by Neil Landau
Examining TV Families
Consider these examples of family dynamics from several TV series, with their workplace role juxtaposed against what their more traditional role might be within an actual family:
The Good Wife (Season 1)
Home family:
Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) as wife, mom
Peter Florrick (Chris Noth) as estranged husband, father
Zach (Graham Phillips) and Grace (Makenzie Vega) (their kids)
Jackie Florrick (Mary Beth Peil) as judgmental mother-in-law
Work family:
Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) as senior partner, in the role as matri arch
Will Gardner (Josh Charles) as Alicia’s on-again-off-again lover—with marital dynamics
Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi) as the wild sister
Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) as the younger sibling in need of experience and guidance
Grey’s Anatomy (Season 1)
Work family:
Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) as strict matriarch
Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) as patriarch
Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) as neurotic, insecure daughter seeking approval
Her “sisters”: Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl)
Her “brothers”: George O’Malley (T. R. Knight), Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington)
Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) as a cousin
Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) as an uncle to everyone except Meredith, who is his on-again-off-again lover (spousal dynamics)
Lost (Season 1)
Strangers as family:
Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) as leader, patriarch, and healer
Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) as co-leader, nurturing mom figure
Hugo “Hurley” Reyes (Jorge Garcia) as lethargic, lazy son
Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) as rebellious druggie son
James “Sawyer” Ford (Josh Holloway) as enterprising brother with anger issues
Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder) as brother
Shannon Rutherford (Maggie Grace), who was Boone’s actual stepsister, but also had sister dynamics with other cast members
Mad Men (Season 1)
Home family:
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) as philandering, mostly absent husband/father
Betty Draper (January Jones) as narcissistic matriarch (aka bad mommy)
Sally (Kiernan Shipka) and Bobby (Jared Gilmore) (their kids)
Work family:
Bertram Cooper (Robert Morse) as the Wise Grand Patriarch
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) as brothers to each other and uncles to their staffand colleagues
Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss) as the smart eldest sister
Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) as workplace mom
Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) who behaves at times like a spoiled brat son and then at other times as the pariah brother
Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Stanton), Harry Crane (Rich Sommer), and Paul Kinsey (Michael Gladis) as sons to Don and Roger and as brothers to each other
Scandal (Season 1)
Work family:
Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) as powerful, glamorous mom; the boss
Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) as the president’s chief of staff; Olivia’s equal in political power, but also serves as her uncle/father figure
U.S. Attorney David Rosen (Joshua Malina) as Olivia’s know-it-all brother; sibling dynamics
President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) as Olivia’s secret lover, best friend; spousal dynamics, even though he’s married to Mellie
First Lady Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) as Olivia’s archrival stepsister
Harrison Wright (Columbus Short), Abby Whelan (Darby Stanchfield), Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes), and Huck (Guillermo Díaz) as the children
Defining Character by Familial Role
Family dynamics are especially useful when assembling an ensemble cast. It’s not that you’ll need to cover every gender, age, or familial role. But it is helpful to determine how each character might relate to one another in both positive and negative ways. Police detective partners, even if both heterosexual and male, will invariably relate to each other as fighting spouses at times. Professional colleagues might jockey for position to impress the boss, and thus struggle through the jealousies of sibling rivalry.
Notice how age and gender is not always the main determining factor of family dynamics. In season 3 of The Walking Dead after patriarch Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), dies in childbirth, their prepubescent son, Carl (Chandler Riggs), is forced to grow up fast. He becomes so confident with his marksmanship and fearless zombie killing skills that he evolves from innocent child to resourceful survivalist adult in a matter of months. And when his father, Rick, starts hallucinating (seeing the ghost of his late wife) and losing his sanity, it’s Carl who (temporarily) emerges as the patriarch of the prison group until Rick can come to his senses and lead again. This transfer of power occurred when the elder leaders were occupied elsewhere—with Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) trying to rein in his loose cannon brother Merle (Michael Rooker) and Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson) dealing with his impaired.
In later episodes, Andrea (Laurie Holden) seeks normalcy and traditional community life by moving to the “secure” township of Woodbury. The patriarch of the town is the Governor (David Morrissey). As Andrea and the Governor become romantic partners, she essentially becomes the First Lady of Woodbury (its matriarch). Meanwhile, outside Woodbury and inside the prison compound, Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) and the Greene sisters move into matriarchal roles. Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan) become “spouses.” While Beth Greene (Emily Kinney) and Carol tend to Rick’s new baby as new mommy figures. Toward the end of the season, Michonne (Danai Gurira) returns to the prison and bonds with Carl as his new maternal/big sister protector figure.
When populating your series or creating guest characters for a particular episode, ask yourself not only who is this new character, but also, how will the arrival of this new character impact your regular characters?
All relationships are like mirrors, and each new person we encounter reflects our sense of self right back to us. They can also remind us of someone else either in appearance, attitude, or how he/she makes us feel. This causes characters to project their past onto new individuals—perhaps overreacting to a quasi-judgmental remark that (usually subconsciously) reminds them of a judgmental parent.
The sub-subtext of virtually any scene is familial power dynamics, psychological wounds from the past, and subtle movements that reaffirm clan position. The show’s family may spend most of its time in a house, office, police precinct, hospital, prison, or any other arenas where people rely on each other, challenge each other, learn, struggle, and, hopefully, mature.
Great series are about great relationships that are consciously and/or unconsciously based on family dynamics. Where does your series “live”? What’s its primary arena? What’s its “sweet spot”? As you ponder these questions, bear in mind that home is where the heart is.
INTERVIEW: Shonda Rhimes
Shonda Rhimes Credits
Best known for:
Scandal (Executive Producer/Creator) 2012
Private Practice (Executive Producer/Creator) 2007–2012
Grey’s Anatomy (Executive Producer/Creator) 2005–2012
Emmy Nominated (Drama Series) 2006–2007
WGA Nominated (Dramatic Series) 2006–2007
WGA Award Winner (New Series) 2006
PGA Nominated (Drama) 2008
PGA Award Winner (Drama) 2007
PGA Nominated (Drama) 2006
Off the Map (Executive Producer) 2011
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement 2004
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (teleplay) 1999
NL: My first question has to do with the fact that your
series are so addictive. They’re compulsively watchable, and I believe it stems from your characters. So, in addition to the brilliant casting, what do you think is so magnetic about your characters? Because all shows have characters, but yours have that extra something that compels us to tune in every week. Do you have any theories as to why?
SR: When I wrote Grey’s, it was the first television project I had ever worked on, so I wrote it as if I was writing in my diary. It felt very personal. I was very surprised to discover that people responded to these characters in this way. What I learned is that as long as I’m writing as if it’s personal, as long as these characters are alive to me—that I dream about them—then those characters remain compelling for an audience. I don’t know why that is. I just know that I have to make sure that they feel alive to me and that what’s happening to them feels real and not like television.
NL: Right. I think that is so true. And part of that premise is that they’re flawed. You show all their vulnerabilities and their fears and their insecurities. You put them under a microscope. So, I’m wondering when you’re conceiving them do you picture them in your mind physically or from the inside out? What were your inspirations for Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) or Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington)?
SR: I think I pictured them from the inside out. There was no physical type. Generally, my scripts come without physical descriptions for the characters at all, which I think is important. I feel like I have an idea of what my characters are and then actors come in and read for the role. With every actor who sits down and reads, my idea of who that character is changes. I wonder is this person the idea that’s right or is the next guy the idea that’s right? Or, do we keep going until we find the person for whom I think, “Well, they add something fantastic and that fantastic something is perfect for what I’m thinking.”
NL: One of the recurring themes in each of your shows seems to be loners or rogues who come together with a team and form this extended family. There’s even a line from Grey’s and, I think, in all three shows that I’ve watched that says, “I need you to be my somebody.” I know there was one about putting down an emergency contact on a form. They do form these metaphorical families, and the theory of this chapter is that there’s these archetypes: where there’s a mom and dad, sibling rivalries, and spoiled children. Do family dynamics come into play when you’re creating an ensemble?
SR: I’m actually creeped out that you’ve noticed that the characters have said that in all three shows because I’ve never noticed it before, and when you said, “It’s a group of rogues who have come together to form a family”— I was about to go, “No, they’re not,” but then I thought, “Oh, they are.” I’ve never thought of it that way. I’ve tried very hard not to examine it that much. I come from a really large family. I have five older brothers and sisters. I was always a quiet person and I spent a lot of time watching them and figuring out what the world was because of what my five older brothers and sisters were doing and saying and being. But, I never thought about it in terms of my writing because I feel like if I try to examine it too hard, I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore.
NL: Right. I just thought that Olivia is like the mom to everybody. She actually took in all these damaged people and then we discover that she’s damaged in her own way. And Miranda (Chandra Wilson) is that character in Grey’s.
SR: As is Meredith, who has also become the mother of a bunch of damaged people. I think the incarnations are different. I think Scandal is informed by Grey’s in a lot of ways, and it’s the show that I can examine the most because there’s a lot of me in Olivia Pope. In that being a showrunner and being Olivia Pope are not that different. For me, there’s something about the fact that Olivia has taken in all of these people that are damaged, and she fixes everybody’s problems. It’s a lot like being a showrunner.
NL: But, hopefully, you allow people to cry sometimes.
SR: Yes.
NL: Although what I also admire about your pilot is that you boldly state things up front that are etched in stone and then often by the end of the pilot, you’ve debunked everything. “Nobody ever cries, ever,” and then you see the vulnerability.
SR: Yeah, Olivia crying. That was important to me.
NL: In terms of point of view when you’re conceiving a show, I know Grey’s mainly uses Meredith’s voice-over. Although there were some episodes where it was somebody else.
SR: It does happen, but it is very rare.
NL: The one that I was watching last night was the episode of Grey’s with the shooter.
SR: That’s the episode that I’m most proud of having written.
NL: It’s so suspenseful when Miranda is underneath that bed and the killer’s feet are there. It’s such sharp writing because to me the best writing is always filled with so much suspense. So, with point of view, we began with Meredith who, even though she comes from a mother who was a famous surgeon, is insecure. In Private Practice, as in Scandal, you decided not to do the voice-over. And the Quinn (Katie Lowes) character is kind of the Meredith character in Scandal because she’s the new one coming in. Does the point of view for your show come to you pretty early, or is it once you’ve laid everything out on the canvas that you start to think about who is going to be the main point of view to unify everything?
SR: It’s interesting. For Grey’s, it was very clear to me that Meredith had to be our way in. Going into a world where we didn’t understand its rules. How do you do a medical show about surgery and make it accessible to an audience? That audience, when I was writing the pilot, was me—how do I make it accessible to me? I need somebody for whom the rules get explained on a regular basis who also feels the same fears and nervousness I would feel if dropped into that situation. To me, that’s why Meredith ended up being the narrator. With Scandal, it really was that I thought I had created an iconic character with Olivia Pope. She is somebody who everybody has heard of. Her name is on people’s lips and she fixes things. I needed somebody on the outside to come in and show us what that world was. It very quickly switched from Quinn’s point of view to Olivia’s point of view because Quinn clearly had secrets up the wazoo. For me, it was just making sure that we had a way into the world, so that you understood how powerful Olivia Pope was, and then having Quinn step back and letting it become Olivia’s world.
NL: Right. And, the advantage is that now everyone has a legitimate reason to explain to this new person how their world works because it’s an unusual kind of firm. “We’re attorneys, but we don’t prosecute or defend.” It’s a very organic way to naturally get a lot of exposition out that’s also filled with conflict because she’s overwhelmed by it, but also fascinated and drawn to it. Secrets and lies are a natural currency of all your shows, but especially Scandal. The big question that remains at the end of the season is, who is Quinn Perkins really? I didn’t see that coming, that there was something more about who she is. Then, that supersedes what was the overarching plotline about Amanda Tanner (Liza Weil). I don’t know if you would call it storytelling strategy, but when you’re breaking story and pulling out and revealing information and people are making discoveries—how are you making decisions about when you’re going to reveal things? Is it mathematical or do you say, “At the end of this midseason point or at the end of this season, I’m going to reveal all of this”? And then, reverse engineer it? I think a lot of people get overwhelmed by how they’re going to break it all down.
SR: I think it’s two things. Part of it is instinctive. I generally walk into the writers’ room at the beginning of the season and say, “Here’s how the season’s going to end.” And I pitch the end of the season. I don’t call it reverse engineering because it doesn’t work that way. Everyone knows where we’re going, so we work on finding a roadmap to get there. That roadmap is generally not super planned; it’s more instinctive. Things feel right; things don’t feel right. Amanda Tanner wasn’t necessarily supposed to die at all, but at a certain point, I was like, “Amanda Tanner shoul
d die today,” and we all went, “Yeah, that feels right.” There was a point in, I think it was, episode 3 or 4 where you have the guy giving details about the people who work at Pope & Associates, and we got to Quinn, and everyone was like, “What’s Quinn’s backstory, Shonda?” And, I said, “Quinn did not exist before 2008.” It wasn’t because of anything other than when I wrote the pilot, every time I got to the scene where Quinn is crying in the bathroom, the idea of Quinn telling her backstory felt weird. Plus, Quinn kept asking, “Why did she hire me? Why did she hire me?” So, to me, I thought, “Well, that’s a mystery.” That mystery became much more important as we headed toward the end of the season because Quinn Perkins didn’t exist before 2008.
NL: I read an article that with Grey’s Anatomy, you did all thirteen episodes before it started to air.
SR: We did thirteen episodes the first season but only aired nine. So the remaining episodes aired the second season. But we finished the thirteen episodes, and literally that Sunday after we wrapped production, the first show aired.
NL: What’s your barometer as a writer and a creator of a series when you’re essentially working in a vacuum? Is it just that you’re working from your gut?
SR: Yeah. What I try to stick to even now is how I answer these questions: “Am I into it? Am I compelled? Am I excited? Do I give a crap if anybody watches?” I remember saying with Betsy Beers [Executive Producer] regarding the first few episodes of Grey’s that “if nobody watches this show, that’s fine, we’ll just sell it out of the back of our car.” That’s how much we loved it. As opposed to feeling like, “It’s really important to me that other people watch.” I was so proud of what we’d done that I didn’t need the validation of the network. And that’s how I feel about Scandal. I was so excited by those first seven episodes that even if nobody had watched them, I still would have been like, “Some of the best work that I’ve done. I’m proud of that.”
