Would a good TV drama about the work of ordinary people be possible?

Cafe Society
21

Someone mentioned Social Workers above as ordinary people. The show Judging Amy featured a not insignificant amount of “A Day in the Life of a Social Worker”-- the social worker in question was Maxine Grey, played by someone whose name I should know, but can’t remember at the moment who was previously on some show that my mother watched when I was too young to stay up and watch the show–Laverne and Shirley, maybe?

Maxine’s life was every bit as “sexed-up” as one might expect it to be. For the purposes of Dramas on TV, it is desirable that at the beginning of the episode, Maxine discovers a kid or a parent with a problem. In the middle of the show, problem often becomes worse. In the end, problem is solved or under control. (I am willing to believe that this pattern is normal, or at least common, in the life of a Social Worker. What I am not willing to believe is that this problem routinely takes place over 3 or 4 days, and our poor over-worked Social Worker never has to deal with other people and their problems. Also, an awful lot of Maxine’s cases had clever solutions. One sees the dramatic cases, not the ordinary or the repetative. Plus Maxine had some co-workers and bosses whose stories were too bizarre to be believed–not that such things never happen in real life, but they happen far more often on TV.

And these events, as oppsed to the goings on in Judge Amy Grey’s office, or in Kyle’s life or not-Kyle’s life, or Amy’s life, or Peter’s life, or even Maxine’s non-work life, only make up a limited portion of an average episode.

Google says Maxine was played by Tyne Daly.

Having said all that, I’m not convinced that it is neccessarily true that no one is interested in watching the ordinary life of a teacher, social worker, lawyer, taxi driver, etc. But TV (etc.) tend to get their ideas of what will be the next big hit by looking at what the current big hit is and what past big hits have been. And since what has succeeded in the past is more likely to be a show where the JAG lawyer gets to pilot his own plane every sweeps period, the fact that most JAG lawyers do nothing but routine paperwork is unimportant, or the ER doctors diagnose a new exotic condition every week, rather than 15 cases of flu, 3 pneumonia, and 4 broken legs.

22

GAH! It’s Cagney & Lacey! Are you sure you’re old enough to post on this board?

23

Look at the professions that get turned into dramas – high0impact professions with lots of changing things going on, and ones that always bring in new people at turning points in their lives – police shows, medical shows, rescue shows, lawyer shows. Every week you have the resident cast dealing with new people and new problems, each of which is a potential live-altering situation for somebody.

Hard to make an office show like that, or a show about scientists, or assembly-line workers. As mentioned above, you have comedies about such folks, but the workplaces are remarkably unlike real workplaces (nobody ever seems to asctually work there), or else work happens offstage (Laverne and Shirley are always at home, never at the plant.)

Occasionaly you get shows that stretch the definitions here. The Dick Van Dyke Show often showed Rob at the office – but the office was the gag writing room for a variety show, so ever work there was entertaining.

24

CalMeacham, I get what you’re saying, and everyone’s mileage may vary, but my HR/factory job involved way more drama than the law offices where I worked.

Factories are full of interesting situations and novel conflicts, and it’s a shame nobody’s tapped into it. The writers and producers keep coming up with more doctors, lawyers, and cops – I guess that’s what we want.

25

There are good movies about (or centered on) the work of ordinary people - On the Waterfront, for example. I think the reason we don’t see this on TV is that most jobs don’t have the potential for dramatic conflict week after week. No one would watch a show about a dock worker facing down corrupt union bosses week after week - it would be too unbelievable.

In a sense, westerns were about working people, but the setting was in a time and place where lawlessness was common, so people had to settle problems on their own.

26

The problem is that drama is supposed to be about conflict and a resolution that’s usually big enough to change someone’s life. It’s hard to keep having life-changing conflicts with the same cast, week in and week out. Especially when the shows are made to be shown in any order. That’s why TV has so many weird and artificial conventions – it lets them stretch it all out for limited casts Al;l them skeletons in the family closets, identical twins, stuff like that). The best solution is to bring in new people every week so the life-changing thing happens to someone else besides the main cast, who nevertheless get to partake of this drama. Another is to make the shows sequential, a la Lost, but they didn’t do that a lot until recently on American TV.
With a comedy you could get away with drama of the lesswer than life-changing variety (Laura’s keeping a Secret Bank Account hidden from Rob! Why?), so you weren’t forced to this extreme.

27

Responding just to this part of what you said, if someone were to do a show about the last place I worked, this wouldn’t be an issue, but the cast would need to be huge.

The conflicts wouldn’t all be life-changing, but they’d be something viewers could relate to. Adultery, unwanted pregnancy, illegal drugs, theft, accidents (real and staged), sabotage, fist fights, mental illness, suicide, death, undocumented immigrants, terminal disease, flood, fire, discrimination, aging, and worst of all – dealing with corporate. :wink:

28

How 'bout a large, urban state university? You’ve got the faculty to serve as a kind of anchor, i.e. a group of recurring characters the audience can grow to identify with, and you have a large but constantly shifting population of students, i.e. young people, many of whom are going to have troubles of one kind or another. It might not be as life-or-death as a criminal law office or a hospital, but I think it has potential.

Has there ever been a sitcom or TV drama set in a firehouse?

29

Rescue Me on FX, currently in its third season. Where ya been? :wink:

30

There have been series set at universities, both serious (The Paper Chase) and comedic (Hank, from the 1960s, and Third Rock from the Sun, sorta). Numb3rs is partly set at a college. I don’t think any of them followed the lines you suggest, with a stable cast of professors and a circulating cast of students. That ought to work, though.

31

On basic cable! :slight_smile:

32

Even allowing for that, how much opportunity do real-life cabbies have for social interaction with their fellow cabbies? Not much, from what I’ve heard. You go to the dispatch office only to be sent right out again. At any rate, it will be rare for many of the company’s drivers to be there, just hanging out, at the same time.

33

I believe the drivers in the show hardly ever came back to the garage. I thought they were hanging out before their shift, or doing paperwork afterwards. Obviously, the company would want them to be on staggered shifts, and they probably wouldn’t show up more than five minutes before work ordinarily, but it is TV. (BTW, I get of my information from a friend who pulls the overnight shift in a cab. I had a hack’s license years ago, but drove a limo, which is very different).

34

I often wonder why there are no TV dramas about computer programmers or accountants. Its always police or doctors.

35

I really appreciated that Orwell essay, but I think he was so wrapped up in analyzing Dickens as Art that he forgot Dickens had a requirement to be entertaining, and as such, was a pop writer in his era. If Orwell could ask Dickens “Why is it that as soon as you have to deal with trade, finance, industry or politics you takes refuge in vagueness or in satire?” I think Dickens would reply “Because those are not the topics my readers are interested in.”
Everyone else has already answered the main question in the OP: A show about work could be done, but it couldn’t be about the work itself, because if television was like real life why would anyone watch it? Even “reality” shows are edited down to show a maximum of abnormal behavior and interpersonal strife to keep them interesting.
Nobody turns on the set to see people just like themselves; they turn it on to see people more attractive than themselves, with more interesting lives, more fascinating problems, having more and better sex.

36

That was Arthur Hailey (not to be confused with Alex Haley!) and he was one of my favorite writers once upon a time. His novels are very dated now, but they’re fascinating if you’re interested in the '60s and '70s.