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.

Your ambition every time

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...

My dad has watched TV since

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.

The truth is, there are

a lot of people who can write

with a very distinctive voice

who would be absolute abject

failures as showrunners,

because when you're

creating television,

you're trying to create

something unique and do it

for a certain amount of money

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,

um, unless there is some

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.

You learn something new,

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've been on shows where it's

very clear that there was.

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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