Women in TV week: Stephanie Savage

When thinking of the creative folks behind The OC and Gossip Girl Josh Schwartz might be the name that springs to mind, the other that should do is Stephanie Savage who co-created Gossip Girl with Schwartz and who served as a writer and producer on The OC. As she is perhaps the lesser known name and because her work on these two teen shows have had an impact on the television landscape I wanted to feature Savage as the third profile in my look at women in television.

Savage started her Hollywood career as a writer for Drew Barrymore's production company, this was the jumping block for her venture in to teen television as it is where she met McG (who served as a producer on The OC) and later became acquainted with Josh Schwartz who was the creator of The OC. For me The OC was a resurrection of the teen drama genre (even though I was just out of my teens when the show started); it had an attractive cast, a great soundtrack, fashion and adult characters that were well developed and likeable. Though the show might in some ways be responsible for MTV 'reality' shows Laguna Beach and The Hills and therefore the introduction of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt into popular culture. That aside the show started well and despite depleted ratings by the end of its run it served as an important show in the cycle of teen dramas. The fact that it aired on Fox now seems kind of odd considering that now teen shows are mainly on the CW, a network catered for this type of audience and one where ratings of who watches the show live are not as important necessarily as other factors such as buzz and iTunes figures.

This is where Gossip Girl and Stephanie Savage have thrived. A term that both Savage and Schwartz have used to describe the importance of other factors outside of audience figures is 'cultural permeation', that the show is recognised as being successful outside of ratings due to the high volume of discussion that the show has prompted. This type of discussion might only be within certain demographics, mainly the 18-25 female demo but this is an important one in regard to advertisers and it is definitely a show that is energised by the fashion and music that it features. Savage has said regarding fashion choices that they are 'making a magazine show every week and setting the trend' and this has transferred in to Gossip Girl inspired clothing at stores such as Target, with the UK chain Miss Selfridge launching a range this coming April. Influences can be seen in teen magazines and other fashion outlets; the idea of a headband has now in some ways become synonymous with Blair Waldorf. In this respect the programme is much more than it's 42 minute air time and it is this extra curricular activity that Savage seems to understand the best.

Despite being fully into my twenties the teen based TV genre is one that still appeals, maybe it's the frivolous nature, the clothes, the music or the actors who are actually about my age but playing people much younger that still draws me in, or that in shows such as Gossip Girl and The OC that the adult characters play as important parts to the story dynamic rather than being there to serve as obstacles to the younger leads. Savage finds writing for young characters appealing because 'the stage is seems so huge and everyone is doing everything for the first time ' and that 'you just forgive young characters more and they can do some pretty crazy things, but you still route for them and hope they figure it out'. 

Up next for Savage other than more writing and producing on Gossip Girl is a script draft of The Au Pairs; another book adaptation of a popular teen series written by Melissa de la Cruz. In a similar vein to Gossip Girl these books explore rich teens, this time in the Hamptons. Savage will also serve as a producer on the Josh Schwartz film remake of 'Bright Lights, Big City' which chronicles a disillusioned magazine writer who tries to numb the pain of his failed marriage with drink, drugs and women and in the 1988 original starred Michael J. Fox and Kiefer Sutherland. This creative relationship with Schwartz is still going strong and whilst he may be the bigger name of the two, Savage is a vital part of this dynamic and I look forward to what they will both produce with regards to both two projects. 

TV Show Music

    I like soundtracks, for both film and TV, which I think stems from my love of making mix tapes/CDs, but I often find it frustrating when you are watching something and a song sounds great but you just don’t know who it is. In the past it would quite often take me a while to find out who it was, usually by searching online. However, a couple of days ago when searching for songs that I had heard on Friday Night Lights I discovered a superb website called TV Show Music. It has both past and present shows on there, including The OC, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl, Friday Night Lights and even reality shows such as The Hills, as well as many others. The aspect of this site that I really liked was that it not only has track listings for episodes but also what scene the song is played in, as well as links to where you can download the tracks and a player to hear the track (the downfall of this feature is that it is for US only users).

    So now that I have finally found a site that will help me find the tracks that I hear and love on TV, I wanted to write a little on the shows that have featured great music that has expanded my CD collection a little more and why certain shows have soundtracks that enhance the viewing pleasure. First off I need to unburden myself with the potential original source for my love of TV soundtracks which comes I think from Dawson’s Creek (and yes I owned both CDs), the teen drama is a usual source of new music and as I will review is a trend that is prevalent today;

 

The OC/Gossip Girl: Josh Schwartz has made it his ‘thing’ it would seem to associate his programming with new and exciting music. This works on several levels, it means that his shows that are about young and trendy teenagers also have external elements that feature this criteria but it also allows outside product synergy that, from a commercial aspect benefits both the shows and the bands on the CDs. Once again I own both shows albums, and both have led me to new bands, although I must admit I got a band opinion of Phantom Planet from the OC theme song, as it is a song I don’t really like, however after hearing other Phantom Planet tracks on Gossip Girl (primarily Raise the Dead in ‘The Serena Also Rises’) I have fallen in love with their music.

 

Chuck: Yes another Josh Schwartz show but one that doesn’t necessarily use music as a promotional aspect of the programme, primarily because it is a different age range of characters and the setting is not focused on the lifestyles of the rich. However out of the three Schwartz helmed shows it is Chuck that has me often looking up the artists who feature in the songs that are played. It also blends music that is both current and other songs that deserve their place in pop culture history (‘Hip to be Square’, ‘Once in a Lifetime’ and the songs performed by Jeffster: ‘Africa’ and ‘Mr Roboto’). Also Bon Iver has been used beautifully in several episodes in season 2 that made me fall in love again with ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’. Chuck also introduced to The Thermals who I think are awesome.

 

Friday Night Lights: Just to reiterate it is FNL that led me to find TVshowmusic.com, and I must say that the range of tracks that this programme uses is both impressive and important in creating the world of Dillon, Texas. The music of Explosions in the Sky is perhaps the key to this example as they have been used throughout the three seasons of the show and it personifies the feelings of the town through the beautiful and hopeful instrumental music. The other music that is used throughout is contemporary, and it ranges from acoustic guitar music to more hip hop related songs. As it is set in a small town in Texas there has also been some more traditional county music performance particularly at the wedding at the end of season 3 which demonstrates why this show has been hailed for its realism, by using real Texan performers in a real Texan setting.

 

Alias/ Lost/ Fringe: Most of the music in these three JJ Abrams associated shows is by composer Michael Giacchino, who creates music that fits so perfectly with the tone of these shows. It is rare for a television show to be scored by a live orchestra but Giacchino does just this and it is this quality that makes his music an important feature of these shows. With Lost he says that he won’t read the scripts, he just reacts musically to what it happening on screen and it is this organic work method that I think makes the music in Lost the dramatic and often tense sounding what it is. That he also used parts of the plane that was used in the pilot episode as percussion instruments also shows how the music is a part of the show.

 

Summer watching and reading

So with the summer officially here the amount of TV shows that I watch has dwindled, it is lucky then that I have several shows that I would like to catch up on and that I also have a stack of books to get through, so here is my must list of shows/books that I would like to get through this summer:

• Friday Night Lights season 3: this arrived on DVD a few days ago and I only have three episodes left, it sucks that it is such a short season but I have thoroughly enjoyed what I have seen so far and will blog more on this when I have finished it (which will probably be by tomorrow).
• The Office seasons 4 and 5: so as I wrote about previously I finally got round to watching this show and have fallen in love with it. I’ve heard that these two seasons are not as good as the second and third but I am looking forward to seeing how the coupling of Pam and Jim will affect the shows dynamic.
• I need to catch up on Dexter season 3 and so will get it on DVD when it comes out in August, also in August the return of Mad Men to the small screen which I am also super excited about.
• I am weirdly tempted to get the new 90210 on DVD when it comes out this summer, good or bad decision? I do like teen shows such as The OC and Gossip Girl, but not ones like One Tree Hill and from what I have seen it does seem to fall in to the first category, and it has a Bluth in it.
• Speaking of teen drama, yesterday I started reading a Gossip Girl book, the prequel to be exact just to see how the TV show has evolved and deviated from the original source material. So far it is ok, not great, although I was surprised by the extreme attention to detail, but I guess it is this attention to materialistic items that the TV show can do in one shot that a book unfortunately needs sometimes excessive words to describe.
• On the book issue, I’m also considering reading a Kathy Reichs Bones book to see how different this is from the show. I also got extremely cheaply a Bones adapted novel not by Kathy Reichs but in the style of the show, so that will be intriguing (and potentially bad). I will write more on these when I get round to reading them.
• I also have the second volume of the Heroes graphic novel to read, I enjoyed the first volume so hopefully this second one will be just as good and perhaps fare better than the show has done of late.
• Also, thanks to Doc Jensen’s suggestion over at Entertainment Weekly for Lost inspired summer reading I am also tempted to read ‘Replay’ by Ken Grimwood.
• Other TV ideas that have been suggested include; over on Alan Sepinwall’s blog to rewatch Band Of Brothers which is by far one of my favourite programmes ever to appear on TV and over on Chucktv.net to watch Chuck from the start to keep focus on the show whilst it is on a long hiatus. I’m also going to start watching Lost from the beginning so to fill the Lost void that it the next eight or so months.

 

So this is my summer viewing/reading plan so far which I’m sure will adapt and have things added to it.