Further To John Hughes

MY FRIEND ALLI (and a few others, besides -- ah the internets!) hipped me to this -- simply extraordinary -- blog entry from a woman who was John Hughes' pen pal when she was a teen. It's simply lovely, and a little heartbreaking, and I don't want to excerpt any of it. Just go to her site and read it for yourself.

Flashy, but not too Flashy

BILL BRIOUX has a typically well-summarized account of the pickle Flashpoint finds itself in. As the man said, "An interesting problem to have..." but still:

On CTV, the police drama was a big hit, averaging 1.4 million viewers a week. On CBS, it did a decent job on different nights, finding a steady 10 or 11 million viewers a week and winning its Friday night slot.

Then came an opportunity for CBS to acquire a show it has more of an ownership stake in - NBC's "Medium" - bumping "Flashpoint" into mid-season status. Worse, CBS still has not made a decision to pay its share of production costs beyond the nine original unaired episodes it still has on the shelf.

CTV went out on a limb in June and announced it would order a third season of 13 episodes. But without a major American partner, there is some question as to what that show would look like and if it could even go forward.

"Flashpoint" may be a victim of the new TV math. A fifth season of "Medium" just has a bigger upside for CBS. They cash in on back-end revenues from future syndication and DVD sales. "Flashpoint" is three or four years away from cracking the magic 100 episode barrier.

CBS could ask for an extension on the decision beyond October, a delay which would allow them to more fully assess which if any of their new fall shows might fail. If that were to happen, having "Flashpoint" on the bench - a series that consistently won its timeslot in households and has already established a fan base -would be a competitive plus.

It is no plus for "Flashpoint" producers Mustos and Anne Marie La Traverse, however, to stick with CBS into November or December if CBS only sees the series a short-term solution. Its currency as a property to shop elsewhere goes down every month it stays off the air.

Mustos mused at the press tour party that the versatility of "Flashpoint" might actually work against it. CBS sees it as a proven if unspectacular draw it can slap in on any night to plug a hole. It is like the utility hockey player who can jump over the boards and win face-offs, kill penalties and doesn't come at a superstar salary. You'd rather have the player on your bench than on that of your opponents.

Tender.

I'M STEALING THIS from Will Dixon's Facebook. and I don't care.

If you're currently between 32, 33, and about 45 you already get it. But it's still hard to explain what John Hughes was and what he meant. Not because he was an auteur, but because he was an entertainer first. A chipper. He made it happen. And damnit if his stuff didn't have the resonance others lacked. Did John Candy ever have a better role than Uncle Buck? I'm not sure.

Jaime Weinman -- as usual, the #$@% smartypants, nails it when he says that Hughes was always really a writer first. (I link to his entry there, but I think that observation was one he Tweeted.)

And that's so. But ... still.

Would that 15 percent of the teen movies that come out now had as much heart as this guy's stuff.

I don't think I have yet - but if I ever do write, and see executed, a story as affecting and as real and as emotionally true - while being FUNNY, remember, as John Hughes, I will consider my career a great cracking success.

Oh, and VSL reminded me today about how awesome Whit Stillman was, too. But that's another story for another time.

You know who writes scripts with that kind of punch and heart? Elan Mastai. Hey. How's he doing?

Oh John, John, John, for all the respect you never got or awards you never received, there are we who are legion who venerate you and your output.

We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did *was* wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal.

Thank you. Rest in Peace.

UPDATE: I've got this in a separate post above -- but if you're looking for appreciations of the man's life -- this is the one that you need to read.

Are Canadian Writers Going to Continue To Be Able to Write Canadian Dramas produced with Canadian Tax Dollars?

NORMALLY ALEX is craft and I am wonk. But seriously, if I have to say something -- one thing -- about the CRTC or the CTF this week I'm going to go Clockwork Orange. So, uh... Alex explains the stakes here.

Next week, the WGC will weigh in, and I'll have more then.

Save the Cat and Celebrate the Screenwriter

I NEVER GOT around to reading Blake Snyder's Save The Cat, I guess because I've been working a lot since it was published. Ironically, it was on my to-do list for this month. But I've known enough people who did read it with joy, or who attended one of his seminars, to know that the guy was a force for positivity in this industry -- an inspirational figure who helped a whole lot of word jockeys roll the boulder up the hill.

So his sudden death from cardiac arrest caught me by surprise, same as everybody.

Here's the dirty little secret of teaching screenwriting. It's something that McKee or Snyder or even my buddy Alex can't put in a book in quite this way:

You can't really teach it.

Oh, you can give people tools, like Snyder did. You can instruct, you can talk structure or process to help people along, but the most important part of any working writer is what they have, themselves, in there -- the thing that can't be taught; the thing that's there from the first day they start -- that probably is there, quietly honing themselves through life's petty humiliations and triumphs until the day of that first sale. It goes beyond talent or will. It's the essence of being a writer.

I taught screenwriting at Ryerson University for about ten years. Probably, all told, to a little under five hundred students. And each year the ratio was about the same -- one, or two, or sometimes (rarely) three students had 'it.' That's in my estimation, of course -- and there were definitely a few who surprised me along the way. But only a few. Most of the people I read for the first time as callow nineteen year olds and said, "this person's got it," are writing professionally now. A few of them even made their first sales before I did -- my students' successes kicked my ass to overcome my own fear.

Seeing that rough diamond, and doing whatever you can to polish it, is almost a compulsion. It's just so rare, that you feel honor bound to try and do something to help the person along. The thing about Snyder is he seemed to do that in such a positive, effortless way. His impact in the few short years he was lecturing after his book hit big cannot be overstated.

Because here's the flipside of what I was talking about above: you can never really know for sure about 'it.' Sometimes people need to get past their shit before they can access 'it.' I've had people ask me, flat out, "do I have talent? Am I wasting my time?" And it's the question you can never really answer. Because you can never know for sure -- and who are you to crush somebody's dreams?

Nope. Better to be a force like Blake Snyder, however you can be. You hold in your heart the possibility that anybody really could make it -- even if you know that's not really true. And rather than rage at the "lottery winners" who don't deserve a success, and give in to that negativity, you do your part to bring out the diamond in the rough. Writing is hard. You work to make it less so.

In his last blog entry, Snyder started off with one simple sentence: "I love writers."

He proved it. Every day. "I love writers." Definitely not the worst epitaph for a man who did a lot to inspire people in our business. He'll be sorely missed.

Playback Sets The Showrunner Table

PLAYBACK's new editorial direction may finally be taking flight. I was pleasantly surprised in the latest issue to read an article by Etan Vlessing that evenhandedly examined one of the issues that's currently bubbling around -- whether to relax the rules to allow American writers into story rooms. (Which to me begs a simple question of fairness -- is this going to mean that Canadian writers can go to U.S. producers with lots of experience and a great track record to realize their ideas -- and still qualify for CTF/CMF funding? If not, why not? This is the problem with opening Pandora's Box -- you never know what will fly out.)

Anyhow, this all leads to a larger question, and a bigger series of posts that I'm going to pull together for a few weeks from now: a look at the current state of creative in the Canadian TV racket.

For now, the Playback article's a good primer about where things sit now. Playback has a pay firewall, so I'd encourage you to pick up a newsstand copy if you want to read the full thing, including interesting clarifications from Maureen Parker from the WGC, and Christina Jennings from Shaftesbury.

A short excerpt:

E1 Television president John Morayniss praises Canada for its TV writers and showrunners. But he argues the classic TV writer/producer - someone who has the vision of a series in their head and can oversee every stage of production - is a product of the American studio system. So when Canadian producers pitch their series in Los Angeles, talk turns quickly to who's the showrunner, as opposed to Canada where non-writing producers tend to stick-handle productions after writers complete scripts.

"The networks are putting up a lot of money and they [Americans] want someone they trust," Morayniss insists. He adds the Canadian system can benefit if funding rules are tweaked and American talent can lend its expertise to Canadian writing rooms.

But former Columbia TriStar and Paramount TV executive Tom Mazza, now executive vice-president of worldwide television at Cookie Jar Entertainment, sees no need for a host of passports in Canadian writing rooms.

"You don't have to bring people from different places to make something better. There's great talent in Canada. I'm excited about tapping into that [Canadian] talent, and working with them," Mazza says.

Recent debate over possible changes to funding rules for 10/10 dramas began in Banff, and gathered momentum after recent comments by Shaftebury Films CEO Christina Jennings that Canada faces a shortage of local showrunners (Playback, June 22).

The WGC's Parker insists Canada has more than enough showrunners, and further questions Jennings' claim of a shortage given that one of her series, The Listener, had a revolving door of showrunners and head writers on its first 13 episodes.

Will We Choose Liberty, or Will We Choose Tyranny?

THIS IS HOW tangential we get on this blog now. Ready? Ok. Here goes.

This was brought to my attention by @badlady, who's a hell of a writer even when she's flu-ey. She got it from Semi Chellas, who is another ... writer.

That's it. That's what I got.

But man it's funny.

People In TV Aren't Invincible

WELL, IT SEEMS like the CBC has more or less broken the story now, so I guess it can be told:

Swine flu has suspended the production of a CBC Television series in St. John's.

Two cases of H1N1 influenza have been confirmed in people working on The Republic of Doyle and shooting has been put on hold.

My thoughts and concern, of course, are with the hardworking crewmembers and my colleagues who have taken sick. It's a nasty bit of business, and I hope everyone's hale and hearty in short order.

(CBC has the story but is trailing in the numbers; but perhaps that's a function of 'official' and 'confirmed.')

Did you know the H1N1 test took two days to come back?

I didn't.

So...here's the part where I tack on and bury the footnote in the lead of the much bigger story:

In the first few weeks of Production, I saw a crew who worked flat out no matter what. From the A.D.'s to the Art Department, to Locations and Props -- some of the nicest, most hardworking people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. But, after three months that were alternatively thrilling, tiring, and frustrating, I left the employ of Republic of Doyle about 10 days ago, (weirdly, just before all of this started. And no, ReGenesis fans -- all thirty-eight of you -- there's no connection.)

In my time in St. John's, I oversaw the breaking of about ten stories. I also kept the promise I made to have drafts of six scripts done before we started production, so I feel pretty good about that. And I've got one more script to write from here, from my home in Toronto.

I've had friends say to me for awhile now that even when we don't talk, they feel they're caught up by reading the blog, and suffice to say this is one of those situations that put the imperfections to that little theory.

There's no dirt, nothing really to say, except for perhaps the larger truth made self-evident to me in the last few months. In the USA -- the system that still produces 85% failures for 15% worth of successes -- the Showrunner is the Quarterback of the creative vision of the show. It just doesn't work as well any other way. And there simply wasn't the time or the inclination or the creative trust that would allow me to do the job effectively.

The worst thing you can do in series TV is to get into a disagreement about how variant and competing processes would lead to a final product. So I got out of the way. And now, the task of Showrunning falls to the Co-Creator/Lead Actor/Executive Producer of Doyle. I wish Allan Hawco and his Producing team the best, and wish them all creative success -- just as soon as they get through the really important task of getting their team well, and back up and running.

Fingers crossed, and all good wishes to my Newfoundland friends and colleagues. I enjoyed your company so much, and I hope you all get well, stay well, pace yourselves, rally, and pull together to make great TV in the months ahead. I'll be rooting for you.

Get well soon!

Bitchslapping The Emmys

NIKKI FINKE's got the letter and the story.

Just so it's clear to everyone that it's not all in a vacuum. Y'know, people here will be quick to jump on writers being whiny, but the Emmy fracas proves that the devaluation of the writers' contribution to the process of Television is not exclusively a Canadian phenomenon.

Maureen Ryan at the Chicago Trib has a particularly cogent (and angry) reaction at her digs:

The fact is, if the Emmy people were worried that viewers wouldn't know about or care about those eight categories, why didn't they have the courage of their convictions and just exile those categories to the technical awards ceremony?

But no, their proposal is this jerry-rigged "solution" which will please almost no one.

Perhaps we should have seen this coming. The Oscars are undergoing a similar crisis: It was recently announced that in future there will be 10 Best Picture nominees. The thinking appears to be that if more popular fare gets nominated or celebrated, more people will tune in. Sure, that will work out great when some drippy, formulaic romantic comedy gets nominated and makes a laughingstock of the ceremony.

The fact is, this is a niche-ified world. Desperately scrambling to fight that tide is not going to work, and all the Emmy folks have done is alienate people who make TV and those who follow it most passionately. In other words, the people who would be most likely to watch the Emmys in the first place.

Craig Ferguson Comes Up With The Grand Unified Theory

AND AS FAR as I can make it, it's pretty airtight.

What Are You Trying to Say...Exactly?

YOU KNOW, the occasional network type aren't the ONLY ones who'd like things made, you know, a little clearer.

Shmubtext.

McFerrin & The Audience: Music Meets Plot Prediction

AH TWITTER, HOW you serve things up to us in the dead of night in bite size portions.

I can't take credit for this -- I got it off the insanely great KH -- @kazza323, but also I think, @badlady was all over this too. Point being - this is from Boing Boing, with all their attendant usual goodness.

It makes an important point about the audience, I think.

It makes an important point about the audience that Canadian Producers, Writers, Development and Production Executives would do well to heed.

The audience?

They's smarter than you think. They see patterns and shit like that.

And with that, take it away Bobby McFerrin:

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.