Ken Levine and POV

I stumbled across a blog by Ken Levine, a veteran TV writer (MASH, Cheers, etc.). In his most recent post, he discusses the making of his favorite MASH episode, "POV."

The story was told entirely from the first-person POV of a wounded soldier, who encounters all the show's regulars as they work to heal him. In the preceding post, Levine includes an excerpt from that episode's script, as well as a YouTube clip of the first act of the episode -- in which we see nearly every recurring character on MASH from the wounded soldier's POV.

It's a very interesting narrative device, because it allows us, via the soldier, to view the characters from a detached 3rd person POV until they interact with "us" directly. At that point, the story (and the characters) change from fictional people we're watching from a safe distance to individuals who are talking TO US, directly -- and often in a tone that reveals more about them than we ever see from the traditional, 3rd person POV.

Seeds of videoblogging, anyone?

(FYI, the most interesting tidbit I noticed was that this episode was filmed in three days. Wow. And we think filming a 5 minute episode of STBD is complicated...)