ABSTRACT
In the midst of a post-millennial era of crisis and change-technological, industrial, and cultural-the networks are placing a new set of extraordinary demands on members of the TV production community. In particular, show creators and their writing teams are being expected to create high-concept, high-profile, multi-platform “TV blockbusters”—also known as “transmedia franchises”—that successfully mobilize a host of ancillary revenue streams, engender merchandising opportunities, and spawn a multitude of spin-offs, including digital content and promotions for the web. In this new, post-network TV workplace environment, Lost head writer-producers (aka showrunners) Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof see their expanded role as synonymous with that of the brand managers who oversee major, nonentertainment brands like Coca-Cola and Ford Motor.2
Adopting the methodology and focus of production studies, I argue in this chapter that the changed workplace environment and industrial circumstances associated with network television production in the age of the Internet have greatly altered the practices of collective “authorship” even though industry discourses publically adhere to obsolete paradigms-namely, the designation of the singular voice of the “auteur”—when discussing the creation of so-called “quality” TV programs like Lost.3 Whereas media scholar and provocateur Henry Jenkins optimistically describes transmedia franchises in Convergence Culture as exciting and dynamic new creative frontiers and opportunities to engage in peer participation entertainment, this chapter considers the negative cultural impact on production culture of having heightened demands placed on television writer-producers who, albeit well paid for their efforts, have been handed greater responsibility for steering massive,
global, corporateTV empires like Lost.4 After briefly surveying production studies from the 1980s to the present and highlighting the challenges facing scholars conducting production studies today, I turn to a case study of the making of Lost (2004-) to demonstrate the ways in which showrunners Lindelof and Cuse have taken a leadership role in helping brand the show and the network. A number of factors complicated this effort including: changing audience patterns, new digital technologies, and the recent Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. While many showrunners (including Lindelof and Cuse) welcome the creative and financial opportunities associated with transmedia franchises, the fact remains that the success of their show has created an implicit pressure among other writerproducers to replicate this type of branded entertainment.5 As one Hollywood insider notes,
