View from a Farley The Current Events and Opinion Weblog of Chris Farley

Writing a Television Show

Hey, everyone.  Remember me?  Yeah, the person that’s supposed to write.  So, I’m back.  There may or may not have been what could be characterized but will not be formally named as time management issues/constraints (Dana Perino wrote that line), but I am now re-incarnated, ready to take on (i.e. write about) the world, including, but not limited to: economic crises, the election, certain comedy shows, and all the other stuff that I manage to cram in.  (By the way, this is a very short post by any standards.  I’ll make up for the extreme shortness within the next week).

Aaron Sorkin is my favorite writer, as I’ve previously stated, but up until now I’ve never wanted his job.  I’ve always appreciated his amazingly fast-paced dialogue and wit, worshipped shows like The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of his recent forays into feature films.

I, on the other hand, have never written anything longer than nine or ten pages.  But I’m intrigued about the idea of writing a television show.  I’m just slightly unsure how to proceed.  So here’s my question to the masses:  How do you write a television script?  What do you do?

Obviously, you need a concept, which I already have, but I’d like to know what format or style is required for scripts.  I’m not intending to shop this when I’m done, but I’d like it to be done right.

Should Schools Regulate What Happens Outside Their Walls?

So here I am, sitting at my desk on Labor Day. Two days before the official start of school. At my feet, I have textbooks, stacked by subject, in mint condition. On my desk, I have piles of pens and pencils. To my right, I have my required summer work. On my laptop, I have IM windows open to ask questions of people and to allow them to ask questions of me. (I’m still trying to solve the mystery of two pieces of paper that no one seems to have, despite the fact that they were referenced in a cover letter for the same mailing in which they supposedly arrived).

I finally decide to do something productive. For the third or fourth time, I open the student-parent handbook and start reading. I figure that, as class Vice President, I should be familiar with the rules and guidelines. I stop on page 29, at a note about how my school is a smoke free campus. The passage, in part, reads, “Smoking is prohibited in the buildings, on the grounds, or in the immediate vicinty of the school, including downtown [redacted].”

And then I had an idea for a blog post. The passage prohibits smoking in school buildings and on the grounds. Fine. In fact, I’m glad for the rule. But I wondered about the school’s prohibition on “[s]moking..in the immediate vicinity of the school, including downtown [redacted].” The smoking issue is just the beginning, however. What about other issues? Should schools have the ability to regulate what students do out of school? Should they have the ability to punish a student for behaving badly in public?

My legal advisers tell me that this issue is still somewhat up in the air. For private schools, of course, the issue is simple. A private school can expel any student, at any time, and for any non-discriminatory and otherwise legal reason. Public schools get a bit more complicated.

Instead of focusing on what schools can do (which is largely up in the air), I’m going to focus on what schools should do. Private schools should always maintain their ability to expel students at will (or within the systems that they’ve set up internally). When students opt into private school, they accept that the rules are different. If students don’t like the rules in a private school, they can opt out. It becomes a simple contractual relationship. At the same time, private schools should internally protect a student’s right to freedom of expression.

In public schools, activities outside school should never be punished at school. It’s simply not their jurisdiction. If it’s something illegal, the Police can take care of it. If it’s something just generally undesireable, it’s a parental issue. The school, of course, would say that if a student is reflecting badly on the school, then they should be able to punish that student. Or perhaps that once the student re-enters their jurisdiction, they can punish the student. That’s absolutely ridiculous because it would be the equivalent of the NYPD claiming jurisdiction over a crime that happened in Los Angeles, simply because the criminal traveled to New York.

When the legalities finally shake out, I anticipate that private schools will be left alone and public school students will, once again, have their first amendment rights curtailed (not that they have many rights left right now).

For now, I’m going to look over all the mailings from school. Again.