Jay starts us off with a little something different.
Hey Ken,
Pointless (and fun?) Friday question/survey for you:
Name a movie you like or love that the rest of the world universally hates:
That’s easy. SHOWGIRLS. The funniest movie ever that’s not meant to be funny for a second. Nudity and laughs. You’d have to go back to RETURN OF THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS to find that combination.
Name a movie a bad movie that you *know* is bad and yet you'd still sit down to watch it:
AT LONG LAST LOVE. Peter Bogdonavich’s mangled attempt at a sophisticated throwback musical. Cybill Shepherd attempting to sing is up there in yucks with YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.
Name a movie you absolutely hate and would never watch again:
HATEFUL 8.
Kendall Rivers asks:
As a writer myself I'm curious about your process with outlines? Do you include dialogue and go into supreme detail or just do beats with no dialogue etc?
It depends on the project. For television I outline extensively, adding lots of possible dialogue. You’re under such time constraints that you need to have every beat well worked out in front.
For plays, I want my characters to have room to take me where they want to go. So I might work off essentially a beat sheet.
What I normally do is start with the bare bones then keep filling in more detail in each scene. Eventually I reach the point I think I’m ready to start writing and go from there.
But I’m very tough on my outlines and change them constantly. I’m always looking to make the story better. Story is primary in my estimation.
From William Adams:
Opening Credits range from excellent (Cheers, Deadwood, etc.) to cookie-cutter (Three's Company, Full House, etc.) to (lately) non-existent. Who is responsible for putting together the opening sequence? Is it a writer, a producer, or maybe the network marketing team? Do you have any favorites?
Usually the show runner. There are some production companies that specialize in opening titles like Castle-Bryant, who did CHEERS. But since there are fewer shows with opening titles, these production houses are becoming endangered species.
My all-time favorite is MASH. Then maybe CHEERS, MIAMI VICE, THE JEFFERSONS, BONANZA, and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. And I’m sure I’m forgetting some other favorites.
And finally, Unknown (please leave a name) asks:
What was the most political script you ever wrote/episode you directed? In a sitcom like MASH, Almost Perfect or Big Wave Dave, were there times where you felt, 'I'd like to squeeze a topical political issue into this for the laugh value’?
David Isaacs and I wrote two pilots about the White House Press Corps (first for ABC then for HBO). I’ve talked about those a few times on the blog and podcast.
There were certainly politically charged episodes of MASH that we wrote. Practically all of them.
We wrote an election episode of THE TONY RANDALL SHOW. Tony’s character runs for Superior Court Justice. His opponent dies during the campaign and beats Tony anyway.
I directed five episodes of LATELINE, starring Al Franken that was very much a political show.
On BIG WAVE DAVE’S and ALMOST PERFECT we were way more interested in exploring relationships than politics. But a number of feminism issues did come up in ALMOST PERFECT. Nancy played a character who was the boss of an all male writing staff on a male-oriented cop show.
Stay safe this weekend. What’s your Friday Question?
from By Ken Levine
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