Another neat thing about the extras on the Seinfeld DVD's
is that they share many details of the business of producing and
writing a TV show. It's an amazingly efficient process because it has
to be -- it's not a choice when you have seven days to
complete such a huge project. One particularly useful nugget is Jerry's
philosophy about naming the episodes.
Every episode except for the second one (Male Un-Bonding) is simply tilted, "The ___________." For example, The Contest, The Busboy, The Pony Remark
and so on. Jerry explains that he didn't want the writers to sit
around wasting
creative energy developing catchy names for the shows, especially since
most viewers wouldn't even care or remember the name once the show
started. They chose names that were merely descriptive, and in so doing
they managed to give them a brand flavor all their own since they were
consistent with
the protocol.
That's pretty good advice. How much time and energy do we waste
working on details that are of little consequence? Developing product
names is a great example. We sit in meetings for hours each year and
then spend even more time checking to make sure we aren't violating anyone
else's trademarks. How often do customers really care what the
product is called anyway?