A SINCERE SEX TEENAGERS-RELATED BLOGPOST
January's Channel 101 screening was held two weeks ago. It was the day I finally received the plaque for my writing Channy* (thanks, Julie). Incidentally, it was also the day the audience cancelled Sex Teenagers. What a bunch of idiot assholes!
The Channy Awards were held in December. I was not expecting to win, so I didn't prepare an acceptance speech. That's why I ended up sounding like garbage. I came off weirdly defensive and snarky. If the award show is ever posted online then I'll implore you kind folks to never, ever watch my speech.
So I'm writing this blog post as a mulligan for my acceptance speech and as a eulogy for the show.
Sex Teenagers was Dave Seger's idea. He came to Tom Kauffman and said, "Hey! I want to make a Channel 101 show called 'Sex Teenagers'."
Tom and Dave have an interesting collaborative arrangement. Tom writes the shows, Dave directs, and they co-produce them. Dave helps Tom write and Tom helps Dave direct. Then they edit the shit out of the shows together.
My creative input on Sex Teenagers is hard to describe. I'd tell people "I write for Sex Teenagers." I wrote jokes and worked on stories. My level of involvement varied from month to month. It's hard to remember who wrote what. It's safe to say that most of the stories were written by Tom and most of the jokes were written by "the room".
I owe my Channy win completely to Tom Kauffman. The secret to writing with Tom, as I said on stage at the Channies (again, if you can, don't check them out), is to live with him. Tom's system of writing involves lying around on couches until 6 AM, endlessly retooling the story. And taking frequent youtube breaks. Then, after the story's been re-tooled to near perfection, throwing it out for a better, cleaner idea. Then finishing that story an hour before the shoot.
For the first six episodes, Tom and I had generated probably 15 episodes worth of material. A lot of okay jokes, terrible puns, and unworkable stories never made it. The last episode was written by the hyper-talented Kelsy Abbot and the live episode was fairly simple (it was basically written for blocking and re-written in rehearsals (check out Nate Cornett's blog entry about it)).
The great lesson to be learned from Tom and Dave is to write and direct for editing. It's something they learned after countless hours in the Central Michigan University editing bays. They know what they want their final product to look like and won't waste time with anything they're unsure of. They'll gladly discard their egos to make something great.
A story beat isn't working? Throw it away. A joke works but won't push the story? Throw it away. In Channel 101 storytelling you have to be married to the whole rather than the parts.
Speaking of which, the actors all nailed their parts*. It was lucky that the casting worked out as well as it did, since the actors were cast primarily based on their availability for the first episode (as well as youthful looks and acting ability, but who cares).
James found the exact right tone for his performance and has some of my favorite line deliveries of all time. Jae would not only nail her takes the first time, but would nail them consistently with eerie precision. Dominic is some sort of alchemist who could improvise and transform each line into a nugget of comedy gold*. And Danielle moved away with little warning, thinking the show was cancelled after episode 3. Nice lady, though.
Nate Cornett, who shot most of the show, was a behind-the-scenes superhero. Nate works fast and is versatile with the patented One-Point Lighting System. Nate's setups with Tom's color correction made up the look of the show.
Jon Hill, who'd frequently help out and run sound (when I wasn't), was great to have on set, too. Real nice guy. And not bad to look at, either.
While it's a bummer that it ended, I'm glad the show was cancelled on one of its best episodes. Kelsy Abbott wrote a great, fun script. She and Jennie Pierson were fantastic guest teenagers. After the final edit of the show (at 9 AM on a Friday after a candy fueled all-nighter) Dave, Tom, and I were still laughing at the jokes that had been filmed a week earlier. And "I'm in Hell!" is a fitting final line for a show about high schoolers.
I'm proud of Sex Teenagers and happy to have been a part of it.
Fun show, fun friends, fun times. Let's make some more!
* Best Writing: Paul Isakson, Sex Teenagers
