fandomhigh | So You Want to Make a TV Show- 2nd Period- Class #3

As soon as everyone was seated, Dana started with, "Anyone who cops to calling me yesterday gets detention. Don't be that stupid. Now that we have that out of the way, this week we're going to be discussing what kind of show you want to do.

"I'll spoil it for you: you're going to be putting together a sports show. Sometimes when you get into this business, you have to take the job that comes to you. Maybe you wanted to work on some cable news show and have to cut your teeth at MTV. It'll happen. Take the experience, learn what you can, and when another opportunity comes, you can move on. Now, you might be saying 'I don't know anything about sports,'" Dana went on. "You're missing out, but that's beside the point. You will pick up things in the course of the job. If you don't, you're not really listening. Lingo will get to you, you'll start recognizing names, and after a while you might actually be able to sound like you know what you're talking about when you're watching a game with your friends, even if you only know it from a technical aspect.

"What we're going to do today is go around the room, and you're going to tell us what you know about sports right now. What's your favorite? Why? Do you play? Why not? And then you're going to get together- or work singly, I don't care- and come up with reasons why you think why working on a sports show might be harder or easier than working at CNN or a Comedy Central news show. Anything you can come up with. Once you know the problems- and believe me, you will run into them- you can start to tackle them. No pun intended."

As Dana took a seat at her desk, she said, "Oh, and don't get too used to this sort of class. Next week I start giving you assignments. Oh, wait, I lied. For homework this week, I want each of you to catch a game. I don't care what kind. Football, curling, whatever you saw, just see something to get some more experience than you do this week."

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"Press other buttons to make it show something more interesting," Adora admitted. "Not that the extreme games weren't interesting, but the things between them. The little shows about Cialis, for example, were less so."

"Oh, those aren't shows," he said, snickering. "Those are things called commercials. They're sort of...advertisements for different products to make you wanna go out and buy the products."

"Oh," Adora felt like she should have realized and laughed at her own mistake. "Are there so few products to show different commercials for the same item so regularly?"

"Well, it's more about who pays the most money to get their commercials shown more often than others," Hannibal said. "Businesses buy space on television and if I have more money than someone else, my product will get shown more. But there are a ton of products."

"You know too much about this," Adora decided happily. "I'm going to make you my personal television guru."

"I watch a lot of television," he said and shrugged. "Sometimes there's not a lot to do here. Or at home."

"I've noticed that," Adora replied. "I really didn't expect there to be so much relaxation time at school."

"Never got a chance to take a load off back home?" Hannibal asked.

"Very rarely," she said. "But all this time off just makes me that much more excited for our engagement." Her eyes twinkled deviously.

"I was hoping you hadn't forgotten about that." He hadn't. Not at all.

"I've been looking forward to it," Adora enthused. "I was starting to think I'd get out of practice."

"Oh, trust me, you never get out of practice," he said, smiling widely. "It's just like riding a bike. Once you learn, you never forget."

"Sounds like I need to learn to ride a bike," Adora replied with a little smirk.

"I've got a bike you can ride." He hadn't called it that before but whatever works.

"Sounds like we might need another engagement. Assuming you can walk after today." She couldn't help teasing a little, not that she would wound him on purpose.

Holy shit, she must be hardcore.

"I'm sure I'll do fine," he said, keeping himself calm. "I've got a lot of stamina."

Adora grinned, "What's more important, stamina," she paused, "or skill?"

"I find that a good combination of the both usually makes for the best climax." That was true. "And then we'd both be winners. Unlike sports where only one team is a winner."

"It does keep things going high till the very end," she agreed, liking his take on the end of a fight. "But I do hope you know when to say when. I would hate myself if I hurt you, even accidentally."

"You won't." He was confident of this. He'd done it enough before. "I'm not delicate."

"Good," Adora nodded, reaching out to pat his forearm. "I like having you around. Especially in this class where I am so far out of my element."

"Always happy to help," Hannibal said brightly. "With a sports show," he added, slipping easily back into the assignment, "there are certain sports that are more popular than others. We shouldn't lead a show with a segment about badminton, for instance."