Friday Questions

Okay, are you ready for some REAL Friday Questions this week?

Dana King starts us off.

The Beloved Spouse and I are working our way through FRASIER and a question comes to mind: did John Mahoney ever have any discomfort from having to limp all the time? Did he have any artificial assistance, such as a stiff brace? Did he ever ask for Martin to get better so he didn't have to do it anymore? He looks genuinely uncomfortable sometimes.

To my knowledge he wasn’t uncomfortable, or if he was he never complained about it.  We also never had him walk too far.  John was just an exceptional actor.  I can’t tell you how much I miss him.  Watching the reruns now is a little bittersweet.  

I was at a FRASIER fundraiser recently with David Hyde Pierce and Peri Gilpin and it was the first thing we all talked about.  It was an honor to write for him and direct him.   

JS asks:

I've been watching mini-series lately - "The Dropout" and "Super-Pumped". Both are really good. My question, money aside, would you rather write for a mini-series or a tv show? If I were a writer, I would like a mini-series because there is a beginning and an end and it's up to me to tell the story inside those parameters. On a tv show, it is open-ended and it seems much harder but you can be more creative? Especially if it's not based on a true story.

You’re right.  Both have their advantages.  I guess it would depend on the project itself — does it want to be completed in six or eight episodes, or could it be open-ended?  

One thing about a series — if it is successful there’s more money and more security.  

But at this stage of my career, if I have a choice between doing a limited series with no interference or a regular series with a blizzard of notes, I’ll take the limited series even if it’s way less money.

From Doug Cox:

My question is about breaking stories. You've written several blog entries over the years. I particularly liked the 2014 one about how, on MASH, you resolved the heavy story last.

What I don't understand is how the heck you can learn to break stories without having to break stories as part of your job. I'm never going to be in a writer's room and watch as writers break stories, which must be the best way to learn. Are there other ways to learn?

Yes.  Watch episodes of shows that are well structured and make outlines of those episodes.  Eight to ten pages.  Study them. Scene by scene:  What happens?  Why? What are they trying to achieve in each scene?  How many scenes are there?  Does each scene move the story forward?  Even include a joke or two that helped move the scene along.  

Do that for eight or ten episodes and see if patterns emerge.  That’s how David Isaacs and I initially learned storytelling.  And now that shows are streamed it’s easier than ever to watch entire runs of the series.  It's a whole lot cheaper than graduate school. 

And finally, from Blinky:

Here’s a Friday question that’s been on my mind for a while. I’ve taken a few screenwriting classes. It seems to me that most of the big movies that come out nowadays would get a grade of C on their screen plays. Would you agree with that assessment? And what does that say about what’s necessary to make a successful movie? Seems the script is the least important thing.

There still are some wonderful screenplays, but today they tend to be smaller independent or made-for-streaming-service movies.  

Screenplays are not as important in blockbusters and comic book studio movies.  In fact, the less nuanced and less dependent on dialogue the better because studios are focused on the global market.   Action scenes play just as well in France and Japan.  Sparkling dialogue -- not so much. 

Special effects and CGI are way more important to studio films, which explains movies like WONDER WOMAN 1984.  

I will say, however, that the Batman franchise generally seems to pay more attention to the screenplay than other super heroes.  

What’s your Friday Question?