Read All About It!! Doug Ellin Creates a REALity TV Show!!

The tag line for the network is, "It's not TV, it's HBO." Doug Ellin proves this in his creation of the show Entourage, one of the longest running original series HBO has ever had. If I had a dollar for every time I have watched and re-watched seasons of Entourage, I would have as much money as Doug Ellin is probably getting paid by HBO. By watching his episodes, and becoming entwined with the characters, I became more involved with how Doug Ellin went through the process of writing the show and how he conveyed his ideas to the audience. Ellin uses techniques that are evident in each season and each character, that truly make you care about what is going on with their lives. It has been a while since I have watched a TV show, and trust me I watch a bunch, that I have actually felt emotionally attached too. I am not going to talk about a love affair between a TV show, and me but I will talk about Ellin, where he came from and how he got his start as a TV writer, and the techniques and styles he uses that make the show the hit that it is today.

Doug Ellin born and raised in Merrick, New York, was pretty quiet until he created Entourage. In the commentary from the first season of Entourage you get a sense of his roots and the kind of person Ellin is. This transforms into his shows when in the first season, episode one commentary he talks about how he wanted to create a show that showed what real New York was like, and how family and friendship was the most important theme in his writing. Before Ellin created Entourage he worked as a staff writer on the short lived Life With Bonnie show. The best decision Ellin made, however, was leaving the show, and leaving New York for Los Angeles. He continued as a stand up comedian in LA working at clubs like The Improv and The Comedy Store. You can even see the transformation of a stand up comedian to a show that has a very stand up feel type of laughter. In a later episode of Season 1, Ellin once again stated how he wanted a show to real to its audience, and here is exactly how he completed this objective.

In the first season of Entourage (actually the first episode) the audience is able to get a feel about one of the elements Ellin uses to connect to his viewers and make them attach to the show. The best line to describe this is when Ellin says in the commentary "I wanted to make it feel real, like if you were in LA this is how it would be." Ellin uses this concept of reality in each and every episode and it works, it works extremely well. He uses hot spots in LA where real celebrities eat, such as Jerry's Deli as his film sets, portrays what the day to day life of a celebrity is like, from the lavish parties to the behind the scenes of working how an actor selects a film to be in as his story lines, and even uses real celebrity cameos as his characters to beef up the Hollywood scene, i.e. Jessica Alba in the first episode. One of the techniques he uses is a follow-style of camera work, where the audience gets the feeling that they are actually there. This helps the audience understand even more what LA is like and how the life of a celebrity can be.

However, Hollywood is not all the glam and glitz it is made out to be, and here is where Ellin takes a plain show about famous people from Hollywood and shows the relationships between four best friends that make Entourage a success. Since Ellin was from New York he chose only actors with ties to New York to play the four friends that make up the "entourage". Ellin mentioned again in the Season 1 commentary how the show could only work with four guys from New York, and in the show you can see it, the rapport between the four of them is amazing, like they actually grew up together. Although a modest person in nature, Ellin gives himself credit for rigorously pursuing the four main stars to act and believe in the show. Both Ellin and one of the other characters played by Jeremy Piven have stated how these four friends and their relationship are the core to the show. The dialogue Ellin writes for them makes it seem as if these four have known each other from birth. Through the bantering of the four friends, like Turtle and Eric always ripping on Drama for being an unsuccessful actor compared to his brother, or the emotional connects between Eric and Vince about their careers and love lives, these relationships created by Ellin’s dialogue make the show relatable to a real group of friends.

The last part Ellin uses is the basis for his story lines. As I stated before, Ellin wanted to deliver a show that felt real. He used stories about the characters real lives in the shows, which made everything seem so much more believable. Whether it was in season five when Vince's career seemed to be at a cross roads and he was living on an island of the coast of Mexico, or in almost every episode how Drama would constantly talk about all the different TV spots he held, these were things that happened in real life. Ellin talked about little things that happened in either his own personal life or in the other actor’s lives that added to making the show more believable. By using these story lines it made the actors almost not have to act because it was something that actually happened to them, and as any actor knows it is easy to play yourself.

It starts with the tag line of the network, because the show Entourage isn't TV. Perhaps it's the dining and nightlife spots and all of the celebrity sightings, or the male camaraderie and banter amongst best friends. Whether it is the New York ties, or the script that follows a path of reality, one thing is for sure, when you watch Entourage everything feels real. Perhaps Ellin is rewriting what it means to be a reality TV show through his use of realistic dialogue to camera work and sets that put the audience into the world of a “real life” celebrity. I am excited to see where the show will go from here and will continue watching and re-watching, over and over and over again.

Your Friend and My Favorite,

Kevin McVey

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0254120/

DVD Commentary Use:

Season 1 Commentary Entourage

Season 2 Commentary Entourage

Season 3 Commentary Entourage

Season 5 Commentary Entourage