TV writers rigorous about research
Emmy nominees display dedication to details
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It wouldn't be a stretch to say "Mad Men" creator-executive producer Matthew Weiner is obsessed about getting every detail right. Yet now and then his research sets him up for disappointment. When it became clear his crew couldn't find enough functioning electric carriage-return typewriters for the Sterling Cooper office, Weiner says he made a "deal with the devil," and OK'd using IBM Selectrics, which didn't come out until 11 months after the pilot episode was set.
The gaffe could be explained away since advertising offices sometimes get items before they hit the market, but Weiner calls it a blunder: "If I'd had my way, I would have done it the right way."
Because magazines and movies of the day offer stylized depictions of an era, and memories can't be trusted for accuracy, Weiner turns to people's family photos and homemovies for research.
"What you get is a real feeling of all the periods existing at once," he says. "Grandma's dressed from the '20s, Grandpa may be dressed from the '30s, (and) there might be someone who works in Manhattan who has a very up-to-date look. It works for hair, clothing -- everything."
Keeping an open mind is important during research, since you never know where it will lead, points out co-creator and co-executive producer Todd A. Kessler of FX's "Damages."
"We ended up meeting with several high-stakes litigators in New York," Kessler says, "and we set Ted Danson (who plays Arthur Frobisher) up with some CEOs of billion-dollar companies, including a couple of billionaires in their own right.
"As we got more and more into our research -- talking to these attorneys and reading accounts of corporate scandals -- we found it really supported our desire to show how much destruction is left in the wake of these cases."
Kessler also learned that powerful attorneys often broker deals in informal settings. "More can be achieved through familiarity, which we were very happy to uncover in our research."
The starting point for research can be as typical as Google or Wikipedia, says "House" co-executive producer Garrett Lerner. But three medical advisers and staff writer/ physician David Foster are among the series' best sources.
Lerner's writing partner Russel Friend recommends USC's Hollywood Health & Society program, through the Annenberg Norman Lear Center: "They exist to promote accurate information in the media about medical and health issues. It's an incredible resource." The program provides access to world-class specialists and often sends expert speakers who help spark ideas with "House" writers.
Discoveries can alter a plot even at the 11th hour.
"(Medical adviser) Dr. John Sotos threw us a small factoid about three-quarters of the way through breaking a story," Lerner says. "There was this particular medication that treats the disease we were looking into, and it happened to be fatal to dogs. We took that and ran with it."
That medication became crucial to the diagnosis. "It was very cruel of us," Lerner adds. "We not only killed the dog, we killed the patient."
With its outer-space setting, "Battlestar Galactica" is also ripe for research finds, but writer Michael Angeli notes that while science advisers ensure writers adhere to the laws of physics, his research usually involves classical literature, Westerns and history.
"Those have struggles of obsession, survival and possession, which we feel is what the show is really about," Angeli says.
"If we go to the Bible, a Western or the transcripts of the trial for Saddam Hussein -- which we did at the end of season three -- we can look for cultural differences, questions of race, gender, class, conspicuous consumption and sex," he adds. "We like to touch on the idea of what it means to be human."
