Reassigning jokes

Every showrunner has his own set of rules, way of working, etc. When David Isaacs and I were running shows we had our own unwritten guidelines of do’s and don’ts. And one of them was not to give jokes from one actor to another.

There are many showrunners who disagree. And other showrunners who do agree but are forced to do it anyway.

During the rewriting process, especially for a multi-camera show, scripts change frequently. Jokes are added, jokes are cut, scenes are routinely changed or replaced. Sometimes you might think that upon hearing it, a certain joke would work better if one of the other characters said it. So the next day the joke is reassigned.

I think that’s a bad idea.

For several reasons.

First off, your characters in theory should be unique enough that only the character who originally said the joke COULD say the joke. If all the characters have the same attitude and are interchangeable that’s a much bigger problem.

But say a particular line could be said by another character. All that does is generate insecurity among the cast, and worse – competition among the cast. When Actor A loses a joke to Actor B what do you think Actor A is going to think about Actor B? You are asking for aggravation you do not need.

Now, like I said, some showrunners are aware of the pitfalls but are powerless to stop it. Why? Because the star of their show is an 800 pound gorilla and is running the show. And if they have big egos, and if they’re threatened by anyone else in the cast doing well they’ll often insist that they get every funny line. So lines at the initial table reading that go laughs for other actors suddenly turn up going to the star. Cybill Shepherd was a prime offender. There are others.

What they don’t understand is this: A high tide lifts all boats. If everyone in the ensemble gets laughs it only makes the star look better and the show more popular. Dick Van Dyke understood this. So did Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Jerry Seinfeld, and Ray Romano to name a few. I won’t call out the other offenders but they’re not hard to ferret out – star of the show, often with their name in the title, manages to get the series cancelled within a couple of years. It’s almost a given. My heart goes out to those showrunners. I’d be fired in eleven minutes.

Here’s what you have to remember: When you’re in the writing room it’s easy to focus on the characters and move the chess pieces around as you wish. But you forget that real people play these characters. And they have real feelings. You need to take that into account. Taking away lines from actors and giving them to other actors is destructive and not worth the value of the laugh. But again, that’s my philosophy, my procedure. There are showrunners who WANT tension and insecurity on the set. They feel the actors give heightened performances as a result. I personally don’t. I want everyone on the stage to be happy, which is hard enough because there is so much you can’t control. Why makes things worse with something you CAN control?

Anyway, that’s my rant. Please don’t assign it to someone else.

from By Ken Levine