Writing in Early Television
From fifties
Contents |
[edit] Writing in Early Television
[edit] Beginnings and Impact on Society
The creation of television provided a new medium for which artist for all kinds could convey a story in live action and have a level of intimacy with the audience as never seen before in mass media. Unlike movies, television was a more daily aspect of life as it encompassed all sorts of entertainment and information into one compressed dependable schedule. Television became the dominant mass media during the 1950's as it became the centerpiece of the American living room.The newspaper turned into the nightly news, radio programs become game shows, talent shows, and a host of sitcom characters that quickly became "apart of the family." In the early years of television writers were recruited not from film but from radio and the theater, as their background provided years of experience from which to pull from. The Vaudeville and the Variety Acts that came out of the old entertainment industry would not be completely replaced, but instead refurbished and renewed by the new medium. The situational comedy or "sitcoms" portrayed an ideal world only partially based on reality and what was portrayed on television became accepted as “normal” behavior. The variety shows provided a family friendly activity for everyone on a Sunday night, and the nightly news went from a lone broadcaster reading to a variety of images and live pictures from correspondents around the world. The power of television and its possibilities was being fueled by technological developments, such as the coaxial cable and coast to coast microwave relays.
[edit] Position within the Entertainment Industry
Writers oversee series development and production, create new programs, and see to the coordination and conceptual coherence of series in progress. Their skills are highly valued and, for the very successful few, extremely highly rewarded. The centrality of writers in the early days of live television, when authors worked hard to established the medium, expanded the field as an arena for the exploration of character, psychology, and moral complexity in close intimate settings. Never the less, the role of the writer is affected by many other issues, and despite new respect and prominence, remains a complex, often conflicted position within the television industry.
With the television industry's move to Hollywood in the 1950s, and its increasing reliance on filmed, formulaic, studio factory productions, writers were often reduced to "hack" status, churning out familiar material that was almost interchangeable across genres. This week's western could be reformatted for next week's crime drama. Roy Huggins, one of television's most respected and successful writers of the 1950's and 60's, said it was almost commonplace then for companies to engaged in plots that duped writers. Television writers were no match for the major television networks, studios and producers, whose contracts in most instances were structured to obliterate the writers' prospects for earning profits and royalties.
[edit] Organization and Hierarchy
A dominant aspect of writing for television is the hierarchical organization of the profession. The desirable career path of the field involves moving from freelancer, to staff writer, to associate producer, to supervising producer to executive producer. Many production companies employ "staff writers," although most TV writers work as freelancers competing for a limited number of assignments. At the bottom of the pyramid are the outside freelancers who may write no more than two or three episodes a season for various shows. At the top are the producers and executive producers. In between are readers, writer's assistants, junior staff writers with contracts of varying lengths, as well as assistant and associate producers. Producer titles are often given to writers and are usually associated with seniority and supervisory responsibilities for a writing team. Executive producers are given sole responsibility for controlling a television series, who are usually owners or part owners of the series. Writers usually become executive producers by creating their own series but this generally occurs only after writing successfully in other positions, and after being recognized by studio and network executives as someone with the potential to create and control a series. Only in the rarest of circumstances are new program ideas purchased or developed from freelancers or beginning writers.
[edit] Writers Guide of America and Industry Salaries
The Writer's Guild Of America (WGA) founded in 1912 is the official trade union and collective bargaining unit for writers in the film and television industries and actively monitors working conditions for writers. The WGA warns that contemporary writers face a hostile environment with ageism and sexism a common complaint. Hollywood is enamored with youth culture and consequently producers and network executives often seek creative talent they feel will be capable of addressing that audience, which has lead to the definite bias toward younger writers that has emerged in the industry.
Since the production of most television shows (prior to syndication sales) must be "deficit-financed" (network payment for the rights to the series is less than the cost to produce the episodes) writers often bear the weight of the resulting financial insecurity, taking less cash upfront in salary or per-episode fees and hoping for healthy residuals if the series becomes successful. Today, 70% of television writers earn less than S50,000 a year through their efforts in this field. In spite of this harsh reality, hundreds of aspiring writers write thousands of new scripts each year, hoping for the chance to write the next huge hit.
[edit] Legacy
Because of their work as well as because of the American system's financial and aesthetic rewards, television writing is now perhaps recognized as a truly legitimate form of creativity, and has taken its place alongside the novel, the stage play, and the film screenplay as one of the most central expressive forms of the age.
[edit] Timeline of Events and Factoids
1951- Invention of the Coaxial Cable, allows more information to be sent over longer distances.
1951- I Love Lucy begins on CBS.
1953- TV Guide is published for the first time.
1954- NBC conducted the first coast-to-coast color broadcast, the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1st.
1954- The Tonight Show begins on NBC and Disneyland begins on ABC.
1956- Elvis Presley appears on the Ed Sullivan Show, he is filmed only from waist up.
1957- Dick Clark's American Bandstand debuts nationally and runs till 1989.
1957 - Cinderella, the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written for television, airs once on CBS to an audience of 107 million people, making it the most-watched broadcast ever on U.S. television.
1958 - The Quiz show scandals wipe out the hugely successful US shows The $64,000 Question and Twenty One.
[edit] Popular Shows by Year
1950- Fireside Theater (NBC) The Lone Ranger (ABC)
1951- I Love Lucy (CBS) Texaco Star Theater (NBC)
1952- Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts (CBS) Dragnet (NBC)
1953- The Milton Berle Show (NBC) The Jackie Gleason Show (CBS)
1954- Disneyland (ABC) Ford Theater (NBC)
1955- The $64,000.00 Question (CBS) The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS)
1956- General Electric Theater (CBS) Alfred Hitchcock Presents (CBS)
1957- Gunsmoke (CBS) Have Gun Will Travel (CBS)
1958- Maverick (ABC) The Real McCoys (ABC)
1959- The Price is Right (NBC) Wanted Dead or Alive (CBS)
[edit] Bibliography
Museum of Broadcast Communications [www.museum.tv]
New York Times [www.nytimes.com]
National Broadcasting Company (NBC) [www.nbc.comn]
Writers Guild of America [www.wga.org]
