When producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage work on a show, you can be sure that the show will involve teenage drama. Schwartz and Savage have worked on the shows that define my adolescence, The O.C. (2003-2007) and Gossip Girl (2007-present) which both focus on the glamorous lives of rich teenagers on the west and east coast. Within these shows, these producers make their mark on television not just by their impact on teenage pop culture, but by the style of these shows. Savage and Schwartz use sound, camera framing, and mise en scene similarly in both The O.C. and Gossip Girl in order to portray the dramatic lives of rich teenagers.

A quick background on the two producers, Schwartz grew up in Rhode Island, and where he attended a private high school. He went to the University Of Southern California School Of Cinema in 1999. When he created The O.C. he was only 26 and which made him the youngest hour-long show creator (imdb.com). Savage grew up in Canada and obtained her masters in film history and theory at the University of Iowa in 1995. In profile done about her in Adweek.com Savage “I love telling teen stories…I’ll write teen stories as long as people will let me”. Both Savage and Schwartz have contributed to writing for some episodes of both The O.C. and Gossip Girl.

A major trademark that Schwartz and Savage use in their programs is their use of sound, specifically the music in the shows. Both The O.C. and Gossip Girl are known for their use of trendy music between scenes and also their soundtracks. For example the band Rooney was relatively unknown until they appeared on an episode of The O.C in the following clip.Even the song “California” by Phantom Planet became iconic after it was used in the opening credits. Gossip Girl also uses this approach, one of the best examples being when one of the stars, Leighton Meester, contributed to a song by Cobra Starship. Not only was the song played between scenes, but also other songs written by the band. The producers added this not just to promote bands’ music, but to add to the idea of how privileged these teenagers are. As someone who isn’t unfamiliar with the teenage drama genre, Savage knows that going to the cool shows and listening to the best bands before they become famous is a status thing among teenagers. Also with Schwartz being the youngest TV show creator of this genre, his taste in music is probably more relatable to the teens that would be watching these shows.

A more technical element that Schwartz and Savage use is the framing of the camera. The framing is how much the audience sees in a certain scene. The O.C. and Gossip Girl both are very calculated in what types of framing they use. Between scenes it is usually an extreme long shot of the setting the characters are in, whether it’s a California beach or a New York landmark. Usually these scenes show the type of glamorous, fun lifestyle that we are lead to believe the characters lead. During scenes with dialogue the main type of framing that is used is a normal close up. Schwartz and Savage use the close ups to capture the expressions of the characters, an important thing to obtain in a drama.

Another major presence in Schwartz and Savage’s shows is the mise en scene. Mise en scene is all objects that are visible to the audience, which includes setting, costuming, lighting, and actor movement. Savage and Schwartz main focus on the setting to accentuate the lifestyles of the characters. Both shows are shot on location, in Orange County and New York, which captures the type of culture that the characters are part of. Schwartz’s experience coming from an east coast private high school to a university in southern California can probably attribute to the knowledge of these cultures. Another way that Schwartz and Savage use culture to instill the image of fortune in their shows is the costuming the characters wear. For The O.C. the characters have a very relaxed beachy style while in Gossip Girl they are more high-fashioned and preppy. The costumes that Schwartz and Savage emphasize not only the characters’ culture, but also the social class that they belong in.

Although the genre of teenage drama isn’t exactly a world renowned form of art, Schwartz and Savage tend to do it the best. The genre itself is (and forever will be) extremely superficial. Their use of mise en scene shows what a fun, alluring lifestyle the characters lead and makes the audience wish that they were a part of that scene. Also their use of music shows how cool and popular the characters are, while the camera framing captures the character’s reactions when drama unfolds. These elements, along with their over the top storylines all add to the idea that the characters are living a privileged lifestyle that makes us think, whether we like it or not, “man I wish I were them”.

"Internet Movie Database." Internet Movie Database. Web. 12 Oct. 2009. .
Mahmud, Shahnaz. "Profile: Stephanie Savage." Adweek. 28 Apr. 2008. Web. 12 Oct. 2009. .

If there is one thing that I am very familiar with, it’s television. Ever since high school I have been known as a pop culture guru. I can pull out so many random facts about shows I don’t even watch it’s kind of ridiculous. However being a good critic involves more than just loving television. Don’t get me wrong, it is majorly important that I actually like television, but more importantly is how I view it and interpret my view so that you can get a broader understanding of a program that you might have watched. My goal as a critical writer is to persuade you, the reader, into at least considering my criticism as valid, while looking into the cultural context of a program, and relating my argument to the viewer.
The whole point of criticizing something is not so that I can sit at my computer and type what I think just for kicks, it is so that I can persuade readers to consider my perspective on a certain program. According to Sillars and Gronbeck “A communication critic makes an argument that describes, interprets, or evaluates the messages to which people are exposed in public or collective ways” (5). As a critic I will be looking at a program as a “text” whereas normally a program would be viewed as just entertainment. Through my descriptions and interpretations of a program I hope to give readers a different perception/conclusion from the one that they came up with. This is not to say that I believe that my stance is the only correct one. “Criticism is subjective” (6) according to O’Donnel, and I completely agree that there can be more than one correct way to view a program. Even though one may have a different perspective on the same program that I viewed, the fact that I had a different viewpoint will hopefully give someone a new way of thinking about a program.
One of the main ways in which criticism is subjective is how it is researched. There has constantly been this notion about television that it is a strong influence on culture. However I take the same approach as Corner does when speaking about how culture influences television in the fact that culture affects television and television affects culture. Corner discusses television as having a centripetal and centrifugal action to it. Centripetal action means that culture is taken in, and centrifugal means that culture is outward. For example, take a show like Gossip Girl, a show about wealthy teens living in the Upper East Side of New York. It’s clear that the general idea behind this program was based on the fashions and lifestyle of real teens living in this area influenced the plot, this would be the centripetal action. Since Gossip Girl is a national televised program it is spreading the culture of the Upper East Side to other areas in the country such as the Midwest, which is the centrifugal action. I strongly believe that the two actions together are what cultures influence is on television, not a straight cause-effect relationship. In my criticisms I will be taking this relationship into account.
Okay, now I know that using terms like “centripetal” and “texts” when discussing television doesn’t seem like it’s exactly “reader-friendly”, so why bother reading my blog? Well if there is one thing that I want to do in my criticisms, it is to relate to you. Sillars and Gronbeck say that in good criticism you have to “demonstrate that your critical analyses are significant, relevant, and coherent”. As a 20 year old college student, I sincerely hope that I can do all three of those tasks in order to gain your attention. I hope that my arguments are significant enough where one would be curious as to why I took a certain position on a program, my unusual interest in watching both CNN and E News continuously will be able to relate to a wide range of audiences, and the fact that I am just an average 20 year old college student leads you to trust in my abilities as a critic not just in a scholarly light, but as a normal viewer of television.
From someone who watches the classy Grey’s Anatomy to the not so classy (but just as good) Family Guy (actually I’m not even sure if Grey’s Anatomy is all that classy either) I can tell you that as someone with a large variety of interests that you will be able to find something in my blog that you agree with or can relate to. My goal however is more than just being able to write something that is relatable, it is also writing something that maybe provokes more thought than what goes into the normal television viewing process (but don’t feel like you have to think every time you watch TV, we all need a little break sometimes). By evaluating a program and discussing it one can get a bigger appreciation for what goes into making a television show or even for the show itself. As O’Donnel says “Critical acuity enables you to move from casual enjoyment of a television program to a fuller and richer understanding” (3) which is my hope for myself as a critic and maybe for you as a reader.


Corner, J. (1999). Critical Ideas in Television Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.

O’Donnell, V. (2007). Television Criticism. New York: Sage.

Sillars, M. O. and Gronbeck, B. E. (2001). Communication Criticism: Rhetoric, Social Codes, Cultural Studies. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

The Routine

I'm still not over the fact that Friends is over. Here's a little clip if you're not over it either...