The Drama Behind Drama

Global Meandering 

This essay was originally published in A Writers Life. 

Recently I attended a three-day "International Drama Summit" conference that MediaXChange, in cooperation with CBS, NATPE and Fox, put together here in Los Angeles.  A sobering fact came out of a panel discussion with Jeff Wachtel, head of USA Network, and David Stapf, head of programming for CBS and Paramount. They were asked point-blank by David Zucker (who heads Ridley Scott's TV production company) if they would ever buy a contemporary TV series set in Europe or South America, written and produced by Americans and starring American actors...and they both answered with a flat-out NO.

The only exceptions Stapf and Wachtel said they would consider would be shows set in the past (ala ROME, THE TUDORS or ROBINSON CRUSOE) or that are science fiction (which are likely to be set on other planets, regardless of what country they are shot in).  They believe that America audiences simply won't accept a contemporary series set in Europe, no matter how big the stars are. They said there hasn't been a successful network show set in Europe since the days of THE AVENGERS, THE SAINT and I SPY thirty five years ago...and they were unwilling to be the ones to try to break that record.

That said, Stapf and Wachtel said they are very open to buying formats from overseas and setting them in America...as the networks have done in a big way this season LIFE ON MARS, 11th HOUR, MYTHOLOGICAL EX, THE TREATMENT, and NY-LON, to name a few. The key is adapting the format to what they called our "uniquely American sensibility." A BBC exec on the panel said the biggest difference was story-telling...he said British programs tend to meander more, "though there is some pleasure to be had in meandering."

They also talked about how immensely successful U.S. shows are in Europe and that American studios actively consider the international sales potential of whatever they are developing for the domestic networks.

There was also a fascinating panel of executives and content providers discussing the potential for drama on the web. Christopher Sandberg, of the Companyp in Sweden, said the key difference between TV and the web comes is how they view the relationship between content and the audiences. In the broadcast model, the important thing is getting the viewer to click his remote to your program and to stay there to watch it. In the web model, it's not getting the audience to the content that counts, it's what the audience does when they get there that matters...and that is what is saleable to advertisers. Passive viewing isn't enough in the new media world. What the web provider is selling advertisers is the audience involvement, and how people are experiencing, interactin with, & utilizing the content...not simply the audience's eyeballs.

Lee Goldberg juggles two related careers -- as a novelist and as a TV writer.  They merged when he began writing the "Diagnosis Murder" series of original novels, based on the hit CBS TV mystery that he also wrote and produced. And he also writes novels based on "Monk," another show he's worked on.  He's also literally "written the book" on TV writing with his very successful book, "Successful Television Writing" that explains the four-act structure in terms that even a network executive can quote.  Lee maintains the blog, A Writer's Life, about his adventures in Hollywood, book publishing and his on-going struggle against the practice of fan-fiction.