Every two years, radio-TV-film students produce a 10-episode soap opera or some other major television project. Department Chair Richard Allen, a veteran of Hollywood who has won two Emmys for daytime scriptwriting, says while the project might look like it’s about a soap opera, the main goal is to train students for real life.

You mean the idea isn’t to make a great product to sell to a network?
RA: It’s nice to be asked. In 2000 and 2002, TCU student-written soaps were snapped up by Burly Bear Network and aired on college cable TV nationwide, but that’s not the reason for the class. We’re not a TV studio. The students are not professionals. They’re a group of individuals at a small liberal arts school, trying to learn professionalism.

Is that difficult to teach?
RA: I want the students to rise to a level where the project comes before everything else, where something becomes more important than the grade or themselves. We’re teaching something intangible here, something not ordinarily taught in the college classroom. Students who take this course must learn how to deal with the frustrations, rigors and demands of being on a team.

What is your best advice to students?
RA: I tell my students that their two worst enemies are blame and excuses. In a professional situation you must answer for yourself. Learn to rise above any situation and contribute; you must make the project the best it can be.

What does that mean in practice?
RA: An alumnus of the department, who is now a writer on one of the popular soaps and who works with our student-interns, had good advice: Be prepared to do the most menial thing with a positive attitude. Accept that you’re not going to start at the top, or even the middle. If it’s your job to get the coffee, be the best coffee getter possible. Don’t complain; do your best. You never know who might be watching.

That’s hard for students to accept?
RA: Most college students don’t know about the real world until they get out into it. They’re used to being encouraged, mollycoddled and understood by parents and teachers. They can make excuses or get extensions when they haven’t done their work. They have to learn in the real world that excuses won’t wash. They’ll have to be their own teachers and give their best, no matter what. Most people don’t see this until they are out of school.

So you’re the hammer?
RA: Yes, in a way. Still, it’s not boot camp. The course is full of mentoring, not just by me but also by all professors involved. I thought that project-teaching would be a good idea when I was still working in Hollywood. If they screw up here, they won’t lose their job, die or fail to meet the mortgage. Teamwork and selflessness are always an issue. It’s part of growing up. Most adults successfully forego their own needs for sake of the group.

What does TCU’s RTVF department offer that other schools don’t?
RA: At the University of Southern California, one of the country’s most prestigious film schools, each student gets a film kit to keep semester-long. Here, each student gets a kit for 24 hours. This teaches a valuable lesson: Time is money. Our students learn to plan every second in the studio. Just as they would in real life.