The TV Set

A comedy set over the weeks in which a television pilot is made. Mike has written a script. He is preparing a series that grew out of his own brother's suicide and a network has bought it. Then the notes start. The suicide is found uncomfortable; an accident is suggested instead. The woman running the network speaks plainly. Lenny knows what the audience wants and says that what is clever does not get watched. From there the film is a story of erosion. Casting, rehearsal, costume, sets, and a text that changes a little at every step. The casting of the lead is the breaking point. The actor Mike wants is good, but the network wants someone more familiar and more likeable; it is decided by a show of hands. What the narrative is interested in is not art but negotiation: the film shows that nobody means harm, that everyone is doing his job, and that the text disappears for exactly that reason. There is an executive who came from Britain. He is on the side of good work but has no power in the company and backs down at every meeting. Test screenings are inside the narrative. An audience presses buttons, the graph drops, and the scene is cut accordingly. The ending is bitter. The series goes to air, it succeeds, and nothing is left of what Mike wrote. The director knows this work at first hand; he had made a series for television himself and dealt with network notes. David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver, Ioan Gruffudd, Judy Greer and Fran Kranz are in the cast. Jake Kasdan wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes dry comedy told from inside the industry. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a big event; the film is small, quiet and takes place entirely in meeting rooms.