Blog 4: What Makes TV “Good?” (Graduate Students ONLY)

There are few things in this world that are criticized more than the quality of television programming, and you have not only decided to major in it but also have thrust yourself into the position of producing more of it! In this culture, television, as opposed to books and “good cinema,” is largely considered a low-brow medium. So, you might think it would be reasonably easy to create it.

But when you read through Evan Smith’s Writing Television Sitcoms or Lindheim and Blum’s chapter from Inside Television Producing, you will likely walk away with a different impression of how “easy” this junk is to write. (Both of these readings on reserve in NH3 reading room)

Could you please resolve this tension by sharing with a layperson why television storytelling still works 50+ years after DesiLu. In other words, “What could possibly be so hard about writing for television?” Center your discussion around at least one good example from a show we share in class including some indication of what makes it good.

Readings are now in the NH3 Reading Room

We have transferred 11 readings from the Bird Library to the new reading room in Newhouse 3, which is on the fourth floor of Newhouse 3. Readings include books on lighting and set design, TV production, writing sitcoms, scripts from popular television shows, and more!

Blog 3: The Medium is the Message

Noted educator Marshall McLuhan long ago quoted a phrase that remains extremely relevant to the study of multicamera production: the medium is the message.

One way of applying it is to consider that the medium a message is conveyed through (say multicamera video) actually adds additional meaning to the message it emits (say “eighties”).

Explain how various production processes influence the content of television stories. Multicamera, Single Camera, Hybrid Camera, Film, Video and HD should factor into your discussion. As usual, your article should contain specific examples from television we watched in class together.

READING MATERIALS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC:

• Carter, Bill: “Thanks to YouTube Fans, ‘ Nobody’s Watching’ May Return from the Dead,” New York Times, July 3, 2006: carter_times.pdf
• Friend, Tad: “Laugh Riot,” The New Yorker, September 28, 1998: friend_nyer.pdf
• Goodman, Tim: “‘Earl’ and ‘Chris’” Rescue Sitcoms from Mediocrity,” SFGate.com, Jan 30 2006: goodman_sf.pdf
• Hagan, Joe: “Funny Business,” Wall Street Journal, Jan 21 2006: hagan_wsj.pdf
• Kukienski, Valerie: “TV Comedies Get a Makeover,” LA Daily News, Nov 10 2005: kukienski_ladn.pdf
• Levy, Don “How Different Is Posting HD?” Film & Video, May 2004: levy_filmvideo.pdf
• McDowell, Joanne: “Evenings at the Improv,” Time, October 2002: mcdowell_curb.pdf
• Rice, Lynette: “TV Comedy is Broken,” Entertainment Weekly October 6, 2006: rice_ew.pdf
• Rosen, Lisa: “It’s Such a Deal; For an inside showbiz peek, TV show tapings are hard to beat — and your only investment is time,” Los Angeles Times, Sept 28, 2006: rosen_latimes.pdf
• “Sony’s 24P Cinealta Production Format Stars in 2002-2003 Television Season,” Sony Cinealta News, October 2002: sony_24p.pdf
• Swidey, Neil: “Family !@%$#%’ Ties,” Boston Globe, November 27, 2005: swidey_bostonglobe.pdf

—On reserve in the the Newhouse 3 reading room—
Television: The Critical View, edited by Horace Newcomb,
A collection of essays about television criticism and culture.

• Excerpt: Timberg, Bernard: “The Unspoken Rules of Television Talk”: newcomb.pdf

Blog 2: Is the Sitcom Dead?

There is a debate in the field Television Production concerning the future of the Sitcom. Take a position on the debate (supported by solid reasoning and examples of course) and arrive at an explanation of what this debate says about the state of television production.

READING MATERIALS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC:

• HAND-OUT – Last Laughs by Alan Sepinwall, The Star Ledger.
• HAND-OUT – Stop the Hearse! The Sitcom is NOT dead. by Ken Levine,
• HAND-OUT – Desilu, I Love Lucy, and the Rise of Network TV, by T.Schatz.
• HAND-OUT – Can this Man Save the Sitcom?, Posner, Ari. The New York Times, August, 2004.

OTHER THINGS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC:

• Carefully and critically analyzing our television screenings of the week.

Blog 1: Lighting and Set Design

Lighting designers and set designers “see” their worlds very differently than normal, everyday people. They are translators of sorts: They translate 3D ideas into 2D imagery that in the end goes undetected through viewer sensors. Their efforts are, especially if they do an excellent job, unnoticed, unappreciated and invisible to the viewers they design for. The purpose of Blog 1 is to discuss why and how this is so and what strategies the lighting and set designers of your show employ in their translation process. Discuss examples of effective lighting and set design in a show of your choice. And don’t just say it’s good! Explain what exactly it is that makes it “good” and how techniques it uses might be applied to your own works.

Blogging Instructions: To comment on the blog, go to the bottom of the bottom of the post and click where it says “X Comments>>.” Enter your name and your syr.edu email address. Entering your email address ensures the WordPress server that you are a person and not a spammer, and it will allow us to keep track of who has and has not commented.You have two options when you comment. You can either directly address the question of the week, or react/respond/interact with another student’s entry or entries. You can interact with words, pictures, videos or anything that adds to the conversation. There is great value in either approach, but the more of the latter, the more the discussion will become “our own.”

READING MATERIALS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC:All below are at the reserve desk under TRF-452/652

• Light Science, by Thomas D. Rossing & Christopher J. Chiaverina, introducing the science and phenomena of light.
• Lighting for TV and Film, by Gerald Millerson, a broad coverage of the dynamics of lighting design.
• Lighting for Video, by Gerald Millerson, basic coverage of effective video lighting.
• Production Design for Television, by Terry Byrne, covering the culture and dynamics of television design.

OTHER THINGS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC:

• Paying close attention to lectures on lighting and design.
• Carefully and critically analyzing a television show beyond its surface.
• Check Semester Schedule for due date.
• Looking at these photos, examples of professional set design from CSI: New York and Cane:

Roles for Show

Co-Executive Producers
Diane (Odd)
Sarah (Even)

Line Producers
Shannon (Odd)
Jason (Even)

Writers
Marc, Jacob, Julie (Odd)
Jeff, Stephanie B., Keenan (Even)

Coordinating Director
Lane

Coordinating Editor
Andrew

Directors
Henry, Matt (Odd)
Steve, Shaina (Even)

Art Direction
Jackie, Stacy

Editors
Stephanie G. (Odd)
Christine (Even)

Gopher
Steve

Blog 4: What Makes TV “GOOD”? (Grad Students Only)

There are few things in this world that are criticized more than the quality of television programming, and you have not only decided to major in it but also have thrust yourself into the position of producing more of it! In this culture, television, as opposed to books and “good cinema,” is largely considered a low-brow medium. So, you might think it would be reasonably easy to create it.

But when you read through Evan Smith’s Writing Television Sitcoms or Lindheim and Blum’s chapter from Inside Television Producing, you will likely walk away with a different impression of how “easy” this junk is to write.

Could you please resolve this tension by sharing with a layperson why television storytelling still works 50+ years after DesiLu. In other words, “What could possibly be so hard about writing for television?” Center your discussion around at least one good example from a show we share in class including some indication of what makes it good.

Blogging Instructions:
You have two options when you comment. You can either directly address the question of the week, or react/respond/interact with another student’s entry or entries. You can interact with words, pictures, videos or anything that adds to the conversation. There is great value in either approach, but the more of the latter, the more the discussion will become “our own.”

Go to tvproduction.wordpress.com. To comment on the blog, go to the bottom of the bottom of the post and click where it says “X Comments>>.” Enter your name and your syr.edu email address. Entering your email address ensures the WordPress server that you are a person and not a spammer, and it will allow us to keep track of who has and has not commented.

READING MATERIALS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC

• HAND-OUT – Selections from Inside Television Producing, by Lindheim and Blum. [Anatomy of a show concept]
• HAND-OUT – Evenings At The Improv: Don’t get me rewrite! TV comedies are finding ways to get laughs without a script, Poniewozik, James From Time.com – Sunday, October 20, 2002.
• HAND-OUT & ON RESERVE – Writing Television Sitcoms, by Evan Smith. An excellent guide for our episodic experience.
• HAND-OUT – Can This Man Save the Sitcom? By Ari Posner. New York Times: August 1, 2004.
• ON RESERVE – The Showrunners by David Wild.

OTHER THINGS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC

• Watching lots of episodes of a television show and considering the dynamics of their relationship.
• Carefully and critically analyzing our television pick of the week beyond its surface.
• Asking good questions when we discuss this question for the first time.

Show Ideas

“Six Percent”
Newhouse is proud of the fact that 94% of their grads have a job after they graduate. This show is about the other six percent, and life in general after college.

“452 Wilshire”
Washed up, egocentric crazy rock star is only treated like the rock star he still believes himself to be at his mansion. The show follows him and the lives of his mansion staff.

“The Show”
The writers on a sitcom that has already been cancelled go nuts.

Blog 3: The Medium is the Message

Noted educator Marshall McLuhan long ago quoted a phrase that remains extremely relevant to the study of multicamera production: the medium is the message.

One way of applying it is to consider that the medium a message is conveyed through (say multicamera video) actually adds additional meaning to the message it emits (say “eighties”).

Explain how various production processes influence the content of television stories. Multicamera, Single Camera, Hybrid Camera, Film, Video and HD should factor into your discussion. As usual, your article should contain specific examples from television we watched in class together.

Blogging Instructions:
You have two options when you comment. You can either directly address the question of the week, or react/respond/interact with another student’s entry or entries. You can interact with words, pictures, videos or anything that adds to the conversation. There is great value in either approach, but the more of the latter, the more the discussion will become “our own.”

Go to http://tvproduction.wordpress.com. To comment on the blog, go to the bottom of the bottom of the post and click where it says “X Comments>>.” Enter your name and your syr.edu email address. Entering your email address ensures the WordPress server that you are a person and not a spammer, and it will allow us to keep track of who has and has not commented.

READING MATERIALS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC:

• Carter, Bill: “Thanks to YouTube Fans, ‘ Nobody’s Watching’ May Return from the Dead,” New York Times, July 3, 2006: carter_times.pdf
• Friend, Tad: “Laugh Riot,” The New Yorker, September 28, 1998: friend_nyer.pdf
• Goodman, Tim: “‘Earl’ and ‘Chris’” Rescue Sitcoms from Mediocrity,” SFGate.com, Jan 30 2006: goodman_sf.pdf
• Hagan, Joe: “Funny Business,” Wall Street Journal, Jan 21 2006: hagan_wsj.pdf
• Kukienski, Valerie: “TV Comedies Get a Makeover,” LA Daily News, Nov 10 2005: kukienski_ladn.pdf
• Levy, Don “How Different Is Posting HD?” Film & Video, May 2004: levy_filmvideo.pdf
• McDowell, Joanne: “Evenings at the Improv,” Time, October 2002: mcdowell_curb.pdf
• Rice, Lynette: “TV Comedy is Broken,” Entertainment Weekly October 6, 2006: rice_ew.pdf
• Rosen, Lisa: “It’s Such a Deal; For an inside showbiz peek, TV show tapings are hard to beat — and your only investment is time,” Los Angeles Times, Sept 28, 2006: rosen_latimes.pdf
• “Sony’s 24P Cinealta Production Format Stars in 2002-2003 Television Season,” Sony Cinealta News, October 2002: sony_24p.pdf
• Swidey, Neil: “Family !@%$#%’ Ties,” Boston Globe, November 27, 2005: swidey_bostonglobe.pdf

—ON RESERVE—
Television: The Critical View, edited by Horace Newcomb,
A collection of essays about television criticism and culture.

• Excerpt: Timberg, Bernard: “The Unspoken Rules of Television Talk”: newcomb.pdf

Blog 2: Is the Sitcom Dead?

There is a debate in the field Television Production concerning the future of the Sitcom. Take a position on the debate (supported by solid reasoning and examples of course) and arrive at an explanation of what this debate says about the state of television production.

Blogging Instructions:
You have two options when you comment. You can either directly address the question of the week, or react/respond/interact with another student’s entry or entries. You can interact with words, pictures, videos or anything that adds to the conversation. There is great value in either approach, but the more of the latter, the more the discussion will become “our own.”

Go to tvproduction.wordpress.com. To comment on the blog, go to the bottom of the bottom of the post and click where it says “X Comments>>.” Enter your name and your syr.edu email address. Entering your email address ensures the WordPress server that you are a person and not a spammer, and it will allow us to keep track of who has and has not commented. If you have any problems commenting, please email Alex.

READING MATERIALS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC:

• HAND-OUT – Last Laughs by Alan Sepinwall, The Star Ledger.
• HAND-OUT – Stop the Hearse! The Sitcom is NOT dead. by Ken Levine,
• HAND-OUT – Desilu, I Love Lucy, and the Rise of Network TV, by T.Schatz.
• HAND-OUT – Can this Man Save the Sitcom?, Posner, Ari. The New York Times, August, 2004.

OTHER THINGS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU ON THIS TOPIC:

• Carefully and critically analyzing our television screenings of the week.