Friday Questions

Friday Questions pulling into the station.

"Seeking Comedy" has a question following my discussion of Maya Rudolph:

Are there people out there that you could shine a light on that we should check out? Instead of giving more focus to people who are overrated, let's hear about who you love!

Way too many to list. But a few standouts – John Mulaney, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, David Hyde-Pierce, playwright/humorist Paul Rudnick, Robert & Michelle King, Woody Harrelson (other than playing Archie Bunker), Ben Platt, sportscaster Jason Benetti, Rachel Maddow, Ted Danson, Mike Schur, Alex Trebek, sportscaster Sean Grande, Lin-Manual Miranda, Andrew Rannells, Jake Tapper, Tom Hanks, sportscaster Michelle Tofoya, Aaron Sorkin, Elaine May, and singer Nicole Atkins.

And now I expect a flurry of comments from readers who absolutely hate every one of them.

From chris dellecese:

Noticed that Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston are producing and starring in something on Apple TV, what is your experience when stars also try to produce?

How much work do they actually do?
How involved are they?
And is it a good thing?

Sometimes it’s a partner you don’t need, it’s a Faustian contract you have to sign in order to get the star. And you just have to determine whether their creative input is worth the trouble.

In most cases I would say it is.

Stars like Alan Alda and Kelsey Grammer can really enhance a project.

But here’s the thing: Stars don’t have to have actual “producer” credit to insert themselves into the creative process. They can balk at everything and make your life miserable, with or without a producing credit.

Some stars take producing very seriously and others see it as a vanity credit and more money for doing nothing. And some stars take the reins completely, rewrite every script, run roughshod over the director and the end result is usually abject failure. And when that happens, guess who the star blames? Hint: Not himself.

Graeme wonders:

MASH had a laugh track but not every joke featured the same level of laughs, i.e. some jokes got louder or longer laughs than others. Who decides how big of a laugh each joke should get?

The showrunner. In the case of MASH, we wanted to eliminate the laugh track entirely but CBS insisted on it. So you’ll notice the laughs are very muted, even the big laughs.

There are showrunners for some multi-camera shows who go full-throttle on that laugh track, trying to mask jokes that suck, and the end result is viewers flee in droves.   As well they should. 

And finally, from Brian:

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason has a pretty distinct writing style. Sometimes, at some point in her scripts, a character will start ranting about something.

Are there any writers (save ones you've worked with) that you can tell who has written it without having seen the credits?

This is my week for answering questions by listing people.

A number of writers have very distinctive styles. Off the top of my head (knowing I’m accidentally leaving off a bunch): Aaron Sorkin, David Milch, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Richard Rosenstock, David E. Kelley, Mike Judge, Mel Brooks, Steven King, William Goldman, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Richard Curtis, Paddy Chayefsky, Preston Sturges, Paul Thomas Anderson, Nicole Holofcener, Billy Wilder, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon to name but a few.

What’s your Friday Question?