Who “Creates” American TV Programs?
Jane Shattuc, Emerson College This paper attempts to reconcile the tension in American television between a highly rationalized system of production and the creative process. Budgets, production schedules and audience share prescribe its process. Yet TV producers continually speak of their “creativity,” “inspiration,” and “originality.” But how are innovation, creativity, or originality understood and factored into American television? In order to understand this complex process, I offer a production ethnology of the sitcom Friends-perhaps one of the most successful and internationally renown of current American programs. Through interviews, on-site observation and publicity research, I look at how the makers understand the creative process. For too long media studies have written off the ideas of the majority of television producers as self-promoting or inarticulate. Friends offers a fascinating study of how these corporate professional understand their work as an “art.” Late Night Af
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