by Linda Venis
However, Frasier sticks it out because he hopes that his father will say “I love you” to him—words he’s heard Martin say to everyone but him. Martin, of course, has a hard time ever expressing emotion to his sons; as he says, “Every year in this country thousands of guys go fishing and love never enters into it.” But in his heart, he appreciates what his sons have done for him and he does express the thought. He has to take a stiff drink to do it, but finally says, “I love you.”
In “Out with Dad,” we might say turnabout is fair play. This time Martin is on Frasier’s turf when he is forced to go to the opera. Frasier is actually hoping to meet Emily, a girl he has his eye on. They do meet, but Emily’s mother is with her and takes an immediate liking to Martin. He’s not interested but doesn’t want to spoil Frasier’s chances with Emily, so he tells the mother he’s gay. His chancy move backfires when Emily and her mother decide to fix Martin up with Emily’s gay uncle Edward. Martin discourages Edward by forcing Niles to pose as his gay boyfriend. All of this discomfort and deception is motivated by Martin’s loyalty to Frasier. They share little common ground, but they are father and son and will struggle to do right by each other.
In class, I ask that the ten-word exercise be done for all the main characters students are considering in their project. It’s the quickest and most efficient method for exploring connections and conflicts among all the characters in a film story or TV series. It’s a great help to head into your outline with a strong sense of how your main characters relate to one another.
Character Is Command
A writer beginning a screenplay or teleplay, staring at a blank computer screen and paralyzed with doubt, is a familiar cliché. Anyone who writes fears the tyranny of that open-ended monster called plot. My experience has taught me that to know your hero is to control his or her story. It is where authorship begins, and that is first and foremost what you as a writer want to develop.
Many of us believe that finding the “hot idea” will lead us to success. It’s certainly true that the industry is always looking for something different, but an audience will reject any new comedy series that feels inauthentic. All of the series I’ve referenced owe their success and renown to recognizable characters and the conflict between them. In every case the “authors” brought something of their own lives and relationships to the work, and I assure you that’s half the battle in achieving such success. (The other half is some serious casting luck.)
There is one last bit of advice I like to give my writing students as our time together ends. All writers subscribe to the axiom of “write what you know.” It’s a cliché, as the cliché goes, because it’s true. But I like to take that idea one step farther. My advice is, “Don’t write what you think will sell; write what you want to see.” Start with characters interacting in a world that you know better than anyone. You may not crack the ceiling right away, but I guarantee that you will be working toward perfecting your craft and command as a writer.
CHAPTER 9
Launching and Sustaining a Television Writing Career
by Alison Lea Bingeman
Writing for television requires an undying optimism and a genius ability to suspend disbelief. There’s high stress and long hours, and no job security. You live constantly with the nagging feeling that your show’s going to get canceled or you’ll get canned and never work again. It’s hard! But if you think you’ve got some writing talent, a love of the art and craft of television, and enough drive and desire to pursue it, then read on. This chapter is for you.
There is no magic pill to take when learning to work in television. No doubt about it, a career in TV takes talent, dedication, hard work, and some say luck (we’ll get into that later). I can’t give you a formula that, if followed exactly, will guarantee success. What I can offer are a few pointers I’ve drawn from my own experience and those of other writers, executives, and agents I know about how to get into the business and stay there. For my part, I’ve spent more than twenty years working in the television industry. My career has spanned both film (Hurt) and one-hour television in most genres (CSI: Miami, The Outer Limits, Bomb Girls, Flash Gordon, Relic Hunter). I’ve written for cable and syndication as well as network shows. My career has been long and strong, and I’m happy to pass along some of the things I’ve picked up on the journey.
Though launching a career in television and sustaining it are very different processes, both have common threads, which I will elaborate upon in this chapter. The first is knowing your marketplace. The TV market is a many-headed hydra and more heads are growing every day. Staying up-to-date with the current trends is important. Creating relationships with decision makers is another key element, while the third is all about—you guessed it—writing. The beauty of being a writer in our world is that no one can stop you from creating your own stories and scripts. An actor needs a stage and a role. The director needs a set and a script. All you need as a writer is a laptop and a great idea. The possibilities for invention and reinvention are endless. We’ll get into that. First, let’s talk about taking those initial steps.
Launching a Career in Television
Every writer has her own account of how she got started in the business. In 2007, when I walked the picket line with other striking writers for the Writers Guild of America, we swapped stories about how we all got our first break. No two stories were alike. One guy studied film at a prestigious college and had written a few scripts in school. He looked up one of his college buddies, then working on a TV show, and bingo—he got his first staff job. Another was a produced playwright. She wrote a few samples, got an LA agent, and was offered a job on a top cable show. Then there was the guy who began as a writers’ assistant on a show and eventually got his foot in the door with a freelance script. He parlayed his freelance episode into a staff writer job.
Every story is different. Some say that luck has a lot to do with it. I believe we create our own luck. So let’s talk about how to position yourself so when that lucky break appears, you’ll be ready for it.
Where Do You Start?
If you are planning to enter the American television industry, the best place to begin is where the majority of television is made in the United States: Los Angeles. The reality of the business today is that most writers’ rooms are run out of Los Angeles. LA is where the deals are made, the meetings are taken, and the writing gets done. To launch a career in television, you will need to ask yourself if you are willing to shift your command center to Southern California. If you are serious about becoming a successful television writer, Los Angeles is the best place to get started. Okay, then, you say you are willing to do this. What next?
Know Your Market
If you were a budding clothing designer, you would need to know the latest trends in fashion before attempting to sell your new line to Macy’s or Saks Fifth Avenue. The same goes for the TV industry. It’s large and complex and your job is to know as much about it as you possibly can before you enter it. How do you find out about it?
Watch a Lot of Television
Now you’ve got a perfect excuse when your significant other wants to drag you away to do something annoying: “Sorry, honey—can’t. I’m doing research.” Yes, now you have free license to watch television, and a lot of it. If you are interested in writing half-hour comedies, your job now is to be current with the sitcoms on the air. Watch as many as you can, and often. There is a catch, however. You can’t mindlessly zone out in front of the TV screen anymore. Not only do you need to know the shows, you need to know the players. That means knowing what networks broadcast what kind of shows, what studios produce them, and who makes the decisions to green-light the shows you are coming to love so much.
In a nutshell, the major networks attempt to capture a broader, more diversified audience, so their shows, while mindful of demographics, aren’t totally driven by them. Cable networks are the opposite: Their goal is to appeal to a very specific audience. Spike, for example, offers programs for teenage
boys; Lifetime is for soccer moms. Your job is to pay attention to what shows are on which networks. Identify common trends on each network. Are you seeing mostly female leads on the shows? Do the shows have a primarily urban or small-town setting? Which networks create the hard-edged, gritty shows and which ones air the lighter fare? Identify each network’s demographic. Ask yourself why Louie isn’t airing on ABC. And why isn’t Happy Endings on FX? Be smart. The more you know about each network, the better you will be able to position yourself in the marketplace. And, when you finally get your chance to pitch new shows, you won’t look ridiculous by pitching a half-hour comedy about two middle-aged women to Syfy.
Find out what genres interest you. Are you drawn to CBS police procedurals like CSI, lighter cop shows like Castle on ABC, or grittier fare on Showtime like Homeland? Pick your favorites. Look them up online, research the creators of the show, the showrunners, the writers on staff, and the actors too—see what they’ve done in the past and begin to follow their careers. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) is a terrific resource. A writer friend of mine tells me when he watches TV and finds a new show he likes, he immediately logs on to IMDb and looks up all the writers and cast on the show. He’s extreme, of course, but if you ask him who is working on what show, he’ll know. Get to know the players in the business. And the best way to start is by researching the shows you love.
Later, as your journey into television continues, you will begin to know the television executives at both the networks and the studios. Executives are hired to oversee current and developing programs and are constantly on the lookout for that new, fresh voice. If they read your material and like your work, they will recommend you for staff on shows they cover. There is a distinction between executives who work on current shows (on the air) and those in development (pilots). Track them all. And if that isn’t enough to do, you will also need to get to know the nonwriting executive producers, like Ron Howard at Imagine and Jerry Bruckheimer, who are both currently producing some of the hit shows on television.
In order to get staffed on a show, you will need to get approval from the studio involved, the network, and the nonwriting executive producer (if any). Usually, the showrunner makes the ultimate decision on your hire; however, these other players also have a say. Get to know who these people are and cultivate relationships with them. They can be great allies.
Read Pilots
How do you get ahold of pilot scripts, you ask? This is where connections come in. Most agencies have pilot scripts on hand or have access to a website where they can be downloaded. Assuming you don’t have agent representation at this point, you’ll want to have friends who do, so they can share the bounty with you. Actors especially will be keeping up-to-date with the pilots, because pilot season is their best opportunity to secure a series role. They will most likely be up to speed on finding the most current pilot scripts. Another option is to troll the Internet for pilot scripts. Check out SimplyScripts.com, where you can download teleplays on current shows.
Read the Trades
It used to be that reading the trades meant buying subscriptions to Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter—the two most well-known trade papers in the business. This was an expensive proposition. In today’s market, you are in luck. Deadline Hollywood at Deadline.com is your best bet for learning all about the entertainment business. And it’s free! You can also keep up with Variety, which has ceased its daily print version, and The Hollywood Reporter on their websites. Again, it’s all about staying current with what is going on in the television industry.
At first, reading the trades is a bit like reading Greek, but keep up the work and soon you’ll be tossing around names over lunch with the best of them. Also check out writers’ blogs on the Internet. No Meaner Place (NoMeanerPlace.com) is a terrific place to read interviews with writers and showrunners. Jane Espenson and John August both have popular writing blogs about the life of a working Hollywood writer. Read them and find others. Knowledge is power.
Branding Yourself
So now that you’ve got a firm grasp on the workings of the television industry, start envisioning where you see yourself in it. This might sound ridiculous to some of you, but it’s important. Be intentional in the launch of your own career. Are you going to be an animation writer who will create the next South Park or the next Smurfs? Do you want to be the new writer on Boardwalk Empire or Fringe?
When you set goals for yourself, you’ll start a conversation about where you want to go. This conversation is important. What you are doing is creating a brand for yourself. With so many voices out there, consider how you want yours to be heard. Are you the bad-boy writer who creates hard-edged action? Or the political animal deft at satire? Think about Lena Dunham (Girls). She is known for her emotionally raw yet comedic portrayals of young, sophisticated women. That’s her brand. What’s yours? Put some thought into this. It’s crucial for a long and strong career writing in television.
I came to Los Angeles with a passion for movies and a desire to write. I worked with an established writer for a few years developing projects before I struck out on my own. I got a couple of gigs writing low-budget features shot overseas. The films never got made, but they served as samples for oddball cable shows starting up at the time. I took those jobs and the ones after that. Five years into the business, I realized I wanted to be writing and developing one-hour dramas and began to set my sights more keenly on my goal. I fell in love with the shows I wanted to write for, wrote sample scripts for them, and eventually found myself working on them.
Save yourself some time. Be bold now. Set your sights on where you want to be in five years and work on writing samples that will get you there. Be single-minded. Start the conversation about where you want to be and share it with others. Remember what I said about creating your own luck? This is key. When people you meet understand what you want to do in this business, they will begin to share that dream with you and even help create opportunities for you.
Be specific. One-hour drama or half-hour comedy? Teen soaps or hard-edged police procedurals? Now that you know the commercial market, find where your tastes, talents, and abilities can fit in. I’m not saying don’t be flexible. If your first break into writing for TV is on the Cartoon Network, take it even if writing animation is not your dream job. You’ll gain invaluable experience and might just find you love it and want to keep working in that world. If that’s not where you ultimately want to be, don’t lose sight of your goal. Keep the conversation going.
I suggest writing a pitch paragraph for yourself. For example, “I’m a lawyer with five years of experience in the Chicago district attorney’s office. I have several produced plays to my name and my goal is to write one-hour crime drama on a major network show.” There’s power in those words. That said, the most powerful tool you have as an aspiring writer is your pen. To get to where you want to go, your ultimate ticket is your own writing.
Write—a Lot
And when you think you’ve written enough, write some more. Writing scripts is the best advice I can give you in this chapter. You always have the opportunity to write—full-time, part-time, or in your spare time. That’s what you want to be doing to launch this career. I worked with an executive producer who was deputy chief of the LAPD. He got up in the wee hours and wrote spec television scripts. Eventually, he was producing a hit network show. This kind of a schedule could work for you. Others might find it too challenging.
One young writer I spoke with started her career as a television executive. As she worked with writers, she quickly realized that she wanted to be a writer herself. At first, she tried writing in her spare time but found she didn’t have the focus she needed to build a body of work. She quit her executive post and picked up a job waiting tables. Every day, from nine A.M. to five P.M., she wrote scripts; at night, she worked. In two years, she built up a core of sample work. She’s now on staff on a cable show. Whether you are able to manage that other career and write on the s
ide or find a job that allows you to write as your primary occupation, you want to dedicate yourself to your craft.
This brings up an important point. Are you willing to make the commitment to become a television writer? Many wannabe writers neglect to ask themselves that question. Talking about writing can be more fun than doing the work. I know that from experience, because I come from the Dorothy Parker school of writing: “I hate writing. I love having written.” Before you quit your job, move to Los Angeles, and spend endless solitary hours in airless rooms writing, make sure you can commit to the discipline. Know that the scripts you labor over may or may not sell. Realize that you will get many nos before you get a yes. Can you handle rejection? Are you able to make an honest assessment of your abilities and learn how to work on your weaknesses? Writing for TV takes perseverance and dedication. Know before you start if this kind of work is for you.
I’ve known directors who began as writers and couldn’t stand sitting in that room facing the blank page. For them, their creativity sparked with a script in hand. Know who you are and if the writer’s life is for you. I repeat: Before you quit your day job, make sure you can devote the time and energy it takes to launch this career.
Building a Portfolio
By now, you know what a spec script is and the difference between writing a spec for an on-air show and writing an original pilot. Which should you write? The answer is both. Spec scripts for existing shows work to showcase your talent. You want to demonstrate you know the show and understand its structure, can capture the voice of the show both tonally and through its characters, can track character arcs throughout the season, and can come up with an original, engaging story. If you are a good mimic, this is the place for you. That said, I’ve worked with writers whose voices are so unique, they can’t adapt their style. Unless you are David Milch, you need to prove you can.
