Tag Archive for 'Shonda Rhimes'

Abortion on TV: Update on Friday Night Lights and Private Practice

Published
by
Melissa Silverstein
on February 9, 2010
in Politics and TV
. 1 Comment

Connie Britton as Tammy Taylor

It’s been a couple of weeks since both Private Practice and Friday Night Lights had their pivotal abortion episodes and I wanted to give an update on the fallout.

Bottom line – Friday Night Lights (FNL) walked into the minefield with the storyline and didn’t shy away like Private Practice did.

The fallout on FNL has not been focused on Becky, the girl who had the abortion, it’s been on Tammy Taylor, the high school principal, who listened and gave Becky her options.

The baby daddy’s mommy got herself into a religious fervor and called the school board and tried to have Principal Taylor fired for encouraging Becky to have an abortion.  The school board had a hearing and both sides were heard and Tammy was cleared of any wrong doing.

But the issue did not go away quietly as the school board wanted.  Picketers showed up at her school, she started getting nasty phone calls at home, and she was basically told that if she did not release a statement of apology that she will lose her job.  She went to see a lawyer who was clear that she would probably win a wrongful termination lawsuit, but he also said that then she would be virtually unemployable.  The lawyer said: “there’s the law and there’s life.”

So she’s screwed.  She’s screwed for doing the right thing which I know happens to people all the time.  And the question the show poses so brilliantly is how is it that doing the right and legal thing can lead to such grave consequences.

The season finale is this week and in the preview it shows her practicing her apology in the bathroom mirror.  Can’t wait to see how it winds up.

As for Private Practice…I am embarrassed to say they took a big pass on the issue.  After getting all the medical issues so right, they handled it so wrong.  Fifteen year old Maya is going to have the baby, and get married to baby daddy Dink.  Of course they are going to   finish high school and live happily after ever.  They have parents with means, haven’t been kicked out of the house, and could probably even get a nanny to raise the kid while they finish high school.  I’m sure she will have a miscarriage soon and the whole ugly thing will be over.  I just don’t understand why they went to the precipice and then just backed so far off.  Makes no sense to me.

Those of you who don’t have Direct TV can see the full season of Friday Night Lights on NBC beginning on April 30.  Please watch.

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Tags: Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights, Private Practice, Shonda Rhimes

Digging a Little Deeper: Mad Men and Women Writers

Published
by
Melissa Silverstein
on August 14, 2009
in TV and Women Writers
. 6 Comments
Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson

Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson

Last week the Wall Street Journal published a piece The Women Behind Mad Men hailing basically hailing the show as being dominated by women writers.

I’m a big fan of Mad Men and am looking forward to the new season starting this Sunday.  But, one of the things I have learned since I started writing this site is to play close attention to titles because they mean a lot in Hollywood.  So while I give props to Matthew Weiner the creator, showrunner and dominant writer and voice on the show for hiring women (cause there are shows out there that don’t have any women writers like Conan O’Brien and David Letterman), it is important to keep straight the roles these women play in the Hollywood writer food chain.

(We all know it is very bad out there for women writers in Hollywood.  Look at my piece from earlier this week.  Women make up about a quarter of all writers in Hollywood.)

Everyone knows this show is all about Matthew Weiner.  It’s his baby.  He first pitched it to HBO since he worked on The Sopranos and they passed.  (I am sure they are kicking themselves now.)  So it went to AMC and it was that network’s first original series and it put them on the map.

While on the big screen the writer gets the credit for actually writing the script, TV is very different.  What all writers and producers on TV want is to get their names on an episode.  That becomes their calling card and enables them to use it for their next gig.

In TV the most important writing job is executive producer.  Here’s the rest of the hierachy: co-executive producer;  supervising producer; consulting producer; producer, co-producer, associate producer, executive story editor, story editor, and staff writer.

So let’s look at the women featured in the story and their titles:

Lisa Albert – Supervising producer

Marti Noxon – Consulting Producer

Maria Jacquemetton- Consulting Producer

Dahvi Waller- Co-Producer

Robin Veith- Executive Story Edior

Cathryn Humphris- Executive Story Editor

Kater Gordon- Staff Writer

There are no women executive producers or co-executive producers on Mad Men.  Those are the top jobs.  For example on Grey’s Anatomy aside from Shonda Rhimes the creator and Betsy Beers the non writing executive producer, there is another female c0-executive producer (Krista Vernoff) and a female co-executive producer (Joan Rater.)  Granted, Grey’s is a network show and has more writers and money.

I’m still not sold on Mad Men being a bastion a women’s influence.  I never felt that while watching the show.  Even though the article says 7 out of 9 writers are women (the list I have has 5 male writers but one might be a non-writing executive producer and 8 women), Weiner writes a lot and gets writing credit on most episodes of this show.   In season 1 he has a writing credit on 7 out of 13 episodes. The women have writing credits in season 1 are: Maria Jacquemetton (3 episodes), Bridget Bedard, Lisa Albert and Robin Veith.

In season 2 he has a credit on 10 out of 13 episodes.  The women with writing credits in season 2 are: Lisa Albert (2 episodes), Maria Jacquemetton (3 episodes), Robin Veith (3 episodes), Jane Anderson, Marti Noxon, Kater Gordon.  Robin Veith is the only woman who has a singular writing credit on an episode.

So as we go into season 3 I will be looking at the writing credits and hoping that these women have an influence onscreen, but if the story is to be believed and women are leading the way in the writing of the show they should have the appropriate credits on the episodes and in their job titles.

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Tags: Mad Men, Marti Noxon, Matthew Weiner, Shonda Rhimes, Wall Street Journal