The literary era since 1979

As Fangyan had expected, the heavy snow finally began to fall like drifting catkins.

After Fang Yan finished the second reading session with the crew of "Farewell My Concubine", he went to the editorial office of "Mystery World".

At this time, Wang Shuo, Yu Hua, Shi Tiesheng, Zheng Yuanjie and others were sitting in a circle, with steaming sweet potatoes and tea on the table.

"Oh, you guys really know how to enjoy yourself!"

Fangyan strode in, shook off the snow that had fallen on his clothes, and then hung his coat on the coat rack.

Everyone was surprised and delighted, "Teacher Fang (Yanzi)!"

As Fangyan's lackey, Wang Shuo tactfully brought him a chair and said, "Hey, sit here."

Fang Yan did not sit down immediately. Instead, he took out a stack of red envelopes from his bag and distributed them one by one:
"I won't say any more polite words. This is your year-end bonus. Thank you for your dedication and hard work this year!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the whole room suddenly became lively, and everyone's eyes were cast towards the thick red envelope in his hand.

"I specially booked a table at Fengze Garden tonight. Everyone, remember to say hello to your family."

Red envelopes were given out while speaking in dialect.

Yu Hua, Lu Haiyan and others took the red envelopes. They could feel the "heaviness" of the red envelopes just by touching them and they couldn't stop smiling.

Wang Shuo put the red envelope into his pocket and said, "Teacher Fang, speaking of this, the Yanjing Television Art Center will also treat us to a meal in a few days."

Shi Tiesheng said: "Yes, in recent years, our studio has been cooperating more and more closely with the Yanjing Television Art Center. This year, one-third of the TV drama scripts have come from us. At the end of the year, Yanjing Television will also broadcast the second part of "The Judge Advocate of the Song Dynasty"."

Seeing them nodding repeatedly, Fang Yan smiled and asked, "How is the performance of the sitcom "I Love My Family"?"

"Great! It's better than ever before, unimaginable!"

"........."

"Teacher Fang, let me put it this way. It was only a few days after the broadcast of I Love My Family. I once took a bus to Lama Temple Street and heard the ticket seller always add a sentence after announcing the name of a certain station, 'I Love My Family will be broadcast tonight.' The passengers' eyes lit up after hearing this."

"That's nothing. I've heard of an interesting story. It was said that there was a power outage in a residential area in northern Hebei or Tianjin. Audiences called to report it, saying only one reason: 'It affects our ability to watch I Love My Family tonight.' It happened that the leader went to the city for a meeting, so the city's duty phone was flooded with calls. When they answered the phone and asked what happened, they didn't expect it was because of a power outage. The people couldn't watch I Love My Family, so they were extremely anxious. Then guess what? The leader temporarily stopped the meeting and gave priority to solving the power problem in the area."

"Hahaha!"

In an instant, the house was filled with a happy atmosphere.

Yu Hua felt that words alone were not enough, so he hurriedly searched through a pile of newspapers and magazines for news about "I Love My Family".

Immediately afterwards, one newspaper after another was placed in front of Fangyan, and all major newspapers reported on the show from before to after the broadcast.

For example, the Huaxia Television Newspaper, which mainly announces the program schedules of major TV stations across the country, reported in great detail:
"The country's first sitcom will be broadcast on Yanjing Television this weekend."

"What is a sitcom? What is a neo-realist TV series? - My opinion on "I Love My Opinion"."

"The 35-episode sitcom "I Love My Family" will be released this Saturday night, with two episodes a day."

This is just hyping up a concept. Today's audiences don't know what a sitcom is. Once they see the first domestic one, they naturally become interested.

When I read the popular science articles in mainstream newspapers such as Wen Yi Bao, I learned that it was an imported product and a foreign thing, and naturally I became more interested.

As for why two episodes were broadcast? Because each episode is too short to watch.

In the words of later generations, it means "short and weak", "sitting up in shock from a dying illness", "finished reading it by drinking a sip of water", etc.

The results were obviously beyond the expectations of the audience, newspapers, and TV stations at the time, with an audience rating of 85%. "I Love My Family pioneered sitcoms in China and won the first place in the ratings of the month with an average audience rating of 85%."

Fangyan flipped through the newspaper in his hand, "I Love My Family creatively uses the funny and humorous means in Chinese traditional culture, coupled with solid script jokes and dense use of witticisms. In a humorous and lifelike way, it tells the story of their interactions with relatives, friends, neighbors, and various visitors, reflecting the lives of ordinary people in China in the 80s..."

"This TV series is so popular that it is no less popular than Dream of the Red Chamber."

Wang Shuo's tone was somewhat proud. "If it weren't for the fact that when Dream of Red Mansions started airing, I Love My Family was almost at the end of its run. Otherwise, we could have really compared the two TV series to see which one had the higher ratings!"

Fang Yan narrowed his eyes. "From what you said, do you think I Love My Family can be better than A Dream of Red Mansions?"

Wang Shuo said as if it was a matter of course, "Hehe, is there any need to explain this? I couldn't continue watching Dream of the Red Chamber after watching the first dozen episodes. It was seriously unreliable, totally lacking in talent, and the filming was simply unbearable to watch. Not only did it ruin the original novel, it almost made me vomit.

"Cough cough."

Yu Hua and others pretended to cough a few times to hint that Teacher Fang was one of the consultants of "Dream of Red Mansions".

To dare to criticize him in front of him is like an old man eating arsenic, seeking death!

Fang Yan did not get angry immediately, but looked at him meaningfully:

"Don't jump to conclusions. Whether it's good or not is up to the audience to judge. It has to stand the test of time. It won't be too late to comment after ten years..."

"Yanzi is right. Whether it will be a classic or ruin a classic, only time will tell."

Shi Tiesheng tried to smooth things over and then brought the topic back to the dinner party hosted by the Yenching Television Art Center.

"Zheng Xiaolong and Lu Xiaowei invited us to dinner. I'm afraid they didn't just want to thank us, but also wanted to discuss future cooperation."

Lu Haiyan said seriously.

Liang Zuo nodded in agreement. "After I Love My Family became popular, they have approached me more than once, hoping that Wang Shuo, Yu Hua and I could write a second series, or create a new TV series script to build on our success."

Fangyan looked around, "What do you think?"

"It's not easy to create a sitcom. One is more difficult than two or three regular TV series."

Shi Tiesheng said, "Each episode is an independent story. We must not only think clearly about how to sort out the logic and tell the story clearly in these 30 to 40 minutes, but also consider how to weave the jokes into the story, bury the jokes deep, and make the punchlines louder."

"Yes."

As the screenwriter of "I Love My Family", it is hard for Liang Zuo to disagree.

Although according to the instructions of the dialect, "I Love My Family" contains many foreshadowings of other sitcoms, which can be derived into TV series such as "Idle Ma Dajie" and "The Story of the Editorial Department", it requires a long time to create, and the script needs to be carefully polished after it is written.

"Since sitcoms aren't going to work for now, why don't we write a regular neo-realist TV show first?"

As soon as Yu Hua finished speaking, he quickly gained the agreement of most people present.

"The TV series 'I Love My Family' has verified the feasibility of the 'new realism' approach I mentioned earlier."

With a smile on his face, Fangyan said, "As long as the story is down-to-earth and truly reflects the lives of ordinary people, it will be popular with the audience."

"Teacher Fang, no one knows more about neo-realism than you. What do you think we should write about next?"

Liang Zuo's words immediately drew everyone's attention to Fang Yan, like a pack of wolves waiting for their leader to give orders. (End of this chapter)