The Truth About the Scripted Dialogue on Pawn Stars

Is Pawn Stars fake? In some respects, it is, but the truth isn't always that simple. A certain amount of staging has to happen to make the show work while still operating within the bounds of national, state, and local laws. That's also in part because, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, only about one in 100 customers these days comes in to conduct actual pawn shop business. The rest are tourists treating the place like a travel destination and hotspot. So, if an object is deemed worthy to appear on the show, the seller gets coached on how to act so they can dramatize the actual transaction on television. Plus, while the show's dialogue isn't scripted in a traditional sense, a bit of nudging here and there helps direct Pawn Stars into something people want to watch. 

Brent Montgomery, an executive producer of Pawn Stars, told The Odyssey Online the truth about what actually happens behind the scenes. The show uses "scripters" to shape dramatic moments and push certain storylines. "We found really smart scripters to feed the characters organic information," he said.

With reality television, writers don't have the same role as they do on TV shows that are written and acted. According to Andy Dehnart, MSNBC's television editor, these writers more often take on the roles of producer or editor, finding a storyline from hundreds of hours of footage and turning it into a cohesive narrative on screen. "Reality show writers decide which characters and story lines to follow each week, and which footage should be used to tell those stories," Dehnart explained during a Today Q&A, saying that these plots come from existing material.

Montgomery's comment indicates that Pawn Stars writers simply find a narrative thread, then prompt the characters to focus in and develop that subject in a way that appeals to viewers. So, there's no script, but that doesn't mean a story isn't being shaped, manipulated, and molded on Pawn Stars. And who can argue with the show's runaway success? It's a tactic that seems to be working.

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/2PAv6Sq