Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show Page #12

people stop watching.

At one point early on in my career,

I was worried that

I had run out of ideas.

You know, I thought,

well, what if that's it?

What if the well is dry?

Ten, eleven years later,

I'm faced with the opposite problem,

is I have so many projects

up on my project board,

that I look at them

and realize I'm gonna go tits up

before I get all this stuff out there.

Then I started thinking,

well, there's nothing to say

that I have to do all of this.

I would love to follow the path of...

of a J.J. Abrams.

He's someone that I

definitely look up to,

on not only a creative level,

but on a business model.

To get to a level where you can have

multiple shows on television,

where you can co-create

shows with the writers

you've worked with and love,

and you can also have

a feature career.

I think that is...

that is the ideal thing to shoot for.

What, are these fans?

It is an incredibly difficult

business to break into,

especially for people like me.

I didn't grow up in Hollywood.

I grew up in a tiny little

town in south Jersey.

I could not have been further

from the Hollywood dream.

Uh, but I had always

wanted to make that happen.

And, you know, it's kind of a...

almost a 1940's

"gee whiz" kind of speech,

but, you know,

if you follow your dreams

and you never give up,

you will get what you want.

It may not be how you expect it.

It may not be

in the timeframe you expect it.

But, you will make it.

When I was fresh out of college,

I remember a job interview

where somebody said

"Where do you see yourself

in five years?"

and I thought,

you know, I don't know

what I'm having for lunch.

So, that's not a question I'll answer.

Where do I see myself?

Where do I see this series?

I think that this is a series that has

the ability to go for a long time.

TNT is a great network to be on.

And they're not looking to

knock you off the chess board.

I'm very happy telling

these stories right now.

But, I think, if you said to me,

"you're gonna do this

for the next eight years of your life,"

I would think, "really?"

And I should be going

"Oh, yay!"

That's where I should be,

and maybe after I've had

some sleep and a vacation I'll think,

"Yeah, eight more years!"

But, right now, I'm thinking,

"No. Eight more years?

Do you know how many that is?"

When the show got canceled, um,

there was a very protracted

period afterwards

where I both was happy

to have another project to distract me

and I was having a lot of trouble

forgetting Men of a Certain Age.

I was writing my pilot,

and at the same time,

I'm on the phone trying to see

if Men of a Certain Age

can go to another... another network.

It's like your girlfriend's in a coma,

but they're going,

"Hey, you wanna go on some dates?"

And when you're on the date,

I guess at some point,

you forget maybe for a few minutes,

and then you come back home and go,

"Oh, still in a coma.

"It'd be nice if you got

out of the coma

so I don't have to go on the dates."

I don't know why I just did that

as Woody Allen.

It was really...

Please cut that, all of that.

I went into my deal

with 20th Century Fox.

Then that started.

So, that was the beginning of,

"Okay, time to move on."

Here's what's gonna happen.

I'm old. I'm 53.

No one will call me.

No one will want me to be

a showrunner.

And then the question will be

will I go write a book?

Will I go work for one of the people

who have come up past me?

I don't know the answer

to any of those things,

because right now,

I cannot see past Christmas.

But, you know, I'm supposed to be

an English professor

in Canada,

and I'm already having more fun

than... than I was supposed to.

First of all, I want a show

with an African-American lead

to do well.

Especially Don Cheadle, 'cause he...

Nobody deserves it more than him.

Then I'd like to keep making the show,

'cause it's...

I feel like it's fun. And it's good.

And, you know,

I hope people will watch it.

So, um...

Yeah, I'm nervous, for sure.

Thank you.

I'm so excited to be

showing you guys this show.

I didn't know

that I wanted to make a show

about management consultants.

I didn't...

But, um, we've tried very hard

to hide that fact

in the marketing of it,

and also hide the fact

that it's about rich a**holes.

No offense to anybody in the room.

I'm embarrassed to say

that I feel great about it.

I usually want to pick things apart.

But, I actually

really feel good about it.

The biggest challenge making the show

is encountering myself every day

and what I'm capable of,

and kind of stretching

the limits of what your talent is

and what your experience is.

And thankfully,

I've done it a couple times,

so I have...

I've made a lot of big mistakes.

And so, I can...

I think I've learned a lot from those.

This is a major time commitment.

It's been, you know,

a big chunk of my life

for the last year.

But, I would happily do it again

if I got the chance, for sure.

It's amazing to get to just

do it right once, you know?

It's amazing, totally worth it.

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