Breaking News: Clip shows - News Paper

Here’s a Friday Question that became an entire post:

It's from marka.

My Friday question is about flashback episodes, where the only thing the actors have to say in the show is a version of “yea, and do you remember the time when...”. They seem like they’re done only to give everyone except the editor the week off.

Why do they do them? Why do the networks allow them to happen? Am I the only one who hates them? But, really, what is your opinion of them?

These are called “clip shows.” Often it is the network that requests them. They usually do well in the ratings and they’re cheaper to make than a regular episode.

But make no mistake – they require a lot of work… usually for the writing staff. Someone has to screen all the shows, flag the clips, decide on a format, and put it together. Trust me, as a writer – it takes way less time to write an episode. So it’s not exactly a free ride.

But you save a week of production.  Live wrap-arounds can either be filmed in one day.  Or they're piggybacked to a day's shooting schedule so there's no dedicated day to filming them.  

As for the format, that too is a problem because the normal conventions have been done to death. The “wrap-around” version that you mentioned in your question (“Remember the time we…?), the panel discussion (like we did on CHEERS), or the interview version (like we did on MASH). There’s no good way really. But the audience generally doesn’t care. They’re there for the clips.

I will say this though, clip shows were much more popular before you had access to DVD’s and streaming. Part of the fun of clip shows was seeing excerpts you hadn’t seen in a couple of years. Now you can see any episode at any time. Hell, you can see a lot of gag reels on YouTube. 

Not only that, it used to be that a series wouldn’t do a clip show until they had close to a hundred episodes in the bank. Now I’ve seen series do clip shows season two. Wow. They have six highlights.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about clip shows. They’re very self-congratulatory and I always try to avoid that. I hate shows that toot their own horn. On the other hand, any time they use a clip from a show I co-wrote or directed I get a royalty. I made out like a bandit on the MASH and CHEERS clip shows. So I dislike clip shows on principle but I’m very much in favor of found money.

My worst clip show experience was the night I was having an MRI. I’m in the tube, they gave me headphones, and through a mirror I was able to watch TV. The show that was on was THE NANNY clip show. I was forced to watch it for 45 minutes without moving. I almost hit the panic button… and not because I was claustrophobic.

from By Ken Levine http://ift.tt/2yGS1lT
Breaking News: Clip shows - News Paper