Spec Addendum

BELOW, WHERE I link to a post outlining what the current "good" Drama & Comedy specs are, I also made a comment that personally I feel The Good Wife & Modern Family are solid spec choices.  That prompted this comment from reader Dan:

Always thought the rule was not to spec a show unless it's got 2 seasons in the can. Is that no longer the case?

As in everything else when it comes to writing or creative arts, it's more important to know what the "rule" is and why people refer to it as such, than to follow it slavishly.  A certain amount of subjectivity is always part of the writing process.   (I used to sum this up by saying ee cummings knew what the rules of punctuation & capitalization were; he didn't break them lightly...then stopped when fewer & fewer people seemed to know who ee cummings was.)

Corollary to this rule, too, is one about notes: it's not always that you should take the solution the note taker is giving -- in fact, that's rarely what you should do. But you need to respect the bump. Figure out why they've got a problem there, and come up with your own solution.

So, then, what is this idea about not speccing a new show, or a show that has less than 2 seasons in?  What's that about?

 1) The Show May Not Yet Be The Show

Shows often take awhile to find themselves.  Look at Flash Forward or V.  Both of those shows have gone through creative direction changes, and their fates are therefore uncertain. If they right themselves & become hits, then you'll have a better idea what the spec should look like.

Characters & actors, pacing, shooting style, emphasis, tone -- all of these things can radically change in the first season of a show -- especially if it's a splashy pilot. It's one thing to make a big splashy pilot, it's another to figure out how to do a satisfying show week in and week out, 22 weeks a year.

Parks & Recreation is a fine example of a show that started out a bit sketchy but has now settled nicely into what it wants to be.  The characters are better defined, they're about to make a character change that will pretty much solidify the core of what's working.  If you'd watched and deconstructed the first few episodes, you'd have no clue how to write the show -- because the show was not yet the show.

A couple of years ago when they did the Bionic Woman reboot, they ran like 7 shows there in 7 weeks.  There was no pattern.  Imagine if you'd tried to spec that.  Besides being cancel bait, you would have torn your hair out trying to figure out the story engine.  They didn't figure it out. Why should you be expected to?

I also recently got a box set of a nifty USA show called In Plain Sight.  Witness protection show. In the first season, they try to do a "light" episode about a wedding. It's painful.  Really stands out.  Sometimes you stretch to see how far you can go in your first season, and you might have some weird, off kinds of episodes.  It's all part of the process.

On the other hand, and here's where the 'rule' as guideline thing comes in -- some shows never go through those growing pains. Or at least they don't leak onto the screen. Frasier was Frasier from Day One.  Funny Pilot, Great first season. 

I think Modern Family & The Good Wife are like that too. Both shows roared right out of the gate. Their early episodes are structurally, emotionally, tonally very consistent with what's come after. They know what they're doing.  I don't think you'll learn much by waiting another year to do a Modern Family.  And if you do a good one, you might be among the first to get out there with one, which would be a plus. Better that than the spec everyone's sick of reading already.

2) The Wunderkind Doesn't Always Work Out

Heroes, first season. Who knew?  A few years ago, I knew somebody who wrote a really great Joan of Arcadia spec at the start of her second season.  Then the show fell off a cliff.  When she started writing it, it was a buzz show getting good ratings.  She got about 2 months out of the spec and then it was dead, dead, dead.

3) You Wrote a What?

People making TV are busy.  And a lot of the time they don't have time to watch as much TV as you do.  Also, the more "cable" you get the more you run into the chance that some show's idiosyncratic tone might not appeal to the reader.  Before they decide if they like you, they really have to like the show.

Shows with a couple of seasons under their belt, you're betting that more people will have seen them.  In this fragmented TV world, that's not a guarantee by any means, but it's just a little bit more pad to let you come up with something that can circulate widely.

By 2nd season too, you get a sense of what the polarizing shows are.  You don't want to do one of those because what if you get someone who hates it?  True Blood is a polarizing show.  Sons of Anarchy, polarizing. Weirdly, Community -- bit polarizing.


There's always going to be a balancing act between how early can you spec a show so that it's still fresh, and not everyone's doing it, and has it really established itself in both the zeitgeist of your readers, and as a replicatable  template. 

In the end, you have to arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible by reading the trades, keeping your ear to the ground, and being realistic.

And I'm also a firm believer in: never spec your favorite show.  You have to like the show (there is no smell more stinky than someone trying to do a show they think is beneath them) but -- especially if you're new -- you need to be dispassionate about the show's weaknesses and strengths.  You want a calling card showing how well you can replicate a voice -- not a piece of fanfic.