In the meantime…
Janet Ybarra has a Friday Question.
Whether it's one of your contemporary stageplays, a teleplay you wrote with David or what-have-you: how do you come up with good, satisfying names for your characters so that everyone isn't a Jones or a Smith?
I’ve written posts on this before. I try to find names that might fit the ethnicity, personality, and age of the character. If I’m writing a period piece there weren’t too many Beyonces in the 1920’s.
I prefer not having two characters with names that start with the same letter (e.g. Janet & Jennifer). It’s easier writing in Final Draft when I only need one key stroke instead of two when typing the character name.
Many times I’ll use names of people I know. Friends and ex-girlfriends show up all the time in MASH and CHEERS.
I also consult my high school yearbook. Lots of great names in there.
On MASH we always needed patients and visiting military personnel so my partner David and I in season 7 just went down the Los Angeles Dodgers roster. You’ll find Cey, Garvey, Rhoden, Rau, Hooten, Russell, Lopes, etc.
To be honest, I try not to spend too much time on this because you could devote three days coming up with just the perfect name when all you’re really doing is procrastinating.
Brian Phillips asks:
What are your thoughts on physical humor in a script that you write/co-write?
I love physical comedy and even in shows with sophisticated humor like FRASIER I will try to fit in some physical comedy. The key is having the actors who can pull it off. FRASIER had that in spades.
But even in my plays, which rely on dialogue to get the lion’s share of laughs, I will find spots for physical comedy.
If there’s any form of comedy that is universal and guaranteed to stand the test of time, it’s physical comedy. Laurel & Hardy make me laugh hysterically to this day.
From MikeN:
Would you write episodes differently for Netflix because there are no commercials?
Not really. My act break might not come directly in the middle, but good dramatic structure is good dramatic structure. I still want a strong act break even if its purpose isn’t to retain an audience through a commercial break.
What excites me more about writing a show for Netflix is not having to squeeze a half hour episode into 18 minutes. I can better tell stories when I have a little more time.
And finally, Frank Beans has a FQ in a similar vein.
Curious, Ken--are there any episodes that you have worked on from any show that you wish could have been longer, or even multi-part so that they could tell a story arc better and in more depth?
Yes, primarily on MASH because we would always weave at least two storylines into every episode (sometimes three). There were instances when we had to cut the show for time and lost good stuff.
I always loved when script assignments that started out as a single episode expanded into a two-parter. Easier to tell the story and twice the money (the latter being the BIG incentive).
But here’s the dirty little secret: Most two-parters you see are really part-and-a-halfs. There is generally padding to fill out the whole hour. I’ve written any number of two parters and could take fifteen minutes out of any of them.
But did I mention I get paid twice for two-parters? I can’t love ‘em enough.
What’s your Friday Question? Leave it in the comments section. And hope to see you this weekend on the theatre circuit. Thanks.
from By Ken Levine
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