Danielle Nicki asked in a tweet what 5 “perfect” shows I would assign my students to study if I were teaching a TV writing course. I responded today with the following:
Community
Barry
Futurama
Arrested Development
Breaking Bad
I’ve always wanted to be asked some form of this question, and I think about it often. In this case, I’m supposing I’m curating the list for a college-level course, since an elective like this is unlikely at the secondary level.
With this in mind, I propose the NBC/Yahoo streaming sitcom Community as a preliminary text. It works as an entry point because the subject matter is relevant to college students, who would be immediately able to distinguish which of the elements of the show are truthful, satirical, lampoon, and so on. Each episode has a stand-alone theme, but character and story arcs run through the entirety of the show, with numerous callbacks and in-your-face intertextuality. Not to mention Abed, who, once established as the quirky cinephile well into the first season, is the personification of tv writing.
The first three seasons are almost a textbook on writing characters (The Greendale Seven), themes (a new one each episode), callbacks (#sixseasonsandamovie), and the functions of setting (e. g. The study room vs. Chang’s classroom). But then it takes off into other realms of fan engagement, actor and character dynamics, and the effects of streaming media. While it not have as broad an appeal as many hoped, Community was a writer’s delight, and serves as a perfect entry point for the course.
Next, I would assign Barry, Bill Hader’s black comedy, which at the time of this writing has only concluded its third season, but there is enough there to analyze: The portrayal of hidden trauma through action, flashback, and subtext. Character development on the spectrum of good and evil. The fine line between comedy and tragedy. It’s all there, and there are myriad examples to dwell on for each. The most recent example (THIRD SEASON SPOILER) is that of Sally’s brutal, deadly, and strangely comedic takedown of her ex-boyfriend in the season finale.
By the time this class is published in the course listing, Barry will be a few more seasons in, if not completely wrapped, and no doubt will offer plenty more to analyze.
Now that the class is rolling, I’ll sneak in a couple of my personal faves. Futurama was (and in honestly, still is) the pinnacle of cartoon writing. People will make arguments for its incubator show, The Simpsons, or South Park, or even The Flintstones. But there it’s hard to argue that anyone had better writers than a show that created its own math theorem. You might also argue that the decline of The Simpsons was due in large part to the choicest of its writing staff bailing to write for Futurama.
The best lesson of this show is the building up of a universe through characters, settings, and backstories, much of which uses sci-fi elements to embellish or straight-up subvert previous storylines. Think about “Bender’s Big Score” doing emotional damage control on the “Jurassic Bark” ending.
It also provides for a discussion on the nuances of animated storywriting that diverge from the limitations of a live-action show. Much of the beauty of Futurama would be impossible with the restraints of a traditional sitcom.
And speaking of subverting traditional sitcoms, Arrested Development is the first head on my tv Mount Rushmore. I placed it here, because its genius is based primarily on the detour it took from traditional sitcom writing. It came around at the turn of the century, when narration was en vogue for television, but slightly before streaming offered the audience a chance to repeatedly pause or replay a scene or episode. As a result, many of the brilliant jokes were lost on audiences who did not have the DVD set, and the series was nearly cancelled, actually cancelled, revived, and then sadly fizzled out amid PR disasters.
Many of the teaching points that were introduced in Unit 1: Community show up again with AD, but the callbacks and intertextuality are a level up, and are honestly the prototype for what Dan Harmon’s show ultimately ended up doing.
Here , we’ll have discussions about the effects of tv shows on one another, and at least a few references to The Andy Griffith Show.
Finally, the absolutely perfect in every way Breaking Bad, which would probably be paired with Better Call Saul if time allows. Hell, maybe Malcolm in the Middle too. Everything that was not covered in the comedies at the beginning of class, would be addressed here. Vince Gilligan is the master of establishing shots, symbolism and motif, using color theory, and long character arcs.
Not to mention, the greatest last episode in tv history would make for a perfect wrap-up to the class.
