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Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show Page #2
uh, is, is such a rare thing.
You know, there are a lot of people
who are great writers
who really don't necessarily
enjoy the process.
And I really do.
I love the first draft
as much as I love the rewrites.
The idea of
really having those characters
come alive in my head
and hearing the words is just...
it's, it's the rush for me.
you're making an episode
is for it to be the best episode
that you've ever made.
But the reality of the situation is,
we're writing a script every ten days.
And, you know, we began to
realize like, every episode
is not gonna be a home run.
And we started looking
at the seasons as a whole,
as opposed to a sort of episode
by episode analysis.
But at the end of the day,
the legacy of the show is gonna be,
there's six seasons up on a shelf
and you can watch 'em
one after the other.
So the bad episodes are gonna
come out in the wash,
and the good episodes are also
gonna come out in the wash.
All that's gonna matter is, you know,
what are the peaks and valleys
of the storytelling as a whole?
Writing 22 episodes
of a television show
is a heavy endeavor,
and anybody who can do it
on their own, more power to them.
But we're not really interested
in doing it on our own.
We're interested in
having a family of writers
who are all contributing
to make the show something
that collectively, we're all proud of.
And hopefully,
by the time it gets on air,
everybody feels that
part of them is in that episode.
Part of them is in it.
Yeah, we don't really care...
I mean, there's a lot of
showrunners that are
very concerned because
their name's on every script
and while it's our responsibility
to come up
with the stories, you know,
um, on a consistency
and a through line of where
we're going,
you know, it's not important for us
to have our names
on the scripts so much.
It's kind of more important
that people recognize,
"Okay, those guys are
the ones behind the shows."
John, why don't you just head for...
Can you get as far
as the end of act two?
Yeah, I can.
Can you get as far
as the end of act three?
I can get to the middle of act three.
I wanted to just hear act four.
Go, John.
We're really gonna
come back to the new season,
picking up where everyone's story was.
In other words,
we're gonna find Brennan...
This is full of spoilers;
I'm a little hesitant to speak.
Don't hesitate. Go ahead.
Don't worry about the spoilers.
This is gonna come out after we...
It's a rich stew of spoilers.
So, uh, Brennan is on the run still
with her daughter Christine.
Um, booth doesn't know
where Brennan is.
He is looking for her.
So we're gonna pick up on...
99% of the audience,
they don't know my name.
They don't know that people
write it, even.
I mean, my father
was on set once and, um...
they made TV... he loves it.
First time he saw my name on TV,
he had a little weep.
And he's a logger.
He's not a weepy guy.
He was standing watching Emily
say one of her, you know,
scientific things about the bones,
something I'd written.
And he turned to me and said,
"Wow, how does she
come up with that stuff?"
And I thought,
"That's my dad."
That's, nine... That's the audience.
Those people
who don't know how the soup is made.
Um, and then there's a small...
uh, a very small, uh, portion
of the audience that thinks
they know how the soup is made
and... give you advice on
how much salt to put in.
And I think they should be ignored,
because they're not...
Not that they're stupid or anything.
Some of them are stupid.
Some of them are very, very smart.
But they should be ignored
because they're not your audience.
Once the whole story is written down,
we'll talk about
what the personal stories are.
Then we try and smoosh those
together into an outline.
And generally, the writer...
whoever the writer is...
will, uh, write the outline.
It's breaking down
each act into scenes,
and just giving you
a short description
of what each scene is.
Just so you know what
the end of the acts are
and what happens in each act.
It's for the network and the studio
to say, "Okay, let's go."
And so that we're all on
more or less the same page.
And then it's off to drafts we go,
and it just goes through
the same, uh, process.
a lot of people who can write
with a very distinctive voice
failures as showrunners,
because when you're
creating television,
you're trying to create
something unique and do it
and within a certain period of time.
And when you throw in
those two complicating factors,
you really separate
the real showrunners
from the great writers.
The philosophy of my room
for the writers has always been
fall in love with moments, not moves.
A move is,
"Oh, my god, it was his evil twin."
Evil twin gives you nothing,
extremely relatable thing
that everybody has gone through
in regards to an evil twin
that you can mine,
and that's your moment.
Um, we will protect moments
at all costs.
I will give up a good move
in a heartbeat.
It's very hard.
Most writers are taught,
just keep it going
till you get to the end.
Whew, we got through another one.
And then shootout at the warehouse.
And, uh... And believe me,
I've done my share
of shootouts at warehouses,
I'm sorry to say.
Every show needs to have
a separate intent.
What do we need to see,
what is the big movie moment,
whether it's emotional,
whether it's funny,
whether it's action...
What's that thing
we're leading up to that,
that, you know,
that hits you in the heart?
The writers of my shows and staffs,
they're my families.
You want them to be partners
and not just, uh, scribes.
Frankly, if you're lucky,
you get to, uh, take each step
along the way, and I did from
assistant to staff writer.
And then you get a story editor.
And then executive story editor
and co-producer
and supervising producer
and co-EP and then, uh,
executive producer, and then
showrunner if you get a show.
Uh, for me, every one of those
steps, uh, is important.
and the responsibilities
get a little bit greater.
Dave Cobb, writer's assistant.
Todd Helbing, story editor.
Aaron Helbing, story editor.
Misha Green, story editor.
Brent Fletcher, co-producer.
Jed...
Jed Whedon, co-producer.
What I love about this room is
that there's no power plays.
There's no... Nobody's trying
to get over anybody else.
I am the king, let's not forget that.
But besides that, everybody's equal.
Everybody... Me and the little king
will broach no dissent.
When I graduated from UCLA,
I thought,
okay, six months to a year,
I'll, you know,
get my career going and break in.
And during that time, I got a job
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"Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Aug. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/showrunners:_the_art_of_running_a_tv_show_18064>.
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