Show creator Vince Gilligan said it all started with a gripe session with his friend, Tom Schnauz, about how hard it was to find good writing work. They had both been staff writers for The X-Files during the last seasons of that show, but hadn’t worked much since the series was cancelled. Tom happened to mention a New York Times article about a drug dealer who was arrested for cooking crystal meth in the back of an RV, and they started joking about giving up screenwriting and just traveling around the country in an RV cooking meth and making money.

As they were talking, the idea for a main character popped into his head—a middle aged man who transforms himself from a good man into a ruthless criminal. He then had to figure out why his character turns to a life of crime, and how he had the means to get himself into that world. So the idea for the story started with the main character and that characters transformation, which Gilligan describes as a transformation from ‘Mr. Chips to Scarface.’

“I had this full-fledged character, this good, law-abiding man who suddenly decides to become a criminal. I was so intrigued by the character that I didn’t really give much thought to how well it would sell, which is good because Breaking Bad is such an odd, dark story, it’s not easily sold.”

Fortunately, Gilligan had worked with a couple of people at Sony Pictures Television who had once bought a pilot script from him and nearly had it in the pre-production phase before CBS pulled out of the project. Despite this setback, the Sony executives said that they loved his work, and asked him to bring any new show ideas to them first. As it turned out, they loved the story for Breaking Bad, so they all began pitching the idea.

Despite their passionate efforts, Breaking Bad was turned down all over town. Executives at TNT loved it, but they couldn’t put a story about a meth dealer on their network. They asked if the main character—Walter White—could be a counterfeiter instead, but that didn’t fit Gilligan’s dark vision of Walt’s descent into the criminal world. HBO executives didn’t show any interest at all. FX liked it, and actually bought the pilot script, but later decided against doing the show. When AMC decided that they wanted to do the show, FX graciously let them buy the rights, and in February of 2007, AMC announced casting and production for a one hour pilot for Breaking Bad.

Now they had to cast an actor who could make Walter White remain a sympathetic character for as long as possible, even as he descended further and further into darkness. Though it was not immediately apparent to everyone involved in the selection process, Brian Cranston—who was best known for playing the father on Malcolm in the Middle—was clearly the perfect choice (he won three consecutive Best Actor Emmys for his role as Walter White). Cranston said he had no idea how intense and dark the story was going to get, but he did understand that Walt was a very unusual character for a television series:

“I did know when we first met that what he [Gilligan] was attempting to do had never been done in the history of television, is to start a character out one way—as you get to know them that way—and completely change that character into someone else.”

The story was originally to be set in Riverside, California, but setting the story and producing it in Albuquerque, New Mexico offered financial benefits, as well as some very visually interesting locations and beautiful skies. Five years after the pilot aired, critics continue to praise the show for its writing, directing, editing, and acting. A reporter for The New Yorker said, “Breaking Bad is an explicitly addictive series, full of cliffhangers, with a visual flair that is rare for television.”

The series fifth and final season was split into two 8 episode parts: the first half premiered in July 2012, and the second half will premiere August 2013.

Photo:
http://blog.sfgate.com/tgoodman/2010/03/12/breaking-bad-creator-vince-gilligan-celebrity-podcast-interview/

References:
Script Tease, by Dylan Callaghan
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2012/08/27/120827crte_television_nussbaum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad
http://www.emmys.com/shows/breaking-bad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=t9mtPhZEJoQ&feature=fvwp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIoRUtPo34Q

The name Bollywood is really more of a concept than an actual place. Unlike Hollywood, which is a town, Bollywood represents all of the Hindi-language film and television in India. The name is a mash-up of Bombay and Hollywood but the industry is not based only in Bombay (now called Mumbai) but all over the country. And global interest in Bollywood has been increasing in the last decade. In fact, Hollywood produced crossover films such as The Guru and Marigold: An Adventure in India in an effort to popularize Bollywood-themes and bridge the gap between Indian and American cinema. And with the recent success of films like Slum Dog Millionaire and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, interest in films made in India and about India has now become more mainstream.

Film in India goes all the way back to the beginning of cinema itself. The Lumiere Brothers—the first film makers in history—introduced cinema to India when they screened Cinematography in Bombay in 1896. By 1913, the home-grown Indian film industry began production on the first silent feature film made entirely in India. By the 1930s, the Indian industry was producing over 200 films per year, and in 1931 the first Indian movie, a musical, was released. The movie was such a big hit (like The Jazz Singer in the US) that most production companies quickly switched to sound.

After this, developments in the world of Indian cinema were rapid. World War 2, massive social changes, and independence from Britain completely reshaped Indian cinema. Before these changes, films were being made in various Indian languages with religion being the dominant theme. By the 1950s and 1960s, the themes changed to social issues relevant at the time. And by the 1970s, the “masala” film—the quintessential Bollywood movie—burst onto the scene. It included the elements we all think of when we think of Bollywood: bright colorful costumes, and a lot of song and dance numbers. In fact, song and dance remains the signature of Hindi films, which is why many Bollywood films tend to be musicals.

Also by the 1970s, television in India began to really expand. With such a large and diverse population, speaking several different languages, it’s not hard to imagine thousands of programs being broadcast in many languages. In India, film and television go hand-in-hand; and almost always they incorporate Bollywood-type dance numbers. Today, about 33% of all Indian households own a television, and with a population of 1.27 billion people, that’s a lot of television sets. As of 2010, the country has over 565 channels, of which 150 are premium pay channels.

So now we can see that Bollywood is not just a ‘want-to-be Hollywood’, but a sector of the entertainment industry that has a signature of its own. And as its popularity grows globally, it should be an entertainment force for many years to come.

Photos:
http://www.tvguideindia.com/images/slider-1.jpg
http://blogs.thenews.com.pk/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Bollywood.jpg

Sources:
http://www.tvguideindia.com/succes-of-india-film-industry.php
https://www.bollywoodtourism.com/bollywood-history

Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise and its crew during the 2260s. Roddenberry actually was a jet pilot for Pan Am before moving to Hollywood to try his hand as a television writer. As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol, Have Gun–Will Travel and other series before creating and producing his own short-lived television series, The Lieutenant in 1963.

Around 1964, Roddenberry got the idea for a new series set in futuristic space but was actually inspired by Westerns such as Wagon Train. He even pitched it as a “Wagon Train to the Stars”, and it was picked up by Desilu Studios. The first TV pilot “The Cage”, starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike and put a woman (Roddenberry’s wife Majel Barrett) as first officer. Unfortunately, the pilot was thought of as “too cerebral” by the network and was rejected by NBC. But in an unprecedented move, Lucille Ball, who owned Desilu Studios, persuaded NBC management to consider a second pilot, because she liked Roddenberry and believed in the project.

So Roddenberry shot a second pilot, called “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Due to the production delay between pilots, they had to cast a new captain because Jeff Hunter had signed to do a movie, so they found a young actor named William Shatner to play the role, and they changed the character to James T. Kirk. They also moved the lone alien, Mr. Spock, from science officer to First Officer, and made Barrett the nurse (some say the networks forced this because they didn’t believe the audience would accept a woman as First Officer).

The first regular episode of Star Trek aired on Thursday, September 8, 1966 and initially received high ratings, which soon trailed off—so much so that NBC threatened to cancel the show during its second season. In another unprecedented first for television, the show’s fan base began a letter-writing campaign, petitioning the network to keep the show on the air. It worked, and NBC renewed the show, but cut its budget and moved it to the dreaded ‘Friday night death slot.’ In protest Roddenberry resigned from the show and NBC canceled the show after its third season.

After its cancellation, the franchise’s new owner, Paramount sold the syndication rights to the show in an effort to help recoup the original series’ production losses. Reruns began in the fall of 1969 and by the late 1970s the series aired in over 150 domestic and 60 international markets. This helped the show develop a cult following, and convinced Roddenberry to begin developing a new series, Star Trek: Phase II, in 1975. And as science fiction movies in the mid-1970s blossomed (Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Paramount adapted the planned pilot episode of Phase II into the feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and the rest is history.

So after 47 years, five television series and 11 motion pictures, the 12th movie Star Trek: Into Darkness is about to premier. This will be the second picture of this new franchise, starring Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto and directed by J.J. Abrams of LOST fame. The first movie in 2009 grossed $385 million and made Star Trek viable, vibrant and cool again. Early reviews say this one is even better, and we’re sure lines will be forming well before the first opening. We know because we’ll be there.

Photos:
http://a.abcnews.go.com/images/Entertainment/ld_star_trek_cast_ll_120820_wmain.jpg
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2009/05/spock_kirk_660.jpg

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_No_Man_Has_Gone_Before
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek
http://www.roddenberry.com/corporate-gene-biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Roddenberry

AMC started broadcasting on October 1, 1984, as a premium cable channel that aired classic black and white movies of the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s, in a commercial-free, unedited format. By 1987, the channel became the first channel available on basic cable television systems and by 1989, AMC had 39 million subscribers in the United States. AMC was so connected to movies that they partnered with Martin Scorsese’s, “The Film Foundation” to raise awareness (and money) for film preservation.

To attract new audiences to old movies, AMC would do innovative broadcasts such as: Monsterfest, a week-long marathon of scary movies that aired in late October, and Fear Friday, a horror movie double feature which aired every Friday night. They also broadcasted showings of silent film classics, and showed campy old classic movie trailers, drive-in movie concession stand ads that used to get folks popping out of their car to get some popcorn, and music videos pulled from classic musical movies from the period, that really gave viewer’s a sense of the cultural significance of film in America.

In 1996, AMC experimented with original content when it aired its first original series, Remember WENN, a show about a radio station during the 1930’s. The show was well received by both critics and fans, but was abruptly cancelled after its fourth season when a change of management took over whose agenda was to stick with an all movies format. Ironically, in September 2002, AMC decided to change its format, and began to broadcast movies from all eras, mostly because their advertising sponsors wanted more relevant content for their target consumers. They also made the decision to start airing original content, and presented their short-lived reality television series called FilmFakers, featuring out-of-work actors.

Then, in 2007, they struck gold. AMC debuted the original series Mad Men, a period piece about Madison Avenue advertising executives in the 1960’s. The show was immediately hailed by viewers and critics alike as the best thing on television, and went on to win 15 Emmys. The establishment of Mad Men, followed by Breaking Bad in 2008, gave AMC a reputation on par with premium cable networks HBO and Showtime, both of which rejected Mad Men before it came to AMC.

In 2010, AMC debuted another blockbuster show: The Walking Dead and followed that with the contemporary Western Hell on Wheels and the murder mystery The Killing in 2011. They actually canceled The Killing after two seasons but decided to revive it due to a huge casting win by landing accomplished movie actor Peter Sarsgaard (Knight and Day, An Education, Jarhead, Green Lantern), for the show’s third season. And not to miss out in other television venues, AMC premiered four reality television shows in 2012: Inside the DHS, The Pitch, Comic Book Men and Small Town Security.

We hope that AMC—which is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. and its sister networks which include IFC, Sundance Channel and WE TV—plans to continue its groundbreaking new content into the future. We’ll have our popcorn ready.

PHOTOS:
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/26300000/Hell-on-Wheels-hell-on-wheels-26369704-1600-1200.jpg
http://subtitlebox.org/pictures/74/50/105074.jpg

SOURCES:
http://www.amcnetworks.com/about_story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_(TV_channel)
http://www.amcnetworks.com/brand_amc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Networks

Tom Hanks: With so many successful films—Sleepless in Seattle, Forest Gump, Philadelphia, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, Toy Story, and The Di Vinci Code—it’s hard to believe that Tom Hanks got his first big break on television. He playing the role of Kip Wilson in the ABC comedy Bosom Buddies (1980-1982); and after the show went off the air, he continued in television doing guest appearances on show such as Taxi, Family Ties and Happy Days. It was while he was working on Happy Days that Hanks met Ron Howard, who decided to cast Hank’s as the lead in his movie Splash.

George Clooney: It is even harder to believe that George Clooney worked as a television actor for two decades before his film career really took off. Everyone knows he became famous while played Dr. Doug Ross on NBC’s hit medical drama ER (1994-1999); but did you know that in the fifteen years before that, he played many small reoccurring roles on television shows such as The Facts of Life and Roseanne. Clooney started making films—including Batman and Robin and Three Kings—while still working on ER. After leaving the show, his career really began to take off, with films such as The Perfect Storm and Ocean’s Eleven.

Jennifer Lawrence: With her Academy Award for Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook and the incredible success of The Hunger Games, it seems as if Jennifer Lawrence was an overnight success. But Lawrence too started her acting career in television. For three years, she played Lauren on the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show (2007-2009). She also had guest appearances on shows such as Cold Case, Medium, and Monk. Lawrence started making film while still working in television; and in 2010, her film career got a big boost when she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in the film Winter’s Bones.

Johnny Depp: Although Johnny Depp started his acting career with a few small roles in feature films, he became well known by playing Officer Tom Hanson on the television series 21 Jump Street (1987-1990). After that, when Depp went back to acting for the big screen, he was getting lead roles in films such as Cry Baby, Edward Scissorhands, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Ed Wood, Donnie Brasco, and Sleepy Hollow. Then in 2003, he hit incredible box office success with The Pirates of the Caribbean. But even with all that success, it’s apparent that Depp hasn’t forgotten his television roots: he returned to the role of Office Tom Hanson in a very funny un-credited appearance in the 2010 film version of 21 Jump Street

Leonardo DiCaprio: In his teen years, Leonardo DiCaprio did a few commercials and got quite a few roles on television. He had a reoccurring role on the soap opera Santa Barbara; and was a cast member on the short running series Parenthood and the sitcom Growing Pains. Then, in 1992, he got his big break in feature films. Robert De Niro chose him to play the lead role in This Boy’s Life. After that, he got the opportunity to work with Johnny Depp in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and also played the kid in The Quick and the Dead. Then in 1997, he played Jack Dawson in Titanic, and became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

Though there is no agreement on what can be called the first reality show, “The Original Amateur Hour” hosted by Ted Mack gets a lot of votes. The show debuted in 1948, and was the continuation of a radio talent show that aired from 1934-1945. The show featured amateur singers, dancers, musicians, comics and novelty acts who competed for a chance to go on to finals held at Madison Square Garden. Viewers voted by telephone or postcard, and the winners had a chance for fame and fortune—sound familiar.

Another show often considered to be the first reality television show is Alan Funt’s “Candid Camera,” which Funt adapted from his radio show “Candid Microphone” in 1948. The show involved concealed cameras that filmed ordinary people in unusual situations, like trying to pull a $100 bill from under a car tire. When the joke was revealed, victims would be told the show’s catchphrase, “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera.” The popularity of both or these early reality shows made it clear to the networks that viewers enjoyed watching ordinary people that were just like them.

In 1973, a PBS documentary series called the “An American Family” brought a new concept to reality television: What would happen if television camera’s followed ordinary people through their daily lives. The show’s creators were inspired by Andy Warhol’s 1966 documentary style film “Chelsea Girls” which followed the daily lives of various artists living in and around the Chelsea Hotel. For the television show, they filmed the everyday lives of an American family over the course of seven months, and they ended up with more than enough true-life drama to create a captivating twelve episode series.

Other shows that focused on the lives of everyday people were also popular; including the series “Real People” that featured people with unusual skills or talents, and “TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes” which established that America loves seeing celebrities in more candid moments too. At this point, reality television was steadily gaining in popularity with the American audience.

Then, in 1988, a five month strike by the members of the Writers Guild of America changed television forever. Because the drama and comedy show writers weren’t around to create fresh content for their shows, the networks had to turn to reality television to get fresh content on the air. Shows created at that time, such as “COPS” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” became very popular, and they gave an ever increasing numbers of ordinary people their 15 minutes of fame. And, not only were the networks thrilled with how popular these shows were becoming, they were also interested in creating more reality shows because they were a lot cheaper to make than the scripted show that had large production costs and highly paid stars.

As the number of channels on television continued to grow, so did the number of reality shows. Shows were created to appeal to all the different interest groups that watched the various new channels. MTV created “The Real World” in 1992, by adding a new twist to the concepts created in “An American Family”—they filmed eight young strangers living together in one house. Other basic cable channels developed reality shows based on their viewer’s interest, such as cooking contests and home improvement challenges.

The big networks noticed that they were starting to lose market share to these channels so they started airing even more ambitions reality television shows such as CBS’s “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race.” And that definitely paid off as some of those shows—such as FOX’s “American Idol”—became the top shows on television. Today, half the shows listed in the latest Nielson weekly Top 10 shows for network primetime broadcast in the US are reality shows; which makes it clear that reality television is here to stay.

Photos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Original_Amateur_Hour
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DXT-KPTRvWc/UULn2a4z5II/AAAAAAAAQH8/PtnFtRJy-uQ/s1600/american-idol-(gett_871ea2d.jpg

Resources:
Reality TV: An Insiders Guide to TV’s Hottest Market, by Troy DeVolld
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/top10s.html
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/writers-guild-of-america-strike-begins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Original_Amateur_Hour

With a show this well written, entertainment executive must have been tripping over each other to get a chance to work with the writer to develop the new series, right? Well it actually took many years from the time series creator Matthew Weiner first sat down and put his idea on paper until he finally saw his creation come to life on the screen. It all started in 1999, when Weiner was working as a staff writer on the series “Becker.” Although it was a good job, it wasn’t what he really wanted to do, so he decided to spend his free time working on his own idea for a new series.

For most of his life, he was fascinated with that time in American history that saw so much change in our culture—the late 1950s and early ‘60s. So, he thought it would be interesting to set his story in New York City, at a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the early 1960s:

“It’s a great way to talk about the image we have of ourselves, versus who we really are. And admen were the rock stars of that era, creative, cocky, anti-authority. They made a lot of money, and they lived hard.”

He knew he wanted to explore the theme of “the conflicting desire in the American male and the people who pay the price for that.” Though successful in his career and happy in his family life, he had feelings of dissatisfaction in his own life that he wanted to explore in his new show:

“The basic question of the series to me was…you reach a certain point in your life where, if you’re lucky, you get almost everything you wanted on some level, not everything, but enough; and you still look around and say ‘Is this it?’”

When he finished the pilot screenplay, he started using it as a writing sample. In 2002, he sent it to “The Sopranos” creator and showrunner David Chase. Chase read the pilot and was so impressed, he hired Weiner to write for his show. Chase also submitted the pilot to HBO, but the network decided to pass. Showtime also passed, so Weiner focused on writing for “The Sopranos.”

Then, when “The Sopranos” was in its last year, Weiner started focusing on “Mad Men” again. This time, his timing was perfect. AMC was looking for an idea for an original series that was cinematic and would complement their core offering of classic American movies. The historic setting and theatrical quality of “Mad Men” was a perfect match for the network, so AMC announced that “Mad Men” would become their first original dramatic series.

The pilot episode began shooting in New York City with Weiner as showrunner. He supervised all details of production including casting, set design and props, costumes, and even hairstyles. He wanted to make sure that everything was historically accurate; and also make sure that nothing about the production, especially the acting style, felt like the typical television show. After all those years of hard work and patience, his vision was finally being realized:

“When you have an idea from zero, and you walk into a three dimensional environment where the people are dressed like you imagined them, and they are saying the things that you imagined they would be saying to each other, it was one of the most awesome experiences of my life.”

Resources:

http://www.amctv.com/mad-men/videos/the-making-of-mad-men-part-1

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20203313_2,00.html

http://variety.com/2012/film/news/afi-names-top-10-in-film-tv-1118063380/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/arts/television/18madm.html?_r=0

http://www.emmys.com/shows/mad-men

Photo: http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/episodes/season-1/the-wheel

“Saturday Night Live”—or “SNL”—is widely popular and has been the highest rated late-night show in America since 1977. The show has also been critically acclaimed; winning 36 Emmy Awards and now holds the title for the most nominated television show in Emmy history with 156 nominations. SNL has been a successful show for almost 40 years despite the nearly complete cast change it goes through every five years or so. So how did this remarkable show get its start? Let’s find out.

In the late 1960’s, when Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show” was becoming popular on late-night television, NBC decided to fill the late-night weekend gap by running reruns of that show. This worked fine for a few years and gave NBC a leg-up in the late-night weekend time slots, until 1974, when Carson announced that he wanted to save the reruns for those weeknights when he wanted time off. So, NBC president Herbert Schlosser asked Dick Ebersol, the vice president of late night programming, to create a show to fill the Saturday late-night time slot.

Ebersol got together with Lorne Michaels, a writer/producer for NBC, and in a month they developed the idea for a variety show featuring high-concept comedy skits, political satire, and music performances. They assembled a talented cast, including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner and premiered the show on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title “NBC’s Saturday Night.” The show, which was performed “live” in front of a studio audience, was an instant hit. It caught many people off-guard with its irreverent humor and quickly established a reputation for being cutting edge and unpredictable. Word soon spread, and within weeks the show was attracting a new demographic to late-night television: young adults.

While the cast members and featured players have changed over the years, the main elements remain the same: a celebrity host, musical guest, sketches, commercial parodies, and a fake news segment. The show format has been developed and recreated in several countries including Spain, Italy, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea. The show’s comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, have become a staple of our national dialogue. As Michaels himself said,

“When you leave NYC and LA and you realize how important the show is, [for] people who are not on the grid and can just check in on it…You’re always aware you’re doing it for the country. Unless you reach the middle of the country you haven’t really succeeded.”

Beyond politics, the show’s cast of recurring characters and take on pop culture targets remain spot-on, and sketches from the show often become coffee-break discussions on Monday mornings. The addition of the show’s Emmy Award-winning SNL Digital Shorts dominate YouTube viewings and continue to keep the show as current today as it was when it debuted. So, with all of the wonderful comedy and thought-provoking ideas the show has generated over the years, we hope we’ll always hear those wonderful words at 11:30 every weekend, “Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night.”

SOURCES:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/about/

http://snlibc.jt.org/history.phtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Live

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorne_Michaels

PHOTOS:

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2007/07/24/saturdaynightlive460.jpg

http://blogs.suntimes.com/shinyobjects/justin-timberlake-snl-mother-lover.jpg

Teasers can be one scene or can be made up of several scenes. They’ re usually one to five minutes long, but a few shows use teasers that are a full act length of eight to ten minutes. Often, the teaser sets up the main story for the episode, but the subject can be any strange, scary, humorous, or dramatic moment that will “tease” viewers into wanting to see more of the show. And, as J.J. Abrams said, a teaser can be very effective when it creates mystery and gets us asking questions about what is going to happen next:

“There’s a fundamental question in TV, the first act is called a teaser. It’s literally a teaser. It’s a big question. So you’re drawn into it. And then of course there’s another question. And it goes on and on.”

This question, or unexplained plot element, creates a “hook” that increases interest in the story, and discourages viewers from changing the channel during the title sequence and first commercial break.

In the early days of television, all shows opened with a title sequence. Then in the 1960’s, some shows started using cold openings. One of the more famous examples is “Star Trek”, which always opened with a scene featuring a voice over—“Star date 1512.2…”—which set up the episode’s story before the theme song and title sequence. The invention of the television remote control made it even more critical to capture viewer interest as quickly as possible. Over the decades since then, the constantly increasing number of options for viewers has made capturing and holding an audience’s attention more important than ever.

Some shows start with relevant clips from previous episodes (“Previously on 24…”) and then start the story in the cold opening before presenting the title sequence. The series “The Walking Dead” uses this technique very successfully, and further hooks the audience by starting the theme music a few seconds before the cold opening ends, using the eerie title sequence and theme music to add tension to these already intense opening scenes. Series composer Bear McCreary said:

“You hear the main title music before the main title begins, so you know its coming. That, to me, was the little hook—that little thing that, whenever you hear it, it takes you to the series.”

A good teaser can  hook the audience for one episode, but a great teaser can help hook viewers on an entire series. Many fans of HBO’s “The Newsroom” got hooked on the series during the eight minute cold opening of the pilot when the main character, newscaster Will McAvoy, answered a question from an audience member at a college media seminar. The unexpected answer he gave to that question set the tone for the series and promised that future episodes would explore interesting and controversial subjects.

While a show’s cold opening can set the tone for the episode or give a sense of the series philosophy, it is also commonly used to set up the  action and inform viewers which of the series storylines will be the focus of that episode. Many teasers feature the show’s main characters at a critical moment of action or discovery. Some teasers don’t involve the show’s main characters at all, but instead show characters involved in the issue or problem – such as a crime or medical emergency – that the main characters will deal with in that episode.

The ultimate goal for a teaser—whether it’s short or long, funny or dramatic, featuring main cast or guest stars, focused on series tone or episode storyline, or answers a question or sets up a mystery—is to remind the shows fans why they love the show and pull new viewers into the story. The creative genius that some screenwriters have put into making their show’s teasers effective at hooking an audience has created many of the most memorable moments on television.

Sources:

Writing the TV Drama Series, by Pamela Douglas

Crafty TV Writing: Thinking Inside the Box, by Alex Epstien

www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html

Photos:

http://images.hitfix.com/photos/2541404/Star_Trek_gets_a_teaser_poster_article_story_main.jpg

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/assets_c/2012/04/jeff-daniels-newsroom-teaser-hbo-thumb-315xauto-39557.jpg

Before the “The Walking Dead” became a hit TV show, it was an award winning comic book series—written by Robert Kirkman, and illustrated by Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard—that debuted in 2003. Screenwriter and director Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile”) saw the “The Walking Dead” in a comic book store and—because he loved zombies ever since seeing George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” as a teen—he decided to take a look. Though traditionally, zombies have never been considered a suitable subject for a television show, Darabont said that he saw something in the comic books that made him think “The Walking Dead” could make a great series:

“Ultimately, what I found most interesting about this project…was the very intensely character driven approach that he [Kirkman] has taken. I thought this would be a really great adult way to tell this kind of story in a highly serialized, long-term manor—which really hasn’t been done.”

Kirkman was thrilled to have someone as talented as Darabont interested in adapting the comic book series. He also agreed that it would be much better to tell the story on television rather than through movies:

“The thing that makes ‘The Walking Dead’ unique and interesting is that it’s a zombie movie that never ends…it’s a long-term exploration on the characters and their situation and how they’re dealing with these problems over a long period of time, the different things that happen to the characters and how it affects and changes the characters.“

They started pitching the idea for the show. After HBO gave their new show idea a pass, they pitched it to AMC, whose executives jumped at the chance to add to their already impressive line-up of original series (including “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men”). In January 2010, AMC announced that it had ordered a pilot for a series adapted from “The Walking Dead” comic books.

With Kirkman by his side as an executive producer, Darabont wrote the pilot episode. The pilot opens with Rick Grimes, a sheriff’s deputy in a small Georgian town, going into a coma after getting shot. Several weeks later, he wakes-up in the hospital and realizes the place is deserted. As he tries to make his way home, he finds that his town is all but abandoned, strewn with dead bodies, and full of zombies wandering around feeding on human flesh. When he arrives home, Rick finds evidence that his family may still be alive, so he sets off to find his wife and son. He eventually finds them living with a small group of people who must now find a way to survive in this new, post-apocalyptic world.

The source material and scripts were so strong that AMC picked up the show for a six-episode first season. On May 15th 2010, four months after the pilot was announced, the series began filming in Atlanta, with Darabont as showrunner and director. Kirkman said that—because of Darabont’s deep understanding of the story, amazing casting that captured the essence of the characters, and set design and special effects make-up that faithfully recreated scenes from the comic book—what they ended up with was “a near perfect adaptation.” Then, Bear McCreary added his haunting score, and the pilot was ready for its Halloween premiere in the United States.

Since then, the series has grown more and more popular, and fans around the world are thrilled that “The Walking Dead” will be back for a fourth season in October.

Photo source: http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/walking-dead-cast-hed-2012.jpg

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRNwqVH1X_4

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/03/29/the-walking-dead-lives-on-amc-network-greenlights-series-based-on-comic-books/46517/

http://www.avclub.com/articles/days-gone-bye,46865/

http://io9.com/5353248/kirkman-tv-can-make-the-zombie-movie-that-never-ends

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(TV_series)