A race for laughter

Making sitcoms is serious business in the U.S., particularly when there is so much competition around. But we in India are not very choosy and eagerly lap up even old episodes of television series, says SEVANTI NINAN.

BILL BYRNE is 34 years old. He lives near Portland, Oregon, has a degree in mechanical engineering and has spent four years designing lighting systems for Boeing's 767 jet. He now works for a company that designs and manufactures fixtures for the apparel industry, for trade show booths and interiors for restaurants and clubs. But what does he really want to do? Write sitcoms that people all over the U.S. will watch. He has written two specimen episodes: one for ``Sinefeld'', and one for ``Friends''. Has he got his big break? Not yet.

Then there is Chuck Atkins who has also written sample episodes for sitcoms. So many that he thinks he is competent to advise other aspirants. Move to Los Angeles if you want to be a sitcom writer he says on a website he has set up. Because that is where 90 per cent of the shows are shot. Don't write a pilot, he tells you. Nobody will look at it. Write specs (that is the trade term for sample episode scripts). And don't write a specimen on ``Friends'' and send it to ``Friends''. They have their show figured out, they know where it is going, they don't need ideas from you. Send it to another sitcom maker, or better still, send it to an agent. There is also something called Hollywood Sitcom Workshop Inc. that runs courses on writing for sitcoms. And it helpfully sells scripts of successful shows to budding writers at $9.95 each. For $49.94 you can order a training video.

The people who can make the difference between a sitcom's success and failure are the writers. One reason every kind of writer in the U.S. is aspiring to be a sitcom writer is because the stakes are so high that success is richly rewarded. And for the networks the writing is crucial. If it is not up to the mark, the show is cancelled. For ``Frasier'' for instance (currently on air on STAR World) its three creators assembled a writing staff that includes playwrights, novelists and former art directors. ``I think it's safe to say that we obviously look for intelligent writers,'' Peter Casey, one of the creators, says in a trade journal. ``Funny writers, but also writers who have a good story sense. I think the most important thing you look for is a writer who looks at the world from a different angle or is just a little bent. Somebody who is ready to pitch the unpredictable. Somebody who will just jump in and be fearless.''

Comedies are so big on U.S. TV today that an entire industry revolves around them. There is a ratings industry busy measuring every episode of every show on every network from every possible angle. Total viewing, viewing split up by age groups, viewing as compared to the previous week, and so on. All through the first half of this month ``Friends'' has been making headlines in the entertainment press because CBS decided to pit ``Survivor II'' against it, at 8 p.m. on Thursdays. It was meant to be the ultimate test of ``Survivor's'' popularity. After all, ``Friends'' has been a winner for NBC since September 1994, an incomparable run.

``Survivor'' won considerably higher ratings in this test, but the measurement industry proved that it was not at the expense of ``Friends'' which increased its own ratings over the previous week, marginally. ``Survivor II'', shot in the Australian Outback, is evidently bringing in new viewers who did not watch TV at that hour.

NBC did something unprecedented this month to ward off the competition from CBS: it increased the length of the episodes of ``Friends'' to forty minutes. Meanwhile CBS has begun accepting applications for ``Survivor III''. The third version of the reality show will be aired this September, again set in a remote area and with a $1 million prize for the winning contestant among 16 players.

Entertainment is serious business in the U.S. To most of us ``Friends'' is this wacky, quite delightful and mildly addictive (if you are the right age) late evening television series that came to India last year. It is funny, uninhibited by Indian standards, and has a lovable cast of characters. But the daily plots are not uniformly sharp. So it is difficult to imagine just how much rides on how many people want to tune in to it on a particular night. At NBC, the network's new president is watching the daily ratings to see what it spells for his career!

ABC had a sitcom at one point called ``Hiller and Diller'' that was about sitcom writers.

The people who create laughter on demand are getting younger and younger, and more and more of them are from Harvard. Yet really good sitcoms are fewer. In the industry the current wisdom is that one reason is because the number of networks has gone up. When it was just ABC, NBC and CBS the sitcoms were better written and funnier. Now that there is also Fox, UPN, WB and cable, the talent is being spread much thinner. And when people stop laughing at the gags it means trouble.

In India we are not so choosy yet. From morning to night we lap up old episodes of ``Happy Days'', ``Dharma and Greg'', ``Home Improvement'', ``Two Guys'', ``A Girl and a Pizza Place'', ``Small Wonder'' and ``Friends''. And several repeats as well of these old episodes. As long as these are funnier than our home- grown sitcoms, we are not complaining.

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