Frank Beans has a question about attending TV tapings.
"Some shows have an age requirement..."
Could you elaborate on that a bit more? Is it too young, too old, or some other random criteria, and on what kinds of shows typically? Do you think this is a practical, ethical, or wise practice?
For adult oriented shows the age limit is 16. Time is money and the show doesn’t want to hold up filming for screaming babies and unruly children. And since we’ve all seen this behavior tolerated by parents in movie theatres and fine restaurants, and considering tickets to TV filmings are free, they have every right to set restrictions. Take kids to Chuck E. Cheese, not CHEERS.
However, if the show is a Disney Channel show or one that is geared to kids and pre-teens, the age restriction is either eased or eliminated.
Chris Thomson wonders:
At the end of MASH are big part of the story is dealing with him and BJ probably never seeing each other again, after their time together.
And BJs difficulty with saying good-bye.
I just wondered after a long running series like MASH, Cheers, and Frasier, especially given in interviews everyone seems to get on with each other, how much people do still meet up when in town etc, cast and crew etc.
I think it’s a lot like college. How many of your close college friends do you still see on a regular basis? People move, they drift out of the business, they establish new families with new long-running series, etc.
I’m still friends with all the writers on MASH, CHEERS, and many on FRASIER. We email, get together for lunch occasionally, help out on each other’s pilots, etc.
From time to time I also meet up with actors from these shows and especially the shows I co-created. And they’ll pop up from time to time either as podcast guests (like Jamie Farr recently) or guest bloggers.
But it’s difficult to maintain as close a relationship with someone when you no longer see them every day.
From Wayne Carter:
My agent submitted a spec script of mine to MASH in 1979-80. Though well received, we were offered only $500 for the story instead of a chance for me to sell the script ($10,000?) and get a chance for revisions or credit. We were basically told the writers' staff was locked and no outside script assignments at this point of the show were available (except supposedly one by a producer's girlfriend). Do you remember such a situation at that time? It's always bugged me, but I can understand staff writers locking the gates once hefty syndication residuals come into play. It was just frustrating. We didn't accept the deal.
First of all, this was after my time. We never bought a spec script during my tenure. So it’s hard to speak with any authority. I’ll tell you what I think happened just reading between the lines.
They liked your story but not the writing. And they didn’t like the story enough that it was worth it to them to pay for a full script and then do a page-one rewrite. That’s just my guess.
My policy was never to buy a spec unless it was so good and the story was so good that I could keep most of it. And I never found one of those.
However, if I really liked the writing I would bring the writer in and give him another story and script assignment. So the spec didn’t sell but it got his foot in the door, which realistically is a home run with spec scripts.
And finally, from Edward:
In the scheme of things, wasn't CBS' decision to have Radar leave at the beginning of Season 8 a smart move? Ending the season with a cast member leaving might take the wind out of a show during the hiatus.
It was a smart move but not for that reason. The key benefit for CBS was that it had an event show to promote for November Sweeps. Lots of shows lost characters at the end of a season. It’s less of a big deal than one exiting in November.
CBS was also able to make it a two-parter to really take advantage of the situation with double the programming and double the commercial intake.
November, February, and May Sweeps are not as big of a deal now, but back in the broadcast network-only days they were HUGE. Imagine movie studios during summer and Christmas breaks. That’s when everybody gets out their big guns. Radar leaving MASH was a big deal as was reflected in the ratings I’m happy to say.
What’s your Friday Question?
from By Ken Levine
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