Especially early in your career.
Most writers I know had big viewing parties for their first episode. David Isaacs and I did. Of course, in our case, the script was heavily rewritten and not for the better. So it was awkward for the guests as they tried to politely laugh through lame material. We acknowledged that we had been rewritten, but as I said at the time, “I can’t invite a bunch of people just to see the two seconds our credit is on the screen.”
But as we moved our way up and had shows that did reflect our actual work and were proud of, we occasionally would still have viewing parties. And in all cases, if a show of ours was scheduled I cleared the decks that night to be sure to watch it live (even with commercials).
However, once you get on staff things change. I saw very few of my CHEERS and FRASIER episodes live on the air. For both shows’ schedules, Thursday night was rewrite night. So we’d be working through. Now you could say, why not take a break for a half hour to watch the show? That was rarely, if ever, done. No one wanted to stay an extra half hour at 1:00 in the morning to make up that time. Besides, by then we all had VCR’s. (Not to mention we’d all seen every episode multiple times in editing).
So it was not unusual to be in the midst of a rewrite and have someone look at their watch and casually say, “Oh, we’re on right now,” and everyone nods and goes right back to the line they were addressing.
But looking back, it seems strange to be so blasé when something we wrote was being seen by 30,000,000 people at one time. No show today gets those kind of numbers. On the face of it, what an extraordinary experience for a writer. And the irony is, once this pandemic is over, I’m happy to travel across the country to see a production of one of my plays for an audience of 99.
11 comments :
you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, some woman once said
I have a Twitter friend of mine who was hired on the "Mom" writing staff and was understandably thrilled to promote her first on-screen credit (although, as Ken has previously noted, credits on Chuck Lorre series are a collective endeavor, not necessarily related to who actually wrote the particular episode). I'm guessing as time goes on, the thrill she feels will recede -- just something that goes with the territory.
I always wondered that about the actors. If they are sitting there flipping through the channels, if they come upon something they were in, if they would stop to watch it.
I've heard some 'stars' won't watch anything they are in, but that is probably rare.
“I've heard some 'stars' won't watch anything they are in, but that is probably rare.”
Those who enter the profession to escape — or be better than —. themselves may not want to be reminded how they themselves — or the actions of others — prevented that from happening,
I thought for sure you were going to say you didn't watch your shows because you could see everything that was wrong with the script and all the things you wish you could do over. That's why when I was in radio I always hated listening to my airchecks. I obsessed over every little flaw in the show while ignoring the good things. People would tell me "Good show," but in my mind I said, "That sucked."
`Unknown´ mentioned actors that won't watch themselves. I know many that hate to watch their own performances because they're such harsh self-critics.
Never had a watch party. But as an extra I learned the hard way not to tell people you're going to be in a show. You're either so far in the background no one could tell it's you. You're on so quick it's literally a "blink and you've missed it" moment. Or you're edited out.
I too, will be glad when I can start going to see your plays again. But, I'll let you find the flaws.
M.B.
The fact you travel to see your shows in a community theatre setting speaks volumes to me as one who has worked with amateur theatre most of my life. We're near NYC so once every so often we'll get a writer to come see our work, but to fly cross-country as you do is total class act and I'm sure the folks involved are honored by your presence and nervous as hell.
Turner Classic Movies began airing their year end Rememberance tribute to those in the movie industry who passed away this year. Sean Connery and Honor Blackman were linked as were Brian Dennehy and Wilford Brimley. They also included Alex Trebek and Gene Reynolds. Prior to the Tribute they aired a Laurel and Hardy short which yesterday was added to the National Film Registry. It is the film that concludes with a legendary pie fight.
One TV event you won't want to miss will be the inauguration on January 20th. We won't just have a decent human being as President but we'll also have a classy, educated and intelligent career woman as First Lady rather than an illiterate Slovenian hooker who has to shut her eyes and think of money every time her morbidly obese client wants paragraph 1 of their marriage contract. That is, if he's even able to get it up after so many years of Adderrall addiction and cheeseburger fat clogging his arteries.
Troy McClure
I have never understood the US's political partisanship, to the point of slagging of politicians family members, but back on track.
Ken
Did you have private viewing parties for the final episodes of iconic shows you were on?
Like Mash, Cheers and Frasier etc?
I mean after the the public actors and crew dos and viewings etc, or was it either a bit hard on the heart to realise it was no more, or in some cases you had moved on to another project and weren't involved in production towards the end?
While getting the wheels aligned yesterday on one of our Subarus, I happened to see a "special issue" of Life magazine, as sold at grocery checkouts, concerning MASH (primarily the TV series, but with sections about the original movie, the final episode, AfterMASH, etc.) that must have come out within the past few months because the death of Gene Reynolds was mentioned.
In this grand celebration of all things MASH, only two writers were mentioned: Reynolds and Larry Gelbart. (Also Burt Metcalfe, but only in regard to his producer role.) Inexcusable omission, I say.
My writing partner and I had a viewing party for an episode that we knew had been heavily rewritten - and not for the better. A second after our written by credit was on the screen, I quickly turned off the TV and told everyone: "You just saw the best part."
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