Writer/director John Ridley talks his edgy new TV series, “American Crime"; We crash a viewing party for the breakout TV hit, “Empire"; Musician and attorney Joe Escalante talks about the fallout from the “Blurred Lines” verdict.
John Ridley: 'Showrunners have to do better' at improving diversity
John Ridley became a household name last year when he snagged the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for "12 Years a Slave," which also won Best Picture. But he also has extensive credits in television as well, having written for "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Justice League."
Though Ridley's been out of television for a decade, he's brought some of his film experience to his new show, "American Crime."
Despite the assumptions that may be drawn due to its title, the show is a far cry from most TV procedurals. Rather than focus on detectives and attorneys investigating a murder, “American Crime” tells the story from the point of view of those suspected of a killing, and the families of the victims.
The series is also deeply interested in current issues surrounding race in America, particularly the social constructs and assumptions that dictate the ways in which various people think about race.
When Ridley stopped by The Frame, he spoke with host John Horn about the surprising origins of "American Crime," responding to the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in real-time, and the efforts he's taking to improve diversity in television.
Interview Highlights:
On ABC approaching him about the "American Crime" concept:
It was very surprising for a broadcast network to come to me prior to the very wonderful things that happened with "12 Years A Slave." And for them to want to even play in the sandbox of potent material in any regard...
As the development process went along they never backed off or said, Could you make it a little more sensational? Or, That's nice, but could we focus on the police? [They accepted] the concept of really trying to look at people, and look at how we avoid race and class...
The thing about the legal system is that, unfortunately, one of the few times that you get a blend of race, class, gender and sexual orientation is when a crime occurs. We're all thrown in this system where it's one against another as opposed to us dealing with each other.
On responding to news events within the show and not directly referencing them:
That was very tough. We chose not to do a show that was ripped from the headlines, not something that was going to be so directly exploitative of circumstances that people could draw direct comparisons to. But in the middle of that, Ferguson happened, and it really forced all of us to go back and make sure that there was an emotional honesty and an effort to be honorific to what was going on, even though this is a fictionalized story.
I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and this past weekend a young, unarmed, black male was shot by a police officer. I don't know all the circumstances yet, it'll probably take a while, and, by the way, when we go through all of this we're never going to know exactly what happened.
But the fact that these things are now happening on a cycle, and seemingly at an accelerated pace, is very disconcerting. And as someone who is just a writer — while I don't think this show will answer these questions — I think this show needs to ask questions. I think that's part of what we do in art: we ask questions.
On what TV can do right now that film can't do:
There's a lot that TV can do now that films can't. The budgets are very substantial. The talent that is interested in doing television is the same talent that wants to do movies. You literally have Oscar winners — some of the creme de la creme who are doing television. Beyond even that, the opportunity to do eleven one-hour parts to the story with a great budget and a phenomenal cast, great writers, great artisans...Movies, ya know, I love them, but ... TV is a wonderful space right now.
Even in the sitcom space, to see "Black-ish," to see "Fresh Off The Boat," to see "Cristela," to see shows where they're actually making an effort to be reflective, you just don't see that much variety of things. Let me just say this: TV is so good right now, they're calling it television. That's how good it is, they're using the longform name. It's like when they stopped calling comic books comic books and said, you know what? They're graphic novels now. That's how you know when something is good.
On his efforts to improve diversity in front of and behind the camera:
We're honestly doing everything that we can. In our writers' room we go across the board: older, younger, writers who'd never written before, black, Hispanic, female. In our directors' space we have more female directors than male directors. We knew that we were going to be better than average. It was not our desire to go to the far end of the spectrum, but the fact is that when you open the door to opportunity, it's not that difficult to find qualified individuals.
This is not tokenism. I don't want that, and I know that people like Shonda [Rhimes] and Kenya [Barris], who runs "Blackish," don't want that. But it's not hard to find qualified people. I don't expect every show to have exactly 12.6 percent African-American and six percent Asian, or whatever, but at the same time when you look at shows and they have no writers over the age of 50 or no female directors, that's insane, that's nuts — and it's unconscionable.
At the end of the year people look to the Oscars or the Emmys, but that's the end of the process. When you look at the Writers' Guild numbers, us showrunners have to do better. Particularly in television, we hire the writers, the directors and people in post-production, so we can make a difference literally overnight. It's up to us to make that decision.
This is just a partial transcript of the interview. Listen to the audio for more.
Soundtrack keeps 'Empire' fans hooked all week long
Every Wednesday at a sports bar on Cahuenga called The Man Cave there's an invite only viewing party for Fox's smash hit "Empire." Part cast and crew gathering, part meet up for fans, the "Empire Wednesdays" party started with the show's pilot.
Man Cave owner Eddie Earl even came up with signature "Empire"-themed cocktails, which are named in honor of the show's characters. There's the Boo Boo Kitty, Jamal Juice and the Luscious Lucius.
"...The people come out and enjoy it... They could stay home and watch 'Empire' but they choose to come here and they get really interactive," Earl says.
But themed cocktails aside, "Empire" fans have another way of interacting with their favorite show: the soundtrack.
Last week's show featured the song "Conqueror," performed by Estelle and Jussie Smollett, who plays Jamal Lyon on "Empire." The song made top five in the iTunes store the day after it was featured in the show. This week, Columbia records is releasing an album of songs from Season One.
Emile Ennis Jr. co-hosts the "Empire After Show" a post-show chat on the
online broadcast network. His show -- about the show -- gets around 300 thousand downloads a week.
Ennis says music is a huge part of "Empire's" success.
"Fox is genius because Fox did this with 'Glee' and we even had shows like 'Smash' that did it but not that well," Ennis says. "But the thing about this show is that people are connecting with the music in a way that is just the smartest business decision ever."
What's more, Smollett was recently signed to Columbia records, which will "raise the profile even more on the show," Ennis says.
Sofia Stanley co-hosts the "Empire After Show." She says, sure, "Empire" the series is getting viewers' attention on Wednesdays -- last week's episode had the best ratings yet -- but it's the music that keeps people immersed in the show the other six days of the week.
"...I think the music element is what's making it real. It allows the show to live on even when the episode is over, because you're still singing the song. So it's almost taking a one hour show and making it immortal," Stanley says.
Musician-attorney Joe Escalante says the 'Blurred Lines' jury 'got it wrong'
Songwriters Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were found to have plagiarized Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up” when the verdict was announced Tuesday. The jury awarded Gaye’s children almost $7.4 million.
One person who disagrees with the verdict is Joe Escalante — a founding members of the punk band The Vandals and also a former entertainment lawyer. The Frame's John Horn spoke with Escalante about why he thinks the jury got the verdict wrong and what effect this case could have on the music industry:
Interview Highlights:
What was your reaction to the ruling?
I had been following the trial and I thought, Surely no jury could misunderstand this case. But I think they got it wrong, and I was pretty shocked. I think it's a disappointing verdict for all the artists in the world, except for the estate of Marvin Gaye.
One of the issues at the center of this trial was the difference between inspiration and theft, and what Pharrell said about wanting to capture the feel of Marvin Gaye is not technically copyright infringement, but the jury found otherwise. You don't agree — you think the songs are not that similar.
Well, when you hear them they sound like similar songs, in the same way if you hear an Iron Maiden song and an Avenged Sevenfold song, or a Metallica song and a Megadeth song, you might say, These are two similar songs. And when you play them in front of eight elderly jury members, what are they going to say? Ah, they all sound the same to me!
That's what they're going off of and, emotionally, they might be thinking, Well, why not get some of this money and share it with Marvin Gaye's estate? He's a revered, classic artist, and these guys look like two drunk, drug-taking jokers.
You're in the punk band The Vandals, and I don't want you to incriminate yourself here, but I assume that when you're writing a song, it's almost impossible not to reference other punk songs that have come before.
Absolutely. The Dickies, Devo, The Clash and even The Ramones come into The Vandals, because we tried to evoke the sound and the feel of their recordings. We're in a scene and a genre, and everybody's copying from each other, influencing each other, and that's how you create a genre. This decision could make it such that one person or group is the king of a genre, and everybody has to go to them before making their own songs.
When you talk about this case with other musicians, what's the group thought on what this effect could be on how people create music?
People will create music the same way, but when they get in the studio there will be a chilling effect. Record labels are going to over-analyze music and tell people to go back and change their music — now we'll have lawyers that will dictate how music should sound. That's not a good place to be. As a lawyer-musician [myself], the two halves of the brain don't work well together. [laughs]