Lessons from Tim Kring

If you're in Canada, in today's Globe & Mail there's an interesting profile of HEROES creator Tim Kring. I know this because I read the same article in the New York Times yesterday. Ah well. At least John Doyle's back.

Lessons from the article:

The series he previously created for NBC, “Crossing Jordan,” is unabashedly mainstream television, based mainly in murder mysteries.

“I was not a comic book nerd,” Mr. Kring said, sipping an iced tea with lemonade in a restaurant near the studio lot here where “Heroes” is shot. “But the truth is that nowadays that world is so pervasive, especially when you have kids, that you go to movies in the summertime and that’s what you see. I didn’t really feel like I had to come from that world.”

The world Mr. Kring comes from seems almost antithetical to the comic traditions. He was a religious-studies major who somehow turned that interest into a master’s degree in filmmaking.

Two things here. The first is an oblique point about research. Only comic book nerds or sci-fi fans would think that you'd need to be one of them to create a show like this. Kring, through his kids, was in fact doing his research. When you're a writer, you're doing your research all the time.

Years ago, when I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I spent a moment of dissonance wondering if Michael Chabon wasn't actually a 1940's Comic Book guy. Or at least gay.

He was neither, of course. But he did do his research.

In many ways, one of the potential advantages the Canadian TV business could have over the U.S. model, if only it would get smart about it, is the ability to let writer/creators stretch genre, and play in a pond they haven't played in before.

There were three mentors early in my switch to screenwriting career who spent their whole professional career showrunning U.S. one hours. They ache to do a half hour comedy. Never going to happen in the U.S. Boy I hope it does in Canada. Funny guys.

Similarly, Alan Ball switched from half hour to hour, and Alexa Junge made the same leap (from Friends to the West Wing) but that's still considered rare. Um. Why?

If you're not schooled in the fusty insides of the genre, it just may mean you're the one to reinvent it. Provided -- and here's the key -- that you're a good writer who's willing to do your due diligence. Research.

Second thing in that quote? Religious Studies major. Seriously, before you turn to writing, please have an interest or grounding in something else. The culture doesn't need any more privileged Harvard undergrads with visions of Simpsons money dancing in their heads.

(sidebar: religious studies is probably a pretty sweet jumping off point for being able to reinvent the superhero genre, now that I think about it.)

The other thing that struck me about the Kring article? Credits.

Knight Rider.
Teen Wolf Too.
Providence.
Crossing Jordan.

You know, it's really a silly matter of some immaturity that some in the TWOP crowd like to point to early credits and snicker. You don't do it with Bochco or David Chase, maybe...but a writer who's stepped up to a really good credit, well, it's a nice and easy and cheap way to cut 'em down. ("Look what they wrote before, what makes so-and-so think they can write X.")

Ignore these retards. Seriously. You can't pick your early credits. If you got paid to write it, and it got you to jam your foot in the door, there's nothing wrong with that. No shame at all. Anyone who tries to turn that on you isn't even a wannabe. They're a neverwas.