While watching the credits for “Curb Your Enthusiasm” the other night I noticed that the show has two producers, three associate producers and three executive producers. Now if memory serves, a producers job essentially boils down to ensuring that everyone is on the set that needs to be, the actors (Larry David an actor?) have their scripts, the grips are gripping and so forth.
Now I’m not one to prevent any individual from making a living but seven producers for a 22-minute television show? Seems a bit ridiculous to me. Is Larry David creating positions for some old buddies to whom he owes favors? What exactly is a producers job and how does one start his/her career in “producing”?
And no critical comments regarding my taste, or lack thereof, in television, okay? I finished watching the Sopranos and I was too damn lazy to get up and find the remote. Besides, I always wondered what Woody Allen would do with a half-hour T.V. gig, and C.Y.E. proves that it’s a good thing he didn’t.
Oh, is that right. Thanks for clearing that one up. I’ve haven’t slept a wink since I asked and your brief but detailed explanation showed me the light. Thanks again.
Sly
I don’t really lost any sleep over it, but I and others have noticed and remarked about the proliferation of producers.
It was brought home to me one time when I was watching an old MGM movie that had a good story, many of MGM’s big stars and lots of production values like sets, costumes etc. It was obviously a major MGM project with a lot of its assets comitted. In the credits at the end one of them read Producer, Joe Pasternak Period. End of producer credits.
I think it is obvious that as far as actual operations go there is a producer, and then there are a bunch of names getting screen credits to build up their resumes.
This has been asked and answered before, but the short explantion is that producers are the ones who are responsible for making the show happen. They put up the money, get the staff together, run interference with the networks, ensure that the show runs smoothly from week to week, and so forth. On most television shows they are far more important than the director, who is there mostly to make sure the cameras are pointed at the right actors. (OK, maybe they do a little more.) But television far more than movies these days is a producers’ medium.
It’s true that the name is often thrown around loosely, and some of the credits are there merely as a “thank you” for their help. There’s a great joke in David Mamet’s “State and Main” in which the writer overhears the director saying that “Assistant Producer” is the title given the secretary and then later is offered that title as a reward to get him to stay.
The IMDB doesn’t detail who the producers of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” are. But I’ll bet that they include creator Larry David, the guys from the production company who are in charge of making the program happen, the line producer who goes out and makes the show run, and any people whose money is on the line if the show tanks.