Television and the Gospel of Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello recently joined the ranks of television personalities and said, of working in television, "For every frustration, for every idiotic suggestion that you get when you work in television, the great moments far outweigh the minor frustrations,". When you're Elvis Costello and your executive producer is Elton John and your show is airing on the Sundance Channel I would imagine you have a lot less idiotic suggestions and a lot more latitude when it comes to taking them than others, with less clout, might have, with shows airing on the major broadcast networks, but I want to believe that the sentiment will hold true for them as well.
You see, I think television is the best medium for storytelling. Costello's show, "Spectacle", is primarily a talk show, or you might call it a variety show since he interviews musicians and occasionally they play some songs. Maybe you wouldn't call that storytelling, and maybe there are plenty of great venues for interviewers (magazines definitely give television a run for its money when it comes to interviews), but he's making a statement that echos the complaints of all my favorite storytellers when it comes to working in television.
Joss Whedon was fed up with television after his experiences with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" and who can blame him. Aaron Sorkin put his annoyance with network interference right back into his shows and, perhaps not coincidentally those two shows ("Sports Night" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"), while just as good if not better than "The West Wing", didn't last very long. Sorkin does a wonderful job with stage and film projects as well, most recently with "Charlie Wilson's War", but even so, I can't help but miss his presence in the television landscape. Whedon too has done well in other mediums, "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" proved the viability of programing straight to the Internet, but his presence is also sorely missed on television.
posted by Beth at
6:13 PM
2 Comments:
all fair...but you really think television is the best medium for storytelling? that's a fairly sweeping and ambitious claim.
I really do. I think television can tell bigger stories than books or films can. I would say smaller ones two but short stories can do that just as well as television. I think you get more complex, developed, three dimensional characters on television (when it's done well which in recent years it has been). Television can give you both the details and the big picture. It can do all of that because it's episodic and serialized.
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