In my last post, I wrote about my favorite television show of all-time, I Love Lucy, and a favorite episode where she writes a novel. This got me thinking about other television shows and movies that have literary episodes or themes.
I don’t watch many current television shows, but my friends and family know that Tuesdays belong to NCIS. Each week, Agent Gibbs and his team solve mysteries involving Navy and Marine personnel. But part of why I love the show is the backstories of individual agents. One of the agent, Timothy McGee, uses his crime solving skills to good use in his pursuit of fictional criminals.
Agent McGee publishes a crime novel using the penname of Thom E. Gemcity (an anagram of his name). In various episodes, McGee’s writing career plays a role in the storyline.
Here’s some of McGee’s lessons on writing:
- Change the names to protect the innocent – Because McGee uses himself and co-workers as characters for his novel, he alters their names to protect their identities. The problem for McGee is that the names he uses are only slight alterations – Agent Tommy McGregor instead of Agent Tim McGee, Agent L.J. Tibbs instead of Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
**LESSON: If you’re going to base characters on real people, change the names enough so that they are not easily recognized.
- Guard your work with your life – While McGee drafts his second novel, the NCIS team investigates a series of murders that mimic characters and events in McGee’s unpublished work. McGee uses a typewriter and shreds any pages he does not include in the book. The NCIS team disco an obsessed fan rifled through McGee’s trash to find the typewriter ribbons containing the novel. The fan uses the ribbon to piece together McGee’s story and kills the real people McGee used as characters.
**LESSON: If you don’t want anyone to see your story before you’re ready to publish it, be sure to keep your thumb drives, print copies, and notes in a safe place.
- Fit the part – Writers are notorious for stereotypes – the proverbial office space lined with bookshelves and pieces of paper strewn about with story notes, huddled over a notebook at small café furiously writing away while consuming twelve cups of coffee. Away from the NCIS offices, Agent McGee fits the writer profile. His fellow agents joke about McGee’s apartment, complete with an office space with metal shelving units as walls and that he uses a typewriter instead of a computer. In one episode, McGee shows up to work on Sunday wearing a tweed suit jacket with elbow patches and a pipe in the pocket. He claims the outfit serves as a way to spark creativity. By looking like a crime novelist, he feels more like one himself.
**LESSON: Use whatever tricks you need to inspire you. If that means a unique writing space or certain outfits/props, go for it!
Do you have any favorite TV characters with fun backstories? How do those backstories add to the character and/or the show?
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