Me Me Me

I’m back in L.A…and feeling the full wallop of jet-lag. My last day two days in Sweden were  rough — I got some kind of awful stomach bug that nearly sidelined me completely. As it was, I didn’t eat and hardly slept for 24 hours…and no sooner did I recover from that, I had to get up at 3 a.m. to make a 6 a.m. flight home.  Ugh.

Other than that,  I had a great time in Stockholm working with writer-producers, network execs, and studio development folks from Holland,  Norway, Belgium and Sweden.  I love these "cross-cultural" exchanges…I certainly learn a lot from the experience and I hope the others do, too.

I’ve been surprised to learn that often American television shows do better than the locally-produced programs, despite  the language and cultural differences. Production values play a part, of course, but I believe the success is due to the power of  franchise in American television shows. Our series  tend to have  concepts so distinct that they are clear whether the characters are speaking French, German, or Swahili. Look at CSI, MONK, LAW & ORDER, HOUSE…the concepts and characters are so strong, you can immediately grasp what the shows are about regardless of where you come from.

I also think American shows do so well  because of the four act structure, something that’s missing from virtually all European TV shows. The four-act structure creates a narrative drive that’s simply missing from most European shows that I’ve seen.  All you need to do is spend ten minutes watching a German or Swedish cop show and the difference is clear.

And it probably also has something to  do with the reliable consistency of U.S. shows…regardless of the series, viewers know that they are going to get the same show every week, only different. You know what you are going to get from CSI…the stories may change, but it’s essentially the same show week after week, year after year.

My job on this trip — along  with William  Rabkin and Matt Witten — was  to introduce the European writers/producers/execs to the principles behind creating and serving a franchise, developing stories within the four-act structure, and maintaining the consistency of a series. The people we worked with embraced the ideas we discussed and were very enthusiastic about applying the principles so that they can be more competitive both in their  own countries and internationally.

Much to my surprise, it turns out that London was more of a paradise for books than Hay-on-Wye was.  I went a little crazy…and sent back two boxes of books to Los Angeles from my binges at Foyles, Murder One, and a bunch of other  bookshops. I also went into a frenzy buying DVD boxed sets  of British TV shows, like the complete  series of THE SWEENEY, which is worth the purchase  price for the extras alone. I had to restrain myself from buying the complete SAINT and RETURN OF THE SAINT boxed sets, too. 

Yesterday morning,  I finally stopped my shopping spree.  Some production personnel from Germany flew in from Cologne to meet with me and go over production details on my movie/pilot, then  we took a long walk in the cold and rain through the city. Last night I got some take-out Chinese, sat in my hotel room, and worked on my MONK book.  I would have liked to take in a show while I was here, but there just wasn’t time…and it would have felt a little odd going alone.

In an hour, I am getting on a flight to Stockholm and next Saturday, finally, I will be returning home. Three weeks is too long to be away from my family.

Greetings from the Grannery Pub in Hay-on-Wye,  the Disneyland for book lovers. This tiny village is devoted almost entirely to bookstores. I have shown super-human restraint and have only bought about a dozen books, which I have shipped back to the US by goat and freighter…the package should arrive in six months. This pub is apparently the only place in town with an Internet connection, so I am sitting here, eating an amazing Chicken Pie, catching up on 200 emails and trying very hard not to dribble gravy on my keyboard. Tomorrow it’s  off to London and, after three days there, on to Stockholm.

The third Writers Room seminar has ended and, at least from my point of view, was a great success. The writer/producers I worked with here not only enthusiastically embraced the four act structure, but were eager to put it to use in their current series and pilots. Coincidentally, one of the major German newspapers reported yesterday that, with the exception of Action Concept’s ALARM FOR COBRA 11, home-grown German shows are bombing.  American shows are thriving here — the highest rated programs on German TV are HOUSE, CSI MIAMI, MONK and CRIMINAL MINDS.  The networks believe one reason for the failure of German drama programming is that their series aren’t structured and run the way American shows are. As a result, Pro7/Sat1, one of the biggest networks here, announced yesterday that they would no longer buy any series that isn’t run using the American "showrunner/writer’s room" system.  That’s a seismic shift for the German TV industry…and I think my friends at Action Concept can take a lot of credit for that, thanks to their very aggressive efforts over the last six months to convince all the networks here that the "showrunner/writer’s room" approach is the only way to go.

Tomorrow I am off for six days in the UK…where I may or may not have Internet access…and then on to Sweden for another session of "The Writers Room" seminar next Saturday.

I may also have some very good news (for me!) to share with you by then…

The third Writers Room "showrunner" seminar got off the ground yesterday here in Lohr, Germany, taught by me and my friend Matt Witten.  The way we teach together, it’s less of a lecture and more of a day-long discussion about various aspects of writing and producing episodic television shows. Lots of anecdotes and experiences are shared along the way between us and the students.  It was fascinating for me to learn more about the differences between the German television industry and ours — and discovering common ground. Things that are second-nature to us — like the four-act structure —  are new concepts to the writer/producers here and it’s exciting to see them embrace it with genuine enthusiasm. We’ve watched and analyzed both good and bad episodes of US television shows, some times stopping after every scene to discuss it.  I am having a great time…but it’s also very exhausting to be "on" from breakfast clear through drinks in the bar late at night (in fact, it’s often during the those casual conversations outside of class where the real progress is made). And before crawling into bed, I try to make some progress on my other work. (Thank God they’ve got Diet Coke here!) It will be very interesting to compare and contrast this experience with the one I’m going to have  in two weeks when Bill Rabkin and I teach the course in Sweden.