"So far it can generate a few plot outlines, but we're still inthe early stages," he says. "We're trying to figure out what elementsof creativity aren't so creative, in the sense that we can get acomputer to do it easily. Soap opera writers don't figure outbrilliant new plot twists every day. They have a library of plotideas that happen over and over again. If you take those simple plotideas and plug in different characters and different situations, theywill play out in limitless ways."
By carefully monitoring a few years' worth of "Days of OurLives," Lebowitz tried to figure out that elusive problem: What makesa story interesting? "The one thing you can't allow," he found, "isto let the characters do what they'd normally do in real life. It'stoo dull. In the real world, lovers want to be together. In TV, youneed some force keeping them apart."
The forces keeping them apart on "Days of Our Lives" were ratherpredictable, Lebowitz found. In a two-year period, three "dead"spouses turned out to be alive; four of the lovers died (at leastfor a little while); three developed serious illnesses (amnesia,blindness and heart attack); and one unhappy couple turned out to besiblings.
There's more to an interesting story, however, than unfulfilledlove. "Roughly speaking, what makes something interesting is thatit's novel," Lebowitz says. "It's not exactly like something else youknow, and yet it's connected to other things. A story that's totallyoff the wall isn't so interesting, yet one that's too mundane isn'tinteresting, either."
Will Lebowitz's program ever be able to write stories ascreative as those on TV? He doesn't think so. "If you did puttogether a program like that, it might be a big step backwards," hesays. "It'll get you `Rocky 18,' and the 14 clones of `Star Wars' -but it won't get you `Star Wars.' Whatever that spark is which makesa show `Dallas' rather than just another soap opera is much, muchharder to figure out."
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