Why Television?

It's a question I've been asked a few times recently. What sparked my "sudden" interest in television? So I thought I'd take a minute to answer it here one time. I'd say once and for all, but I've found my love of television to be an ever evolving and developing sort of passion, so I feel like whatever answer I give will be outdated in a few months. The writer in me refuses to be discouraged though, so I'll try to put my love of television, in it's current form, down into words. Here goes nothing.

First off, my love of television isn't sudden. Starting back in middle school, when my family upgraded our cable package and we got the Disney channel for the first time, I have been much more than a casual fan of TV. So if we're going to talk about where the spark came from, that would be it. Thanks Dumbo! (The only show I remember from this momentous time of my life.) More than a love of television though, I think what it really sparked in me was a love of entertainment. A love of stories. Although, if we were being truly honest, I think my love of stories stems even further back to the bed time stories my dad used to make up for me every night before I went to sleep. Those, more than anything else from my early childhood, probably shaped who I am today.

When I got to high school, there were no television classes, but there was a drama program. So my love of stories and entertainment, naturally, took me into theatre. All through high school, my free time was consumed by this world of entertainment I had built up around myself. I spent hours after school backstage developing light plots, creating sound effects, building sets and just generally helping out with rehearsals, all for the sake of helping to tell a story on stage. At about 7 or 8 at night I would come home exhausted, plop myself down on the couch, turn on the TV and watch prime time.

College became a continuation of high school, and I continued pursuing my theatrical talents in classes during the afternoons and rehearsals in the evenings, and spent my late nights and mornings watching and reading about television. Graduating from college, and working for a professional theatre, I once again find myself following the same pattern, but the time allotted to television has increased dramatically.

So there you have the brief history of my life, spent immersed in entertainment. But you may have noticed my life has been as much about theatre as it has been about television. So why am I choosing to write about TV?

Well, there's a few different parts to that answer. The medium of television is constantly changing. It is actively developing into the internet and ipods and smart phones and who knows where else it’s headed in the future. Aside from some lighting advancements, theatre hasn’t changed much since the Greeks. There's a value in the tradition and history of theatre, but there's an excitement and liveliness that more people recognize in television.

On another note. More often than not, in theatre, you’re working on a show that’s been done dozens of times in other places around the country, and your audience has usually seen it before. Television provides new series (even though a lot of them are rehashes of older ideas) every season. That’s not to say that there are no new stories to tell in theatre, there are new works written all the time, they're just less well known than, say, a new television series would be. People go to the theatre to see Shakespeare, or big budget musicals they've heard a lot about, and not much else. Television has more range.

Tying it all back into storytelling, here is where I find the most crucial difference between the two mediums. With theatre, the entire story is contained in the tiny jar of a 3 hour performance. Theatre doesn't get sequels. Television, on the other hand, seems to never stop. I love the episodic development structure of television. Revealing story pieces bit by bit and tying them into older arcs. Growing characters and relationships both within a 45 minute episode, and within the greater season. Until a show gets cancelled, and sometimes even after, the stories continue on screen and in people's minds and conversations. There's a reason I'm one of hundreds of bloggers whose chosen subject matter is their favorite television shows. 

Television, at its heart, is always about the story. And that's what I love.

You know, unless the story is Charlie Sheen. Then I'm not interested.