It is absolutely mind-boggling to think about everything that goes in to making one episode of television. First of all, these people are working for days and weeks to create 21 or 42 minutes of television. What's more, we as the audience kind of assume that the characters' lives don't even exist off screen. Which they don't. Ok, nevermind. That's sad.
Last night, amidst a marathon of Friday Night Lights, there was an episode where all the characters are at a giant town fair -- Ferris wheel, fried dough, arm wrestling booth, the works. Where I grew up, the annual carnival (or jamboree as we so quirkily called it) was basically the biggest thing to happen in town all year. And these television people create one in order to get about 6 minutes of footage for one episode of a show that I'm now watching on my couch.
Think back to the days when shows were shot on sets. We never had a 360 degree view of the Lamberts' kitchen on Step by Step or Mr. Belding's office on Saved By the Bell. But now, we know every inch of the Bluth house and we can make a floor plan of The Office. Everything is so incredibly real. I just can't imagine what the director is thinking when he has to decide "should we erect a life-sized carnival with all the festivities, or should we just put up some balloons and call it a high school dance?"
I tend to take go with the easy way out when I make decisions. So I guess I'm not cut out for television.
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