Last week, Vox published a comprehensive feature on how a single episode of a television show — in this case, FX’s excellent spy drama The Americans — goes from a germ of an idea in someone’s brain to a full-fledged episode on your screen. I shadowed production for five months as the cast and crew hustled to bring a script to life on one of the best shows on TV:
How does TV get made? We’re answering your questions live.
We wrote thousands of words about the process, and you vultures still want more!
Caroline Framke wrote about culture, which usually means television. Also seen @ The A.V. Club, The Atlantic, Complex, Flavorwire, NPR, the fridge to get more seltzer.
Everyone on The Americans is working toward the same goal. This sounds like an obvious statement, but trust me: With so many variables in play and so little time to get everything done, that kind of teamwork is both rare and prized. If a set is like a train hurtling toward its destination, any bit of discord on the route clashes against the tracks and creates a warning spark — and the more that happens, the more likely it is that the whole thing will derail.
The story features exclusive and in-depth interviews with The Americans’ cast, showrunners, writer, production designer, editor, and more. Check it out:
But even after publishing several thousand words and a video on the show’s behind-the-scenes processes, Vox still received plenty of follow-up questions about how TV works, and how The Americans and other meticulous shows like it create such rich worlds for us to dive into every week. So I did my best to answer some lingering questions in the comments (which you can read below this post).
