Showrunners: "The Secret to Having a Successful Career"

“The secret to having successful career is to find other talented writers to work with.” So said the showrunners in a panel discussion at an event at Sony held by FIN (Film Industry Network). Four showrunners were invited to speak to a group of writers, actors, directors and producers in a little room off the big Atrium in the once-MGM building across the street from the actual studio lot. It’s a beautiful airy atrium, which has display cases from various Sony movies.

While we were waiting for the doors to open, I explored the atrium and the exhibits Sony had placed there for visitors to peruse. I’m going to scatter pictures of those exhibits throughout the content here, not because they pertain to the showrunners panel -- except in that this represents content from screenwriters and showrunners -- but because it’s nice to have something visual to focus on.

Showrunners on the panel were JOHN MORANVILLE, currently of Drive, JIM PARRIOTT, currently of Ugly Betty, BOB BENDETSON, formerly of Coach and Newhart, and BOB FRASER, the moderator, formerly of Benson.

John Moranville started as DGA Trainee on “Bullitt” – which he left when he got his ‘dream job’ as a $65 per week PA on ABC Sports Golf Tournament. He worked his way up to Producer/Director of ABC Sports. Then in the mid 70s, he became a ABC executive in Daytime Programming, developing for Ryan’s Hope, Family Feud, games, and soaps.

Family Feud gave him his FU money (if you think you know what those letters stand for, you’d be right) so now he doesn’t have to work on whatever project they throw at him, he can work on what he wants. After being fired there, he went to Spelling where he produced and directed Vegas and Love Boat, Dynasty for 5 years and Hotel. Then for Paramount, he produced MacGyver for seven years and Pacific Blue and is now producing Drive which premieres on April 15.

Jim Parriott is a baby boomer with a lot of hyphenates: writer/creator, director, executive producer/showrunner. For me, he is best known for his syndicated cult hit and Gemini Award nominated Forever Knight. But for most people these days, he is probably known as the former EP and showrunner of Grey’s Anatomy. He’s now EP and showrunner of Ugly Betty. Among his other credits are Push, Nevada, American Embassy, Voyagers, Elvis the Early Years, and Matt Waters.

In 1999, he worked with novelist Anne Rice, co-writing with her a CBS’s TV pilot Anne Rice’s Rag and Bone.

Showrunner BOB BENDETSON has earned many nominations: 7 Emmy noms, 4 Golden Globe noms, and a Writers Guild nom. He also garnered 2 People’s Choice Awards. He’s written for The Jeffersons, Facts of Life, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Alf, Newhart, Coach, Home Improvement, and The Simpsons.

BOB FRASER moderated. He started acting at 12, but when Broadway stopped calling, he bought a theater to run in South Dakota and later opened up Comedy Store called Punchline Café on Hollywood Blvd. When faced with the choice of going to Alaska as an actor in “Terra Nova” or a staff job on Love Boat, he chose the latter. That panned out because two years later, he was showrunner on Benson.

These guys offered us great advice and insights, mainly through stories they related about working on various shows. However, I hesitate to repeat these inside tales in such a public venue. Even so, there are a couple of fun things I can repeat: For example, when Bob Bendetson was an Executive Story Editor on Alf, everybody quit. The show’s creator told Bob, “If you stay, I’ll make you showrunner.” I’d like to say that’s a nice hefty promotion, but I’m sure there’s more of a story there than meets the eye and if known, wouldn’t make it so appealing.

To which Bob Fraser offered his own story of how after a year on Benson as producer, he was offered a Co-Executive producer credit, but with little money attached. He told them “to keep your title, give me a bucketful of money.” You always go for the money, he said, because you put up with a lot for it. This way when things get rough, you can remind yourself of the money you’re making.

Fraser stayed at producer level (but with making a lot of money) until Tony Thomas felt it didn’t fit the image of their show to have a ‘producer’ making so much money. So they came up with the title of showrunner.

In the early years of his career, Bob Benetson lived a schizoid existence while he was writing scripts for William Morris’s “B” actors. He said that he’d be delivering meat to the same restaurants in the morning that he’d be going over scripts with actors like George Hamilton at dinner in the evening.

In addition to such amusing anecdotes, the showrunners did give us interesting insights and advice on their positions. Bob Bendetson offered that a showrunner has to be both psychologist and creative father figure to the actors and other writers. For the happier people are, the more creative they are. He warns that if a show doesn’t work, the writers can be rewriting network notes from 8pm to 4am. A showrunner also needs to make his actors feel important. Even the puppet on Alf needed to feel like he was getting paid what he was worth. Or in the words of Barry Kemp: treat them like 2-year olds with lots of power.

Hearing some of the nightmarish stories the other showrunners told, Parriott exclaimed, “Thank God I’m in drama!” However, he did admit that in the late 70s and early 80s, actors during the cocaine era were no joy to work with. “A coked-up actor drinks to come down.” Thus, far too often in those years, they had to deal with actors who were coked-up drunks who couldn’t remember lines and swore all the time instead. In tandem with forgetting lines, drunk actors would break down and cry; hence as the showrunner trying to get episodes in the can, he’d end up holding their hands just to get them through the shoot.

Fraser agreed, saying that he loved actors but when drink and drugs come into play, you often just have to deal with it. If the actor is in a certain position, everyone has to overlook it, and the showrunner has to just handle it. He related an altercation he had with a star of one of his shows and how the studio execs took the actor’s side because the show had been picked up for a couple more years. “Name of the game is whatever it takes to make the star happy.”

Parriott mentioned that it’s important for a showrunner to have rules like ‘no call on weekends’ or actors will be calling the showrunner with their personal and professional problems all hours of the night.

Parriott also laid out the most important parts of showrunning:
1. writing
2. editing
3. telling everybody they did a good job.

“Everybody wants to hear they are doing a good job,” Parriott reminded. Especially the crew as they don’t have the director telling them how good their performances are every other scene. It’s good to buy the crew stuff like a coffee cart or taco shop once a week.

I remember when I was on Viper – every Friday night we were on stage (meaning on the Paramount lot, not location), we had a gourmet coffee cart throughout the evening shoot. When I was on Joan of Arcadia we had many thank you gifts from the studio and from directors: coffee carts and ice cream trucks, even ‘back and arm’ massages from masseurs brought in for the day. Those went a long way to making us feel appreciated. Our next-door stage was for The Guardian and sometimes they’d bring in a truck serving hamburgers like from In and Out.

On the topic of writing in the room and finding writers for the room, Bendetson explained how important vetting writers was. He would get sitcom submissions from agents and read 5 to 10 pages. If he isn’t hooked in that time – “meaning I don’t laugh” – that’s it for that script and writer. When shows get picked up, they have to vet writers fast, because once you find those you consider top writers, you usually find they have lots of offers already.

He explained how a sitcom writing staff worked to those in the audience interested in comedy. First thing the writers would do is talk about what’s going on in their personal lives until they figure out what could translate into a good story. Then they beat out that story. The writers go off and write, come back to get or give suggestions, and then work on the timing. Then they table the script, which is where the actors come in and read their parts in front of everyone. Sometimes the producers have to fill in on the roles if the actors aren’t available to do their roles themselves, for one reason or another.

Parriott described a different process for drama writing. For him, once the story goes out of room, it never comes back in. He believes in empowering writers. This means giving writers notes, but letting them do the rewrite and hand it into the network. Shonda’s approach is somewhat different: she works with the writers and then lets the writers rewrite the script once it comes back, but she also lets writers go to the network themselves to get notes, so it’s a great learning process for them.

Once again, Parriott described another policy he has – the “no asshole policy.” He explained that nowadays there’s only six weeks between bringing writers on and prep, so you have to have people who can work together. As I think of it, he’s not the only one who has that policy. I worked on a pilot with probably one of the best crews I’ve ever seen, with everyone going out of their way to watch each other’s backs… when I complimented my boss on the crew he put together, he, too revealed he had a ‘no asshole policy.’ “Life’s too short to not work with good people,” he said.

In answering a question on what the networks want these days, Parriott explained that the network wants to know the pilot and six episodes. They want a half a page on it and they want to know where they’re going. When Shonda and Jim pitched Grey’s Anatomy, they did even more – they had all 13 episodes, the arc of a whole season. Also, when go into pilot pitch these days, you have to pitch other medias as well.

To answer a question on boarding Grey’s Anatomy, he explained they had one entire board of medical stories and one of other interests.

Moranville revealed that when he was on Pacific Blue, their writers were mainly from General Hospital. Hence, they were used to cranking out scripts. They could easily go into a season with 6-8 scripts ready. Whereas Drive is a totally different situation. The young FOX executives are giving them so much interference that they “don’t have pages to shoot on Tuesday.” He knows where he is shooting (in an orange grove) and who is in it, but he doesn’t have a script yet.

On rewriting one’s own stuff, Jim said to find a passion project and keep writing on it, for it helps through the dead spots everyone has. Emily Brody – American Embassy was such a project for him. “Ability to withhold services is the only power you have,” said Parriott about writing. A network could buy your pilot for the sole purpose of killing it.

On a question about working with actors, Parriott admitted that actors will most seriously test a showrunner. The trick is to have the answers, he revealed. On the series, From Here to Eternity, Don Johnson tested him by wanting to know why a camera was in a particular spot. He had an answer and told him. Next day, DJ came back with a better idea. Instead of being put out by the actor having something better, he went with it. And from then on, he got along fine with DJ. That is one valuable secret to getting along with your actors.