Dixon Carter Lee
Headliner
- Joined
- Nov 22, 1999
- Posts
- 48,682
I'm doing a reading at the Writers Guild for a group of over-50 TV and film writers who can't get work in the industry anymore because of their age. They meet in solidarity and do readings of their work, just to show they're still alive. So I've been asked to read, and I got the script yestreday, and I'm thinking maybe Hollywood has a point when it ignores older writers.
The script reads like it was written and set in 1955, but it's supposed to be present day, and contains a smattering of contemporary references. The problem is that it's overwhelmingly mired in the past. A 19 year old girl makes a Bob Hope joke. A guy does a telegram joke (I love you. Stop.). The main issue of the play is a Jesse Helms led Washington committee looking for "Reds and Perverts".
The thing must have been written decades ago, and he's trying to update it by including Beavis and Butthead jokes (which, frankly, are also pretty dated). But even without the references the characters all talk about sex and alcohol and life as if they're all living during the Eisenhower administration. I mean the script smells like Ovaltine and Camel cigarettes.
This is no dummy of a writer, either. He's written a few old features, and a lot of TV episodic stuff, but nothing, really, past "Barnaby Jones". It's an awful play, tremendously out of touch with not only the issues of the day, but contemporary speech and theatrical presentation.
So I'm reading this and I'm thinking "This is exactly why these guys don't get work any more." It's not just ageism. I hate to say that, but it's not. A writer must be a voice for his community, and I think after years of writing for "Land of the Giants" and "Harry O" you've pretty much lost any chance of having a 21st century voice.
Not that these guys can't write. I'm sure these guys can crank out a hell of a lot of good plays, movies and TV shows -- there are plenty of stories to be told about their own generation, or about their lives, all of which have value. But I get the feeling that most of them are writing as if the Cold War is still going on, and it shows, and that hurts the old pros who are still turning out quality, relevant scripts.
The script reads like it was written and set in 1955, but it's supposed to be present day, and contains a smattering of contemporary references. The problem is that it's overwhelmingly mired in the past. A 19 year old girl makes a Bob Hope joke. A guy does a telegram joke (I love you. Stop.). The main issue of the play is a Jesse Helms led Washington committee looking for "Reds and Perverts".
The thing must have been written decades ago, and he's trying to update it by including Beavis and Butthead jokes (which, frankly, are also pretty dated). But even without the references the characters all talk about sex and alcohol and life as if they're all living during the Eisenhower administration. I mean the script smells like Ovaltine and Camel cigarettes.
This is no dummy of a writer, either. He's written a few old features, and a lot of TV episodic stuff, but nothing, really, past "Barnaby Jones". It's an awful play, tremendously out of touch with not only the issues of the day, but contemporary speech and theatrical presentation.
So I'm reading this and I'm thinking "This is exactly why these guys don't get work any more." It's not just ageism. I hate to say that, but it's not. A writer must be a voice for his community, and I think after years of writing for "Land of the Giants" and "Harry O" you've pretty much lost any chance of having a 21st century voice.
Not that these guys can't write. I'm sure these guys can crank out a hell of a lot of good plays, movies and TV shows -- there are plenty of stories to be told about their own generation, or about their lives, all of which have value. But I get the feeling that most of them are writing as if the Cold War is still going on, and it shows, and that hurts the old pros who are still turning out quality, relevant scripts.
