AMC, American Movie Classics began in 1984, and has since presented film favorites from almost every genre and decade. Yet this “movie channel” is the only cable network in history to have won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row, as well as three consecutive Golden Globes for Best Television Drama Series. Besides the prestigious awards for new content, its shows (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Hell on Wheels) are some of the highest rated shows on television. So how did a movie channel become such an innovator of original content? Let’s find out.

AMC started broadcasting on October 1, 1984, as a premium cable channel that aired classic black and white movies of the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s, in a commercial-free, unedited format. By 1987, the channel became the first channel available on basic cable television systems and by 1989, AMC had 39 million subscribers in the United States. AMC was so connected to movies that they partnered with Martin Scorsese’s, “The Film Foundation” to raise awareness (and money) for film preservation.

To attract new audiences to old movies, AMC would do innovative broadcasts such as: Monsterfest, a week-long marathon of scary movies that aired in late October, and Fear Friday, a horror movie double feature which aired every Friday night. They also broadcasted showings of silent film classics, and showed campy old classic movie trailers, drive-in movie concession stand ads that used to get folks popping out of their car to get some popcorn, and music videos pulled from classic musical movies from the period, that really gave viewer’s a sense of the cultural significance of film in America.

In 1996, AMC experimented with original content when it aired its first original series, Remember WENN, a show about a radio station during the 1930’s. The show was well received by both critics and fans, but was abruptly cancelled after its fourth season when a change of management took over whose agenda was to stick with an all movies format. Ironically, in September 2002, AMC decided to change its format, and began to broadcast movies from all eras, mostly because their advertising sponsors wanted more relevant content for their target consumers. They also made the decision to start airing original content, and presented their short-lived reality television series called FilmFakers, featuring out-of-work actors.

Then, in 2007, they struck gold. AMC debuted the original series Mad Men, a period piece about Madison Avenue advertising executives in the 1960’s. The show was immediately hailed by viewers and critics alike as the best thing on television, and went on to win 15 Emmys. The establishment of Mad Men, followed by Breaking Bad in 2008, gave AMC a reputation on par with premium cable networks HBO and Showtime, both of which rejected Mad Men before it came to AMC.

In 2010, AMC debuted another blockbuster show: The Walking Dead and followed that with the contemporary Western Hell on Wheels and the murder mystery The Killing in 2011. They actually canceled The Killing after two seasons but decided to revive it due to a huge casting win by landing accomplished movie actor Peter Sarsgaard (Knight and Day, An Education, Jarhead, Green Lantern), for the show’s third season. And not to miss out in other television venues, AMC premiered four reality television shows in 2012: Inside the DHS, The Pitch, Comic Book Men and Small Town Security.

We hope that AMC—which is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. and its sister networks which include IFC, Sundance Channel and WE TV—plans to continue its groundbreaking new content into the future. We’ll have our popcorn ready.

PHOTOS:
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/26300000/Hell-on-Wheels-hell-on-wheels-26369704-1600-1200.jpg
http://subtitlebox.org/pictures/74/50/105074.jpg

SOURCES:
http://www.amcnetworks.com/about_story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_(TV_channel)
http://www.amcnetworks.com/brand_amc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Networks

After six years of mystery and suspense, millions of viewers tuned in to ABC to see the LOST series finale. Many of those viewers had been hooked on the show ever since watching the two hour pilot—the most ambitions and expensive in television history. The first half of the pilot premiered in September 2004, and received three times the audience the network was anticipating—over 18 million viewers. LOST was a big hit, and it completely changed what viewers could expect to see in a television drama. So, how did a show this bold and this ambitious get on the air?

It all started in 2003, when then ABC President, Lloyd Braun, held a retreat for the network’s creative executives, and asked everyone there to come up with three ideas for a new show. Braun suggested that they do a series about people stranded on an island. Most of the other executives didn’t like the idea, but, Vice President, Thom Sherman did, so they decided to give it a shot. They hired a writer to come up with ideas for the pilot; but Braun thought his screenplay was an “unmitigated disaster” so they decided to start over.

This time, they called J.J Abrams and asked him if he would be willing to create a pilot for a show about people stranded on an island. At first, Abrams rejected the idea; but, after thinking about it, he came up with a few interesting ideas that could possible make it work. However, Abrams was already working on another pilot of his own at that time, and was way too busy to create a new series alone. ABC immediately called writer Damon Lindelof to see if he could lend a hand to the project. Lindelof had the same gut reaction to the concept as Abrams had:

“Abrams and I said, independently, ‘Well, there’s no place for the series to go. It’s not a dramatic show. How do you do Survivor, the drama?’ .”

Despite his skepticism of the topic, Lindelof really wanted to work with Abrams, so he spent that Friday night and the rest of the weekend thinking of ways to make it work. The two men met each other for the first time on Monday morning. Their biggest concern was that there would not be enough dramatic material for multiple seasons of stories for the show if it were just a story about people stranded on an island. They both—independently—came up with the same solution: the island wouldn’t just be an ordinary island, it needed to be strange and mysterious. They spent that Monday and the next few days brainstorming ideas and working on a draft outline, and by that Friday, they submitted their 32 page final outline to ABC. Braun was thrilled:

“I get this thing in my hands, and I’m practically trembling as I read it. It was a tour de force for me because it was absolutely brilliant. And the fact that these guys had written this in five days was the most mind-blowing thing I had ever seen.”

Braun called the two writers and told them that the network was green-lighting the pilot based on the outline alone. Once they decided to do it, Abrams and Lindelof had to move fast, because they were way behind the usual schedule for a new series. Development of most new network series starts in the summer, when studios buy ideas from writers, who then have all Fall and early Winter to write outlines and various drafts of their pilots. Then, sometime in late December and early January, the networks decide which pilots they want to make. When Abrams and Lindelof got the call to come up with a concept for LOST, it was already the end of January. Lindelof described the process of creating the pilot as “twelve weeks of complete insanity.” Abrams explained just how much they had to accomplish in such a short amount of time:

“We were basically tasked with creating this series that we had very little time to do. We had eleven and a half weeks to write it, cast it, crew it, shoot it, cut it, post it, [and] turn in a two hour pilot.”

While they were writing the script, they were simultaneously casting the lead characters. Though they had most of the story mapped out, they had to remain flexible because of the tight time line. When they saw an actor they really wanted to work with, they would change a character or create a new character for that actor (for example, the Charlie character was made much younger for actor Dominic Monaghan, and Sun was created after Yunjin Kim’s great audition for Kate).

As they were finishing the final script and casting the main characters, crew members were also scouting locations and preparing the sets. The interior of Oceanic flight 815 was being set-up on a sound stage in Los Angeles, and, the massive crash site was being set up on a beach in Hawaii. Creating the crash site sets was an enormous project. Abrams said that they knew during the first week of developing the outline that they were going to need to: “go find a plane, buy the plane, ship it to where we were shooting it.” They ended up purchasing a Lockheed L1011, cutting it in pieces, shipping it to Hawaii on three freighters, and reassembling the pieces on the beach and in the jungle. All this had to be done before they were scheduled to start shooting those scenes in mid-March.

Filming began in Los Angeles with the scenes aboard Oceanic Flight 815. The airplane interior set was stationary, so the appearance of an airplane experiencing extreme turbulence was all created with a shaking camera, well timed movements by the cast and extras, moving lights, fans, and stunts. In Oahu, filming began with the scene in the cockpit. It rained for the first week of shooting; but luckily, rain was in the script for these scenes.

Meanwhile, Mary Jo Markey began the process of editing the film. In post-production, Michael Giacchino added the strange, yet beautiful score that he created using a full string section, horns, and percussion instruments created from pieces of the airplane wreckage. The visual effects team added computer graphics to make the explosions bigger, the mountains more formidable, and the polar bear more fierce; and a large number of sound effects—such as the engine noises and the mysterious smoke monster sounds—were also added to complete the pilot.

They did it. They managed to go from a vague concept to completed pilot in just a few frantic months. Carlton Cuse, joint showrunner of LOST with Damon Lindelof, said: “Lost was sort of a miracle that it came into existence. If it wasn’t for a whole series of improbable confluences, it never would have occurred.”

Photos:

http://hdwallpapersdesktop.com/wallpapers/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/15/lost-actors-1920×1080.jpg

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQJyS_BfWq5jrg4mVvQFHakCVwElspdmdYCED_YY5KdZavhPyW9-Q

Resources:

“Writing the TV Drama Series” by Pamela Douglas

www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2010/01/lost-carlton-cuse-damon-lindelof-season-6-abc.html

Lost Season 1 DVD, Extras, “The Genesis of Lost”

Lost Season 1 DVD, Extras, “Designing a Disaster”

Lost Season 1 DVD, “Welcome to Oahu, The Making of the Pilot”

http://www.austinfilmfestival.com/news/interview-with-damon-lindelof

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Pilot,_Part_1_audio_commentary

Of all of the early pioneers of television, only one was ever called “The Great One.” Christened that by none other than Orson Wells, Jackie Gleason truly embodied all that such a title could signify. He was a force on television for almost forty years; appearing on hundreds of TV shows, and hosting several series and scores of specials. He appeared in 29 films and was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Minnesota Fats in The Hustler. He appeared in eight stage productions and won a Tony Award as Best Actor in a musical for Take Me Along. He also recorded 13 music singles or record albums, one of which topped the charts in 1955. But it was (and is) his role as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners that propelled Gleason from a gifted and talented actor to an icon— one who deserved to be called “The Great One.”

Jackie Gleason was born in 1916 in Brooklyn, NY. He had a tough childhood: his only brother died young, his father abandoned the family when he was nine and his mother had to raise him alone while also working. He was a disruptive student who was constantly in detention or in trouble, and spent his free time playing pool or stick-ball in the streets. Though he made it through elementary school, he got antsy in his freshman year of high school and dropped out, then got a job as a master of ceremonies (MC) at a theater which paid $4 per night. By the time he was nineteen, he had put together a comedy act and was working the night club circuit in New York and New Jersey, often working at two or three theaters at a time, jumping from Brooklyn to New Jersey and back again in a single night.

His comedy act landed him a small role in the Broadway play Along Fifth Avenue, but each night after the final curtain went down, he went back to the clubs and worked his act. “I’d be lost if I didn’t work on the floor until two or three in the morning,” he said. He worked at some of the biggest nightclubs in New York, places where all the beautiful people frequented and where all the action was. Jack Warner of Warner Brothers saw him in the clubs and offered him a film contract for $250 per week. So at age 24, Gleason moved to Hollywood, where he acted in forgettable “B” movies during the day and played the supper-club circuit at night. While he didn’t make a strong impression with his movie roles, he did hone his nightclub act to rave reviews. While in L.A., he also appeared in some road-show productions of popular plays and traveled back to Broadway where his reviews were wonderful for Follow The Girls, an extravaganza produced by the legendary Billy Rose.

Gleason’s big break occurred in 1949, when he landed the lead role of Chester A. Riley for the television adaptation of the popular radio comedy The Life of Riley. The show was quickly canceled due to poor ratings, but Gleason received good critical reviews and was hired to MC the Cavalcade of Stars variety hour in 1950 for a small TV network. He used his old nightclub act to frame the show with colorful dance numbers, and developed sketch characters that would become his trademark for decades to come. The show was such a big hit that CBS courted him with a large contract to create a similar show for them; and in 1952, The Jackie Gleason Show was born.

The show was an instant success and became the country’s second-highest-rated television show during the 1954–1955 season, behind none other than I Love Lucy. Though the show featured song and dance numbers, stand-up comedy and a variety of sketches with famous guest stars, it was a skit called The Honeymooners that was by far the most popular part of the show. With the nervous, quick-tempered Ralph and his many get-rich-quick schemes, the wacky sewer-worker neighbor Ed Norton, and the clashes with his sensible wife Alice, the sketch was a favorite of everyone, especially Gleason. So much so, that during the 1955-56 season, Gleason repackaged the sketch into a filmed, half-hour situation comedy format. The Honeymooners was a departure from other idyllic suburban shows like Father Knows Best or Our Miss Brooks, portraying working-class married couples in a grittier, real-life manner, living in a rundown Brooklyn apartment complex.

The show only ran for one year (against very stiff competition), and only 39 episodes were made, but The Honeymooners would become one of the most successful commercial properties in show business history. Being an astute business man, Gleason later released the half-hour show in syndicated reruns, and began to build a loyal and growing audience that made the show a television icon, and still continues to air widely in reruns more than a half-century later. After that season, Gleason returned to his original variety hour (including skits of The Honeymooners) in 1956. He left television in 1957 for a much needed hiatus, and returned in the early 1960’s to host the second coming of The Jackie Gleason Show to rave reviews and high ratings. He continued to work on stage and in film (remember Sheriff Buford T. Justice in Smokey and the Bandit) for the coming decades, but it was his Ralph Kramden that everybody loves and remembers.

As testament to the enduring legacy of Gleason and The Honeymooners, in 1985 Gleason released many of the old “Honeymooners” skits from the Gleason comedy-variety shows as The Honeymooners: The Lost Episodes. The demand for the VHS’s (now DVDs) was staggering, and they continue to be a hot seller on Amazon. In the year 2000, an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of Jackie Gleason, in uniform as bus driver Ralph Kramden, was erected outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 8th Avenue in New York City. Its inscription reads “Ralph Kramden: New Yorker, Bus Driver, Dreamer.”

Sources:

Photo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/The_Honeymooners_full_cast_1955.JPG

http://www.jackiegleason.com/bio.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Gleason

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001276/bio

http://www.biography.com/people/jackie-gleason-9542440?page=2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeymooners

While it isn’t a screenwriter’s job to know exactly how much it will cost to produce one of their screenplays, they may want to keep in mind that someone who reads their script will need to do just that before it is ever even considered for production. Line producers are able to get a very good idea about how much a production is going to cost just by reading the screenplay. They look to see if the script contains certain things that are known to greatly increase the cost of production. By keeping the following production costs in mind, and using only those that are required to tell their story, screenwriters may be able to increase the likelihood that their screenplay will be given serious consideration by potential buyers.

• Historic Settings: Productions set in Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, or Colonial America require a larger budget to cover historically accurate sets, locations, furniture, props, make-up, and wardrobe. The budget can increase even further when big ticket items such as antique cars, carriages, military vehicles, airplanes, helicopters, trains or ships are required.

• Futuristic Settings: Stories set in the future—or in a galaxy far away—have many of the same problems as period pieces, and producing them usually involves the additional expense of designing and building most of the futuristic sets and props. If the story includes aliens, there can be extensive make-up, CGI (computer generated images), and costumes, as well. When there are alien worlds, these are usually created either with CGI and/or by filming in remote locations, such as a desert (the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars were filmed in Tunisia). Which brings us to our next big ticket item…

• Exotic Locations: Distant or difficult-to-reach locations add a great deal of expense to a production. Films with multiple exotic locations—such as those in the Pirates of the Caribbean, James Bond, and Mission Impossible franchises—always have extremely large budgets. Most television shows, especially new, unproven shows, don’t shoot on location at all: they are usually filmed on standing sets on a soundstage. Filming on a standing sets cuts down on expenses because time and money doesn’t need to be used to move the cast, crew and equipment from place to place. Filming in the controlled environment of a soundstage means that production time will not be lost due to unpredictable circumstances such as bad weather and noise.

• Too Many Locations: Even when all of the locations for a production are in the same general area, it still costs time and money to transport, set-up, and break down a film set. And usually, dozens of people in the cast and crew have to be transported as well.  For a television show, once the cameras and lights are set up for a location shot, producers usually like to see that at least five minutes of the show (or approximately five pages of a script) takes place at that location.

• Children: Production companies must follow strict guidelines when working with children on a film or television set. Children are limited in how many hours a day they can work, when they can work, and how many hours a day must be dedicated to their education. There must be a classroom set up with a tutor, and there must be a child welfare supervisor present on the set. All that extra expense and the limitations on the shooting schedule, not to mention the unpredictability of the behavior of young children, are a consideration for producers when reading a script that features children.

• Animals: There are also strict guidelines that need to be followed when working with animals. Among other things, they limit the number of hours animals can work and the types of stunts they can do. These restrictions can add many days to the production schedule. Even in productions that have just one animal in the script, several animals may be used to represent different ages of the animal or for performing different stunts. For example, Marley, in Marley and Me, was played by over twenty different dogs. The production must also pay for a SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) representative to be on the set to ensure that any scenes that could potentially cause harm to the animal are carefully choreographed (like many of the scenes in War Horse). Of course, many of the more dangerous scenes are now done with CGI, which brings us to our next big expense…

• Sophisticated Special Effects: It is true that the cost of using special effects, especially computer generated visual effects, has gone down in recent years. However, factors such as the amount of special effects in the script and the level of sophistication of the effects can still be cause for large financial concern when a production company or studio considers taking on a project.

• Rain/Snow: Even less sophisticated effects, such as rain or snow, can significantly increase a production budget. This is especially true for rain because not only does  it require specific equipment to create the rain, it also requires extra time and expense to deal with the wet conditions (costume changes, make-up reapplication, drying off for retakes, etc.). One writer said that when she joined the writing team of a show that was finishing its season on an increasingly tight budget, the showrunner told her: “It doesn’t rain in this town.”

• Stunts: Car chases, sword fights, fires, and explosions can add to the drama of a production, but they can also add greatly to the expense. Dangerous stunts usually involve a stunt double for every actor in the scene, and they also require highly paid stunt experts to coordinate the action. Special props, vehicles, and sets have to be used to safely perform many stunts.

• A Large Cast: This almost goes without saying. The more people involved in a production, the more expensive it is going to be. Even with extras in a crowd scene, the daily expenses for salaries, meals, transportation, make-up, and costumes can add up quickly when multiplied by 25, 50, 100, or 250 people, and then multiplied again by the number of days required to shoot the scene.

Keep in mind that producers have many methods that they use to cut back on the expenses of producing a screenplay.  For example, the telling of a story that appears to have many exotic location may actually be achieved with clever, and less expensive set design.  For example, LOST had scenes set in England, Australia, Iraq and Tunisia, that were actually filmed on location in Hawaii. Also, the necessity of dealing with limited finances has actually served as the inspiration for some of the most creative and interesting aspects of some stories. For the original series, Star Trek, the “transporter” and the concept of “beaming” from place to place was created to avoid the expense of having to land the shuttlecraft on every planet. Sometimes, working within limits can increase creativity, and keep the screenwriters focus on telling great stories.

While the cost of production certainly should not be first and foremost in the mind of a screenwriter when they are in the middle of the creative process of telling a story, these real world considerations shouldn’t be completely ignored by any new writer who hopes to get their work produced. If a romantic walk in the rain is essential to the meaning of the story, as it was in the film Midnight in Paris, then it needs to be written into the screenplay. However, if  the love birds would be just as happy strolling off into a dry and less costly sunset, that may be a better choice for the final draft.

Sources:

The Script Selling Game: Getting Your Script Sold and Produced, by Kathie Fong Yoneda

Crafty TV Writing: Thinking Inside the Box, by Alex Epstein

Writing the TV Drama Series, by Pamela Douglas
Career Opportunities in the Film Industry, by Fred Yager and Jan Yager

As with many of the early TV writers and producers in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Rod Serling came to television from a career in radio. He was a prolific writer—authoring hundreds of radio and television scripts, novels, and plays—but, of course, Serling is best known today for creating the science-fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling created something unique; he invented a genre that had never been seen on television (or heard on radio) before, a type of realistic psychological drama that some have called speculative fiction, with a scientific/horror kicker. As J.J. Abrams said in a recent interview,

“In The Twilight Zone, he [Rod Serling] did my favorite thing—he took outlandish situations and told them through emotional characterization.”

His accomplishments as a writer are legendary; nine Emmy Awards for outstanding writing, three Writer’s Guild of America awards, three Hugo awards for best science-fiction writing, two Golden Globes, an Edgar Allen Poe award, and a Peabody. But, he was also an intense, sometimes melancholy person, who expressed a deep social conscience in nearly everything he did, as evidenced by the fact that he won two Christopher awards, which are presented to the producers, directors, and writers of books, motion pictures and television specials that “affirm the highest values of the human spirit.”

Rod Serling was born on Christmas Day in 1924, in Syracuse, NY. Following his high school graduation, he enlisted in the Army in 1943, and was sent to the Pacific to fight the Japanese. During heavy fighting in the Philippines, he was wounded, but later returned to combat after recovering, and stayed in the army until the war was over. Serling’s army combat experience affected him intensely. He had always been a moody fellow; but, the horrors of war instilled in him a profound morality and influenced much of his writing, especially the unpredictability of death.

“I was bitter about everything and at loose ends when I got out of the service. I think I turned to writing to get it off my chest.”

With his return to the States, he went to college on the G.I. Bill and majored in physical education at Antioch College in Ohio. He soon changed his major to English literature and became active in the campus radio station. He wrote, directed and acted in many radio programs on campus; and was also allowed to work in professional, local radio stations as part of a work study program. Just before graduation, Serling won a trip to New York City and $500 for a radio script he had written; and, that convinced him that writing for radio and television might be a good career path. He started at small radio stations, but soon moved to WKRC-TV in Cincinnati as a full-time writer.

By 1954, he moved to New York City, where he wrote for such early television shows as the Kraft Television Theater, Appointment with Adventure, and Hallmark Hall of Fame. In 1955, the Kraft Television Theater televised one of his plays called Patterns, a story about the ruthlessness of the business world. It was critically acclaimed and was so popular that a second live production was staged by the network, making it the first television show to ever do a second live broadcast of a teleplay due to audience demand. It was also the first Emmy Award that Serling would capture for best original teleplay writing. He followed up his success with two more critically-acclaimed stories, Requiem for a Heavyweight in 1956, and The Comedian in 1957, winning Emmy Awards for both of these teleplays as well. Requiem was later turned into a Broadway play and a feature motion picture starring Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason.

It was then that Serling decided to stir things up a bit. The story goes that he grew more and more frustrated with the complications of writing about serious issues and then having to constantly fight conservative networks and sponsors on censoring his work. No longer happy to write teleplays, albeit critically-acclaimed ones, Serling turned to the world of science-fiction and fantasy, where he was free to invent situations that didn’t have to be based in reality. So, in 1957, he unveiled The Twilight Zone, a show so innovative, nothing like it had ever been seen before and has few comparators since. In a film-maker interview Serling did with American Masters, the interviewer Susan Lacy writes:

“Through an ingenious mixture of morality fable and fantasy writing, he was able to circumvent the timidity and conservatism of the television networks and sponsors. Self-producing a series of vignettes that placed average people in extraordinary situations, Serling could investigate the moral and political questions of his time. He found that he could address controversial subjects if they were cloaked in a veil of fantasy, saying ‘I found that it was all right to have Martians saying things Democrats and Republicans could never say.’”

The Twilight Zone ran for five seasons and 156 episodes, most of which were written by Serling. With its iconic music, cerebral morality plays and Serling, himself, as the host and narrator, the show was a tremendous hit with critics and viewers alike. It was also the place where many young actors got noticed: Robert Duvall, Carol Burnett, William Shatner, Robert Redford, Dennis Hopper and many others all had their starts on The Twilight Zone. Though the show was a tremendous success, Serling had many of the problems he had before, including run-ins with the sponsors and network officials; and, in the end, he conceded that television was an innately difficult medium to work in. Though the series earned him two more Emmys and a Golden Globe, he again needed a change.

Throughout the 1960’s and 70’s, he was writing for the big screen as well. He penned a screenplay for Requiem for a Heavyweight, and wrote other screenplays such as The Yellow Canary and Assault on the Queen. But, it was his screenplay for Planet of the Apes (co-written with Michael Wilson) which continued Serling’s reputation as a science-fiction icon. He continued working in television, and won yet another Emmy for his adapted script, It’s Mental Work, that aired on The Chrysler Theatre show. He also wrote and narrated his 1970-73 anthology series Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, but left the show after creative differences with the network and sponsors. Fed up with television, he returned to academia as a professor and lectured on college campuses across the country.

Rod Serling died of a heart attack in 1975, but his stories and his accomplishments as a television pioneer will live on and continue to inspire many generations of television and film writers. There is no doubt that The Twilight Zone has become one of television’s most widely-recognized and favorite series, and it has achieved a permanent place in American culture. This is best described by Serling, himself, in the opening narration to the first season:

“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.”

Sources:

Picture: twilightzonegame.com

Walt Disney is known for having accomplished many things in his life.  He was, of course, a very successful animator and movie producer, creating scores of full-length and short animated films, as well as many live features.  Walt Disney was also a talented director, screenwriter, voice actor and entertainer; who, in his later years, became an international icon with the success of his Disneyland theme parks.  But, forgotten among all his other accomplishments was the fact that he also was a talented and successful television producer, and a pioneer in the new world of television.

In the early days of television in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, many filmmakers thought of TV as the enemy.  Why, they thought, would anyone want to travel to a theater and pay for a seat when they could watch an entertaining television show right from the comfort of their living room – and for free? But, Disney was a “big picture” person and saw TV not as the enemy that was stealing his audience, but as another way to entertain people. TV was a way to increase his audience.  On a side note, he also foresaw that having one of his TV show airing on a network might entice that network to invest in his idea for a theme park, but that’s another story.

So, the Disney studio became one of the first studios to produce programs directly for television. Disney reasoned that, as networks transitioned away from radio to television, they needed new programming that was very visual—a TV show that featured his cartoons would be just the thing—and he was right. His TV life began in 1950 with a one-hour special called One Hour in Wonderland. The show was a hit and morphed into what became the long-running TV show, The Wonderful World of Disney. It featured Disney cartoons and some live-action skits, but it also featured Walt himself as the host.  His gentle demeanor and grandfatherly way instantly grabbed an audience of both children and adults. At one point, the show was only second in ratings to I Love Lucy.

From there, Disney produced The Mickey Mouse Club show. This seemed natural since Mickey Mouse clubs were very popular with kids and the clubs had thousands of members across the country. The clubs spun-off a carton strip that ran in over 40 newspapers around the country, which made even more kids want to be a member.  So, the TV show was born in 1955 and ran five days a week.  It featured a newsreel, a cartoon (of course), and songs and dances by a group of young actors known as the Mousketeers.  The story goes that Disney was so interested in the show that he went back into the sound-booth and acted the voice of Mickey in the show’s animated segments during its original 1955–59 production run. This was also the place where Disney began his famous merchandising; kids would hound their parents for money to buy things such as Mickey Mouse dolls, pencils, and toothbrushes.

As Disney expanded his film business from only animation to live-action features, he also began to produce live-action TV shows as well. He created a western miniseries, called Davy Crockett, about the life and time of the legendary frontiersman.  The show was such a huge hit that it seemed every boy in America had to have a coonskin cap just like Davy Crockett.  Disney’s next TV show was Zorro, based on the well-known Zorro character.  The show ran for three years on ABC.  And his flagship television show, The Wonderful World of Disney was renamed Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color to highlight the innovation of broadcasting in color. This show aired Sunday evenings and became a staple for families all across America.

Walt Disney’s death in 1966 ushered in what some call the “rock-bottom” phase for Disney Studios in both film and television and one that lasted for almost two decades.  Then in the mid-1980s, things began to rebound for Disney productions with the release of a string of acclaimed and profitable movies such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. The television production division also had a rebirth. In 1983, Walt Disney Productions launched The Disney Channel, a family-oriented premium cable channel that was available to a half million subscribers in the U.S.

The Disney Channel produced such series as Good Morning, Mickey and Welcome to Pooh Corner.  They also aired The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, a revival of one of the company’s early hits. The new version had many of the original elements and a stellar young cast, including Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and others. Walt Disney Productions made a major move into television when, in 1995, they bought Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion and in 2001, Disney acquired Fox Family Channel and renamed it ABC Family. They continued their cutting edge ways when Disney was the first to license TV episodes from ABC and series from the Disney Channel for download on Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

Whenever we hear someone mention Walt Disney, we immediately think of his parks: Disneyland and Disneyworld.  Or, we think of his movies: Snow White or Fantasia.  But, with his early understanding of the value and potential of television, and his production of ground-breaking programming, we can add one more accolade to the long list of accomplishments for this amazing man: television pioneer.

If anyone ever tells you that multitasking isn’t the best way to get things done, just point to Joss Whedon—screenwriter, producer, show creator, showrunner, director, comic book writer, composer, and web-series creator—a man who truly can do it all, and do it well. He has had tremendous success with his hit television shows, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; and has had even greater success with his movies, especially the blockbuster The Avengers.

Joseph (Joss) Hill Whedon was born into a talented and artistic family that lived in New York City. A third generation writer, Whedon followed the footsteps of his father and grandfather who worked on popular television shows of their time. His father tried to discourage him from joining the profession, telling him that writing for television was difficult work. But Joss never had any intention of writing for television: he even considered himself to be an anti-TV snob. He wanted to write for film.

So he started on the path of his chosen career by majoring in film studies at Wesleyan College. While there, he spent as much time as possible watching movies. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to begin his career. Even with family in the business, it still took him about a year to land his first job—writing for the television series Roseanne. In Steven Priggé’s book Created By: Inside the Minds of TV’s Top Show Creators, Whedon explains that who you know can only get you so far:

“I do believe that sometimes who you know is more powerful than what you know. I was very fortunate to have someone read and consider my stuff in the beginning because my father was in the business. That is a big first step. However, I didn’t get anyone to hire me or take me on as a client simply because my father was in the business.”

While working on Roseanne, he took on a second job writing for the show Parenthood. Then he got what he hoped would be his big break in film: he sold his first produced screenplay. That screenplay became the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The movie, however, didn’t turn out the way he expected. His original script had been drastically rewritten, and the premise had changed from a brilliantly written horror story to a mediocre pop culture comedy.

After the film came out, he began working on other films as an uncredited script doctor. He also co-wrote screenplays for the movies Toy Story and Alien: Resurrection. Although he was now a successful writer, and was even nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Toy Story, he wasn’t very happy with the direction of his career. He knew that if he was ever going to get a chance to tell his stories his way, he needed to direct them himself.

Then, his big break really came. He was offered the opportunity to recreate Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a television series. The WB—a new network at that time—gave him complete creative control over production; he would finally be able to tell the story the way he intended. The show was a big hit and quickly developed a cult following. In Created By, Whedon said that he owed part of the credit for his success to luck, and being at the right place at the right time:

“With Buffy, I had a network, The WB, with no real identity, that was willing to take chances to establish one…The WB let me create a really weird show…a show that is bizarre, often dark, and strange…I was lucky enough to have them go along with me.”

In a more recent interview in Forbes Magazine, Whedon talked about how Buffy was an important opportunity for him to learn more about the business and establish his career:

“When I did “Buffy” as a show, it was partly because I couldn’t get a gig as a director. So I said, well, I’ll write a show. I’ll hire me. “Buffy” was, unabashedly, seven years of film school for me…The best way to learn is to do it. Get it wrong a couple times.”

The show was such a huge hit with fans, that Whedon was able to create the spin-off series, Angel, based on one of the Buffy characters. Angel was also a big success, so he had the opportunity to create a third show called FireFly. The new show was a science fiction western, set on a space ship, and though it had positive reviews, it wasn’t really given a chance to gain an audience. It was canceled after eleven episodes; but despite its short run, it did remarkably well in DVD sales and had a large fan following. Because of this, Whedon was able to convince Universal Pictures to let him write and direct a feature film based on the series. The movie Serenity—named after the spaceship in the series—was released in 2005, and was a critical box office success.

During this time, Whedon spent some time writing comic books based on Buffy and Firefly; and on other subjects, including The Astonishing X-Men. He also created several projects for the internet, including the very popular and profitable Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

With the success of Serenity, his film career was off and running. This year, he released the horror film Cabin in the Woods (co-writer and producer), and the blockbuster The Avengers (writer and director). He is currently working on independent internet productions; creating a pilot for an ABC series based on Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D; and, of course, working on a sequel to The Avengers.

Resources:

Created By: Inside the Minds of TV’s Top Show Creators, by Steven Priggé

http://www.biography.com/people/joss-whedon-17181746

Photo: Shutterstock

Yawn. I am bored. The formula is obvious. The actresses’ faces don’t move. 

When Cougar Town debuted a couple seasons ago, it made me laugh. First, I think I am apparently the age of cougars and the whole cougar thing was totally at its pop culture apex. I liked the show’s irreverent, self-deprecating humor and the cast had some nice chemistry.  

Now, I think ‘all-things cougar’ are rather gross. The plastic surgery thing, the overdone attempts to be ageless, the whole ‘we are just as blatantly messed-up as men in the midst of mid-life crisis’ stuff…I am over it. It is so unflattering.

The entire premise of Cougar Town seems to be: “Look at us, we won’t grow up. We drink red wine like its water. Jealous?” Actually, no, and it really isn’t all that funny anymore to watch 40-somethings behave like 20-somethings. 

Forty isn’t the new 25, no matter how many facial fillers and lip enhancers one employs, and Courtney Cox’s manic, controlling and anxiety-ridden Jules is just a little too reminiscent of Monica Geller from Friends for my liking.

Gosh, am I harsh or what?! Bottom line: In my opinion, Cougar Town will be leaving town…soon. 

Until Next Time…

Image Source:  Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is kind of a ratings disappointment; ‘kind of’ is a rather kind way of putting it. It appears that at least one thing Ms. Winfrey has touched has not (thus far) turned to gold. 

Basically, the numbers are bleak, the financials are ugly and if there is a turnaround coming, it had better come soon. The link below gives all the gory details. 

On the bright side (for the network and not for the music world), Oprah scored a bit of coup a few weeks ago in being the first to sit down with the relatives of Whitney Houston. It is actually the first time I recall hearing the network being mentioned on other media outlets. OWN was briefly the hot network, rather than the place where old episodes of Dr. Phil go to die. 

Frankly, I need to tune in more to get a sense of the programming line-up. To me it appears like a cross between Lifetime, Bravo and TLC. It has potential and we all know Oprah doesn’t like to fail! There is original programming in primetime: The Rosie Show (which was recently cancelled), Oprah’s Next Chapter, Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s, Unfaithful: Stories of Betrayal and more. But, there is so much competition in primetime and Rosie O’Donnell drives me bananas and apparently drives Oprah bananas too.

Call me crazy (and you would not be the first to do so), but I think Ms. Winfrey jumped the gun on filling a whole network, when her strength is to micromanage one show and do so really well. 

Oprah’s Next Chapter is really where Winfrey shines. In sit-downs with big shots from all walks of life, she asks the questions we would ask if only we could pull up a chair next to Bobbi Kristina Houston or Joel Osteen. She finds out, with all the delicate finesse at her command, what these people are really like. Darn, she is good. 

For that reason alone, I’m not ready to say OWN is a bust. 

Until Next Time…

Source — OWN: A Scorecard

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