Picket Fences - one of the best.

Lately I've been watching this almost forgotten gem of a series called Picket Fences, that aired during the early nineties. If you haven't seen this show before, I highly recommend that you take a look.

There are a lot of good things about this Emmy winning series, but I think one of the most important things about the show is how well it manages to cover different aspects of life.

What I mean by this is that at the same time Picket Fences is a cop show, a lawyer show, a medical show and also a show about a family. There are a lot of things going on here.

Another thing about the show is that it was created by David Kelley, who later became known for his lawyer shows, like Ally Mcbeal, The Practice and Boston Legal. These shows managed to win a lot of Emmy Awards too.

Even though these other shows are probably more well-known to most, I think Picket Fences is Kelley's best. Whenever I watch it, I feel that it's his most 'complete' series.

Needless to say, this show had a lot of memorable characters: the sheriff dad played by Tom Skerrit, the doctor mom played by Kathy Baker, the flamboyant lawyer played by Fyvush Finkel and the judge played by the veteran Ray Walston.

The supporting cast, perhaps unexpectedly turned out to be equally strong.  The deputy sheriffs, played by Lauren Holly and Costas Mandylor were fully realized characters. Kelly Connell's quirky pathologist also provided consistent laughs.

The kids were all likable and relatable too. Adam Wylie, Justin Shenkarow and Holly Marie Combs had their fair share of dramatic storylines that ranged from getting bullied at school to even getting shot and getting temporarily paralyzed.

Picket Fences wasn't afraid of tackling 'hot button' issues. In fact, for Kelley it was natural to write about different kinds of moral dilemmas. He was fair, balanced and compassionate at the same time. His writing was full of integrity and kindness.

I still haven't completely re-watched the first three seasons (Kelley left the show after the 3rd season) but there are so many favorite moments from the show that make me appreciate this era that was actually the real 'golden age' of television.

Who can forget Frank the potato man, the beauty queen mayor that wasn't actually that dumb, the other mayor that happened to spontaniously combust, the guy with the alzheimer's, the midget secretary that was found in the freezer..

The cows that gave birth to human babies, the teacher that changed sex, sexual obsessions, powers struggles in the town. The fights in the courtroom. The list is almost endless..

There were almost too many great moments considering that Kelley wrote most of the scripts and  that you had to write twenty-two episodes per season. I guess he had to get a lot of help from others in order to maintain the quality of the show.

Yet, considering how much the quality of the show dived after Kelley left after season three, one can't help but to think that Picket Fences was still, nevertheless, a one man show. One guy was in charge of making the show great.

That's probably one of the reasons that the show was snubbed when the best 100 television series of all time were listed. Perhaps it was a bit too hard for a lot of people to digest that a show like Picket Fences and a writer like Kelley could actually exist.

Anyway, if there's one thing that I'd like to see happening, it would be that at some point I'd like to be able to buy Picket Fences on dvd. Because, amazingly enough,  they still haven't released this show past season one. That's a shame to say the least.

'The Crazy Ones' - best comedy on tv?

One of the biggest surprises this season has been how good The Crazy Ones turned out to be. I had some doubts about it before, but now it seems that the show has found itself.

What I mean by that is that I think its seventh episode 'Sydney, Australia', that aired last thursday,  is probably the best sitcom episode that I've seen in a while.

There were so many good things about the episode: Josh Groban was really awesome, the song was catchy, everyone was likable and Robin Williams had a chance to be serious.

Furthermore, I got a feeling from the episode that everyone involved had a good time on the show: like for example in the above picture where they're dancing in a drag. It was silly but still good natured fun.

Another great thing about the episode was that it was genuinely touching. As unfortunate as it is, I haven't seen honest emotions in a long time - but I just loved the stuff that was on screen here. It was real - or real enough.

This episode also made me wonder whether The Crazy Ones is actually the best comedy on tv now. It could be better than Modern Family, a show that previously was responsible for delivering those feel good moments.

For some reason I just get better vibes from this show whereas when it comes to Modern Family, that show unfortunately can't seem to keep it real. The characters just won't go where they're supposed to go.

The Emmys are next year and if The Crazy Ones gets a bit better, I can see it winning the best comedy series. It's apparent that there's so much talent behind this show. The ratings seem to be pretty solid too.

Anyway, when it comes to the writing on the show, David Kelley still hasn't written anything else than the pilot so far. But the quality of the last episode made me think that he must be involved with the production of those scripts.

All in all, The Crazy Ones seems to be a surprisingly good show and I'll probably write a spec at some point. As long as I think that I can write a script that is dramatic enough to make you care.

Another take on "what shows to spec?".

Last time when I wrote about 'what shows to spec', I hadn't really thought it out enough. Even though what I wrote was true in theory, there was still that other side to the story.

So, even though it's a logical choice to write a spec for a show that is a ratings hit and popular, award winning and respected by most, you still have to consider those showrunners who might read the script.

In any case, if you're like me, there are basically two or three sitcoms that are worth your time. These are in my opinion Modern Family, South Park and maybe, perhaps The Crazy Ones. Those others aren't worth, at least not my time.

Having this few even remotely relevant quality shows on air (South Park probably being the best) creates a lot of problems: Not only for the aspiring writers (the talented ones are in worst shape) but also for the showrunners too.

One of the biggest problems for a writer like me is that if the show that I spec is not one of these three, it's likely that the showrunners of Modern Family, South Park and The Crazy Ones  - the shows that I care about - simply don't give a damn about my spec.

I mean, if I'd write a Family Guy, what is there in my script that would convince them to hire me? There's probably no substance or heart in the script and Family Guy isn't known for being a storyteller's show. There's no reason for them to care.

If I write an absolutely superb Modern Family script full of soul, substance and entertainment, then perhaps one of these three shows might take notice and would hire me. It's a long shot, but you never know.

On the other hand, if you do want to get hired on a show like Family Guy, I guess my advice would be not to necessarily write a Modern Family spec. That is because they just might not want to read your script.

This is because a lot of showrunners don't want to admit to themselves that their show sucks. They want to feel special (we all do) and in this case feeling special means that they tend to read scripts that aren't any better than what they produce themselves.

So if you want to write Family Guy at some point, your Community script is probably good. If you want to write Community, your Parks & Rec is probably good too. As long as the showrunner thinks that it doesn't have a lot of artistic merit, you're fine.

This is also the reason that spec pilots are more in demand than before. The showrunners like them, not because they want to hear your voice, but because pilots are so incredible hard to write and the chances are overwhelmingly that your spec pilot sucks.

It's an awful situation obviously for almost everyone. At the same time, I'd suggest that you take it with a grain of salt if someone tells you that New Girl is hot or that you can't do it without a Happy Endings spec or your own spec pilot.

In any case, if you decide to write a South Park or a Modern Family spec, please make sure that it's awesome. If you get hired on one of these quality shows, remember that there's an audience out there expecting to see something really good.

A-list showrunners slacking.

One of the things that television enthusiasts don't pay enough attention to are the writing credits. They talk about the episodes, but they don't talk about the writers.

Unlike many others, I'm rather interested in knowing who actually wrote those episodes that were really good. I want to know who is responsible for those funny and/or serious moments.

The reason I'm writing about this is because there are certain writers out there who are simply better - more talented - than the rest. When they write a script, more often than not there's a chance that the episode turns out to be really good.

One of these writers is of course Modern Family's showrunner Steven Levitan. I think almost every script that he has written on Modern Family has been pretty good, better than your average episode on the show.

So, naturally every time when it reads on the screen that Steve Levitan wrote the episode, my hopes go up. Very likely the episode has something that is real and funny. The characters feel more like they're actual human beings.

The only problem with this is that unfortunately he doesn't write that many scripts anymore. This season he hasn't written a single one yet. Last season he wrote like two, or one and a half to be more precise.

Steve Levitan not being the hero that the world needs but doesn't deserve bugs me. No scripts yet this season. I'm worried..

Nevertheless, even though I'm disappointed in Steve's output lately, there's this other guy, this other writer that I'm even more worried about.

That's right, David E. Kelley, who created The Crazy Ones and is really notorious in the industry - like Aaron Sorkin - for writing almost every script himself. Six episodes in and he's only written the pilot.

I don't know about you guys, but this really troubles me. I miss Kelley's writing and I just wish that he'd write more scripts like he used to do.

More scripts please, David and Steve!

Spec script mistakes: rushing your script & storylines out of sync.

Usually I write about mistakes that other writers have made. In order to be a bit more fair, I think it's time to write about  mistakes that I myself have made recently.

So, when it comes to making mistakes, one that really annoys me is when your script as a whole doesn't work because certain scenes are in the wrong order.

This happened to me with my Modern Family spec 'House of Cards'. When I sent it to a competition, I rushed the script, didn't rewrite it early enough, made some panicky changes and screwed up the pacing without even realizing it.

Here's the script that nevertheless made the top 10 in the competition : http://www.scribd.com/read/116264736/Modern-Family-House-of-Cards

Now, the problem with this script is that the storyline with Alex and Haley ends too early. This is because I didn't pay enough attention to the scenes (placing) involving Jay/Phil and Cam/Mitchell. I thought the script would work no matter what.

Of course in hindsight it really didn't work and this is a good reminder that there's really no upside to start rewriting your script five hours before the deadline when you haven't checked your draft in months.

The upside to this all is that I think it's pretty easy to fix the problem - as long as the pacing is what's wrong with the script. The downside is that you start doubting yourself even more. Mistakes are never easy to accept anyway.

So, nevertheless, I opened the script yesterday and did some changes to it. The Claire/Haley/Alex storyline now ends on page 20 instead of ending on page 17.  I don't know if it makes enough difference but I hope it does.

Anyway, here's the 'fixed' version of the spec script: http://www.scribd.com/doc/179356159/Modern-Family-House-of-Cards-Fix-pdf

I watched some of those new sitcoms..

As far as I remember, last year I didn't pay that much attention to comedy shows that premiered on tv. I mostly read reviews and that was pretty much it. All those new shows reportedly sucked and that was all I needed to know.

This year on the other hand I wasn't as indifferent, unfortunately. I wasn't smart enough to not watch those new shows that aired. I watched and in most cases wish that I hadn't.

There were at least two reasons that I checked the new shows. The biggest reason is of course that David Kelley came up with 'The Crazy Ones'. I'm always curious about what Kelley has to offer. Despite his flaws, he's still likely the most talented tv writer of all time.

Probably the second reason that I happened to take a look at the fall lineup was because Chuck Lorre seemingly came up with yet another generic sitcom called 'Mom'. According to at least Ken Levine, this was supposed to be good. So I had to check it out.

Now, I must confess that I didn't watch every new show that aired - but I did watch 'Mom', 'The Crazy Ones', I watched 'The Millers', I watched 'The Goldbergs' and there was at least one more sitcom.. yes.. 'Brooklyn Nine Nine' that I saw. I think I gave them all a fair chance.

I've already written about The Crazy Ones - so I guess it's time to write about those other wonderful new sitcoms that unfortunately didn't turn out to be wonderful at all. It turned out that all those other new comedies were, I'm sorry to say, awful.

So how bad was The Millers, lead by Will Arnett for example? Well, it looked cheap, there was no point to anything that happened and I kinda got a claustrophobic feel from the show. I was able to stomach 'The Millers' for about eight minutes before I had to turn it off.

The Goldbergs was a show that I hadn't heard anything about before. Jeff Garlin is always great in Curb Your Enthusiasm but he's completely wasted here. I couldn't believe how pointless the show was until I noticed that it was created by the guy who also wrote the movie 'Fanboys'. I gave up after ten minutes.

Brooklyn Nine Nine was supposedly a good show because critics liked it. But at the same time this show is nothing more than a weak imitation of the absolutely hilarious Reno 911. All the characters are unlikable, the storylines are terrible and the funny moments aren't funny.

Finally, Chuck Lorre's Mom. Even though we all 'knew' it was going to suck, I still kinda wanted the show to be good since it's about a single mom's struggles. I think it's an ideal underdog situation so the show can't be that bad, now can it?

The problem is of course that for some miraculous reason the characters aren't likable. Everyone's a cheater on the show. Everyone does nasty things to each other. The 'jokes' are so stupid and juvenile. Superbly talented actors are wasted here.

What's even worse is that Chuck Lorre had the nerve to write a vanity card in which he says that the writers worked really hard and that this is a serious show about a serious subject matter. Critics are supposed to keep that in mind when they take shots at the show..

I mean, this is unbelievably pathetic behavior from Lorre. At least those other showrunners were smart enough to keep their mouths shut. Most of them know that they screwed up (not sure about that Parks & Rec guy though).

But all in all, this is a really bad year for new sitcoms. It's not easy to come up with good shows, but you would expect that they could do better than this. 

Modern Family spec script: What Would Brian Boitano Do?

Okay, so here's my final Modern Family script 'What Would Brian Boitano do?".

http://www.scribd.com/doc/175396846/Modern-Family-What-Would-Brian-Boitano-Do

I never thought I'd be able to write this script, but fortunately I did. I hope you'll enjoy reading it.

Here's the song that this episode is based on: