[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] STRANGER THINGS - Part 1 - The Show Engine & the Bible By Jacob Krueger [/spb_text_block] [divider type="standard" text="Go to top" full_width="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block title="Stranger Things - Part 1 - The Show Engine & the Bible" pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] If you haven’t already seen all of Stranger Things, don't worry. We're going to limit this podcast to really looking at the pilot and we're going to do that for two reasons.   Number 1: to avoid spoilers for the people who haven’t seen it.   But Number 2: Because pilots are like bibles. And what I mean by that, there's a concept called the “Show Bible" which is probably one of the most important concepts if you want to sell a TV show.    So what the hell is a bible? Well, the concept of a show bible actually began as a very different tool than it is now. Back in the day, the bible was a tool for new writers coming on to the show. What would happen was this shows are run really long time usually they will develop by a show runner and a team of writers. But eventually after many years, show runners or a writer might leave the show and new writers would be brought on. And as an existing writer, you don't want to spend all your time explaining to the new writer, "No we already did that in Episode 14. These are the things that can happen. No, this character would never do that."   So what happened instead was TV shows are built to run for a really long time and the producers didn't want the nature of the show to change. Because the whole reason that an audience comes to a show is because they want a certain feeling.   They want a very specific feeling delivered to their living room every single day. And if suddenly the feeling of the show changes or suddenly the rules of the show change with a new writer, the audience may associate feeling they're not getting that feeling anymore.   And when they do that, they're very quick to hit the channel button and change the channel on their television or their streaming. So the idea of a show bible is: We've educating the new writers about what already happened on the show. What the rules of the show were that it evolved over years and years and years.   What are the kinds of things that the character does? What are the kinds of things that the character would never do? Those little secrets that you get, that you develop as you get to know your characters over many years.     What's interesting is that back in those days the show runner would never dream of writing a show bible. In fact, the show bible was created by the assistant who would just sit and take notes on the episodes as they aired and the conversations that were held in the writer's room. And in this way, the bible was a naturally evolving document that kind of documented the life cycle of the show, rather than what it is today.   Today, the TV Bible is really a sales document. When a producer buys a TV show, they're not just buying a great pilot episode and that means when you, as a writer, sell a TV show, you have to do more than just write a great pilot episode.   TV pilots are almost entirely different than feature films in that feature films are a contained unit, TV is a series, whether it's a comedy, a drama, even a web series or a miniseries is a replicable unit. Meaning when a producer buys your pilot, they're not just buying the first episode and they're not just buying season one.   They're actually buying the first five seasons, maybe the first ten seasons. They're buying the ability to replicate a very specific feeling and a very specific kind of drama or comedy every single week (or every single episode if it's more than that for its releasing model).  And today, more and more,