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Durham County creators Adrienne MItchel and Janis Lundman explain how the show transcends the medium.
Can Television be Art?
M: I think that the way I define television as art is being an idea or a concept that is driven by a writer and producers who are collaborating with that person in a way that works with the writer’s voice. The other thing that falls into that definition is: You need the team of broadcasters that you’re working with to respect the vision of the producers and the writers and to go through their creative processes which is a bit scary at times because sometimes they’ll get scripts that terrify them. The Movie Network and Movie Central allow you to create your vision and not have them impose too much of their ideas that are connected to commercial concerns. You can look at Durham County as being “television as art’, because you have all of these ingredients.
L: And with the pay networks, well they’re coming with a subscriber base where people are paying up front for the programs that are going to be aired on the networks so they’re expecting to get feature films and they’re expecting their TV to be somewhat outside of what they would get on normal free television. They want to see something new, they want to be challenged. I think that the television shows that are made today are really something new, they’re an art form that is coming into its own and telling stories and pictures in a way that is transcending what is being told in pictures and books these days.
Have you created art with Durham County?
M: Yes! Goddamnit, we have. Well, absolutely we have. What we’ve done with DC is execute it as a critical artistic vision and that is for many reasons. The co-creator/writer, Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik who’s written all six scripts so her vision is pure and beautifully envisioned throughout the series without any outside agendas. You know, when you’re working with the pay networks they’re not advertiser based they’re subscriber based so they do not have the pressures of, “Oh my God, you can’t show that because it may offend this advertiser or that one too.” You’re able to actually go where you want to go…push the envelope and that’s what DC did. There was nothing that we really had to be concerned about.
