AttN jms: Where Are All the American Playwrights?

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: Russell West <srwest at us.ibm.com>
Date: 22 Jun 1998 17:45:39 -0600
Lines: 29

Joe,
It is with not a little excitement that I am looking forward to the
Sci Fi Channel's presentation of "Rod Serling's A Town has Turned
to Dust" (despite their ability to underwhelm me with most of their
material)....

This anticipation got me thinking about other Serling work ("Requiem"
still blows me away) and the absolute dearth of American playwrights'
work on modern Television.

Wasn't one of the original promises of PBS to bring back this type of
"alternate" programming to TV? They do have the occasional great
drama, but it seems to be wholly of British origins. Where are the
new Serlings or Chayefskys on the tube?

I hate to blame everything on American TV executives and their
perspectives (or lack thereof...). Would you mind sharing your
insider view?

You certainly have the talent to follow in Serling's footsteps,
hint, hint, nudge, nudge....


**************************
Russell West / Application Developer / IBM
(301) 803-2441 or 8-262-2441  (Bethesda, MD)
SRWEST at US.IBM.COM
   Ad astra per aspera
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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 22 Jun 1998 18:47:19 -0600
Lines: 26

>Wasn't one of the original promises of PBS to bring back this type of
>"alternate" programming to TV? They do have the occasional great
>drama, but it seems to be wholly of British origins. Where are the
>new Serlings or Chayefskys on the tube?

Yeah, well, PBS seems to be dropping the ball, frankly, most notably with their
decision not to do more Tales of the City, largely because of political
concerns, leaving it to Showtime to take up the standard.

>I hate to blame everything on American TV executives and their
>perspectives (or lack thereof...). Would you mind sharing your
>insider view?

Main thing is the different time periods.  When TV first got going, they were
frantic to legitimize the form, and drew in a lot of writers from radio drama
and the stage.  (Actually, Serling came mainly from radio, not so much stage.) 
So there was a concerted recruitment effort.  Also, one of the problems is that
there's a bit of an onus attached to TeeVee in the Theater world, so a lot of
folks who could do good work in TV don't come and play with us.


 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
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