Another Dumb Plot Device To Avoid

As I come across these things in actual screenplays, causing me to vividly remember them (because I'd previously cast them out of my brain like Backstreet Boys lyrics), I'm going to post them, and warn you avoid their evil.

This week: Climaxes (and other plot beats) involving live TV shows.

I get that this is like other plot devices, in that if done well, they can work. The idea even sort of works in Tootsie, probably because it's such a comedy that we are more forgiving of dubious stories about a technician spilling a beverage on some tapes and thus the need to air a soap opera live (as opposed to, say, simply taping it an hour before it airs, or even ten minutes, so you have a chance to re-do any screw-ups). I still wonder what they aired on the West Coast, or what happened with the three weeks of other episodes they already had in the can. More live tapings, I guess, or reruns of "Little House".

The truth is, there just aren't a lot of TV shows that air live. The news. Morning shows. Sporting events. I guess the show in which they pick the lottery numbers. "Saturday Night Live". "American Idol", once they narrow everyone down. The occasional last five minutes of "Big Brother".

But over and over in scripts I read, there are big climaxes involving revelations on live TV shows. And I get why writers want to do this -- there's something climactic about having your big dramatic or comic showdown where millions of people are watching, and things can't be taken back.

But it's got to be credible. I've read at least three scripts that had characters getting involved in live episodes of "Cops", something that there have never, ever been. The vast majority of talk shows are not live. And the script I just read, which spawned this rant, centered on a climax involving a live episode of a sitcom.

I know that occasionally episodic television does go live. "ER" did it once. But it's a big deal. It involves a hell of a lot of work, and preparation. In this script I read, it wasn't a big deal. The writer handled it as if this is how sitcoms are always done.

It just comes across as stupid.

There are times when live TV climaxes can work, when it is finessed well, when something new is brought to it, and when it is made credible. But at least work hard to make the reader believe that what is airing live is something that might actually do so, and isn't the glaringly awkward attempt of a bad writer to wrap up all the script's plotlines in a badly-tied bow.