Go Back Two Spaces

In my second to last post, I by-the-way'd Jane Espenson's blog. Now that I've had more time to read through it, let me give it the attention it deserves.

It's basically an advice column for would-be television writers and it's awesome. It's mostly about comedy, as she "catagologues" jokes: the Since joke (which is like a tactful essay-type version of South Park's "Cartoon Wars" rip on Family Guy), the Hello joke, and the Audience Assumption Joke, to name a few of the more recently catalogued ones. Also, she often refers to her days writing for Buffy and gives reasons for why they wrote things the way they did--a behind-the-brilliance sort of thing. And let me tell you, there is no better way to teach me something than to do so with allusion to Buffy.

One entry I'd especially want you to check out has nothing to do with Buffy, actually. It's Like Syndicating "Will" and "Grace". Apparently, syndication was once a rarity for the hour-long dramas that are increasingly populating our television screens. She reveals that Law & Order only went to syndication, so she was told, because it was sold as two separate half-hour shows: Law and completely detached Order. How weird is that? "Hey, did you catch Order last night? It was awesome! But Law kind of sucked." Thank goodness it's not like that and Law & Order can live together in one happy murder-filled hour, or more depending on what marathon holiday it is.

It's nice to see that watching a ton of television and deconstructing the scripts can lend itself to a great career. And my father said it couldn't be done. Too bad I must settle for doing it as a hobby... for now ;o)

ps I like seeing what she has for lunch everyday. Maybe it's the secret to good tv writing.