Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show Page #5

because your life does, in fact,

inform the kind of writing that you do.

This might be

much debated in this documentary,

but I do think that good

creative executives do make

an important creative contribution

to the successes of the show.

It's not about telling

somebody how to write it.

It's about giving them good counsel.

I tend to work very directly.

I have a lot of opinions

and feelings of what

I think is... is interesting,

what I think is boring,

what I think is, uh, fresh,

what I think has been done

before, and I communicate it.

I'm very clear.

It's their show,

and I tend to win the budget wars,

they win the creative wars.

There's no show that goes on our air

where we don't have

general consensus

between the writer, showrunner,

the lead actors, and the network.

When there's not consensus,

that's when you make

crappy television.

Action!

The thing we kind of

beat into the young writers

when they start is,

is this the hill you're gonna die on?

Because this argument

you have is the only one

you're ever gonna have

a shot at winning,

so make sure it's the one,

because after that, you know,

if you just start fighting 'em

on every single thing,

you become the problem in the room.

And they write the checks

and they pay the bills.

And by the way,

sometimes there's no way

to get out of it.

Right.

And sometimes it is

the hill you wanna die on.

I mean, if that's really

what the episode is about,

and to take the note

is gonna undermine everything,

you know...

Don't not have a hill.

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

you wanna have a hill.

You wanna have some integrity,

but make sure it's the hill, yeah.

Working on Dirt

was all kinds of things.

It was a difficult experience.

It was an enlightening experience

because Courtney's character

wasn't even in the script

when I wrote it.

The network really wanted

a female-driven series

so I created this character

for Courtney.

Um... So in a way, my initial,

my original vision

was compromised

from the time I said okay.

Something as simple as going,

okay, I'll do that.

And from there, it deteriorated.

It was challenging and

John Landgraf and I, the head of FX,

we went at it.

We really struggled.

And it was... It was a really...

It was ultimately

an incredibly difficult

and really rewarding

creative process.

I feel like the pilot I got to

make was amazingly cool.

The first season

I got to make was really cool.

The second season, he just said

this is what we're gonna do.

And I felt like it wasn't so good.

I've never seen

the second season of Dirt,

uh, nor do I want to.

I've probably spoken out

against the behavior

of the people

at the top in the networks

two or three times in my career,

and now I find recently

that I have a reputation.

I've gotten a little bit shirty

and I've gotten insistent

and I've drawn the line.

But the moment you forget that

the executive you can't stand

might be the only person in the room

who has the right idea

about how to fix something,

you're gonna lose.

I don't think you need to

treat anybody like your enemy

unless they are actively

trying to destroy you,

which occasionally does happen.

There are those kind

of people out there,

but there are not many.

I am and always have tried

to be a company man.

And yet, now I find that

I'm this hot-headed maverick.

Which is amazing, because, you know,

I'm afraid of four-year-olds.

Good morning.

Good morning.

The worst point for notes

is before you're on the air,

and everybody thinks they know

how the public is

going to react to a show.

Or if a show is doing

kind of middling well,

which is what Bones did, by the way.

It did middling well,

it was not a hit.

We were like a weed

that you couldn't kill,

and then we got a little love

and did quite well.

The writers meeting is for

the director to give notes

on the script, um, and say what works

or doesn't work for him and her, so...

It's important for me too,

because I can have ideas in prep,

but I need to know that these guys...

that we're all in sync

as we push forward,

as we continue to prep, uh,

in terms of making the show

that these guys envision,

that everybody wants to see

at the end of the day.

Uh, the script is currently 60 pages?

- 52.

- 52?

- 52 minutes.

- 52 minutes.

Oh, is it ready?

I wouldn't touch it.

I wouldn't go any shorter.

First of all, it's not...

so plot driven

that this, more than any we've had,

should not be trimmed that much.

I got two notes Friday

from the network

which I thought were really...

were good.

Um, and I don't mean

to sound surprised.

What takes a single

episode of network television

so long to get produced

is the meetings.

There's lots of meetings.

The single dumbest note

I've ever gotten was...

We were doing Everybody Hates Chris,

and we had an episode where

Chris had gotten a fever

and a flu or something.

It was at Christmas,

he was in the hospital,

and he was hallucinating

that he was talking to a guy

who was basically Santa Claus.

And the note came down

from the network,

"Does Santa Claus have to be so old?"

One of the

funnier notes I ever received

was right after CBS

picked up Swingtown.

And I went to this meeting,

and Les, Les Moonves, um...

god help me, uh,

if he's watching this...

Les Moonves tells me that he,

you know, he loves the show.

And we got almost through

the whole meeting.

He says, "I got one note."

I said, "What?"

And he goes,

"I don't think the neighbors

should sleep together."

I said,

"You don't think the neighbors

should sleep together?"

And he said, "No."

"Well, it's called Swingtown.

"It's about swingers in the '70s.

Like, what do you want them to do?"

He says,

"Well, that's why you're the writer."

I can't believe

I'll never work at CBS again.

You know, I have

a very dark sensibility.

Like, what I find acceptable,

90% of the populous

does not find acceptable.

And I've had to learn that

the hard way.

So I need somebody sometimes to say,

"Hey, dude, that's too much.

"Like, that's... That doesn't...

Not only doesn't that

serve the story,

but it's just too out there,"

So I can take a step back and go...

So it's not a reaction

like, "F*** you. That's my vision."

It's like I can then take

a step back and go, all right,

well, yeah, maybe...

maybe that is too much.

You know, maybe we don't

really need to see

the balls being hacked off the clown.

Perhaps we tell it on the face.

It was a huge disappointment

that that pilot didn't go.

And the script was very well received,

but the WB was very difficult.

There came this moment

where they wanted

a different version of the script.

And they had brought in

another writer over my objections,

which is...

In retrospect,

I can't even believe

I allowed that to happen.

But at that point, I was very young,

it was my first pilot.

And we were now

about a week away from shooting.

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