Nigh Journal

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Trying to Create New TV Series Ideas

I’ve got some notes on what various drama commissioners might be looking for so I’m going to scribble a few pitches in the next few weeks. I’m not going to go into detail for now, but you might get a gist of what sort of genre avenues I’m heading down from this sample cover artwork I’ll be using below…

(Artwork by my best buddy Tom. Check out his blog where he is doing a new picture or painting every day - give or take - for the next year.)

It never seems difficult coming up with ideas for shows that *I* would like to watch on TV, but obviously I am aiming for a slightly larger audience than just me and my mates. Often I’m not even sure it’s down to story or content - rather a show’s success is down to the way the story is told. I’m talking here about the balance of series and serial elements, tone, character dynamics and how the audience finds their way into a series.

With a glut of US series being cancelled just as they start screening here in the UK, it puts me on edge that plotting a lengthy ongoing story-arc might be a waste of time if you get axed before you get to the good stuff. I read this article on Newsarama by two US writers concerned about the decline of fiction on TV but which makes me worry that creators are seeing their audiences divide:

“Comic book readers are the best audiences. They’re audiences who love with their whole heart, who pay attention with both sides of their brain, and when they get into a show, they give it their all,” Green said. “They almost rely on the idea of ongoing storytelling. It’s what they’re there for.”

As a comic book fan (no no, really! ;)  I don’t really like the segragation of audience here. As mentioned, I don’t think CONCEPT turns off sections of an audience necessarily - just the execution. On the comic book front again, while the comic book is facing struggles as a medium, our summer box office receipts prove that mass audiences don’t mind watching people dressed up as Bats or acting like spiders

But then a friend was telling me about a colleague slagging off all of the Star Wars  films - not because of George Lucas’ crappy dialogue or Jar-Jar Binks generally but simply because:

“Well it’s never gonna happen, is it!”

You can’t really argue with that, can you! So I guess the first thing to consider when trying to come up with series ideas is that I’ll never please everyone. So how hard should I try?