How come some pilots get shown and others don't, but go on to a full series, Micheal?
Inn Mates Page 9
It used to be that pilots were made for internal purposes, but at a time of budgetary pressure, the expectation now is that they should be made as transmittable and transmitted. Sometimes a pilot doesn't work, in which case it doesn't get shown. Broadcasting pilots obviously provokes some audience response and provides viewing figures, which is helpful in overall decision making. A non-transmittable pilot can be put into research and then used as the basis of a series.
Or maybe also if a weak pilot, as I personally suspect Grandma's House may have been, is aired, gets slated, it then makes it very hard for the TV co. to put out a series they really want to make, for whatever reasons they have, ie. budget, theme, it's made by one of their own, etc.
Conversely if a very good pilot of a difficult to make series isn't shown, eg. Lizzie & Sarah then the TV co. gets no kudos at all.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ August 10 2010, 9:49 AM BSTOr maybe also if a weak pilot, as I personally suspect Grandma's House may have been, is aired, gets slated, it then makes it very hard for the TV co. to put out a series they really want to make, for whatever reasons they have, ie. budget, theme, it's made by one of their own, etc. Conversely if a very good pilot of a difficult to make series isn't shown, eg. Lizzie & Sarah then the TV co. gets no kudos at all.
Let the Grandma's House obsession go, Kipper! Whatever it's faults it certainly wasn't broadcast as part of some gay Jewish BBC conspiracy.
If this does go beyond the pilot, which given the work that has been put in, I hope it does, then if I am the intended audience, and as I have said, I suspect I am not, I would like to see a more diverse range of ages and character types, which the setting lends itself to, rather than the relentless yoof focus. A lot I guess depends on how integral the nightclub aspect of the show is.
Quote: chipolata @ August 10 2010, 10:18 AM BSTLet the Grandma's House obsession go, Kipper! Whatever it's faults it certainly wasn't broadcast as part of some gay Jewish BBC conspiracy.
Don't forget orthodox. In Kipper's world the halls of the BBC are shoulder to shoulder with queer rabbi braiding each others side curls in between frenetic bouts of nepotistic pilot commissioning.
Well I just watched this. I like to be fashionably late and really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure I was going to, the shopping trolley slapstick then the 'if you like shit' flowers line which spoiled for me anyway the much better visual gag. I would have gone with NAN or somesuch but it was still a corker. I think the cut out to the two houses which centred the show with people worked for me, and then back to the pub and the mystery of Morrisey. The performances were all pretty much stellar, there was a lot to laugh at and it blended a variety of comedy styles, the central five doing a coupling kinda thing, the community police having their own style, the barmaid wheelchair man and dancing 'son' a different style again, but it all worked for me. Quite a bold aproach but it meant there was plenty of story to go round and a mix of visual and verbal and character based comedy. I was chatting with a comedy genius friend of mine and she and I were both of the thought that we would like a sense of place for it. I imagine it was deliberate but with such a broad mix of accents I found it hard to think where it was set. With 2 Pints we clearly get that its Runcorn, and I am not sure where but I'd like to see it specifically somehwere even if it is a made up name. Rosyston Vasey has been taken I know.
Like I said though this was probably a deliberate choice, be interesting to know what the discussions were re this, and the broad range of accents though?
All in all well done, I'd happily set the series record button on my Sky+
Quote: Timbo @ August 10 2010, 8:31 AM BSTI did like the gag at the end where they were dancing to the car alarm.
A gag which, sadly, has been made a good few times before in both sketch and stand-up...
Beyond showing that it can put together about three very basic plot strands I just can't see what this show was meant to be about. Why, frankly, even bother with calling it 'Inn Mates' and setting it in a pub? The location was not really used at all as integral to the show and the characters and their stories could have been set anywhere, to be honest.
BBC Three sitcoms tend to have a "all roads lead to Two Pints..." manner of development. I'm 37 this week and, as such, probably don't understand the "youth of today", but I suspect that quite a lot of them (probably the majority) aren't overtly over-sexed simpletons, who see anal sex gags at the summation of their existence and the zenith of their comedy understanding.
It's a patronising attitude towards a section of society, suggesting that the young "demographic" hasn't the wit, intelligence or sensitivity to handle any situation which doesn't have scatological punchlines spewing out its fundament.
In defence of jdubya, I suspect this is a long way from the show he had in his mind when he started hitting the keys. I have no evidence for this, of course, but there you go. I'm quite happy to admit I'm a disgruntled old git when it comes to the subject of BBC youth-orientated sitcom. And I freely admit that I envy the day when I can look in on the BCG to find my first sitcom pilot has been torn to shreds in front of my eyes. 
Cheers Marc, and well spotted re the setting. There were indeed discussions which led to a switch of where it was meant to take place, but economics meant we couldn't actually film there. So yes, it's generically 'northern', and yes, should there be a series, it needs to be rooted somewhere recognisable and draw strength from that.
You've also identified something that tends to happen with pilots, and that's the temptation to throw everything in and possibly over-egg.
It's also worth saying that while it's brilliant for a new writer to achieve a pilot, and ideally a series, he or she is learning in public (as was the case with 'orrible, of course, and is equally true of Simon Amstell and Dan Swimer, being discussed on another thread),so while audiences naturally don't and shouldn't make allowances, it's still an exposed place to be in.
Actually, one thing made me laugh, the special constables dancing to the car alarm at the end.
It's true re the learning in public thing. Sometimes things work that shouldn't and somethimes things don't that should. I think the real test is if you can tell whether the people involved in the show care or not and it came across to me as a viewer that everyobe involved did.
Hi Tim
I think to be fair there was only one suggestive suggestion of anal sex. Also, from its inception as Sunday Lunchers, the show has always been about different people who drink in the same pub, and in the underlying sense it's about relationships, aspirations and possibilities.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ August 10 2010, 2:01 PM BSTShe made a good point.
Quote: Marc P @ August 10 2010, 2:05 PM BSTIt's true re the learning in public thing. Sometimes things work that shouldn't and somethimes things don't that should. I think the real test is if you can tell whether the people involved in the show care or not and it came across to me as a viewer that everyobe involved did.
That's extremely true.
Quote: Micheal Jacob @ August 10 2010, 1:58 PM BSTIt's also worth saying that while it's brilliant for a new writer to achieve a pilot, and ideally a series, he or she is learning in public
This rather supposes that the writer just writes what they want to see and this is then graciously green-lit to the shooting script. I think producers, script editors and the like have to take their proper share of the flak when the flaws appear and the criticism grows. Sadly, it's the writer who tends to get the shittiest end of the stick with which the show is beaten.
Any writer who's been in a script meeting will know the pressures put on them to re-write based on the production team's suggestions. This, when it works, is a positive collaborative process. However, it can be that the writer is made to feel completely beholden to these "suggestions" - i.e. if you don't do this way then "we feel" it's less likely to be made. To be fair to the writers, rightly or wrongly, this can feel like an enormous veiled threat. I've ignored suggestions I really thought were terrible, or completely shifted the tone of a script to something I didn't want my name on. As you can see, my bloody-mindedness has paid vast dividends 
. I really do think though that if TV people have identified a writer to have talent, they should show a bit more faith in their judgement, their vision. (Sometimes at least.)