Executive Decision

JAIME WEINMAN has a good and thoughtful piece (with a link to a very entertaining Kurt Sutter diatribe) about Network Executives and decisionmaking, and whether meddling's gotten worse over the years, and how that affects the shows you see. Further to the discussion happening here below, Jaime's most salient point might perhaps be this:

The big problem, of course, is not so much the existence of executive interference as the fact that there are so many executives with so many different jobs, and conflicting points of view, that either a) Nothing gets done, or b) The creative decisions made have to be the blandest ones possible, because they’re the only ones that a group of executives can agree on. The system that creators were most comfortable with at the networks, which has existed on and off, is to have basically one executive in charge of a particular show. Most of the quirky or groundbreaking network shows were under the protection of a particular exec who liked the show, fought for it at the network, and had the ear of the creator, who would change stuff in consultation with that one person.

One of my esteemed colleagues on a former show once observed that twenty years ago a show had to go through two executives at CBC. Now that number is probably a dozen or more, once you factor in Sales and Marketing, Casting, and the like. This is a recipe, no matter how good the intentions of everyone involved, that leads to blander, more processed, less "voiced" fare.

Add on top of that the signal to noise stuff -- like the constant battle being fought to justify CBC wanting audiences, people questioning mandate, promoting regional voices over the best projects put forth by people who have the knowledge to execute them, and the fact that the real missing X Factor is that we seem to lack execs who'll "fight" for a show they believe in -- and we end up with a top heavy set of challenges on top of the already gargantuan challenge of trying to come up with something decent that connects.

Oh, and also -- there's no studios. Often Production companies that are producing series don't have the experience that comes with doing ten, twelve series. There are many cases where the grizzled vet writer may have far more experience making TV than either the network execs or the production company they're paired with.

Which is not to say the writers are in the clear... writers have to take a hit on this too. I don't exempt my brethren from this. Whether it's taking on too much too soon, being precious with material, not able to take or identify the good in notes, or not playing well with others, there's plenty of skills that could use an upgrade in the typing class, too.

Generally, I think just about everybody at every level in the Canadian TV industry could probably use some kind of management course. But that's a topic for another day.