The Bible Takes A Belt

WILL DIXON has a riff up at his digs about Series Bibles. It comes courtesy of another one of Diane Kristine's excellent craft-related posts from the Banff TV Festival:

Hoselton confirmed that House doesn't have a show bible, a document that supposedly collects the known facts of the series. "It's sort of a joke," he revealed. "Every now and then, somebody will say 'Where does Wilson live?' 'I don't know, it's in the bible.' "

Greenstein suggested show bibles are not particularly common or useful, given the collective memory of the writing staff and the availability of episodes and scripts online. "If there's one on Desperate Housewives, I haven't seen it." In fact, he hasn't read a bible for any of his shows. "It's probably a useful tool if you're a freelancer," he shrugged. "But the series bible to me is a relic of pre-Internet days. It's not necessarily a tool we worry about."

Pretty much every US showrunner I've spoken with over the past few years has echoed this sentiment, that TV series bibles are a thing of the past. There might be a pitch document that gives character overviews and the gist of the show and where it all might go, but once it gets rolling the 'bible' really only lives in the writers room and showrunner's head.

But here in Canada for some reason, bibles continue to be a broadcaster-required necessary evil. I suppose it helps the execs maintain some control over the creative process ("That can't happen, it's not in the bible!"), but it can truly stifle the natural progression of things.

Good TV series don't happen according to a hard and fast pre-designed plan...they evolve. Of course you need a jumping off point, but once production begins, actor chemistry develops and character relationships take on a life of their own...pitches that sounded great don't end up that way on the page...arcs that felt right don't play out as well as expected....budget crunches require a bottle show or a lot of studio shooting...and then there's the audience response to take into account. And by that I don't mean listening to the screeching of the Internet fan boy/girls...I mean getting a sense of what viewers are responding to once shows go to air (what they are digging and what they aren't) and then applying it to future episodes.

And most importantly, there's 'the rooms' response to produced episodes. If you are any good as a creative, you should be able to recognize if something is working or not. But that can't happen if the season is being mapped out in minute detail from beginning to end prior to filming even beginning. And if it wasn't working, it'd be so painful to keep adhering to the bible because someone upstairs kept saying you had to...and by upstairs I don't mean God, though some may see themselves that way.

First of all, congratulations, Beavis. I wasn't going to touch this with a ten foot pole. But now that you have...

I'm of the opinion that a short(ish) bible is an OK necessary evil to get a TV series greenlit. By shortish, I mean something in the twenty page range - where you have a few pages of the basic premise, the characters, maybe a tiny bit of backstory, and thumbnails of possible episodes. If it helps an executive to see the show, then fine.

Just as long as you realize one essential, important truth:

The bible is a completely useless document for a story department, or a writer.

Useless? Did he really say that? Yes, he did. Why is he saying that?

Well, for most writers, you're going to get a sense of the show by reading a really good pilot script. If you don't, it's not a really good pilot script. The problem with a Bible is that it can paper over a whole bunch of storytelling sins that actually make it harder to make a show. How?

1) It locks you in.

There are people out there who don't like uncertainty. But a prose document is not a living breathing script. And I've never met the writer who will spend as much loving attention on a bible as you will on a script. You just don't. You can't. One, because experience shows you time and time again that the show really develops in the room. That's the creative process. Like when Ken Girotti was talking about Directors, the development meeting, the development of that script -- that's where you get to shape the show. If you stand over demanding what was in the bible, what you're really saying is that there can be no deviation from that initial thing conceived in haste when you knew the show a lot less.

I know it may be counterintuitive if you're an accountant or a bureaucrat or something. And I'm sorry about that. Did I mention that creative people were freaky? We are. Sorry. But if you play our way, you will occasionally get a great show. Your way?

NEVER.

EVER.

EVER.

Clear? Wait.

EVER.

I've used this example a bunch of times...but on The West Wing, Bartlett had two daughters, until he needed the third. Aaron Sorkin wasn't locked into that third daughter long before they had need of her because it had to be pre-approved in a bible.

Demanding a bible, and then forcing a story department to adhere slavishly to that document is exaclty like forcing a band to release their first demo of a song -- or that if they re-record the song, forcing them to make it sound EXACTLY like the demo.

It's a stupid way to work.

2) It papers over storytelling sins.

Was something not clear in your script? Okay. No problem! Explain it in the bible.

"But wait," you say... "the audience will never read the bible!"

"Aha. Exactly."

3) It doesn't help you write the show.

When you do have a bible, here is the guaranteed thing that happens every time you go to the one pager in that bible that describes the story you're about to write.

"uh huh. what? Goddamnit, this is all handwaving! It doesn't help AT ALL."

Network types in Canada feel very comfortable talking about Bibles. They're documents, they're hefty, they look good going to the CTF, and you can argue over little thumbnails here and story ideas there and whether this character should come from a three child household or two or be an only child.

But it doesn't get you any closer to creating a good script.

Recently, many Canadian shows found themselves having to write Bibles -- long Bibles, BIG Bibles for shows that were returning for subsequent seasons. In other words, there were already 13 or 26 episodes in the can and they STILL wanted a Bible!

There are other shows that have had lengthy Bibles for a good long time -- and it doesn't help them to get to finished, useful scripts. This is happening now. Right now. Bibles are not making for better series.

The problem with The obsession with the Bible is that it allows you to discuss ephemera and arcana; it lets you off the hook from seeing the movie or engaging with story. It makes creative storytelling more like writing a big old Psychology Paper.

Which, as you all know, you always do the night before anyway.

As a short primer for a new show, or even a document that a new writer reads first to get a taste for a show, I see the value in a Show Bible. I do.

But that stock is seriously overvalued in this country. And that lesson is yet to be learned. If you can't trust the creative process, then you probably shouldn't be involved in the creative process. Or you picked the wrong people to see it through.

The most important thing you do to influence the creative direction of a show?

Hire a writer. Buy their pitch. Discuss it with them. Give notes.

Er...that's it.

Obsess on the Bible, and you may think you're getting the show you want, but all you've done is force somebody to play around with the baby scissors, the magic markers and coloured construction paper.

Eventually, you gotta let someone get a hold of the sharp scissors.

Yes, they're sharp.

That's why it's fun.