It’s from Douglas Trapasso:
Did a lot of writing/rewriting of Cheers happen directly on set?
No. Very very little. Maybe a new joke or two, if that. Most weeks, nothing. But that’s a creative choice. We worked hard all week to get the show ready to film. We would definitely make changes after the dress rehearsal, but once the cameras rolled and the audience was in place we trusted the material.
Other shows like FRIENDS and WILL & GRACE did a lot of changing on the stage. They also had prepared alternative jokes (called “alts”) ready to go. You can’t argue success so their way was as good as ours.
But we felt that too many changes burned out the actors. It’s enough that the actors had to memorize the script, perform the script at top efficiency, hit all kinds of marks and accommodate technical demands, without also being thrown thirty new one liners a show at the last second.
And it really threw guest actors. Actors not used to performing in front of a studio audience sometimes found the process difficult and maddening. Throwing them new jokes on the fly only succeeded in rattling them more.
I won't mention his name, but one time on FRASIER we had a pretty big movie star do a quick two page scene. In movies he generally plays very cocky and in command. He was terrified. It took forever to film that two page scene. Now imagine if we had also tossed him new lines.
We also felt that series regulars would become very lax in memorizing the script if they knew it was going to constantly change on filming night. (Although, on CHEERS, by the last few season they became very lax anyway.)
There’s also audience management. Stopping after every take for the writers to huddle for ten minutes takes its toll on the audience. The novelty of being at a TV taping rubs off very quickly.
So if you don’t move things along they just check out. When that happens they don't laugh as much, they don’t follow the story, they just want to go home.
And they figure out very quickly what you’re doing. So they begin to laugh hard at any new joke just so the show can move along. As a result, you don’t even get a true reading as to whether the new joke worked.
FRIENDS took so long they had two audiences. One at 4:00. They got burned out and a second audience came in at 8:00 or 9:00. But that’s FRIENDS, an insanely beloved show. Good luck had they tried that on 2 BROKE GIRLS.
So for those reasons, we chose to rewrite very little on the stage. We wanted to send the message to the actors that we believed in the material we had given them. We committed and asked them to commit as well.
Again, this is just a creative choice the Charles Brothers made initially at CHEERS and when my partner, David Isaacs and I were running a show, we made that choice as well. If you were ever in the audience of one of our shows, you'd thank us.
29 comments :
I once read that Danny Arnold would rewrite scripts so much that after a couple of years they stopped taping Barney Miller with an audience. It's interesting that such a theatrical show was shot in fits and starts.
Ken, I believe you mentioned you were in the audience for All in the Family one time. Being that it's my favorite sitcom ever, would love if you would write about that sometime.
Friday Question: Whenever not in character, David Hyde Pierce appears to be wearing glasses, yet Niles never wrote them. Did he wear contacts for shooting night or had he memorised his blocking enough to go it without them?
The only time I was in a studio audience was for Family Ties. I knew one of the actors from school so he invited me to a taping. It was so different from anything I had ever seen before but make so much sense to me. I loved seeing all the technical things right in front of me. It was an experience I'll never forget. Thank you, MG.
>>The only time I was in a studio audience was for Family Ties.
Same with me; the only scripted program I've ever seen live was a Stiller & Meara Show pilot taping (despite what Wikipedia says, it never made it to series; I think NBC burned it off during the summer). Not only were there no jokes rewritten during the taping, but there were also no stop downs whatsoever--my memory is they went straight through.
The movie star story sounds like Peter O'Toole's character in MY PERFECT YEAR. "LIVE?!"
wg
A nod is as good as a wink to a blind bat, but Michael Keaton for the Frasier guest.
I attended a taping of CHEERS and FRIENDS. Seems like the CHEERS taping took about an hour and a half. No actors flubbed their lines - there was a technical issue with a camera where a scene had to be re-done. The experience at FRIENDS was totally different. Based on the CHEERS timetable, I thought we would go for the 4:00 taping, get dinner at the Smoke House. That did not happen. We ended up leaving after about 4-1/2 hours, and there was still a line of people waiting to take our place. The actors knew their lines but for whatever reason the process took forever.
Thanks for the great answer! I figured the drinks poured on set weren't real booze, but still, I thought the setting might provide a certain amount of inspiration.
I'm reminded of two things.
One is that on NYPD Blue, I think it was in Season 6 or 7 that I read that David Milch was having serious issues and the cast was getting the script at the last minute and rewrites as they were filming.
The other is that The Carol Burnett Show used to film on Friday nights. They would do one at 5. Then Tim Conway would ask the director, Dave Powers, what ones he had to redo that hadn't worked. Conway then would ad-lib in the skits that HAD worked.
There are jokes in 2 Broke Girls?
George's comment (above) about Barney Miller is fairly accurate. The rewrites Danny Arnold did weren't just a joke here and there, though; often Danny (or a writer who had gotten extensive notes from him) would be taking a pass at whole scenes -- or maybe the entire second act -- during the production week. Sometimes the cast would be sitting around on tape night, waiting for new pages to come down from the third floor of ABC-Vine Street. They'd be given a little time to learn the new material, and then cameras would roll again. That's why it became impractical to have a live audience. Taping would go from late afternoon to maybe 2 o'clock the next morning. It wasn't always that long, but it certainly wasn't the relatively orderly process that Ken described about Cheers filmings.
The actors on 2 Broke Girls only needed to memorize 'Vagina'
I love writing alts. It's like Second Chance Theater. And in a block & shoot show it sometimes helps bring a new energy after umpteen takes from the cast. Granted, I never worked on anything as brilliant as "Cheers." I'd like to try that someday, too!
kipsydaisy, M. Keaton had a lot more than 2 pages of scenes in his episode, can't be him. Try Patrick Stewart
Keaton came out of standup so I don't think he'd be terrified.
I wonder if a bored audience member had ever shouted out suggestions to help move things along.
original comment: wow...space force
alternate comment: dude...space force
I forgot he came out of standup but he was in a few short lived comedy series plus he was on a couple of Tony Randall show. Doubt if it was him. It could be Patrick Stewart. He might have had problems, but one list I saw considered him one of the best guest stars.
I got tickets for a taping of the Stephen Colbert Show (the current one, not the Report). After being in line for 3+ hours, when you finally get seated the warmup comedian has to not only tell jokes but rehearse you laughing, applauding, laughing louder, applauding louder. It had to be BIG and over the top (whether the material in the show warranted it or not.) Colbert was very personable with the audience between takes but the experience was exhausting and I had no voice for two days after. I should have mimed my reactions.
I also attended filmings of both CHEERS and FRIENDS. To Ken’s point, in hindsight it is very evident the process at CHEERS was be fully prepared, and let the material stand up on its own. The process was seamless. FRIENDS was a shock by comparison. It was such a big deal to even get in, it was more of the mindset of brace yourself for 6 hours and just enjoy the process. To me the big call out on it taking so much time is not the stops to tinker with the script, it was a lot more short scenes. The constant back and forth between sets and investing all that time in 10 scenes vs 5 in CHEERS for example, really stand out to me.
A fun story on FRIENDS...a few weeks after a taping I was in line for a different show and the girl next to me told me her experience of being in line for FRIENDS the week after me. She was at the front of the second audience line. People in that line only got in as people got bored and trickled out and were replaced by eager people waiting outside. On her night, no one seemed to be leaving. As people in line grew more frustrated one of the pages went inside the soundstage to see what was up...she came back out and told her co-workers, I know why no one is leaving. The episode they’re filming is called THE ONE WHERE EVERYONE FINDS OUT. Haunts me to this day I was a week of from seeing the best episode of the series filmed.
Speaking of CHEERS...shoutout to Tom Reeder who commented above...you wrote one of my all-time favorite CHEERS...PERSONAL BUSINESS...”I believe my recuperative powers are even greater than yours”....classic. I have an original script from that one, still hunting down my other favorite of yours, SUSPICION. Ken, I have most of your best as well...!!
Reminds me of my one time seeing CHEERS filmed live. I lived on the Westside close to Olympic. I suggested to a woman I was interested in dating that we go to the filming - this worked wonders! - and she agreed. A challenge was where she lived - Huntington Park! But, I was a gamer. So, I did my best to check the traffic patterns, all pre- Google Maps, and plot out my strategy. (Previously I had seen tapings of both THREE's COMPANY and THE ROPERS, so I considered myself a "pro" of going to tapings.) Of course the fact that this show filmed, I believe, on Friday did me no good. Anyway, after a gazillion years crawling through traffic and every which freeway in LA we arrived to find a very, very long line. A different experience than with THE ROPERS. But, we had hope. The line moved slowly, and we were told there was "a chance, slim, that we would get in." As we got closer to the entrance the line moved even slower, and we knew the show was getting ready to start. Finally, we get to the entrance and they us that there are two seats left, not together, and that one is reserved for a big-wig, but that he has not arrived and so they are willing to seat us. They say if he arrives, it's uncertain what will happen for the one who takes that seat. We go for it.
So, we go in, and my date takes a seat somewhere to one side, and I take the "tentative seat," right in the middle of the bleachers. I'm thrilled we are in, I had plenty of time to talk to my date while in the car and line, and now I'm really excited to see one of my favorite shows-- one I'd been watching somehow since Day 1 and was a member of some kind of CHEERS fan club (not sure if official.) Anyway, the warm-up is over, the show is about to start, and then Mr. Big Wig suddenly arrives. The ushers quickly motion me out of the special seat, and after a brief huddle decide not to kick me out but rather I can stand with them on the far aisle of the stands.
What all was one of the more harried experiences getting there, getting in, and getting seated turns out to be a great experience, not just because it was a fun show (and I wish I could remember the episode) but because I was next to a set of fun ushers, and each time there was a break they were pleasant to chat with and regaled me of various tales of cast members, for whom they had much respect (and a few bits of gossip of course.)
I can't imagine the same wonderful experience happening at the chaos of FRIENDS, despite my also enjoying that show. But for me, that night all those years ago, seeing the filming of CHEERS in person is still very special. It was a night of much adventure, and the trip to drop off my date back in Huntington Park was much quicker.
Love the set photo from Cheers!
The sitcom filmings I've been to (two for "Mom," one each for "Hot In Cleveland" and "Frasier") all went smoothly and relatively quickly. Then again, none of them elicit the hysteria given "Friends" or "The Big Bang Theory."
A friend and his wife went to a sitcom taping. The experience instilled in them a deep distrust of "live audience reactions." The show ended with someone opening a closet door, out of which poured a mountain of aluminum cans. Someone made a wisecrack. The end. My friend said neither the cans spilling out of the closet nor the closing wisecrack got much more than light laughter from the audience. Come broadcast night, my friends watched the show they'd seen taped. The audience response had been goosed way up. The appearance of the cans now got a very loud, extended laugh and sustained applause. The closing wisecrack now just about brought down the house. No wonder so many people are cynical about laugh tracks.
I had a great aunt and uncle who saw a "Lucy" episode filmed sometime in the '60s. I don't remember now which of Lucy's later shows it was. I do remember my aunt talking about that to the end of her days. She'd seen Lucy in person and I think it was one of the most memorable experiences of her life.
Friday Question: James Burrows has a co-creator credit for Cheers. Besides directing, what exactly did he contribute to the show’s concept?
Here's a rare outtake from BARNEY MILLER. The guy holding the slate mentions that it's the last scene of the season and it's ... 3:15am!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2F_6QZQDJg
I pretty much stopped going to sitcom tapings because they dragged on forever; getting out after 11:PM was not uncommon. I remember one where they told us we'd only be seeing half the episode--the other half had been taped the day before. The breaks between takes sometimes lasted 20-25 minutes, and I was thinking, "Didn't they have alternate jokes prepared?" We ended up there for 5 1/2 hours for maybe 10-11 minutes of footage, not all of which made it into the final cut--and in almost every case, the original joke was the one they ended up using. Not at all like the old days, when a "Bob Newhart" episode would start at 4:00 and end around 5:45 so he could get home in time for dinner.
Went to an "All in the Family" taping about 50 years ago. All I can remember is that Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton sang "Those were the days" live at the beginning, even though they didn't use it in the show, as a way of getting into character.
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