T h e
P r o m i s e d   L a n d
Written By Zorianna Kit
(From the September '98 issue of "Written By")

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy the Vampire Slayer© 1998 Warner Bros./Photo: Byron J. Cohen

Feature Writers Find
Paradise in Television

You would think they'd be satisfied. They've charted the paths of gargantuan asteroids hurtling toward Earth, slayed audiences (and vampires and aliens), made us scream (and scream again), even taken us to infinity...and beyond.

They've worked with directors like Clint Eastwood and Rob Reiner. And their words have been spoken by such actors as Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford and...well, Steven Segall and Luke Perry. What more could they possibly want?

Can you handle the truth?

They really want to work in television. Zorianna Kit speaks with Joss Whedon, Aaron Sorkin, John Lee Hancock and others--all writers with established film-writing careers who have sought out the greener pastures of creative control and freedom offered by the small screen. It's an invasion of the feature writers, and it proves, even more strongly, something those writing in television already know: that some of the best writing in Hollywood can be found on the "idiot box."

In recent years, the small screen has been commanding big attention, producing Oscar-winning actors and shows that create more of a stir than Twister. Because the perception of working in television is changing, many feature players are taking a second look and discovering that TV actually provides members of the creative community with the freedom they need to tell the stories they want to tell, and in the case of writers, the control over their material they need to tell stories the way they want them told.

Feature writers like Joss Whedon (Alien: Resurrection, Toy Story) and Kevin Williamson (Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer) have begun to explore television's smaller, more intimate perimeters with the creation of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creek. And their success seems to have begun a snowball effect. With good reason.

Joss Whedon Photo: Jilly Wendell

"In television you can find a creative freedom that's unlikely to be found in features," says J.J. Abrams (Armageddon, co-written), referring to the executive producer status that's often handed to a show's creator. With partner Matt Reeves (The Pallbearer, Under Siege II, both co-written), they've created Felicity, one of a handful of new shows premiering this season courtesy of feature writers. Joining them are Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris (Tales From the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, Men of War, both co-written) whose Brimstone will run on Fox; Aaron Sorkin (The American President, A Few Good Men) who's going to bat with Sports Night on ABC; and John Lee Hancock (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, A Perfect World), creator of the CBS-based L.A. Doctors. Though these writers are not abandoning one medium for the other, they have found fertile ground in the television world, which affords them some benefits and challenges that feature films don't. Not the least of which is power.

Power Trip

Being in a position to call the shots when it comes to approving their own material is a process that delights Whedon. "On Buffy, what's seen on TV is exactly what I put down on paper," he says. "It goes from my brain to the page to the screen and that's never happened to me on a movie before." Whedon says when he wrote the 1992 Buffy feature, the finished product came out quite different from the script he had originally written. Although he enjoyed the film, his own intentions had been for it to be more of a thriller. And he got a chance to do just that with the TV version. "I may be working on a smaller scale now, but I'm finally getting to tell the story the way I want to," he says.

Reeves also appreciates his new power. "Networks know that it's the writers who provide the heart of the show and are the ones coming up with the stories that drive these shows week after week," he says. "It's a different hierarchy in film, where a director is in charge."

That film hierarchy often is what proves most frustrating for feature writers, particularly when it comes to seeing one's vision fully realized onscreen. Abrams, for example, was one of six writers to receive credit on Armageddon. With Alien: Resurrection, Whedon claims he was appalled at what ended up on the screen: "I can say this with impunity now: I hated it! It was poorly made and nothing like I had hoped it would be. It was such a crushing disappointment."

"There're commercial breaks too, so you learn to write in very specific acts and manipulate the story to fit into those acts...It's a great way to stretch your writing muscles." - John Lee Hancock

Conversely, in television, these writers find themselves writing in a medium where "what ends up on the screen is practically the exact vision you had in your head," says Abrams. "I think the lesson we are taught in the feature world again and again is that we are replaceable," he continues. "In film and television you are a cog in the machine, but in the TV world, it's a machine you designed. That's the biggest difference."

And it makes all the difference for these writers. Although they understand that scriptwriting is frequently collaborative, what irks them is the treatment writers often receive in features during this process. "People just come in and all of a sudden want to change the structure and the form," explains Reiff. "It's like, if everybody agrees that you're making a spoon and someone has an idea of how to make a better spoon, that's cool because everybody is still trying to make a spoon. Unfortunately, in features, 9 times out of 10 people come in and say, 'Forget the spoon, throw it out, let's make a fork instead!'"

Which is why Reiff and partner Voris were ecstatic when they ventured into the TV world with Brimstone, about a former cop who becomes a sort of bounty hunter for the Devil. "When we finished postproduction on the pilot and had that tape in our hands, at that point we couldn't have cared less if the show got on the air," says Reiff. "That tape--containing the exact vision of what we wrote--was payment enough!"

Running a show not only ensures the scripts they've worked so hard to write stay intact, but gives feature writers a rare opportunity to maintain an overall vision of the final product. This includes having a say in everything from casting the show, to selecting music, to editing episodes.

Felicity, a coming-of-age drama on the WB about the title character's college experience, stars Keri Russell. Abrams says, "Had we done Felicity as a feature, there's no way we would have ever, in a million years, been allowed to cast the actors that we did, because they would have meant nothing on the movie marquee. A wonderful by-product of working in television is that we are actually able to cast the right people for the roles instead of the right 'names.'"

John Lee Hancock Photo: Jenafer Gillingham

The total involvement required to produce a television show, however, is much more time-consuming than feature writing, where the work often ends when the script is written. "It's a constant grind, working in television," says Reiff. "You have to staff the show, work on different episodes with other writers and be involved in all other aspects of production. Both Cy and I are married with kids and all our work in features was done from home. Now we're in a production office running a show. It's a trade-off in the sense that this job is like a dream come true, but it's a bit of a downer in terms of not having enough time with our families."

Business 101

With the power of being a show runner come the sometimes unfamiliar business aspects of the position. Surprisingly, networks and production companies don't seem concerned about turning over the reigns to writers. According to Jordan Levin, the WB's senior v.p. of programming, "The concern [about the writer's business savvy] is outweighed substantially by their creative vision of the series. Their creative visions have offset any management inexperience they may bring to the show-running task."

Tony Krantz, co-chairman and CEO of Imagine Entertainment Television, which set up Felicity at the WB and Sports Night at CBS, argues for giving these new show runners their chance. "A good production company will understand the limitations and the possibilities for whomever they're in business with," he says. "A good production company wouldn't put a writer in a position where he or she would be vulnerable as a show runner. They would support that person. If, however, the writer has the chops to be a show runner right off the bat--as is the case with Aaron Sorkin and J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves--then your answer is, why not give them their shot? You have to look at it on a case-by-case basis."

On occasions when the networks or production companies are less confident in an inexperienced show runner's business acumen, they initially may pair new show runners with producers who have an established track record.

Says Krantz, "There are certain writers who are coming from the movie business and creating series that aren't necessarily running that show in the full sense of the word. They're supported...in such a way that their vision happens--supported with more experienced hands, perhaps, or with others who could help make sure that the show is run properly."

Levin finds these pairings beneficial to all involved. "If you create the right partnerships--and that's really what you have to do when you go forward in terms of a support structure for them to realize their vision of a series--then you allow them to focus on the creative decisions and not the day-to-day business that goes along with running the show. That's what our task becomes," says Levin. "In Joss Whedon's case, he was introduced to David Greenwald who was very successful in his own right. So it's finding those strong co-e.p.'s or finding strong non-writing producers that allow these feature writers to focus on script, story and character. Television is a team business. If you create the right team, you can succeed."

And the writers appreciate the fact that they're not left to sink or swim. "You are lucky to be working in a situation where hundreds of people are literally helping you realize the vision that you have," says Abrams.

Aaron Sorkin Photo: Cheryl Himmelstein

Furthermore, John Lee Hancock has found help from his fellow writers. "I'm still learning a lot," he admits. "I benefit greatly from some of the fantastic writers we have on our staff who've done a lot of television."

As a result of the many helping hands, inevitably these writer/creators find that a well-oiled machine (i.e., well-staffed show) runs smoothly. Eventually, these writers will even be able to relax and turn to other projects if they so desire. "With L.A. Doctors, the show gives me an opportunity to create something and then pick my level of involvement," says Hancock of his show about idealistic young doctors who start their own practice (see "Fall TV Preview," p. 32). "I enjoy working on several projects at once, so I'm staying more involved with the show than some feature writers would, and less involved than others. As an executive producer, you can pick what's best for you."

Still, after taking great care in creating their "baby," handing it over to others can be daunting for some. "I was wondering how I'd feel the first time someone brought me a script of Sports Night with all the characters and situations that I had invented," says Sorkin. "I thought it might bother me to hand out arms and legs of my baby to others, but it didn't. Mostly what I felt was relief--like 'Great, here's a week that I don't have to invent the script from scratch.' I also felt very proud too. Like, 'Gee, here's a writer who really got the show.' It was a very gratifying feeling."

Speed

Unlike most features, which can take years to go from script to screen, television shows revolve around a tight schedule where they must be pitched, sold and in production by a certain date. For Reiff and Voris, this worked to their advantage. "Coming from the feature word, it's utopia because there's no time for them to screw around with you!" laughs Reiff. "They have to feed the machine so they need to decide whether or not they're going to buy your show or not. If they say thumbs up, you go ahead and do it, if they say thumbs down, you can go and do something else. It's not like you're left hanging for months or years while your project languishes in development hell."

The pace agrees with Whedon as well, who has yet to see many of his written features make it to the screen. "In the last six years, I've written a bunch of spec movies, some which have sold for a lot of money, but none--except the Buffy feature--has ever been made," he says. "On my show, I'll write a script in three days knowing I'm about to shoot it."

Seeing the result of your hard work realized almost immediately is a new experience for writers coming from a feature background. "It's like instant gratification," says Abrams. "There's an incredible rush writing something you know is going to be shot even perhaps this afternoon, with millions of people seeing it in a matter of weeks."

Sorkin agrees. "If I write a joke on Sports Night today, I'll hear the laugh at a table reading tomorrow," he says. "If I write a joke for a feature script, I won't hear the laughter for a year and a half."

"If I write a joke on Sports Night today, I'll hear the laugh at a table reading tomorrow... If I write a joke for a feature script, I won't hear the laughter for a year and a half." - Aaron Sorkin

But therein also lies the challenge: writing scripts fast enough to keep the television machine running. When Reeves wrote The Pallbearer with Jason Katims, he was able to take two years getting the script to a point where he felt it was ready to be made. Not so in television. "Writing for television is almost like sketching because you have to churn out stories very quickly," he says. "Features are more like working on a painting for a very long time."

Learning to "sketch" is also new for Sorkin, who says he's used to spending up to a year and a half writing a feature script, with first drafts running up to 300 pages. "I don't have the luxury to do that in television when a script is on the air every week," he says, although that didn't deter him from diving into television. "I was attracted to the idea of having a longer relationship with the characters I write," he continues. "I'll never be able to write A Few Good Men again, I'll never be able to write The American President, or Malice again, but I'll get to write Sports Night every week."

To Be Continued...

The serial aspects of television are often another draw for feature writers. Without the need for a final ending, a writer has a bottomless well of story ideas from which to draw.

"The whole idea of sustaining a story for an entire season is what is completely compelling about it," says Whedon, who leapt into television without hesitation. "The idea of living with a character and putting them through all sorts of experiences for what could be years is an opportunity a movie could never afford."

Abrams agrees: "There's more subtlety and nuance allowed in television, where you no longer have to tell a story about the most incredible situations or the most unbelievable circumstances. Instead, you can tell a story about how it is to wash your laundry for the first time."

In film, something that could conceivably end up on the cutting-room floor would actually be a compelling scene in an episode of television where, "you can have basic stories that are dramatized and deepened through the simplest of actions," according to Reeves. In features, however, "you look for grander, larger actions--like a ticking bomb--and then find intimate moments within that."

Take, for instance, Abrams and Reeves' Felicity. "[The main character is] trying to figure out her life, she's in a state of turmoil and she's in love with this guy," explains Abrams. "Yet while those things are occurring, in one particular episode, she'll meet someone pretty cool and we'll explore that. You end up with this kind of evolution where scenes that occur between two characters have subtext based on the history that you've been watching over months."

"There's a tendency to find resolutions in features whereas in television the movement is to do just the opposite, to leave it hanging at the end," says Reeves.

Resolving problems at hand, while keeping an open end to sustain a story over time is only one of the new challenges facing writers. "There're commercial breaks too, so you learn to write in very specific acts and manipulate the story to fit into those acts," says Hancock. "It's a great way to stretch your writing muscles."

Despite his eagerness to spend more time with his characters, the experience offered a surprise Whedon didn't expect. "I never knew I'd end up caring so much about these characters and their lives would mean so much to me," he says. "It sounds silly coming from a guy who writes Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I love these characters and I think writing them is a privilege."

A TV Show By...

Bringing in reputable screenwriters to a network can prove to be a great marketing tool for both the network and the writer. Kevin Williamson (who was unavailable for comment), for example, wrote Scream, yet the feature was marketed as director Wes Craven's film. His Dawson's Creek, however, was advertised as a Kevin Williamson show.

"They were giving us possessive credits in the ads like 'Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Kevin Williamson's Dawson's Creek,'" says Whedon. "I was like, 'Oh, my God, that is so cool,' because in features a director gets those possessive credits. I guess it's their way of playing on our movie-status cachet, which is rather extraordinary. It's great to be given this kind of treatment and a nice change after being in the trenches of the movie world."

And, of course, the paychecks are nothing to wave a wooden stake at, either. If the show goes into syndication, financial rewards can be endless. Moreover, executive producers with a desire to expand themselves can hire themselves as directors on their own shows--a practice frowned upon by the DGA. Still, it's a way writers are able to learn a skill they can take back to the feature world.

"Some writers are happy to just write and then throw it into the machine," observes Reiff. "In television, as a writer/creator, you are the machine, so I'm not surprised many writers want to direct [their shows]." He admits that he and partner Voris are already feeling out the possibilities of directing episodes of their Brimstone. Felicity's Abrams, too, will get his share of directing episodes of the show (Reeves is doing most of the show's directing, currently, and has already directed features).

"It's a wonderful way to segue into a career that got me writing in the first place," says Abrams, who says he became a writer specifically to be given the opportunity to direct. "When I'm writing, I get very involved in what I'm doing and I want to see that vision taken to completion," he continues. "Scriptwriting is not the last stage of the process, because 'Bill and John shake hands' can be interpreted a million different ways. Scenes can succeed or fail based on the truth of details, and the one who's written the script understands those subtleties that someone else might not."

As these feature writers well know, the world of film has made it clear that unless a writer directs, there's no real way to ensure control of the realization of your material. As executive producers of television shows, they are able to give themselves the opportunity to gain that experience. "I certainly would employ myself if nobody else will," says Whedon, who's already directed six episodes of his show. "Now, when I actually get the chance to direct a film, I'll have the slightest idea of what I'm doing."

For Hancock, directing episodes of his L.A. Doctors stems from a different place. "It's less of a control thing for me and more the fact that I love the process of making films," he says. "I enjoy being on the set. The preproduction, production and postproduction--the entire process excites me. The more involved I am, the happier I am, so directing is one more arena that's a challenge I'm looking forward to."

For all these advantages, none of these writers plans on abandoning his feature career. In fact, Whedon is writing the script of the animated Dracula, while Hancock is in the midst of writing Greetings From the Empire. His My Dog Skip is due out early next year as is Reeves' The Yards. Reiff and Voris just finished writing Camelot 3000 and Sorkin's In the Ocean of Storms will soon go into production.

"Working in features is a whole different kind of thrill that can never be eclipsed by television," says Abrams. "Writing a movie, you know people will be sitting in a theater, looking up at the big screen, laughing, crying, cheering, screaming. The smell of popcorn, couples on dates...It's a communal experience and there's a magic to it that you don't find in television."

Fortunately, these days, it is possible for writers to have the best of both worlds. Whereas in the past, television was seen as a step down in one's writing career, the stigma has been lifted now that production companies and actors go back and forth between the two mediums.

"In opening the door to one area, you're not closing it to the other," explains Sorkin. "It's just an additional medium. There will always be some stories that lend themselves to be written as features, while others will be more appropriate for television."

Abrams feels that working in television is not a step up or a step down. "It's very much a lateral move," he says. "Ultimately what we're all trying to do is the same thing--tell good stories."

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