With its research as a foundation, the Seminars team crafts the hypothetical scenario that forms the spine of the program and determines a cast of characters that will drive the story forward. The producers look for drama as well as authenticity in news reports, finding incidents that might inspire turning points in the hypothetical. Their goal is to force the characters in the story to bump into situations that put their intellectual point of view in conflict with a personal imperative.

As potential panelists are considered for the program, the team "casts" the characters in the hypothetical. The panelists will be called on to bring their professional and personal experience to their role in the story to help illuminate the challenges and obstacles that might face the character and the difficult choices that can emerge.

Before the taping of the Fred Friendly Seminar program, the hypothetical "roadmap" is mastered by the moderator. The panelists have no idea what the story will be or what role is in store for them. They will discover their character and be forced to respond to the dilemmas that develop as the moderator slowly builds the plot of the scenario, adding unexpected new factors that complicate the judgments involved.

The result is a discussion that is relevant, spontaneous, and compelling. While the broadcast programs are videotaped and edited, the spontaneity of the live event is scrupulously preserved. Whether for a television audience, or the live audience of a Seminar created for a conference or training, the fascination of a Fred Friendly Seminar comes, in part, from seeing panelists struggle to find their way through this thicket of wrenching decisions that emerge from the hypothetical.

Their broader success consists in compelling the audience to confront knotty but essential issues in their own minds. As Fred Friendly explained, "Our job is to make the agony of decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking."