Tim Saccardo is a comedy writer and director, born and raised in Middletown, Rhode Island. He is currently an Associate Producer on TBS's 10 Items or Less and a writer for The Huffington Post's comedy/news site www.236.com and their Wikipedia parody site www.Dickipedia.org. Tim has written and directed several videos for the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre's site www.UCBcomedy.com, one of which won him a Stony Award for Best Web Video from High Times Magazine. He also performs sketch and improv comedy regularly at Hollywood's UCB Theatre and Improv Olympic West.

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Production Blog, Week Two
At the risk of generalizing, most TV shows operate in the following fashion: The writing staff writes scripts, the director and crew photograph the actors doing and saying the things in those scripts, and the director and editor take the best footage from that shoot and arrange it as written in the script. That is not how we operate here at 10 Items or Less.

While we most certainly do have scripts full of characters and locations and conflict and crisis and funny situations, one thing they don’t have is dialogue. 10 Items or Less scripts function more like outlines than strict instructions, giving our actors just enough information to improvise their scenes and still have them all fit together into a coherent television show. However, every actor besides John Lehr (who co-writes the show) never even sees the script! So how do any of them know what to do then, you might ask?

Well, when we’re on the floor, each scene is guided by the two people that wrote it – John and Nancy Hower, who also directs every single episode. Nancy talks to the actors before we shoot every scene, telling them what they need to know, what their intent is, and any other pieces of key info that need to be said or done. Then the actors are on their own. They make up their own words, find funny jokes and patterns, and the scene begins to reveal itself. After every take, Nancy will give suggestions, make adjustments, tell the actors what’s working well, what isn’t. Sometimes she’ll even talk to the actors while we’re rolling and have them restate a line or go in a different direction. She keeps the scene on track from the outside, and as the only actor who knows the big picture of the episode, John keeps the scene on track from the inside.

So unlike most other series, when we’re done shooting each scene we don’t have three or four different video clips of our actors saying the same lines at the same times in the same positions. We have about 2 hours of footage with actors saying completely different lines at different times from different positions. And unlike most other series which rotate directors from show to show, Nancy doesn’t have the luxury of sitting down with the editor after shooting an episode is to work on the first cut because she has to immediately start shooting the next episode.

So how do we get our show made despite these bizarre circumstances? Well, bizarre circumstances like this require a bizarre system. And here’s how the 10 Items or Less system works...

As every scene shoots, our Segment Producer, David writes up a log of what the actors are improvising and I make note of some of the best moments and lines. After Nancy is done directing the scene, the three of us convene and Nancy reads over the notes, and with recently shot footage fresh in her mind, explains how she sees the scene playing out. We record this blueprint on a mini digital recorder, purchased at Office Depot for $19.99. Then I take Nancy’s recorded notes, David’s log, and my written notes and use them to write up an “Edit Script” for the editor, which is basically a narrative version of Nancy’s vision of the scene with notes on where to find the chosen footage within the 40 hours of tape for that episode. Sometimes the Edit Scripts are similar to the original scripts John and Nancy wrote. Often times they are completely different.

Armed with a paper version of Nancy’s brain, the editor then begins searching for her requested footage and also finding the funny moments we might’ve missed. Once an episode is starting to take shape, cuts on DVD are sent to Nancy and John on set and they watch them during all that free time they have. Problem is, they don’t have any free time, so they end up watching them at 6AM before we shoot or over lunch or during the 20 minutes it takes the crew to move locations between scenes. Their notes are phoned or e-mailed back to the editor and the episode continues to be sculpted. Sometimes Nancy and John even get to speak to the editor in person if shooting doesn’t wrap too late.

As crazy as all this sounds, it’s actually proven to be the most successful and efficient way of making our show. And the funny thing is, you’d never really know any of this just by watching it. Although after reading this blog, you’ll never be able to view 10 Items or Less in the same way again. Maybe I should’ve warned you before I shared how we make the sausage...


The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer/speaker and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc.”