Mongrels: The Tricky Eight Minutes
Tuesday night is Mongrels night on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Three, and we're pleased to have writer Jon Brown here to tell us about the challenges of working on this unique show.
Jon Brown, writer of Mongrels, says...
We wanted Mongrels to have that real snappy, lightning-quick pace of the US shows we all love. Seinfeld, , Family Guy, Arrested Development.
Trouble is, those shows run to approx 22 minutes, while we're an entire, unbroken, sprawling ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ half-hour. And so the hardest part of the entire writing process was thus:
How to fill the tricky eight minutes?
Our fix was to plant little 'events' in each episode, recurring kinks in the format that would sustain interest, keep the show moving forward.
Like songs. Or action sequences. Or celebrity cameos.Ìý
Which brings me onto the second hardest part of the entire writing process:
Writing the celebrity cameos.Ìý
Here's the brief: you need a joke or scene revolving around a famous face, who's recognisable enough to make it worthwhile, but also conceivably 'available' or game enough to agree to appear in an adult puppet show on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ3 they've never heard of for a minimal fee. It's all about hitting the sweet spot between Robert Pattinson at one end of the scale and Chico at the other.
Ideally the joke isn't too specific to a particular individual, or you'll be rewriting it endlessly as your producer works down the A-list, into the B-list, and through the C-list searching for the one household name who'll agree to, for instance, take psycho-sexual abuse from a foul-mouth urban fox.
Sometimes we got lucky. The Paul Ross scene in episode two simply wouldn't have worked with anyone else. And Eammon Holmes was a revelation. (I just thank the lord he didn't read the script before he turned up.)
But then there are the celebs that got away. One scene required the presence of a certain member of a world-famous Irish boyband. And amazingly enough, he was totally up for it. Until we sent him a DVD of the pilot episode and he had to regretfully decline, on account of his chronic pupaphobia.
Yeah. Fear of puppets.
In fairness, having spent a year writing exclusively for the furry little bastards, I feel his pain.
Watch Episode Three of Mongrels on Tuesday 6th July at 10.30pm on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Three. Here's a preview!
Jon Brown, writer of Mongrels, says...
We wanted Mongrels to have that real snappy, lightning-quick pace of the US shows we all love. Seinfeld, , Family Guy, Arrested Development.
Trouble is, those shows run to approx 22 minutes, while we're an entire, unbroken, sprawling ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ half-hour. And so the hardest part of the entire writing process was thus:
How to fill the tricky eight minutes?
Our fix was to plant little 'events' in each episode, recurring kinks in the format that would sustain interest, keep the show moving forward.
Like songs. Or action sequences. Or celebrity cameos.Ìý
Which brings me onto the second hardest part of the entire writing process:
Writing the celebrity cameos.Ìý
Here's the brief: you need a joke or scene revolving around a famous face, who's recognisable enough to make it worthwhile, but also conceivably 'available' or game enough to agree to appear in an adult puppet show on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ3 they've never heard of for a minimal fee. It's all about hitting the sweet spot between Robert Pattinson at one end of the scale and Chico at the other.
Ideally the joke isn't too specific to a particular individual, or you'll be rewriting it endlessly as your producer works down the A-list, into the B-list, and through the C-list searching for the one household name who'll agree to, for instance, take psycho-sexual abuse from a foul-mouth urban fox.
Sometimes we got lucky. The Paul Ross scene in episode two simply wouldn't have worked with anyone else. And Eammon Holmes was a revelation. (I just thank the lord he didn't read the script before he turned up.)
But then there are the celebs that got away. One scene required the presence of a certain member of a world-famous Irish boyband. And amazingly enough, he was totally up for it. Until we sent him a DVD of the pilot episode and he had to regretfully decline, on account of his chronic pupaphobia.
Yeah. Fear of puppets.
In fairness, having spent a year writing exclusively for the furry little bastards, I feel his pain.
Watch Episode Three of Mongrels on Tuesday 6th July at 10.30pm on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Three. Here's a preview!
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Comment number 1.
At 15th Jul 2010, mongrel94 wrote:i LOVE episode three it must of been difficult to do all of that, i think its a great show.
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Comment number 2.
At 1st Sep 2010, some wierd bloke wrote:pupaphoiba lol good excus that is going to ceep mr lafing for yers
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Comment number 3.
At 1st Sep 2010, some wierd bloke wrote:o wall i got astrophobia skerd of thunder and lightning that is a real painin the ass
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