Tell me a story
There's a concept in story telling called "suspension of disbelief" that enables the normally rational human mind to accept the often wildly irrational twists and turns of a story, be it in literature, film or television. Some people have a problem with it. Some people are constantly saying, "that could never really happen". I've never been part of that camp, I think maybe that I have no disbelief to suspend. I get caught up in stories and in moments. I love them. All types, but in recent years my favorite have been the ones on television.
I've had a life long love affair with television starting with Sesame Street. I've always held the opinion that the common view of television, that it's the "idiot box", couldn't be more wrong. Maybe some people do turn off their minds when they turn on the television but it's not television's fault it's their choice and if not TV they'd find some other method to disengage. I've never turned off my mind when I turned on the television. That statement may seem at odds with my previous one about not having a problem with suspending my disbelief but it's really not. When other people say that something in a story is unrealistic I would always ask why and do my best to argue the point. If anything television is responsible for my precocious nature. If anything it turned on my mind.
In high school I abandoned television for a brief fling with film. Part of the shift was the fact that we didn't have a TV in our house when I was in high school (except the small black and white one I kept hidden in my closet so I wouldn't have to miss the last season of The Wonder Years). During those years my dad used to take me out to the movies every week and I loved them. I wrote my college admissions essay about the first movie I ever saw (Yellow Submarine) and, while my love for stories of all types still flared, I started to feel a little let down by television. I still watched some things...Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You...but the love was gone.
Two things happened that renewed my love of television in 1998. Dawson's Creek and Sports Night. I get caught up in stories, it's true, and those two shows gave me moments that made me positively giddy. Moments that made me want to cry tears of joy for the beauty and perfection of great storytelling that I hadn't seen anywhere else in a long time.
When The West Wing came out in 1999 I started to realize that a lot of the film and television that I loved so much was connected through its writers. I don't know why it never occurred to me before that those moments I get so lost in may have been created by actors but they were conceived by writers. I became a devout Sorkin fan, of course, and I started noticing the connections other places as well. Having finally realized that my favorite stories seem all to be told by the same writers I should have realized that two of my favorite shows ever would have a writer in common.
I went to Barnes and Noble to buy some Dawson's Creek DVDs so I could relive some of those perfect moments whenever I wanted. The guy behind the counter told me about a book, called "Billion Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawson's Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing" by Jeffrey Stepakoff, one of the former writers on Dawson's Creek. The book details the stories behind the scenes of some of those perfect moments, that make me giddy, like when Pacey watches Joey sleeping at the end of "Weekend in the Country". It details Stepakoff's career in television writing. I've long since stopped being surprised by the writing connections between my favorite shows, but somehow I was surprised to find that Stepakoff, in addition to being behind some of those bits of television gold on Dawson's Creek, was also a writer on The Wonder Years.
I can't wait to see what his next project will be. Given his previous work, from The Wonder Years to Dawson's Creek to his book, I'm sure it will be great.
I've had a life long love affair with television starting with Sesame Street. I've always held the opinion that the common view of television, that it's the "idiot box", couldn't be more wrong. Maybe some people do turn off their minds when they turn on the television but it's not television's fault it's their choice and if not TV they'd find some other method to disengage. I've never turned off my mind when I turned on the television. That statement may seem at odds with my previous one about not having a problem with suspending my disbelief but it's really not. When other people say that something in a story is unrealistic I would always ask why and do my best to argue the point. If anything television is responsible for my precocious nature. If anything it turned on my mind.
In high school I abandoned television for a brief fling with film. Part of the shift was the fact that we didn't have a TV in our house when I was in high school (except the small black and white one I kept hidden in my closet so I wouldn't have to miss the last season of The Wonder Years). During those years my dad used to take me out to the movies every week and I loved them. I wrote my college admissions essay about the first movie I ever saw (Yellow Submarine) and, while my love for stories of all types still flared, I started to feel a little let down by television. I still watched some things...Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You...but the love was gone.
Two things happened that renewed my love of television in 1998. Dawson's Creek and Sports Night. I get caught up in stories, it's true, and those two shows gave me moments that made me positively giddy. Moments that made me want to cry tears of joy for the beauty and perfection of great storytelling that I hadn't seen anywhere else in a long time.
When The West Wing came out in 1999 I started to realize that a lot of the film and television that I loved so much was connected through its writers. I don't know why it never occurred to me before that those moments I get so lost in may have been created by actors but they were conceived by writers. I became a devout Sorkin fan, of course, and I started noticing the connections other places as well. Having finally realized that my favorite stories seem all to be told by the same writers I should have realized that two of my favorite shows ever would have a writer in common.
I went to Barnes and Noble to buy some Dawson's Creek DVDs so I could relive some of those perfect moments whenever I wanted. The guy behind the counter told me about a book, called "Billion Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawson's Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing" by Jeffrey Stepakoff, one of the former writers on Dawson's Creek. The book details the stories behind the scenes of some of those perfect moments, that make me giddy, like when Pacey watches Joey sleeping at the end of "Weekend in the Country". It details Stepakoff's career in television writing. I've long since stopped being surprised by the writing connections between my favorite shows, but somehow I was surprised to find that Stepakoff, in addition to being behind some of those bits of television gold on Dawson's Creek, was also a writer on The Wonder Years.
I can't wait to see what his next project will be. Given his previous work, from The Wonder Years to Dawson's Creek to his book, I'm sure it will be great.
posted by Beth at
3:17 PM
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