Wednesday, March 23, 2005

I'm starting to interview showrunners for my book. Let's see who will be kind enough to respond!

Who would you guys like to hear from about their techniques and tricks of the trade?

What questions about craft would people most like to know?

12:13 PM

10 Comments:

This may not be the most specific of questions, but I'd be interested in the possibilities of long-term character development. I mean, watching my nightly Simpsons rerun, I can really tell the difference between the 1992-93 shows and the later shows--the characters have changed. How does a showrunner approach character development? How can one guide the way characters are going to change and grow over several episodes, or even over several years, especially when the characterization is written by different people? What's the margin of error for characterization, that is, how much do you accept lapses in character ("That doesn't really sound like something Wesley would say...") for the sake of making an individual episode work?

It fascinates me... mostly because I know how hard it is to handle characters when I'm the only one writing them.

By  Anonymous, at 3:23 PM  

David Mamet, Ron Bass, Ted Griffin, David Koepp

By  Anonymous, at 5:35 PM  

Hey Alex,

Heres a questions that would be pretty cool: "How do showrunners deal with stations (like Fox) that don't support the show or want to change the characters for one reason or another interfering with the initial vision?" (eg. Joss Whedon's Angel and Firefly)

You've probably already thought of this guy, but an interview with Joss Whedon would be really cool :)

By  Jason Sanders, at 11:07 PM  

JJ Abrams, Chris Carter, David E. Kelley, Amy Sherman-Paladino, Josh Schwartz, Bill Lawrence, Aaron Sorkin, Rob Thomas, Marc Cherry, Jason Katims, Joss Whedon, Mike White

By  Anonymous, at 1:10 AM  

I think David Shore ought to be on your list as well.

By  Anonymous, at 1:47 AM  

Aaron Sorkin, David Chase, J.J. Abrams & Shawn Ryan.

By  Anonymous, at 2:15 AM  

I went to fantastic panel which had Tim Minear (The Inside, Wonderfalls) and Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks)talking -- I recommend them, especially about coping with shows being cancelled. :)

By  Shawna, at 7:26 PM  

Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, Bright/Kauffman/Crane, David Kohan & Max Mutchnick, John Wells, Bill Lawrence, Marc Cherry, Ryan Murphy, Mitchell Hurwitz, Greg Berlanti, Joel Surnow

By  Anonymous, at 11:43 PM  

Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, Bright/Kauffman/Crane, David Kohan & Max Mutchnick, John Wells, Bill Lawrence, Marc Cherry, Ryan Murphy, Mitchell Hurwitz, Greg Berlanti, Joel Surnow

By  Anonymous, at 11:43 PM  

David Milch, David Milch, David Milch

By  Anonymous, at 5:42 PM  

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