The Dangers Of Working For TV

       Two Filipino (film and TV) directors recently passed away—both suffered a heart attack and now, a lot of their colleagues are saying that the culprit for their aggravated health conditions is “the horrible working hours and conditions in television.”

       I worked briefly as a TV writer (for teleserye/soap operas) and I can attest to the fact that, indeed, you’ll be eating, drinking and breathing stress—mental and physical—in this job. 24-hour brain wracking meetings aren’t really unusual while the regular meetings which often start at noon usually last after midnight. Meetings are often held in a room teeming with caffeine, unhealthy snacks and second-hand smoke and discussions are often intense that without you knowing it, while you’re busy spewing out the reasons why it’s not good for your show’s main character ( a tough NBI agent) to die from rabies after being bitten by a puppy after surviving two plane crashes, five ambushes, three terrorist attacks and a nuclear explosion in his bathroom while he was taking a leak, you’ve already eaten an equivalent of three huge bags of potato chips that there are now more MSG in your body than water and that you’ve inhaled so much second-hand smoke that three types of cancer are now starting to spread inside your body, aside from a suffocating heart.

       And you’re always asked to magically produce earthshaking concepts in a short time—for example, you’ll be asked to produce in five hours three Oscars-worthy plots after a 24-hour meeting.

       In fact, I had a TV writer-friend (he's a head writer, actually)) who died in his prime and you can safely assume that his job killed him—he was so stressed he couldn't function without a lighted cigarette in his hand and eventually, his body was ravaged by illnesses that it had no option but to collapse and give up.

       And then there are the intrigues, which of course exist whatever job you're in, though these are much intense when you're working for TV, sometimes too intense that it can make you go bonkers.

       But of course, there are perks in working for TV—it’s a glamour job, you get to hobnob with celebrities, if you’re a straight male (if you’ve been living under the rock for a century now and is unaware of it, gay people now dominate every nook and cranny of the showbiz industry which is another source of stress for the heterosexuals with homophobic tendencies), you’ll be happy to know that there will be times when you’ll find yourself elbow-to-elbow with your favorite female stars inside an elevator (and, alas, you will realize that some of them aren’t really that pretty without make-up), and also, the pay  is good provided you get regular projects (which means having the skill to always stay in the good graces of those who make the decisions). If you’re the shy and the quiet type who relies mainly on your talent, you will always be overran by those with better PR skills (read: bootlickers).

       So my point is..? I mean, if the life of a lowly  TV writer has enough stress to kill a healthy bull, how much more with an in-demand director? If you have a weak heart (literally) or constitution and you’re really not attracted by its glamour and glitz, but you’re thinking of working for TV because you really think you can write or direct, think twice.

      Remember, you're working to earn a living, not a ticket to an early grave.