Wednesday, March 09, 2022

Eight years ago today

Once a month I like to go back and repost Friday Questions from many years ago since very few people read the archives and there's some good advice buried in there somewhere.  These are Friday Questions from eight years ago.  Re-enjoy.


Bill starts us off:

What are the responsibilities of the creative consultants and how does it differ from being the writer and were you the creative consultants on the shows you are credited with writing?

Generally, creative consultants are writers who come in once or twice a week to help out on rewrites for whatever episode is being produced that week. They're not on staff full-time.  Their day usually begins with the afternoon runthrough and they stay through the rewrite. They provide another set of eyes, can offer story suggestions, but primarily they’re there to help pump in jokes.

It’s a position that has pretty much been phased out because studios don’t want to pay, but good creative consultants can be invaluable. I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the best. David Lloyd and Jerry Belson were amazing, but the best of all-time was (and is) Bob Ellison (pictured right). Bob is a joke machine and tireless. It could be 4 in the morning, everyone on the staff is totally gassed, and Bob is still firing in great jokes like an AK-47.   During the '80s and '90s Bob would sometime work on four different series a week.  Whenever we got a show picked up, our first call was to see if Bob Ellison was available. 

At some point I was a creative consultant on CHEERS, FRASIER, WINGS, BECKER, and about six other shows that came and quickly went. (We wrote episodes for most of those shows.)

This is a practice that dates well back into the American theater. Plays would tryout out of town and playwrights would enlist the help of “script doctors” like Abe Burrows who would help fix troubled projects. At least we didn't have to go to New Haven every week.

From Steve:

A couple days ago, you mentioned that you gave overuse of names a pass in the case of pilots, where the writer needs to establish who everyone is. It occurred to me that most of your viewers aren't going to start with the pilot; they'll get into the show after it been on the air for weeks or years, or even in syndication. How much do sitcom writers think about the fact that every episode is someone's first? Is any attempt made to make sure each episode works without prior knowledge?

The second episode is in many ways harder to write than the pilot. Because you have to re-tell the pilot for all those who are coming to the show for the first time, and you have to provide a new story for those who saw the pilot.  And you have two weeks to write it, not six months. 

Over the first four shows we try to keep rebooting the premise, but after that we feel viewers can either pick up on what’s going on, or go back to find the previous episodes online or On-Demand. Why should we do all the work?

Michael wonders:

Other than THE SIMPSONS, I am not aware of any shows you wrote for that included kids. Did you and David ever try to develop family-oriented sitcoms or was this something that didn't interest you?

We’ve written other shows that have had kids and we’ve done a few family pilots that didn’t get picked up. Earlier in our career we got asked to write a family pilot, but we were committed to another show so we had to pass. That family show was COSBY.  Not that I'm still bitter.

Update:  looking back from today — phew!  We dodged a bullet.  

OrangeTom asks:

When a show is on air as long as Frasier do the network executives start paying less attention; i.e., is there more the writers can get away with which might be considered too offensive or "out there" in the first couple years of a show's run? "Tonight on Frasier Daphne's true identity as a KGB operative is revealed after she's caught trying to blow up the Space Needle"

Yes, once a show has established itself as a hit networks tend to back off. But not entirely. Networks still want to know what stories you have planned and if you want to do something very different or jarring you still might have a fight on your hands. You may win that fight but it won’t just be rubber stamped because you have millions of Twitter followers.

Still, it’s quite a contrast from when we were doing MASH. CBS wanted us to submit loglines of the stories we were doing. We would send in six or seven at a time. Of course, by the time we got around to submitting them the episodes had already been filmed.  That's a great way of getting around notes, by the way. 

What’s your Friday Question?

16 comments :

Sean R. said...

I'm guessing your thoughts on missing out on COSBY have changed a bit in the intervening eight years.

Patrick Kelly said...

Soooooooo....
Eight years later, still ticked about skipping the Cosby pilot?

Darwin's Ghost said...

Even before the scandals, I disliked Cosby. I never ever saw the appeal of him and his shitty sitcom with its dumbed down, anodyne humor for simple people. I watched the occasional episode and just found it moronically unfunny.

But now it makes sense. The soft, bland, harmless image was what he hid behind while he was raping women. One of his victims in an interview last year said that when the audience applauded at the end of one episode's taping, Cosby whispered in her ear "Fooled 'em again."

He's a truly evil man and, at 84, I hope he hasn't got long left.

Michael said...

George Burns once said that he told CBS he would no longer provide advance scripts from his and Gracie's show, and he said that three things gave him that kind of power: Ratings, ratings, and ratings.

Howard Carter said...

Commenting on the "second episode is harder than the pilot", when rewatching Cheers (which has a pilot I love) I'm constantly amazed that how good the second episode ("Sam's Women") is...Earl Pomerantz captured that show almost perfectly.

Brian said...

Friday question - Are show titles hard to come up with? Have they fallen out of favor? I recall seeing a title in the opening credits recently. I was reminded of show titles since on a recent airing of Jeopardy, contestants had to name the shows from the titles of the final episodes. The clues included "Farewell, Goodbye and Amen" and "One for the Road".

Scottmc said...

Your mention of script doctors reminded me of an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show which was written by Garry Marshall and
Jerry Belson. Alan Brady has been cast in a Broadway-bound play and he asks Rob to punch it up by adding some jokes. The episode ends with the play’s producers hiring professional script doctors. Musicals also have used outside help. Stephen Sondheim once wrote a song for a musical written by his friend Mary Rodgers while the show was out of town.

Gary said...

On the topic of overuse of names, amazingly the early years of MASH are a prime example. Whenever Hawkeye is talking to Frank Burns, he calls him Frank in just about EVERY sentence he says to him. Once you're aware of this it becomes really obvious (and annoying). I wonder if the name Frank was actually written into the script that often, or if this was just a quirk of Alan Alda's acting.

Leighton said...

No spoilers, but you might want to think twice before watching "The Tourist" on HBOMax. I binged the six-hour limited series. Maybe not so limited. I dunno. It's one of the least satisfying shows I've watched in a while. Great acting. Great locations. But, but, but...I dunno.

ScarletNumber said...

@Darwin's Ghost

While your Virtue Signal has been received, no one actually believes you. Even Ken is full of shit when he says that he considers not being able to work on The Cosby Show as a bullet dodged. It was the number one television show for five straight years, and literally saved NBC. Every time Ken cashes one of his Cheers residual checks, he should thank his lucky stars for Bill Cosby.

Darwin's Ghost said...

"While your Virtue Signal has been received, no one actually believes you"

No one believes me that I think Cosby and his sitcom were unfunny?

And using the term virtue signal in this context is a bit odd. Are you saying condemning rapists is virtue signalling?

As for the show being number one for five years, Gary Glitter also sold a lot of records and Harvey Weinstein won an Oscar. I'm not sure what point you're making.

Breadbaker said...

After two Ken Levine shows I was disappointed Big Wave Dave's last episode wasn't an answer. V

Leighton said...

Darwin,

YES, that is a truly BIZARRE post from Scarlet. It's basically stating, that "The Cosby Show" made a lot of money for NBC, so it negates his horrendous treatment of women. Astounding. But Trump. And I would guess that Scarlet is in that camp.

I hate to say it, but NOTHING surprises me any longer. It boggles the mind...

Jay Moriarty said...

Nice photo of Bob Ellison, the King of Comedy.

Andrew said...

Since we're talking about The Cosby Show, I have to admit, I still am conflicted. But I doubt I'll ever watch the show again. Is it possible to enjoy the show, or even appreciate it, knowing that the man behind it is evil? I feel bad for the other actors, writers, and crew. They don't deserve the taint.

And it wasn't just the show. Bill Cosby was ubiquitous for decades. I recently discovered a YouTube video of George Michael and Smokey Robinson singing together at the Apollo. And they were introduced by Bill Cosby. He seemed squeaky clean, by the world's standards. To know he could fool so many people, while living a secret, twisted life... I shouldn't be so naive, but it's hard to comprehend.

Sorry for the ramble. When it comes to the Cosby Show, I don't know if I can ever watch it again. Even though to me it was genuinely funny. To laugh along with a man who is getting away with drugging, assaulting, and raping women is inconceivable.

JessyS said...

Ken, you actually dodged a bullet in more ways in one regarding Cosby. I remember a post talking about how demanding an actor he was when it came to a crossover between his CBS show and Becker.