Helpful Hint for TV Producers and Writers
If you’re creating a new television show, or even just kicking around some ideas that you hope to someday make into a series, do us all a favor and think farther ahead than next week. Please?
I think that’s the biggest problem with most shows that fail, the show runners have no idea where the show is going and, as a consequence, the show doesn’t go anywhere. Far too many show runners have a vague idea where the first season is headed, but if, surprise surprise, the show gets picked up for a second season, they’re lost. They’ve never thought that far ahead and as such, the second season looks entirely different than the first, just with the same cast of characters. There is no consistent thread that runs through the entire show, no ultimate goal, no far-reaching problem. It’s a bunch of disjointed seasons with individual conflicts that do not lead to a cohesive goal.
Heroes is a prime example of this. The first season was groundbreaking, it was very well done, the story was interesting, the characters compelling and the conflict visceral. Thanks, Tim Kring, for coming up with that first season. However, you didn’t know what the hell you were going to do with it if it went past the first season and it shows. Season two, therefore, became little more than a half-hearted copy of season one and season three continued the trend. By the time he realized that the same old thing ad nauseum wasn’t working, the show had lost all momentum and critics and fans everywhere gave up and went elsewhere.
If you want success, think ahead. It doesn’t have to be in any great detail but you should know, in broad strokes, where your story is going over the entire length of your series. Yeah, I know it’s hard to get a pilot made and even harder to get it picked up and harder still to make it through the first season without cancellation, but the reason a lot of these shows are failing is because the show runners are not thinking beyond the next show they’re directing.
Come up with the ending. Set it, for the sake of argument, 5 seasons away. Define the path, in general terms, that will get you from the pilot to that ending. Sprinkle those general elements through all 5 seasons. Yes, you will have sub-conflicts in each season but you still have to keep moving forward toward the ultimate resolution, after which the show will go off the air. Make sure those elements get inserted into episodes during the season you’ve earmarked for them. You can expand or contract your outline as necessary if you, say, get cancelled after 3 seasons or end up getting 7 seasons, but stick to your outline. Tell a story. Give fans closure in the end and you might just see those fans again on your next project.
I really don’t know why I have to tell Hollywood types this, it seems to be common sense, but apparently, judging by the number of absolutely abysmal shows that make it on the air, it’s not. Think ahead, people. Better yet, just think. I promise, it doesn’t hurt that much.
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