Creative Slump in Hollywood

Warren Bell is a bit of a rarity in Hollywood. He's a politically conservative writer on a successful sitcom ("According to Jim" starring Jim Belushi).

He participates in the group blog over at National Review Online--The Corner. One topic thread on the blog recently has been the demise of the family-oriented sitcom on TV and the general dearth of fresh ideas on Hollywood--for movies or television.

Along those lines, Bell posted this recently...

More Signs of Doom in Hollywood?

Sitcom producer titans Carsey-Werner call it quits.

This is roughly equivalent to General Motors saying, "We're getting out of the car business. We may still do trucks, and small medium-priced vans. But the car market is dried up."

Regarding this and K-lo's earlier posts about various theories for the Hollywood slump: I love when people say, give us a great movie with an original story and good acting, and we'll go to it. As if everyone out here hasn't thought of that. "No more originality!" says big studio exec. "Let's remake some crap!"

It's not on purpose, folks. Everyone is doing their best. Every studio that makes a movie out of a sitcom is also developing a hundred other "original" ideas. It's just that they thought the sitcom one would appeal to people. The simple fact is this: every single person in the entertainment business would love to do a breathtakingly fresh, breakthrough film or TV show. But it's VERY VERY HARD!

When I had a development deal a few years ago, an executive said to me, "I just think you should be writing that great, smart family show that appeals to adults and kids." And I said, "I would absolutely do that, but the problem is I haven't thought of one." She looked at me funny, as if the only thing standing between me and that idea was a few sharpened pencils and the right amount of time at my desk. "So think of one," she said. I tried. I really tried.

Posted by David at June 27, 2005 04:03 PM