Anyone who is a fan of Sons of Anarchy will not be at all surprised to find that creator and executive produce Kurt Sutter can write a little bit. He’s a great blogger, too. Even if you’re not a fan of SOA, if you’re a fan of TV you will find some of his posts very interesting.
Last week when the media focused on Sons of Anarchy beating The Jay Leno Show with adults 18-49, I was a little irked. I understand why that was the story, but it bothered me because rather than it being a story about the success of SOA, it was a story about the failure of Jay Leno and NBC.
The coverage got Sutter a bit fired up and led to a couple of blog posts. The first one was on the topic of why most scripted network shows suck (if you’re easily offended by colorful language, leave now!):
It’s not an issue of scripted show vs. non-scripted shows. It’s a question of process. The reason most network scripted dramas suck is because of the process. For the most part, you have a collection of young, half-bright development executives who wouldn’t know a good story idea if it set itself on fire and fucked their mothers while singing “Cheyenne Anthem” from Leftoverture. So they do what most chimpanzees do — they ape and throw shit. Developing shows based on what they think people want to see. Churning out clones of semi-successful shows. Looking for a “hook” to market. It’s never about the story or characters. That would demand talent, patience and an open mind. Commodities that have long up and deserted ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and the CW.
(There are some exceptions. Chuck and Glee are all I can think of right now. In fact, that might be it… oh, and Lost, I love Lost)
Gone are the days of the TV visionary. Bochco, Kelley, Fontana, Sorkin, Milch, Wells, Wolf. These guys had fucking balls. They stood up to network fears and contradicting marketing strategies and pushed their vision forward. The result was great TV. It was great because the networks were smarter, they let the creatives DO THEIR FUCKING JOB. All those savvy executives have been replaced with accounting personnel. And when a network is inspired enough to hire a creative leader — Reilly, Ligori — they never give them a chance to flourish. It’s a fucked up system that has created hours upon hours of dreck.
I’m sure that will strike a chord with almost everyone who reads this blog (except perhaps for the suits and the one guy who chronically complains about Glee). A few days later, Sutter wrote a more thoughtful post about his feelings on Jay Leno in a post titled “It Ain’t Jay’s Fault“:
But my beef — and I think this is true for a good chunk of the creative community — was never with Jay. Leno’s an artist looking for a good gig like the rest of us. The truth is, NBC should have NEVER bumped him out of the 11:30 spot. No one bumped out Carson. Why Jay? His ratings were solid, he had a loyal following and he was constantly doing what he could to keep his show fresh — dude is one of the hardest working cats in town. And it’s obvious Conan’s “younger” humor works way better in the later hour. The bigger concern is the potential dangerous trend that NBC is setting by putting Jay in the 10 pm spot. As Peter Tolan said, “…NBC is raising the white flag”, essentially giving up on scripted dramas. And why is that? For all the reason I’ve mentioned in the previous blog — to succeed in dramas you need employees who are intelligent, patient and creatively nurturing. Instead of fixing their system, NBC is creating a new one. An easier one. A cheaper one. One that doesn’t demand talent. One that can be run by suit-monkeys and accountants. That’s the core fear we are all experiencing. We realize that public consumption is changing. We are the ones who created Jon and Kate, TMZ and the gangsta paparazzi. We are the ones veraciously consuming rag-mags and reality TV. Losing five hours of episodic television is the result of that trend. And we all know it ain’t going away. It’s growing.
At the end of the day, NBC’s new system may work and the once last-place buffoons could become the simpleton champions of prime-time. And then we’ll all be pitching gameshow ideas to Lord Zucker and the suit-monkeys of the dark empire. But until then, let’s back off Jay and beat the right piñata. I won’t say who that is, but I guarantee you, when he splits open, they’ll be gold bullion and Universal stock options pouring out of his ass.
Particularly the bit about “we are the ones who created…” rings true for me, and he’s right, it is a trend that isn’t going away. It’s all part of the exact same trend that caused the media coverage to focus on the failure of The Jay Leno Show rather than the success of Sons of Anarchy. That’s because in the attention economy “Jay Leno: Loser!” will attract far more eyeballs than “Awww shucks, look how well Sons of Anarchy is doing!”
Though I included some choice excerpts, I couldn’t capture all the goodness without copying the entire posts. For those too lazy to scroll back up for the links: Why Most Network Scripted Dramas Suck and It Ain’t Jay’s Fault.
Colorful blogger isn’t he.
I just finding it amusing that the guy behind SoA likes Glee & Chuck.
He writes a good blog but it’s not totally the execs fault. It’s not like they’re stood in 20million homes with a gun forcing people to watch NCIS or any of the other polished but unoriginal procedural dramas out there.
I want a stick to whack at the pinata.
Agree with Neil G.
@Neil G
But a portion of the fault does lay on the executives depending on the level of creative control they have over the writers. I’m not very familar with the process of writing/producing a show, but from what I do understand there is usually an advocacy/political process to getting to getting a script approved for a show. Depending on the willingness of the executives to be persuaded and the producer’s ability to advocate for a particular script, the blame so to speak does lie with the executives.
I stayed up all night playing poker, I won’t act like this anymore, I’m done multiposting on your website. I was honest about Razorblade Suitcase though. It’s over.
Micheal,
I hear you. No doubt most of the garabage we produced can be blamed on the execs. I was just making the point that if we didn’t all seemingly love the empty calorie intake of mediocre procedurals then the network executives might give us something a bit more challenging.
Well there is a guy who doesn’t want to work for ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX or the CW again *g*
(Your link is faulty btw)
But it is their fault, if you don’t challenge the idiots the idiots become dumber. TV is probably the single most dangerous invention of the last century – it has the potential to devolve human brains, and the dumb don’t notice.
Damn typos….delete the “we” in first line in my above comment.
I blame the viewing public. They would rather watch the familar, the the tried and true shows that aren’t challenging to the viewer. Shows you can watch while fixing dinner, while doing laundry and while cleaning uop and putting the kids to bed are popular right now. I won’t name those shows as I don’t want to offend anyone. But I don’t blame CBS for putting those shows on because that is what people want to watch evidently.
Right on dude. Right on.
chuck is a soap opera.Writers use same stuffs in every season.This is why Chuck isn’t very successful.There is no difference between Chuck and Gossip Girl.
I couldn’t agree more about his comments regarding Jay Leno. There’s a lot of “JAY LENO” bashing, but most of people’s anger should be directed towards NBC for this change, and perhaps towards ourselves as well.
I mean honestly, everyone is harping on and on about how NBC should put dramas in at 10pm….but over the past 3, 4, 5 years…NBC *HAS* done exactly that – and no one watches. We can’t fault NBC for not TRYING…they have tried….quite hard…but nothing seems to stick. I know people would probably say “oh, but their dramas suck”…but the QUALITY of NBC’s programming isn’t really that bad IMO. I suppose NBC could have kept trying and trying…but as Sutter says…NBC is trying a new system, one that is probably more in-tune with today’s popular culture and actually deals with TODAY’S reality head on (as opposed to ABC, who has 10pm failures almost across the board).
@tommy
It’s obvious you’ve never watched the show.
@Tommy, I agree with the 1337, but I’ll add one more thing.
You’re an idiot.
I’m surprised thsi guy likes Glee, I kind of think the idea came from the success of High School Musical. Luckily, they took it in a different direction, but it still seems like an attempt to cash in at points.
So I am with him about the characters, but almost all really succesful shows are about the characters and whether they are about characters that solve one crime per week (NCIS), characters working in a hospital (House) or characters wading through the next chewed out SciFi clichee (Lost) isn’t really deciding whether they are good or not. It’s just deciding whether it may be up your personal alley more or less than something else. All these shows do have characters with growth though and as a rule of thumb even the dumbest audience will weed out the cardboard strawmen shows pretty soon. Well, except for CSI: New York. No idea, what anyone sees in that.
NBC three seasons ago had an excellent slate of new shows.
30 Rock
Friday Night Lights
Kidnapped
Heroes
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Only Heroes was successful for about a season and a half. The other shows – were not watched by a lot of viewers. So do you blame NBC for that or the viewers for not watching. I blame the viewers. They choice to watch the 3rd L&O series and the third CSI series and reality instead
pat, you thought they were excellent, but the viewers didnt… so you blame the viewers?!? might as well be playing the “amaricans are soooooooo stupid because they dont watch XYZ. they just cant handle real television.”
Pat, I blame NBC for firing Reilly who was bringing good, if not popular, TV to the airwaves and replacing him with Silverman who brought nothing but lower quality fare and even worse ratings.
Sutter’s great…I totally agree with everything he wrote. Glad that someone with credibility is finally saying such things.
djm – you just made my point for me. Obviously the viewers didn’t like them because they were something different.
My point which I haven’t made very well I guess is the shows that are on right now is exactly what the viewers want. They want three CSI’s, 2 NCIS’s, 3 L&O. Viewers want comfort in sameness.
The broadcast networks, with more restrictive content standards can’t compete with FX. SOA, The Shield (the best cop drama of all time), Nip Tuck, are (were) great shows that can’t air on NBC. A broadcast network, even at 10:00, can’t air shows with the raw, gritty, nearly R-rated content that’s common on FX. Talents like Sutter have the freedom to do the shows the way they want to do them on FX. The audience is the fortunate beneficiary of Sutter’s creative freedom.
NBC’s response— Here’s five hours a week of Leno. Leno costs less, and it’s counter programming to drama with which we can’t compete.
I couldn’t agree with this guy more!! He is right on point with pretty much everything he said. It’s a shame to see what has happened to network television, but at the same time…they’ve done it to themselves and we’ll likely have CSI:Walla Walla before we’ll see any change. It’s all about $$$ not creativity which is incredibly frustrating and very sad to see.
As an employee of GE, which also owns NBC, I can tell you Mr. Sutter hit the nail on the head. The accountants are running everything at the company these days, and all of our products, including our scripted dramas, are suffering. Ugh. At least NBC looks like it might get a “get out of jail free card” and be sold by GE. I can hear their freedom cries already…
“I just finding it amusing that the guy behind SoA likes Glee & Chuck.”
I think it he explains why, they’re creative, not clones of clones like Three Rivers or CSI Sheboygan.
i kinda hope nbc-u gets sold to another, better company, unfortunatley its comcast and they aer supposedly really, really cheap with everything too though
but isn’t what he is saying is what 30 rock is pretty much about? how the suits (Donoghy) and the accountants are always trying to run everything, they wouldn’t have gotten tracy jordan if it wasn’t for donoghy making them and all that stuff
I have to agree with RUKidding above. The networks CANNOT show the shows people want to see. People want to see blood and sex like “True Blood” – but you CANNOT air that on broadcast TV without the government and the church putting you out of business.
People want to see what they see IN THE MOVIES ON TV. And they CAN’T!
I remember many years ago a station here in the San Francisco Bay Area started airing movies uncensored. That didn’t last long.
That and the considerable fragmentation of what is available on TV means NO broadcast show is going to do that well unless it has some sort of “perfect storm” that makes it so culturally irresistible that it draws 20 million viewers. And per Sturgeon’s Law, that simply isn’t going to happen.
And of course Sutter is right about “suit-monkees” and “chimpanzees” Guy sounds like a Transhumanist like me…
Descriptive, isn’t he? And all shades of the rainbow, too. If I ever need to colorfully, uh, comment about someone, I’ll look this person’s blog up for ideas.
RSH: For some time I’ve found it quite ironic that unedited movies with blood, gore, and sex are off-limits (at least without editing) on the networks yet they have no problem showing significant amounts of blood and gore (and offering descriptions of sexual activities) on the alleged newscasts at dinnertime because “it is in the interest of the public to be informed”. Yea, sure, sit down to a nice dinner with a side-order of violent death. Just one of many reasons I don’t bother with network news (ABC, CBS, etc.) at mealtime anymore.
RE: “My point which I haven’t made very well I guess is the shows that are on right now is exactly what the viewers want. They want three CSI’s, 2 NCIS’s, 3 L&O. Viewers want comfort in sameness.”
Well, perhaps a large segment of viewers, yes. However, my atypical habits do not include any of those shows. Right now, actually, I’m not even watching anything that’s on the networks because I don’t care for the offerings. It’s like a vegetarian finding himself at a chili cook-off and all of the contestants have meat in the recipe. Thanks but no thanks, I’ll find something else. For now, it’s reruns of Stargate SG-1 on Hulu (that’s how little I think of current shows).
Hey what about J.J. Abrams???
He put out some great stuff. Oh yeah you did bring up Lost.
You can’t put on Scripted TV for its own sake. NBC should take hints from Cable sister USA. They have cranked out several scripted hits.
Can anyone help me out. Sons of Anarchy used to be played in Canada on the Superchannels. I can’t find it anywhere. Does anyone have any idea where and when Season 2 will be available for canadians.
Thanks
Kim