Sheldon Bull wrote:
I always figure I'm writing for single people. I don't interfere in marriages - or partnerships. You're on your own with that.
