TV Sucks? Don't Blame The Execs

(From The Los Angeles Times -- By Joel Stein)

Why does TV suck?

I always read it was because clueless studio executives take good scripts and screw them up.

They'd hear a pitch for a perfectly good cop show and say, "Hey, wouldn't it be more interesting if he was also blind? That way we can call it BLIND JUSTICE."

And then the poor writers would be stuck sitting quietly in a room all week until one of them said, "Well, I guess it's possible he smells a crime."

But it turns out that's not why television shows are almost always awful.

After writing three failed network pilots and working as a writer on a sitcom, 80% of the notes I was given from upstairs were really smart -- telling me to be less broad, make my characters more complex and to excise unearned emotion.

The main reason TV show pilots are bad is because they are written badly.

Writers whine about idiot bosses ruining shows, but their own writing is often the culprit.

TV Sucks? Don't Blame The Execs

John Santamaria, thanks for the post.