Television Is in a Showrunning Crisis
May 16, 2022 6:31 AM Subscribe
I always get Show Runner and Line Producer mixed up.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:21 AM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:21 AM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Having good tv available is so important to my well being. I hope these folks figure out some way to make this stuff without killing everyone in Hollywood. I want people to be able to have normal lives & normal careers.
posted by bleep at 7:33 AM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by bleep at 7:33 AM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
Worked in TV animation for years. I know “production assistant” and “production supervisor”. Everything else is made up positions held by people who own vacation property and studio a parking space.
posted by brachiopod at 7:38 AM on May 16, 2022 [16 favorites]
posted by brachiopod at 7:38 AM on May 16, 2022 [16 favorites]
I think that the first time I heard the term showrunner was listening to The Simpsons Season season 1 dvd commentary.
And they didn't address what that meant so thank you as this post closes a loop for me.
It is a term that comes up a lot on show commentaries. If one of the showrunners is on a commentary they almost are always breathless in describing the experience.
There is another position that I have heard of that is the person(s) who hangs out in the writers' room trying to document and collate all the verbal work the writers are doing out loud trying to come up with jokes.
Like ... handwritten or laptop based stenography in a room full of comedians sounds like an almost impossible job.
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 7:40 AM on May 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
And they didn't address what that meant so thank you as this post closes a loop for me.
It is a term that comes up a lot on show commentaries. If one of the showrunners is on a commentary they almost are always breathless in describing the experience.
There is another position that I have heard of that is the person(s) who hangs out in the writers' room trying to document and collate all the verbal work the writers are doing out loud trying to come up with jokes.
Like ... handwritten or laptop based stenography in a room full of comedians sounds like an almost impossible job.
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 7:40 AM on May 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
I've spent my career as an Associate Producer and Archival Producer. If someone could please inform me as to where to find my parking spot and property of any kind, I'd very much appreciate it.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:40 AM on May 16, 2022 [26 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 7:40 AM on May 16, 2022 [26 favorites]
I became interested in showrunners because of Doctor Who. IMHO, Chris Chibnall was out of his depth, while Russell Davies is swimming.
The series Lucifer had a lot of oddball episodes, but none more interesting than "Inspector Diablo!", in which this week's murder is on the set of a TV series that mimics Lucifer itself. (There's a reason for this.) That was my first encounter with the term "cluepath", which is the trail of events/observations/pointers that lead the characters through the story. Suddenly, characters like Lucifer's Ella and Arrow's Felicity Smoak become central to the plot, as they are the ones that capture the clues and feed them to the leads.
It's interesting also to compare a series like Mr Robot (which had a clear and definitive ending) to something like Lost, which (ironically) seemed lost up through the end.
posted by SPrintF at 7:42 AM on May 16, 2022 [9 favorites]
The series Lucifer had a lot of oddball episodes, but none more interesting than "Inspector Diablo!", in which this week's murder is on the set of a TV series that mimics Lucifer itself. (There's a reason for this.) That was my first encounter with the term "cluepath", which is the trail of events/observations/pointers that lead the characters through the story. Suddenly, characters like Lucifer's Ella and Arrow's Felicity Smoak become central to the plot, as they are the ones that capture the clues and feed them to the leads.
It's interesting also to compare a series like Mr Robot (which had a clear and definitive ending) to something like Lost, which (ironically) seemed lost up through the end.
posted by SPrintF at 7:42 AM on May 16, 2022 [9 favorites]
That Grillo-Marxuach piece is interesting, and as an educator it was impossible for me not to notice that all 11 of those rules could easily apply to how to be an effective teacher, which does not seem coincidental.
posted by Wretch729 at 7:43 AM on May 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Wretch729 at 7:43 AM on May 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
Showrunner is kind of the auteur position, isn't it? It's the person most associated with the TV show in the public imagination, like a director is for a movie.
posted by subdee at 7:47 AM on May 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by subdee at 7:47 AM on May 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
Showrunner is kind of the auteur position, isn't it? It's the person most associated with the TV show in the public imagination, like a director is for a movie.
Yup. Notable recent examples would be Shonda Rhimes, Tina Fey, Aaron Sorkin, or Dan Harmon.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:49 AM on May 16, 2022 [9 favorites]
Yup. Notable recent examples would be Shonda Rhimes, Tina Fey, Aaron Sorkin, or Dan Harmon.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:49 AM on May 16, 2022 [9 favorites]
I became interested in showrunners because of Doctor Who. IMHO, Chris Chibnall was out of his depth, while Russell Davies is swimming.
That's interesting, because I generally think of it as very much as US term, rather than a UK one. Doctor Who is probably one of the few UK shows with enough profile that people would beef the role up to talk about a showrunner rather than "just" an executive producer and/or head writer. Maybe partly because it's been running for long enough for people to really notice who's running it and see the difference when that changes. Or maybe other UK shows just don't combine the producer/writer role in the way Doctor Who and US shows tend to?
I came across it most frequently among fans of Homeland talking about Alex Gansa, where it mostly seemed to be a useful shorthand for "person who is to blame for everything we don't like about the way the show is going."
posted by penguin pie at 7:51 AM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
That's interesting, because I generally think of it as very much as US term, rather than a UK one. Doctor Who is probably one of the few UK shows with enough profile that people would beef the role up to talk about a showrunner rather than "just" an executive producer and/or head writer. Maybe partly because it's been running for long enough for people to really notice who's running it and see the difference when that changes. Or maybe other UK shows just don't combine the producer/writer role in the way Doctor Who and US shows tend to?
I came across it most frequently among fans of Homeland talking about Alex Gansa, where it mostly seemed to be a useful shorthand for "person who is to blame for everything we don't like about the way the show is going."
posted by penguin pie at 7:51 AM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Or from the article:
What was once an inside-baseball term for a job that encompassed everything from writing a pilot to making sure everyone was fed on set has, as TV has entered its “auteur” phase, taken on a more mystical air. The term showrunner, according to Jeff Melvoin, first appeared in print in a profile of John Wells’ work on ER, meaning that the general public has only been aware of the term for, at most, a few decades. In that time, “showrunner” has come to mean visionary or genius, and in an age where fans feel entitled to be heard, the showrunner has also been the person lauded or jeered by fans.
posted by subdee at 7:53 AM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
What was once an inside-baseball term for a job that encompassed everything from writing a pilot to making sure everyone was fed on set has, as TV has entered its “auteur” phase, taken on a more mystical air. The term showrunner, according to Jeff Melvoin, first appeared in print in a profile of John Wells’ work on ER, meaning that the general public has only been aware of the term for, at most, a few decades. In that time, “showrunner” has come to mean visionary or genius, and in an age where fans feel entitled to be heard, the showrunner has also been the person lauded or jeered by fans.
posted by subdee at 7:53 AM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
Dan Harmon mentioned three important 'showrunner' roles for him on Community: influencing the writers room by teaching his story circle method, making final writing pass on all scripts, and final editing (which, to me, showed in things like comedic timing). By his admission, that was too much.
I don't know how meaningful (actual management) versus symbolic (auteur-like) a showrunner's role is, but as a viewer can definitely see the consistent creative impact of specific showrunners throughout their work on different shows, so it's not mere vanity or ego.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:06 AM on May 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
I don't know how meaningful (actual management) versus symbolic (auteur-like) a showrunner's role is, but as a viewer can definitely see the consistent creative impact of specific showrunners throughout their work on different shows, so it's not mere vanity or ego.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:06 AM on May 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
I can see where the shorter seasons and smaller writer's rooms of the streaming era provide less opportunity for professional development. But as a viewer, I strongly prefer them. Those 22-26 episode seasons routinely featured a lot of filler and water treading. The very structure of seasons that long also tends to incentivize shows with repetitive structures: case of the week; monster of the week; etc.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:37 AM on May 16, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:37 AM on May 16, 2022 [9 favorites]
“There's no other mature industry where ‘Are you a moody introvert with ZERO experience in project-management or team-building? Cool, you're now running a company with a $2 million/week burn, hard delivery dates & 150 employees’ is not INSANE, but in TV we now do it all the time.”
Triple all that and I'll introduce you to a world known as "startups"
posted by geoff. at 8:42 AM on May 16, 2022 [30 favorites]
Triple all that and I'll introduce you to a world known as "startups"
posted by geoff. at 8:42 AM on May 16, 2022 [30 favorites]
Coming from the animation side, we pretty much always have two people doing the job they describe. There's a director, and there's a producer. The director makes artistic decisions, the producer makes sure everybody does their job and gets the show done on time and under budget.
FWIW, 90% of the directors are men, and 90% of the producers are women.
posted by clawsoon at 8:44 AM on May 16, 2022 [22 favorites]
FWIW, 90% of the directors are men, and 90% of the producers are women.
posted by clawsoon at 8:44 AM on May 16, 2022 [22 favorites]
...sorry, split into three jobs, since there are also writers.
posted by clawsoon at 8:48 AM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by clawsoon at 8:48 AM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
This could have been a good piece, had the writer known anything about production. I’ve been the business since 1986, mainly in documentary, and have had my own office nd parking spot.
posted by Ideefixe at 8:50 AM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Ideefixe at 8:50 AM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Where I am in Documentary TV, not only is there no office or parking space, but there's no particular interest in coming back from the remote system developed at the beginning of the pandemic.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:56 AM on May 16, 2022
posted by Navelgazer at 8:56 AM on May 16, 2022
After a long career in short subject dramatic, I have no office, no parking space, I do not go to set, and I see the final edit when the rest of the world does. But I *am* an executive producer, because I asked for the title. (It did not change my salary.)
posted by headspace at 9:06 AM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by headspace at 9:06 AM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'll keep this article in mind when I get around to dabbling in showrunning.
Crisis is a strong word. What's being described is a sink or swim scenario that's not far from the way it's always been. This may be a crisis for someone, but it sure isn't for viewers. Is there any reason to believe that this doesn't work itself out? Certainly some will handle the tasks better than others, and it seems that those given the opportunity are drawn from an increasingly diverse pool. Mentorship is nice, but it's not clear that is as much of an open playing field as one might like. And certainly, there are people who are successful.
This is a crisis if it produces television that nobody wants to watch. Is there any indication that this is the case? Or will be the case? I look around and see more stuff on TV worth watching than ever before. And I suspect it's drawing more people than ever to throw their hat into the ring.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:51 AM on May 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Crisis is a strong word. What's being described is a sink or swim scenario that's not far from the way it's always been. This may be a crisis for someone, but it sure isn't for viewers. Is there any reason to believe that this doesn't work itself out? Certainly some will handle the tasks better than others, and it seems that those given the opportunity are drawn from an increasingly diverse pool. Mentorship is nice, but it's not clear that is as much of an open playing field as one might like. And certainly, there are people who are successful.
This is a crisis if it produces television that nobody wants to watch. Is there any indication that this is the case? Or will be the case? I look around and see more stuff on TV worth watching than ever before. And I suspect it's drawing more people than ever to throw their hat into the ring.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:51 AM on May 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'd say it a "crisis" in that it's not desirable to be 1.) losing a lot of institutional memory by practices not being adequately passed down to the next generations of creators, and 2.) inexperienced producers running shows leads to tons of added stress on top of what's already a very stressful work environment, in a way that is likely to burn out or wash out a lot of genuine talent.
Now, a lot of that is mitigated by the very fact that the field is way more diverse than it used to be, but it's still not ideal.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:59 AM on May 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
Now, a lot of that is mitigated by the very fact that the field is way more diverse than it used to be, but it's still not ideal.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:59 AM on May 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
“There's no other mature industry where ‘Are you a moody introvert with ZERO experience in project-management or team-building? Cool, you're now running a company with a $2 million/week burn, hard delivery dates & 150 employees’ is not INSANE, but in TV we now do it all the time.”
Yeah man I don't know that actually that IS limited to television?? It sounds like every job I've ever had.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:10 AM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
Yeah man I don't know that actually that IS limited to television?? It sounds like every job I've ever had.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:10 AM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
This makes me want to buy a television set.
posted by Czjewel at 10:10 AM on May 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Czjewel at 10:10 AM on May 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
There is another position that I have heard of that is the person(s) who hangs out in the writers' room trying to document and collate all the verbal work the writers are doing out loud trying to come up with jokes.
Like ... handwritten or laptop based stenography in a room full of comedians sounds like an almost impossible job.
I had that job for three years. My title was "writers' assistant." It required (1) being a fast typist, and (2) understanding comedy well enough to separate the funny-in-the-room banter from the stuff that was actually intended to air.
Because of (2), a writers' assistant gig is frequently seen as a launching pad for a staff job. It was in my case-- after my three years as an assistant, I spent three years as a staff writer on the same show.
posted by yankeefog at 10:16 AM on May 16, 2022 [15 favorites]
Like ... handwritten or laptop based stenography in a room full of comedians sounds like an almost impossible job.
I had that job for three years. My title was "writers' assistant." It required (1) being a fast typist, and (2) understanding comedy well enough to separate the funny-in-the-room banter from the stuff that was actually intended to air.
Because of (2), a writers' assistant gig is frequently seen as a launching pad for a staff job. It was in my case-- after my three years as an assistant, I spent three years as a staff writer on the same show.
posted by yankeefog at 10:16 AM on May 16, 2022 [15 favorites]
This reminded me of my time working under John Krickfalusi, who was definitely a "showrunner" in the sense of "person who is good at the creative side now doing all the management stuff as well, and failing horribly at it". With a side serving of "ranting about the evil management people who hold him back". His company had someone in the position of "producer" but they were not in a position where they could give John a boundary and make it stick.
I left that industry but one of my friends there went on to run the Animaniacs reboot; I suspect Gabe got a lot of mileage over the years out of asking himself "how would John fuck up this situation" and making sure that whatever he did, it was at least not that.
----
I also keep on thinking about this article every time I read stories about why management wants to get more people back in the office after C19 created a lot more work-from-home situations. I mostly see those stories in the context of Hacker News; the perspective of the comments there is very much that of the antisocial programmer who really despises everything that is not "sitting in a closed-off space where they can spend an hour cramming the entire state of a programming problem into their head so they can begin to start tackling it". This story really articulates the need to identify people who can do the other jobs around that skill - whether that's things that support that skill and give its practitioners the space to do it properly, or deciding what problems should be tackled at all - and give them lots of opportunities to learn how to do that.
posted by egypturnash at 10:50 AM on May 16, 2022 [7 favorites]
I left that industry but one of my friends there went on to run the Animaniacs reboot; I suspect Gabe got a lot of mileage over the years out of asking himself "how would John fuck up this situation" and making sure that whatever he did, it was at least not that.
----
I also keep on thinking about this article every time I read stories about why management wants to get more people back in the office after C19 created a lot more work-from-home situations. I mostly see those stories in the context of Hacker News; the perspective of the comments there is very much that of the antisocial programmer who really despises everything that is not "sitting in a closed-off space where they can spend an hour cramming the entire state of a programming problem into their head so they can begin to start tackling it". This story really articulates the need to identify people who can do the other jobs around that skill - whether that's things that support that skill and give its practitioners the space to do it properly, or deciding what problems should be tackled at all - and give them lots of opportunities to learn how to do that.
posted by egypturnash at 10:50 AM on May 16, 2022 [7 favorites]
I became interested in showrunners because of Doctor Who. IMHO, Chris Chibnall was out of his depth, while Russell Davies is swimming.
Ha! My first thought was "wow, someone should have sent Chris Chibnall these Laws of Showrunning five or six years ago!" Though to be fair, he's done well-regarded work on other shows (e.g., Broadchurch); he just seems to be not great at Who.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 11:54 AM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ha! My first thought was "wow, someone should have sent Chris Chibnall these Laws of Showrunning five or six years ago!" Though to be fair, he's done well-regarded work on other shows (e.g., Broadchurch); he just seems to be not great at Who.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 11:54 AM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Reading all this as a creative writery type in my youth is making me mist over roads not travelled and risks not taken pretty hard. Like, if I had known the industry actually needs writers and one can actually make some kind of a living crafting story arcs why the fuck did I study engineering to fight with nerds all day long.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:44 PM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:44 PM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
Like “meme” and “DM” as well as “showrunner,” there are now new words for things that have always existed, and one of these years my tired brain will stop accepting changes to my own language.
posted by Melismata at 12:49 PM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 12:49 PM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
St. Peepsburg: you missed out on much less than you think.
The WGA is the film and TV writers' union. You can't join it until you've already gotten a certain amount of film or TV writing work, so its members are part of an elite cadre who have proven they can do the job. And yet, in any given year, about 50% of WGA members are unemployed. (Or at least unemployed as screenwriters-- they probably have day jobs to pay the bills.) Making things even more dire, that 50% only includes active WGA members; after a certain number of years of unemployment, you lose your active WGA status, and therefore fall out of the statistics.
It's possible that you missed out on being a working TV writer... but statistically, it is vastly more likely that you missed out on a low-wage assistant job, a series of near misses, and an eventual turn towards whatever real-world job you ended up in anyway, except a decade behind your colleagues who didn't spend their entire twenties in Hollywood.
I don't want to sound bitter! But writing in general, and writing for Hollywood in particular, is a brutal field, where success is arbitrary and unpredictable. I always tell young aspiring writers that if they are psychologically healthy enough to build a meaningful life around a more economically stable pursuit, they should do it. Entering a creative profession only makes sense if you literally cannot imagine a happy life in any other job.
posted by yankeefog at 1:24 PM on May 16, 2022 [8 favorites]
The WGA is the film and TV writers' union. You can't join it until you've already gotten a certain amount of film or TV writing work, so its members are part of an elite cadre who have proven they can do the job. And yet, in any given year, about 50% of WGA members are unemployed. (Or at least unemployed as screenwriters-- they probably have day jobs to pay the bills.) Making things even more dire, that 50% only includes active WGA members; after a certain number of years of unemployment, you lose your active WGA status, and therefore fall out of the statistics.
It's possible that you missed out on being a working TV writer... but statistically, it is vastly more likely that you missed out on a low-wage assistant job, a series of near misses, and an eventual turn towards whatever real-world job you ended up in anyway, except a decade behind your colleagues who didn't spend their entire twenties in Hollywood.
I don't want to sound bitter! But writing in general, and writing for Hollywood in particular, is a brutal field, where success is arbitrary and unpredictable. I always tell young aspiring writers that if they are psychologically healthy enough to build a meaningful life around a more economically stable pursuit, they should do it. Entering a creative profession only makes sense if you literally cannot imagine a happy life in any other job.
posted by yankeefog at 1:24 PM on May 16, 2022 [8 favorites]
That "11 Rules of Showrunning" article 1970s Antihero posted is phenomenally good.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:23 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Navelgazer at 2:23 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
A great article and I've been sharing it around with my TV/film geek friends.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 2:29 PM on May 16, 2022
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 2:29 PM on May 16, 2022
I think a lot of us first encountered the "showrunner" term with Joss Whedon. Or perhaps JJ Abrams. But not every show has or needs a singular visionary head person. Star Trek did, though nobody called Gene Roddenberry a "showrunner" back in the day.
posted by rikschell at 2:50 PM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 2:50 PM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
I think 30 Rock was also a big cultural introduction to the role of a show runner even though I don't remember if they used that word or not.
posted by bleep at 2:52 PM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by bleep at 2:52 PM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
I became interested in showrunners because of Doctor Who. IMHO, Chris Chibnall was out of his depth, while Russell Davies is swimming.
That's interesting, because I generally think of it as very much as US term, rather than a UK one.
My understanding is that most UK shows don't have a writing room in the US sense. They're more likely to be written by a single person or small team straight through. Chris Chibnall was the showrunner for Broadchurch and is noted as such on IMDB, but he also wrote or co-wrote every episode bar one. This makes the job of being a showrunner for something like Dr Who a particular outlier.
posted by plonkee at 2:58 PM on May 16, 2022
That's interesting, because I generally think of it as very much as US term, rather than a UK one.
My understanding is that most UK shows don't have a writing room in the US sense. They're more likely to be written by a single person or small team straight through. Chris Chibnall was the showrunner for Broadchurch and is noted as such on IMDB, but he also wrote or co-wrote every episode bar one. This makes the job of being a showrunner for something like Dr Who a particular outlier.
posted by plonkee at 2:58 PM on May 16, 2022
I can see where the shorter seasons and smaller writer's rooms of the streaming era provide less opportunity for professional development. But as a viewer, I strongly prefer them. Those 22-26 episode seasons routinely featured a lot of filler and water treading. The very structure of seasons that long also tends to incentivize shows with repetitive structures: case of the week; monster of the week; etc.
I disagree, though not strongly. Short seasons tend to turn many series into overly long miniseries. Well done "traditional" series do have episodes that aren't essential viewing, but the extra episodes flesh out the characters and flesh out the overall story within those "filler" episodes. The Stargate franchise and Person of Interest are good examples of this. Person of Interest even managed it while sticking to the story of the week format for the vast majority of its episodes.
I guess what I'm saying is that either way can work and either way can end up being mediocre.
posted by wierdo at 3:15 PM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
I disagree, though not strongly. Short seasons tend to turn many series into overly long miniseries. Well done "traditional" series do have episodes that aren't essential viewing, but the extra episodes flesh out the characters and flesh out the overall story within those "filler" episodes. The Stargate franchise and Person of Interest are good examples of this. Person of Interest even managed it while sticking to the story of the week format for the vast majority of its episodes.
I guess what I'm saying is that either way can work and either way can end up being mediocre.
posted by wierdo at 3:15 PM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
I think a lot of us first encountered the "showrunner" term with Joss Whedon. Or perhaps JJ Abrams. But not every show has or needs a singular visionary head person. Star Trek did, though nobody called Gene Roddenberry a "showrunner" back in the day.
Roddenberry was definitely a strong figure, as was JMS for Babylon 5.
posted by jb at 3:41 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Roddenberry was definitely a strong figure, as was JMS for Babylon 5.
posted by jb at 3:41 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
I guess what I'm saying is that either way can work and either way can end up being mediocre.
Very true. And while something like Stranger Things can make the most out of having 8-10 episodes to tell a single coherent story, something like Picard can make you really long for the days of one-off episodes and extra-long episode orders.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:42 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Very true. And while something like Stranger Things can make the most out of having 8-10 episodes to tell a single coherent story, something like Picard can make you really long for the days of one-off episodes and extra-long episode orders.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:42 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
J Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5
You've just reminded me that back in the peak Babylon 5/Usenet days (remember them?), there was a guy in the Babylon 5 newsgroups who had an absolutely massive hate-on for Straczynski and his composer, Christopher Franke. (Apparently Franke had supposedly copied some musical phrases from the Aliens soundtrack or something.) I want to say his name was...Theron Fuller, maybe?
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 4:51 PM on May 16, 2022
You've just reminded me that back in the peak Babylon 5/Usenet days (remember them?), there was a guy in the Babylon 5 newsgroups who had an absolutely massive hate-on for Straczynski and his composer, Christopher Franke. (Apparently Franke had supposedly copied some musical phrases from the Aliens soundtrack or something.) I want to say his name was...Theron Fuller, maybe?
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 4:51 PM on May 16, 2022
Me, I first encountered the 'Showrunner' term as a levelling counterpart to its forever-nemesis, 'Wile. E. Show-yote', the too-clever but infinitely creative anti-hero, who with furious and irrepressible energy, comes up with baroquely impractical ideas, and watches them fail to dramatic/comic effect.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:04 PM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:04 PM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
[but seriously if there is an ancestor role to 'showrunner' of a lengthy series, it's most likely to be found in the people like Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and Friz Freleng who created franchises of cinema animated shorts and pulp in the inter-war era, where conditions were more or less exactly the 'mix of art and factory work' described in the article. Disney's workers even struck...]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:09 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:09 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
You've just reminded me that back in the peak Babylon 5/Usenet days (remember them?), there was a guy in the Babylon 5 newsgroups who had an absolutely massive hate-on for Straczynski and his composer, Christopher Franke. (Apparently Franke had supposedly copied some musical phrases from the Aliens soundtrack or something.) I want to say his name was...Theron Fuller, maybe?
I think you're right! That name takes me back. And in those days JMS interacted with and knew the names of the a lot of vocal fans.
I'm also reminded of Plain and Simple Cronan who was omnipresent across a lot of Usenet fandoms. A different showrunner, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, named a character after him in the pilot episode of Andromeda.
posted by Pryde at 5:59 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think you're right! That name takes me back. And in those days JMS interacted with and knew the names of the a lot of vocal fans.
I'm also reminded of Plain and Simple Cronan who was omnipresent across a lot of Usenet fandoms. A different showrunner, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, named a character after him in the pilot episode of Andromeda.
posted by Pryde at 5:59 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
For many of us, it was J Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5.
Other than Gene Rodenberry, I think for me it was Chris Carter of The X-Files. Although I wasn't really aware of his role on the show until he got the Millennium spin-off. But I've also been very into learning about the production side of TV since around then too.
And the internet brought showrunners into closer contact with fans of their shows. Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica podcast was an amazing insight, and I was working at TWoP when they were having run-ins with people like Aaron Sorkin.
It does seem like a crazy-complicated job for writers with no management experience.
I was really excited by the first season of P-Valley, because Katori Hall, who wrote the original play and was the show runner, made sure the director for every episode was a woman, as well as many of the writers in the writers room. It made the show a completely different experience than anything else I've seen.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 6:37 PM on May 16, 2022
Other than Gene Rodenberry, I think for me it was Chris Carter of The X-Files. Although I wasn't really aware of his role on the show until he got the Millennium spin-off. But I've also been very into learning about the production side of TV since around then too.
And the internet brought showrunners into closer contact with fans of their shows. Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica podcast was an amazing insight, and I was working at TWoP when they were having run-ins with people like Aaron Sorkin.
It does seem like a crazy-complicated job for writers with no management experience.
I was really excited by the first season of P-Valley, because Katori Hall, who wrote the original play and was the show runner, made sure the director for every episode was a woman, as well as many of the writers in the writers room. It made the show a completely different experience than anything else I've seen.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 6:37 PM on May 16, 2022
Wait, the Javier Grillo-Marxuach essay is six years old and addressing the exact same "crisis" of untrained show runners as the Vice article? And yet, a record number of TV shows have been produced over that last six years? So, maybe not such a crisis?
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 6:43 PM on May 16, 2022
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 6:43 PM on May 16, 2022
If you want a good week to week exploration of what the showrunners and the high level department heads do on a show you could do a lot worse than the official podcasts for Breaking Band Better Call Saul. They really show the give in take about how the repetitively permeant staff of the production interacts with the rotating cast of directors that film each episode.
posted by mmascolino at 6:45 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mmascolino at 6:45 PM on May 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have an overwhelming urge to forward the 11 Rules to somebody I work with and say: READ THE DAMN FOURTH LAW AND LEARN HOW TO MAKE A BLOODY DECISION, but, sadly, I don't think that would be a positive step for my career.
posted by sardonyx at 8:22 PM on May 16, 2022
posted by sardonyx at 8:22 PM on May 16, 2022
They're writers, Sardobyx, so they already know "it's how you tell it that counts."
I'm going to be taking the 11-item list to some middle managers I work with who want* to up their game.
*: need, and I'll tell them they want as well.
posted by k3ninho at 12:35 AM on May 17, 2022
I'm going to be taking the 11-item list to some middle managers I work with who want* to up their game.
*: need, and I'll tell them they want as well.
posted by k3ninho at 12:35 AM on May 17, 2022
Sadly, this is a senior manager type and let's just say, I'm not a senior manager, just somebody who has to deal with the fall-out of said senior manager's inability to make a decision, in large part (I suspect) because the senior manager wants to be nice. And no matter how I frame it, it wouldn't be "nice" of me to say, "BTW have you read this? It's a fascinating look at management styles with some really helpful advice."
posted by sardonyx at 6:30 AM on May 17, 2022
posted by sardonyx at 6:30 AM on May 17, 2022
But as a viewer, I strongly prefer them. Those 22-26 episode seasons routinely featured a lot of filler and water treading. The very structure of seasons that long also tends to incentivize shows with repetitive structures: case of the week; monster of the week; etc.
Haha I feel like this is why Modern TV is so bad and why so few shows stick around past little hype bursts around release to be forgotten forever shortly after. Why no shows have crews, casts, or, writers who know each other or can inform and work together to make something cohesive. Filler, bottle episodes, clip shows, I liked all those things to flesh out a show. I mean shit, just get 20+ plots per season, wow, great! Now you're lucky to get one plot dragged out over 10 episodes, none of which you'll ever watch again because it's not even a TV show, just a long long long movie.
Especially when it comes to things like Scifi, the short-serial seasons just ruin them. You could write infinity reasons why most season of NuTrek are beyond awful, but most simply, ignoring showrunners and producer faults, they have all been pretty doomed through a combo of serial programming and super short seasons with shaky homes.
I long for seasons where the writers have to write a new story for every episode, I'm so burnt out and sick of being drip-fed information and intrigue over a whole season for one or two sentences worth of actual plot to happen, if I'm lucky and they don't leave it hanging for a next season that may never come. Hell, even one solid 26 episode season of show would make for more content than entire modern series 10 ep runs.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:39 AM on May 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
Haha I feel like this is why Modern TV is so bad and why so few shows stick around past little hype bursts around release to be forgotten forever shortly after. Why no shows have crews, casts, or, writers who know each other or can inform and work together to make something cohesive. Filler, bottle episodes, clip shows, I liked all those things to flesh out a show. I mean shit, just get 20+ plots per season, wow, great! Now you're lucky to get one plot dragged out over 10 episodes, none of which you'll ever watch again because it's not even a TV show, just a long long long movie.
Especially when it comes to things like Scifi, the short-serial seasons just ruin them. You could write infinity reasons why most season of NuTrek are beyond awful, but most simply, ignoring showrunners and producer faults, they have all been pretty doomed through a combo of serial programming and super short seasons with shaky homes.
I long for seasons where the writers have to write a new story for every episode, I'm so burnt out and sick of being drip-fed information and intrigue over a whole season for one or two sentences worth of actual plot to happen, if I'm lucky and they don't leave it hanging for a next season that may never come. Hell, even one solid 26 episode season of show would make for more content than entire modern series 10 ep runs.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:39 AM on May 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
Famed TV writer Ken Levine has just done a podcast addressing the article. He also gives his own list of mistakes showrunners make (and here it is in pixels).
posted by bryon at 2:58 AM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bryon at 2:58 AM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
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