Written By November/December 2010 : Page 29
order of importance would be impossible) to thrive and sur-I have a confession to make: I’ve never un-vive: Don Bellisario, Steven Bochco, Stephen Cannell, and derstood remakes. Which means I’ve also Kenneth Johnson. Turns out it was just what you’d expect: never understood their new kissing cousins, tenacity, timing, talent. No third act twists in these stories, “reimaginings”—especially when the thing but lots of twists and turns in their professional working rela-being reimagined is not being reimagined tionships and later independent careers, beginning with how by the person who first imagined it. Perhaps in the days of they all came to this place on the television time-and-space celluloid, when films only played once upon a distribution continuum. time and then were relegated to the vaults, it made sense to remake The Maltese Falcon over and over again until they got it right. But once they did, Steven Bochco that’s the version folks are Bochco and Cannell came to the Universal lot via different still ordering on DVD. In paths just in time to be instrumental in helping the other two television, the issue is sim-through the door. Bochco rode in as the result of a well-worked ilar. In a world of Internet college internship, while Can-reposts where I can still nell entered on a well-written show my son original epi-spec. Each man gives credit to sodes of shows I watched a mentor or godfather from an years before he was born, even earlier generation of Uni-why would I choose to versal producers who helped show him a remake? them establish their careers; With this question in later, each man appears to have mind I perused the most emulated that by hiring or men-recent rash of remakes, dis-toring many others, including covering a pattern. Most of the latest— The Rockford Files, V, Bellisario and Johnson. “In 1965 I had a summer Magnum P .I., The A-Team, Bionic Woman, Quantum Leap, job while still in college,” Bo-The Incredible Hulk, 21 Jump Street —come from the same chco says. “The head of the Story Department, Mike Lud-pool of prolific writers who honed their talents while under mer, asked me to come back when I graduated the following contract to Universal Studios in and around 1980. Which June. I had the enviable position of having a job waiting as I brings us to our title: How (and Why) the Writers of 1980 are completed my last year of college.” As an assistant to Ludmer, Creating the Culture of 2010. What’s more, all of these men Bochco read and synopsized incoming scripts, but, “Mike are still writing and creating in a town notorious for constantly knew I wanted to be a writer so he very quickly began to fun-turning to the next new thing; however, none are being invited nel me to producers for whom I could do projects.” to write for the new versions of their old hits. Before writing freelance episodes We know that a combina-of then-current Universal shows, tion of business and branding is Bochco was put to work expand-the excuse given for the revival “I worked for and with a lot ing unsold pilots, taking them from of many of these shows—busi-of people who didn’t behave one to two hours so they could be ness because the studios, not the well, particularly toward the distributed as films in Europe. “I’d writer-producers, owned the write the additional hour of mate-copyright; branding because people who worked under rial, shoot it, and they’d splice it. in an increasingly fractured them. There’s a lot of that in Universal was very efficient. Noth-market, studios want a built-in very competitive and rigid ing went to waste. That allowed me audience. But the question re-to work for a bunch of old-time uni-mains: Among the hundreds of corporate cultures. A guy I versal producers, and I learned a lot shows with a built-in audience worked for once said, ‘I get from them.” that could have been chosen, shit on by people above and When asked his most impor-why these by these writers? tant lesson, Bochco hesitated, then I decided to find out what so I shit on those below.’ ” decided that it was how not to be-it was about Universal circa —Steven Bochco have toward people. “I worked for 1980 that allowed these writers and with a lot of people who I felt (in alphabetical order, because ’80 Class of NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010 WGA W Written By • 29
Publication List
