The Great Movies/TV Divide
Posted September 17th, 2007 by Rich Heldenfels
For those of you who have not yet found it online, my fall-season rumination is here. (The first line in text is actually a subhead, with the story beginning on the following line.)
But, even as we all get psyched about the TV season to varying degrees, there are still those who view TV as an entertainment stepchild to the movies. I am thinking specifically of Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly, who wrote a recent article about writer-director Paul Haggis ("The Great Divider," Sept. 21 issue).
Paul Haggis, movie guy — and TV guy
Even though the piece focuses on Haggis's movie work, I was still taken aback by this passage:
Haggis burst on the scene three years ago with his script for Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby." A former "Facts of Life" writer who'd left a 25-year career in TV to pursue film …"
You get the implication. In TV, Haggis wrote crap like "Facts of Life." At the movies, he wins Oscars. Well, let's look at the record.
For TV, it is true Haggis worked briefly — and unhappily — for "Facts" before getting fired; one bio says he was fired for suggesting that the show be funny. But he also made "EZ Streets," a remarkable drama that, though short-lived, is still remembered more than fondly by the people who saw it. It will rank among Haggis's best work — and it still needs an authorized, complete-series DVD.
Haggis has other serious TV credits, and has kept a hand in TV. But I don't think EW wanted to think much about that. It was much more amusing for the mag to jam him with a famous bad credit.
September 17th, 2007 at 10:42 am
I read that as well and quickly looked up his career on IMDB. For me, the fact that he worked so long in tv doing basic script work and now has a serious string of critical film successes is a great thing to be admired. Every day, I write copy. It's not exciting but it pays the bills. It takes a lot to push yourself to the next level, and Haggis did it (he also was writer and Exec. Producer for Due South, which more people saw, but is still Canadian). Now, after winning Oscars for writing, he's almost forced to direct to protect the integrity of his work (this is how I see it breaking out: stage is about the writer, tv is about the actor, film is about the director). And, even if it's gotten mixed reviews, I'm going to see In the Valley of Elah because it looks like fun.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
When Due South was still on the air (or at least fresh in my memory, circa 1996 or so), I remember seeing his name attached to an episode of one of the un-funniest sitcoms of all time (mostly because of it's "very special episode" quotient, but also because it just wasn't very funny), One Day at a Time. It was from the final season, and after Mackenzie Phillips had been fired yet again. All I could think was "He wrote THAT?" and then also that everyone has to start somewhere, and by that point he probably hadn't been given that much to work with.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I'm very interested in "Valley of Elah," but haven't seen it yet. Will probably have to catch up once it's in theaters. And yes, Haggis has some TV credits on bad shows. But he also has some notably good ones, and EW opted for one of the bad ones. Sort of like saying "Al Pacino, whose films include 'Author! Author!' …"