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:

'The Crazy Ones' looks promising.

Well, I think it's too early at this point to make any definitive conclusions about The Crazy Ones, but based on those two episodes that I have seen, the show seems almost surprisingly solid.

Now, does this mean that it's going to be a good show or a great show? I wouldn't count on it yet. At the same time, The Crazy Ones is already probably the only show that can challenge Modern Family at the Emmys next year.

There are certain things that I like about the show and there are also certain things that I'm not sure about yet. We have to see more episodes before I can better assess the show.

First, let's start with those things that I'm not sure about yet. Like many others, I'm not sure I'm totally buying Robin Williams' act here. I personally like him more when he does drama. He's a fantastic dramatic actor and perhaps he should be more serious here.

Another thing is that I'm not sure whether this is a show that I'm going to care about. Will I care about the characters, are there honest moments on the show and is there enough substance? That's something that's going to be pretty crucial.

On the other hand, there are a lot of good things about the show. Unlike those others CBS sitcoms, The Crazy Ones doesn't have a laugh track. Also its production values are high enough and that's always a good thing.

When it comes to the characters, I especially liked James Wolk's character who has great chemistry with Williams. I had my doubts about Wolk being the lead on the show, but now that I've seen him, I'm not actually having problems with him anymore.

I also like Sarah Michelle Gellar. She seems to be a good person in real life and I think it shows here. Also, it was good to see Hamish Linklater. He was awesome on The Newsroom, so whatever he does here, I'm buying it.

Furthermore, this is after all a David Kelley show. Even though he hasn't had a good decade when it comes to winning Emmy awards, he probably still has that golden touch. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, as I wrote before, I wasn't really supposed to write any more television spec scripts, but now that I've seen this show, I might actually reconsider. It really doesn't take that much time to write one or two more.

Modern Family script: rewriting "What would Brian Boitano do?"

I decided to write one more post about my third and final Modern Family script because these posts seem to get most reads and also because as a writer I think there's a responsibility to share stuff as much as you can with others.

So, one of the most important things about rewriting a script is that before you actually start rewriting it, it's better to shelve it for at least a week or two. This gives you perspective and lets you look at it a bit more objectively.

In my case with 'What would Brian Boitano do?", I shelved it for four months because I didn't have any deadlines and there weren't any competitions that I knew of. So I was really able to distance myself from the script.

Once I finally managed to open the file - and yes, it can be very difficult - I was pleasantly surprised how emotionally honest the storyline with Luke, Alex and Haley was already.

Nevertheless, the biggest problem was with the storyline in which Jay and Phil come to Cam's rescue after Cam manages to break his toilet. This one didn't make enough sense and the storyline was too contrived to be honest.

The problem was that I didn't know how I could make it seem plausible that both Phil and Jay would come to help Cam (pretty critical stuff). I had to rethink a bit and had to come up with a solution that would make the storyline seem more believable and natural.

Of course the only way to know whether the solution worked was through rewriting it first and then by checking how good or bad it looked. There was no guarantee that it would work or that it would make sense - although in this case it worked, almost too well.

Anyway, the storyline that worked best is the one involving Luke/Alex/Haley. It was about Luke having a date and Alex being curious and wanting to know about it. To give some details about it, the storyline revolves around the idea that Luke gets so confused that he doesn't know who he is anymore.

As I wrote in an earlier post,  for this storyline I wanted to 'steal' from an old Simpsons episode in which Lisa's substitute teacher gives her the note that reads 'you are Lisa Simpson'. Since Alex is basically a Lisa Simpson herself, I thought it would be nice to do a role reversal and that in this case it's 'Lisa' who gives the note.

Naturally this whole thing required that I would come up with ideas of my own too. So, for example instead of Luke being happy about the note, he basically says to himself  "how is this going to help me?". In the very last scene we see that the note does help him after all.

But there was still one more storyline left and that was the one about Claire and Mitchell going to a skating rink with Lily. This storyline is the one where we get the title for the episode. We get to meet Brian Boitano, who - it turns out - feels inadequate about himself.

Yes, this was yet another serious storyline coming from me, but as far as I'm concerned, I think it was appropriate to treat a person like Boitano with dignity and respect and not try something that would make you roll your eyes.

I mean, he did win an olympic gold medal in figure skating with one of the greatest performances of all time. Therefore I think it was pretty obvious that since he gave us something awesome like that, my responsibility as a writer was to give something good back too.

I guess perhaps for this exact reason, I still haven't polished this part of the script. That is because it has to be good - even though it's a spec script and even though it will never be actually produced. It has to be good enough.

In any case though, hopefully I'll manage to finish this script soon and hopefully I'll also finish my first feature screenplay before the end of this year too.

Honest moments and honest emotions over 'funny' jokes.

One of the best moments in Bill Hicks' last interview (my post about it) was when he said that 'you never see honest emotions on tv' and that 'there's a voice of reason inside us that needs to be confirmed'. 

Bill, of course, was right and and what he said is something that I have wondered and worried about too. We just don't tend to see stuff on tv that's honest enough or real enough.

Well, most of the time at least. There are - or have been - of course some exceptions to this 'rule', but most of the time what you see on tv consists of entertainment that doesn't make you feel that good inside. Something just isn't right.

For example, let's take a look at a show that I think is the best comedy on tv right now - Modern Family. It's a well made show that usually manages to entertain me and makes me think that there are still pretty good people left on this planet.

At the same time, it's a show that also tends to disappoint. This is sometimes when it comes to having honest moments on the show. The jokes, those funny moments, are usually pretty solid, but there are moments when they manage to take the wrong route when it comes to story and drama.

I don't know if there's a better example than the episode 'Our Children, Ourselves' 2x12. For some reason I happened to re-watch it - maybe because The Cam & Mitchell storyline had all the potential to be a very serious, honest one. Something that at least I wanted to see.

It was about Mitchell bumping into a woman that he used to date when he wasn't honest to himself about being gay. Sounded pretty interesting to me. Seemed like it was going to be straight drama.

The way this storyline went is that there was a chance that Mitchell was the father of her kid - a high stakes situation if there ever was one. It could have been really touching and could even have included a 'Forrest Gump' serious moment.

Neverthelesss, in the end it turned out that not only was Mitchell not the father of his ex-girlfriend's kid, it was revealed that the kid wasn't actually a kid, but a grown-up midget that was her current lover. So much for having an honest moment and showing honest emotions.

Of course there was basically 'no way' that Mitchell could have been the father, but in retrospect the way they handled the storyline made me feel pretty sad. Especially when I think of what Bill Hicks said about lack of honest emotions on tv.

Honest moments really are that precious and sometimes a serious storyline and a serious moment simply works better than a supposed funny one with a twist. Sometimes serious needs to be serious. Sometimes 'funny' just isn't enough.

In many ways the world that we live in keeps getting more complicated and more superficial. Life just keeps getting harder and harder to understand. In that sense it's crucial that every once in a while we see something honest on tv that confirms the voice of reason inside us.

At least that's the way I see it. As an audience member, you have a right to experience something that is honest, real and genuine. Something that makes you feel that you're not completely insane after all.