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Comment by robodan | Hacker News Reader

I find it interesting that he barely mentions the actors, costumers, set designers, etc. These are the "face" of the show.

I take this to mean that story trumps all in television. You have to know what your core product is.

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In features, directors are the ultimate creative authority. But in a series, the showrunner is, and the showrunner is usually a writer --- most series have episodic directors (and often episodic writers, or at least a member of the writer's room credited for each episode), and because the showrunner has the top-down view of the whole series, the show bible, and has made all the decisions about tone and style that directors will rely on, they end up calling many of the shots a feature director would ordinarily call.

It's probably not really so much that television values story more than film than that the episodic structure of television lends itself to this kind of system.

I wouldn't read sweeping conclusions into it. I think it's more that most people's instincts suffice for dealing with those aspects, so he doesn't need to write about them as much; he hints at that in calling the "sexy" jobs a refuge from writing. Or just that story is more directly relevant to the part or stage of TV-making he's writing about.

The story and script are the blueprint. Everyone else can operate in a coordinated fashion off of a solid blueprint. The plumber, electrician, framers, etc. are all important and performed by specialized labor, but it's all within the context of a high level plan.

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