The pitfalls of network TV

Mitchell Hurwitz has a theory about US network TV: “The shows that tend to endure and become hits do so despite the executives’ efforts – and they know it.”

Welcome to a Catch-22 world where The Simpsons became the biggest TV show in the universe despite the fact that, or arguably because, producer James L Brooks stipulated in his contract from the start he would never take a note from the studio or network.

“The Simpsons is still considered an anomaly. They can’t trust people to police themselves,” says Hurwitz.

Hurwitz has worked in network TV comedy for more than 20 years on era defining shows from The Golden Girls and Ellen to his much-loved creation Arrested Development for Fox.

Despite a strong authorial style – he penned all 52 episodes of Arrested and typically spun eight storylines at once – he has resisted overtures from cable, and the promises of total creative freedom. “I’ve always thought it’s a greater success to connect with a mainstream audience,” he says.

Running the gauntlet

Yet, speaking to Hurwitz as Arrested begins a complete re-run on FX, you almost wonder why he perseveres, such is his bewilderment at the “gauntlet” execs make comedy writers run.

He is a veteran of the cut-throat pilot season, with versions of British hits The Thick Of It and Absolutely Fabulous among the shows left on the cutting-room floor.

“We did The Thick Of It for ABC, which has the widest appeal of all channels,” he recalls. “In pilot season, that will translate into the lowest common denominator: you’ve got to take out everything objectionable and you’re left with middle-of-the-road stuff.”

While his team adjusted “by millimetres” a show about politics’ inner workings, ABC plumped for Cavemen, a brash comedy about neanderthals in the modern world that made some clumsy allusions to race relations.

With an approving nod to British TV’s willingness to take creative risks, Hurwitz says that in the US, “the notes are all about making the subtext into text. So the earlier episodes of some

shows are not as good as later ones because everything is over-explained. TV suffers from a corporate approach because it doesn’t take the long view. It’s all about which pilot tests the highest and what is the safest bet.”

Following Arrested’s well-documented battle with Fox, Hurwitz recalls being nudged off air to make way for Stacked, a sitcom starring Pamela Anderson as a bookshop worker, which was swallowing a large chunk of Fox’s marketing budget. He spurned an offer of making more for cable network Showtime on half the budget and with half the cast, and moved on.

Returning to Fox with Arrested actor Will Arnett last year for Running Wilde, Hurwitz agreed to play by the rules. “We decided to do what it took to get the show on air: take the notes, do what they asked, and if it lasted four years, we could get subversive. It was the antithesis of the stalwart approach I took with Arrested about my ‘vision’.”

In retrospect, he says: “Not a great strategy. The concept from the start was compromised. Everybody meant well, but it just didn’t find its way.”

The axe fell after 13 episodes and it has yet to find a UK buyer. It probably didn’t help that fans expected another Arrested Development.

“I worked so hard on that show, finessing every word in post, and kept thinking ‘nobody will ever be able to do something this crazy again’. But the joke was on me because I was always going to be the one compared with that.”

After much deliberation, Hurwitz is finally knuckling down on the Arrested Development movie, which he likens to a “family reunion” with the likes of Michael Cera and Jason Bateman. A script is in the works with his regular co-writer Jim Vallerly, and he plans to have it in the can this year.

As for TV, he will continue to develop ideas, but wonders what future there is in network comedy Stateside. “I really do feel that the scripted ‘quality’ series are moving to cable,”

he says. “When TV came along, radio didn’t die but real-life, news and music began to dominate, and that’s what’s finally happening with network TV. It’s going to be all about the moment: not necessarily things you would ever re-run, but things people want to talk about that week.”

He cracks up recalling Fox’s notes on Ab Fab: keep the drink, but lose the cocaine. “What’s the point of regressing on a show that’s over 15 years old? Going into it, I thought everybody knew what we had. But you forget that America’s a huge place, the networks are going for common denominator in a place where 90% of people don’t believe in evolution. I do, I think.”