USA Today's Robert Bianco has some advice for the television networks which he boils down to:
- Cut costs wisely
- Be less arrogant
- Enter the real world
On the issue of cost, I did find this bit interesting:
As they extend their game shows and limit their commitments to big casts and big-name stars, the networks are sending a message to actors and writers: If you want to work, you'll have to work for less. Employees everywhere are hearing much the same, of course, but it's a harder sell in Hollywood because the employers have historically been unreliable bookkeepers. At some studios, creative accounting is the only creativity you'll find.
What's needed is a show of good faith. And here's a good place for the networks and studios to start: Stop inflating costs by adding your friends, former co-workers, ex-presidents and assorted contractually obligated hacks to the producer payrolls. Pay only those people who actually work, and you'd be shocked at the savings.
For Hollywood, being less arrogant could be as difficult as being told "don't breathe", but I found myself agreeing with Bianco here:
Take ABC's In the Motherhood, a fast flop that was shot in ABC's preferred one-camera style — even though audiences clearly prefer the older method used by CBS' high-rated Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Yet when asked why she chose this format, producer Alexandra Rushfield said she and her partners would tell the story "the way we want to tell it and let other people think about how well it is going to do."
Well, yes, there's something to be said for leaving business decisions to business types and letting creators go their own way. Still, if you really want to be free of concerns about how well a project does, go to an outlet like AMC that can make do with a tiny audience. And if art is what you want, create art, rather than commercial pap that can't even manage to be commercial.
While CBS can successfully do multi-cams, there’s a reason the rest of the nets moved to single-cams. While the statement that if you want to do art you should go to cable is true, I don’t think the example of using single-cam is a very good one.
I think the nets need to stop making huge development deals. Paying seven figures in the hopes that someone will come up with a show or will fit in a show that comes up doesn’t seem like good business sense in today’s world.
The single camera comedy has produced some great gems such as The Office, Scrubs etc but it’s shouldn’t be considered superior to the multicam comedy since both have their strengths and weaknesses. I think single camera comedies became more prominient due to The Office with Ricky Gervais winning the Golden Globe in 2003. I know here in the UK, there was a period when everyone was claiming the traditional sitcom was dead from people such as Victoria Wood but at the BAFTAs this year, the best sitcom went to The IT Crowd a traditional sitcom.
I wonder if keeping actors on contract with a studio will survive, I think CBS Paramount and ABC Studios has Alex O’Loughlin on one as was William Peterson before he got the role on CSI.
It’s not about single camera v. multi camera for me. It’s about laugh tracks. I HATE being told when something is supposed to be funny. That’s why I generally avoid the CBS comedies. Of course it also means you actually have to pay more attention instead of just listening for the Pavlovian cue, and who wants to actually pay attention to what they’re watching?
So why do they do single cams? They can’t afford more than one camera?