Rewriting Television

Description

Rewriting Television suggests that it is time for a radical overhaul of television studies. If we don’t want to merely recycle the same old methods, approaches, and tropes for another twenty years, we need to consider major changes in why and how we do our work. This book offers a new model for doing television (or film or media) studies that can be taken up around the world. It synthesizes ideas from production studies, screenwriting studies, and the idea of “writing otherwise” to create a new way of studying television. It presents an entirely original approach to working with practitioner interviews that has never been seen before in film, television, or media studies. It then offers a series of original reflections on form, story, and voice and considers how these reflections could shape future writing in our discipline(s). Ultimately, this is a book of ideas. This book asks “what if?” This book is an opportunity to imagine differently. 1 The One-­ Long-­ Slow-­ Idea Book 1 2 Methods 13 Cast of Characters and Dialogue Key 29 3 “Edgy Sex . . . Not Just Boring Sex” 30 4 Commissioning 42 5 Form 56 6 “That’s TV, It ­ Isn’t Like Writing a Poem” 67 7 Development 83 8 Story 97 9 “It Is Horrible, It Is Necessary” 108 10 Voice 115 11 Glorious 129 Coda: “How Are We ­ Going to Get Out of This?” 143 Acknowl­edgments 153 Notes 155 Index 171