Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
(Characters regularly curse and have sex, for starters.)
The (shorter) title sequence for CBS.
Would certain subject matter be verboten?
When did the conversation first start about bringing the first season to broadcast?
Are you still editing the episodes, or is that completed at this point?
Michelle King: Just finishing up the mixes, but the editing is done.
Robert King: Yeah, were just doing all ten mixes over the next week.
And who was the editor?
Robert King: Two of the editor assistants from that very year, Katy Skjerping and Jake Cohen.
Basically, we had three to four days per episode to edit.
Robert King: And we needed them.
The power of technology!
It was always a mess.
As we streamed it what is that, three years ago?
it was never coming together very well.
We think it plays much better now that its shorter.
Robert King: It was very difficult.
CBS was sympathetic because the point was the controversial language, you know?
It wasnt secondary, it was really the point.
So we were surprised that we were able to get some language that is intended to be offensive.
And then, with regards to the fucking, a lot of that was doing audio dropouts.
Michelle King: So that lips cant be read.
Robert King: You need the power of all those nasty things being said.
And by the way, some of the nastiness is in bad, racist jokes of online people.
Robert King: We were allowed to keep that one.
A word I hate too.
Im sorry that we have to talk this way, but kike we were allowed to retain too.
Again, because the shows being critical and almost angry about that kind of thing.
Michelle King: Yeah, to talk about these things you actually have to talk about these things.
How difficult was it editing for length?
Robert King: It was really tough.
One technique for cutting episodes down was pacing up the cutting style.
So, really, it was returning to that kind of cutting style.
Some of the scenes were exactly the same, but we took out the air between the lines.
That was one thing.
There were one or two scenes aboutthe Schtup List.
We dropped a scene where we seemed to explain something we already saw.
Which episode do you feel changed the most?
Its a tendency of department stores and retail stores using police methods to get false confessions from employees.
That one was probably impacted the most because we needed to get, I think, 12 minutes out.
There was just a lot of lines you just missed.
There were all these fun little elements we had to reduce because there was just no time.
Michelle King: Perhaps the tenth episode, [the season finale Chaos].
Robert King: Yeah, the tenth episode, because it was so all-over-the-map.
It needed that length to hang together, and Im not sure if it has the same power.
Was there anything you regret losing in that process?
Those ones, close to 12 minutes had to come out.
Maybe even 14 minutes.
They were a nightmare.
How did you approach the editing for that?
Did you rewatch the episodes and have a conversation with the editors?
Michelle King: Title cards instead of title sequences.
Robert King: Right.
Its about a minute and 20 seconds.
David Buckley also did a new score for it.
Was there any particular performance where you struggled to confirm the emotional impact remained, despite the time constraints?
That was a pity.
Robert King: That was such a fun relationship between the two of them.
Id say its 70 percent there, but it still made you feel bad.
It was maybe one of the sacrifices that had to be made, but we loved that relationship.
Are there any plans to show seasons two and three on broadcast?
Michelle King: There is no plan for that at this point.
The only way, I guess, is youd be in the midst of the general election next summer.
Are there any final thoughts you would like fans to know about the editing process?
Robert King: We hope they like it!
We like it a lot.
I think sometimes we improved things.
Michelle King: And then, of course, the next two seasons are right there.
