Written By June/July 2009 : Page 27So I sat down with the writing staff and discovered the intri- cate problems they puzzle through on a daily basis. For example, executive producer Steve Peterman points out that, “the success of the show has put us under a greater microscope, making ap- proval of story ideas by the network even harder. And as the ac- tors get older, it’s tougher to find 30 stories a season for them.” Peterman compares the daily writing experience to “peo- ple crawling through a potato field begging to find one more potato.” tricks of the tween tV trade The cultural phenomenon now known as Hannah Mon- tana [created by Michael Poryes and Rich Correll & Bar- ry O’Brien] came into the world in the same way bastard children do, according to Benjamin Franklin: half impro- vised and half compromised. As co-creator and executive producer Michael Poryes remembers, during his deal with the Disney Channel he was given the phrase “rock star with a secret” and sent off to the pilot mines. He wrote a script about an average American pop star and her family. What often happens in the business happened: Another couple of writers came in to do a rewrite on the script —Steve Peter- man and Gary Dontzig. But what does not often happen is that the writers all got along. “We did a rewrite together and still got along,” marvels Poryes. Yet as soon as they began casting, the script they all en- joyed writing required rewrites. “What happens when a cultural phenomenon like this comes along is that it’s a col- laboration of so many things,” says Peterman. The pilot had not a hint of its now trademark “Sweet Nibblets” or “Dang Flabbit” until the producers cast Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana/Miley Stewart, and her real-life father, Billy Ray Cyrus, as Hannah’s father, Robby Ray Stewart. It wasn’t just country-isms that the father-daughter team brought to the show. For budgetary reasons, they had always intended the Hannah character to come from a single-parent family. Casting made that single parent a single father, but the ma- jority of such characters are traditionally portrayed as clue- Publication List |
