fandomhigh | So You Want to Make a TV Show- 2nd Period- Class #1

As the last student walked into the classroom, Dana greeted them all with a smile and said in a voice that was just quick enough to make you realize that you were going to have to work to keep up with her, "So you're here. You made it. If you're not supposed to be in So You Want To Make a TV Show you have one of two choices. One, you can slip quietly out the door and we'll pretend never to speak of this again while we really snicker behind your back after you leave, or two, you can pretend you're really supposed to be here and just not show up next week, which is the safe bet since I'm not paying enough attention to remember your names yet anyway.

"If you are supposed to be here, congratulations, you get to have me as a teacher. My name is Dana Whitaker, and you've probably never heard of me but if you've watched Sports Night anytime recently you know my work. I run that baby and I run it well. And you may be here because you thought that this sounded like fun, or you think television is a blow-off thing, something a monkey can do, and if you think so, I'd like you to know that this monkey would have to be some NASA-trained ape, with possible genetic engineering and maybe even some psychic abilities to be able to put up with the egos, the drama, the last minute fires that pop up around you every day during the extremely long and hard hours that you spend trapped in a building with the same people whose egos create the drama which sparks at least half of those last-minute fires. Time is valuable, which is why I will tell you right now that the fastest way to get yourself detention is to waste mine. If you show up late, that's an automatic one unless you have a good reason or a damn entertaining excuse.

"We're going to be covering a lot of different aspects of putting together shows, but this week you're gonna be winging it," Dana went on. "Forget syllabuses- syllabi? Someone get me a right answer on that- that's cheating. I want you to go ahead and start making your own show.

"This is what TV is. It's a fast-paced environment where half the time you have to figure out what you're doing as you're doing it, so this is exactly what I want you to do. What do you think goes into putting together a show? Do you think you need a script? Are you going to write one? Are you going to make someone else write one? What kind of show do you want to work on? Are you going to work with other people to get things done or are you going to take it on alone and figure that gives you the right to boss people around later? I want to see how you work, so, show me how you work, so get going."

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"Then that's what we'll do. Uh. How many people are we talking about for this?"

[no prob!]

"I don't know, how long do we want this to be?"

"Well, I dunno...is there a time limit? Let's shoot for at least ten minutes, if not a full half hour. That should work."

"Well ten minutes doesn't give us much time." Robin said. "So let's shoot for, twenty minutes, cause we probably have to allow for commercials."

"Wait. Commercials? How long is a half-hour show without commercials?" He started to do math, figuring out how long a bathroom break, making nachos, and cooking a hotdog took, since that's usually what he did during commercials. Not all at once, of course.

"I think about 20 to 25 minutes."

"Okay. So we'll budget for that. Timewise. What about money? We could get a sponser, maybe?" He could talk to Turtle, perhaps.

"That'd be a good idea." Robin said enthusiastically.

Talking to Turtle it is.

"What about a name? It needs a name."

"Uhhhhm, The Fandom Show?"

"Yeah! That's a great name!"
Especially because it doesn't mean who fights over who gets top billing.

"Cool, so, now we need to decide how to recruit people."

"Do they all have to be from this class?" Because if they didn't...

"I don't know." Robin said. "We should ask the teacher."

"Yeah. Because if we have to have auditions...Maybe someone from the plays?" Nothing like using what you already know.

"That could work." Robin agreed. "Or we could try to put an announcement on the radio."

"Yeah! Radio's a great way to do it. Maybe they'd let us record an ad?"

"I bet Turtle would."

"You know, she probably would." Not that he knew her well enough to say she would, but if Robin said so...

"Problem is, how do we pitch it at her?"

"Well, we could ask her nicely, and then say we'd owe her a favor."

"True. I don't think either of us owes her a favor already. That just might work!"

"And she's nice so I don't think I'll mind owing her a favor."

Jack blinked. "Maybe. You think?" She seemed that nice, but..

"Yeah." Robin said confidently. Then, slightly less confidently because Jack didn't seem so sure; "Right?"

"Right." He was much more confident than he actually was. "We need to work on that."

So You Want to Make a TV Show- 2nd Period- Class #1

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