Bad decision:
The FX network let the mega-hit Breaking Bad (starring Bryan Cranston, right) slip through its fingers, but says it was a mistake that led to more diverse and Emmy Award-winning shows being made. Kerry Harvey reports.
Why TV studio turned down Breaking Bad.
America’s FX television network is renowned for its edgy and diverse shows – but its success owes a lot to what many people would see as a big mistake.
“Breaking Bad was originally developed at FX and ultimately was passed on,” says Jonathan Frank, FX’s executive vice-president of current series programming and production.
“Nobody at FX would say that they don’t wish ultimately that Breaking Bad could have been on FX but at that time the shows that we had on were The Shield, Rescue Me and Nip/Tuck – all great shows but all shows that were focused on white male anti-heroes.
“The consensus at the time was, ‘Do we need another show, Breaking Bad, which is ostensibly about a white male anti-hero or do we diversify our stories and not become the network that just tells stories about white male anti-heroes?”
Change won and Frank was put in charge of the push to increase diversity among the people making shows for the network.
“The initial response was we have to make sure we are hiring more women and more people of colour to direct episodes of television,” says Frank, who was making his first visit New Zealand.
“When we made that decision I was part of the problem. I’d been at FX for 10 years and, as I was the person who hired every director, it was an opportunity for me to thankfully have the mistakes I was making pointed out to me and for me to make a course correction.”
In 2015, only 23 per cent of FX’s directors were non-white males or women. Three years later, there are many more and the move has paid off. The first year after the new policy was implemented, the network more than doubled its Emmy Award haul from eight in 2015 to 18 in 2016.
“Since that time we have (made) Atlanta, Snowfall, Better Things
– all shows that are very different to the traditionally white male anti-hero show that has permeated the television industry since cable really came into the fold about 15 years ago,” says Frank.
Most recently, the network released Mayans MC, about a Latino bikie gang, and a series based on Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s 2014 vampire mockumentary movie What The Do In The Shadows releases in the autumn. All FX’s new shows will screen exclusively on Sky.
“Much as we would have loved to have had Breaking Bad on our air, the intention and the decision behind not making it, has been a really good one that has ultimately led to a really rich and diverse slate of shows. And we strive to be even more diverse and tell different and more diverse stories about women and characters who are not traditionally portrayed on TV,” says Frank.
And telling stories is what Frank is all about.
“I think the primary role in my job is to create an environment in which talented and passionate storytellers can tell the best version of their story,” he says, admitting he is still a little stunned to find himself doing the job he does.
“I grew up on a sheep farm in New Jersey (I feel right at home in New Zealand) but I never in a million years thought I would work in Hollywood.
“I grew up in a place where as much as I liked television and movies, the notion of making movies seemed imaginary to me. It didn’t even occur to me that regular people go and make movies.”
However, that changed after watching a shoot for the movie Amistad while he was at university in Providence.
“I looked around and I said these are just regular people who decided they want to make movies. I thought, ‘I could do that too’. I was always a fan of storytelling and that was like an epiphany moment for me when I realised anyone who is passionate about stories, if you work hard enough, you can do it.”
Frank has strong ideas about what it is that viewers want to see.
“Whether it’s a show about cops or it’s a show about dancers or drug dealers, they’re all really shows about love, about loss, about jealousy, about greed, about pain and they are all things that everyone can connect to whether or not you live the same life as the characters in the show are living.”
“Much as we would have loved to have had Breaking Bad on our air, the intention and the decision behind not making it, has been a really good one that has ultimately led to a really rich and diverse slate of shows.”
– Jonathan Frank