Last night I listened to the audio recording of a talk David Milch gave a few years ago during the writers strike. He told a great story about writing and problem-solving for NYPD Blue, a show he co-created and was head writer on for many years.
NYPD Blue's whole deal was that it was an ensemble drama about cops in a more realistic world than had been portrayed on television before (a mantle later taken up by Homicide and then The Wire). It ran for over ten years, with the definitive relationship being between partners Andy Sipowicz and Bobby Simone, played by Dennis Franz and Jimmy Smits, respectively. But Smits wasn't in the original cast.
Its first year in, the show was a hit. Problem was, David Caruso wanted to leave for Hollywood after the first season. The show was an ensemble piece, but at that time the partners played by David Caruso and Dennis Franz were the characters most focused on. And, not for nothing, in contrast to Franz's wrinkled, overweight, balding, racist, mean-tempered, alcoholic Andy Sipowicz, Caruso was the young, skinny, sober, pretty one. He was, y'know. The star of the show.
Okay, so you've got a new hit show, but when audiences get attached to a show, they want it to stay the way it is. Your star is leaving, and you know the audience isn't gonna like him being replaced. So what do you do when you've got Caruso leaving and some new guy named Jimmy Smits coming in as Dennis Franz's new partner?
Well, I'll tell you.
What you do is, you have Smits come in as Bobby Simone, all polite and nice and likable. Have him, first thing, introduce himself to Franz's character, Andy Sipowicz. "How are you doing?" and all that, totally innocent. And have Andy be like, "Yeah, hi. Would you excuse me for a minute?" And then you have Andy go into the boss's office. "This ain't gonna work." Have the boss ask, "Why, what happened?" "'What happened?' Guy comes in, 'how ya doing,' and everything! This ain't gonna work!" You have Andy totally overreact, which not only makes light of the situation, but also puts the audience in the situation of saying, "Jeez, look at Andy - this crazy drunk can't adapt to ANYthing! C'mon, give the new guy a chance!"
So now the audience is on the side of the new guy. "Give him a chance. Give the new guy a chance."
THAT'S what you do.
Brilliant.
