INTERVIEWS

Showrunners: 100% Burnout Rate

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Des Doyle

Des Doyle

On the heels of hits like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Sopranos, the creative minds behind current favorites like Homeland, The Good Wife, The Big Bang Theory and Game of Thrones suddenly find themselves thrust into the spotlight once reserved for the actors who populate their make-believe worlds. Known as showrunners, such jack-of-all-trades operatives are responsible for overseeing nearly every element of a show’s production. They are chief writers, they are producers, and in most cases, they are the shows’ creators.

In his new documentary Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show, Irish director Des Doyle spent four years shadowing the likes of Joss Whedon (Buffy), Stephen Nathan (Bones), Greg Plageman (Person of Interest) and Terrence Winter (Boardwalk Empire), chronicling their insanely-busy lives as they struggle to stay on time and on budget with punishing 22-episode production schedules. Aspiring TV writers should take note: with a 100% burnout rate by age 50, running a hit show isn’t for the weak.

Persons of Interest Writers' Room

Persons of Interest Writers’ Room

“No one considers the personal sacrifices showrunners make to provide an hour’s entertainment,” says Doyle, whose previous camera experience clearly influenced the vérité coverage of writers’ rooms in action.

Such fly-on-the-all scenes are telling. For example, in addition to the seemingly universal occupational hazard of excessive donut consumption, showrunners and their teams face the delicate balancing act of satisfying both network ratings requirements and rabid fan-base expectations. And in the Twitter age of direct viewer-showrunner communication, the latter can be a strange game, indeed.

“Sometimes the fans say they want what they don’t really want, notes Jane Espenson, showrunner for the online gay TV series Husbands, who contemplates the radically different path Sam and Diane might have taken, had Cheers aired in an era of constant social media feedback.

Bones Directors' meeting

Bones Directors’ meeting

Ironically, Doyle initially faced difficulty gaining access to his own subjects. That all changed when Lost guru Damon Lindelof agreed to an interview.

“We were able to cook Damon’s interview with a few others and make a sizzle reel that we released to the industry,” says Doyle. “Writers and assistants watched it and shared it and it soon went viral.” This in turn inspired The Irish Film Council to fully finance the feature length iteration of the film.

Doyle spoke with Creative Screenwriting about some chief takeaways from his experience.

House of Lies Production Meeting

House of Lies Production Meeting

What would you say is the most common hardship all showrunners face?

The race against time–the single most precious resource. And there never seems to be quite enough to get everything done that needs to be done, hence a lot of crazy hours get worked, to make sure episodes air on time and hopefully on budget.

Would you ever attempt to become a showrunner yourself?

I certainly would love the idea of creating a show and trying to build a world and characters that audiences could immerse themselves in over multiple seasons. But I don’t know that I have the talent as a writer or the other skill sets and relevant experience required to do the job of a showrunner. But it’s an interesting idea!

Matt in edit suite

Matthew Carnahan (House of Lies) in edit suite

Do you think the experience of being a showrunner is a distinctly American process? Or are their similarities in the UK television space?

The showrunner as examined in the film only exists in the American model of TV production. In the UK, there are writers like Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) and Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch) who are describing themselves as showrunners because they hope this increases the awareness of what they do. But UK broadcasters don’t really want to cede power to the writers. They still like to control the purse strings, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. And since episode orders are generally smaller—typically 6-8 per season, they tend to be written entirely by 1-3 writers, so there’s really no “writers room” system in the UK.

What do you consider to be the finest television show ever, anywhere?

This is almost impossible to answer! And it’s completely subjective. But shows like Breaking Bad, The West Wing, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica would be among my personal favorites.

Matt gives Kristen a note on set

Matthew Carnahan gives Kristen Bell a note on set (House of Lies)

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Andrew Bloomenthal is a seasoned financial journalist, filmmaker and entertainment writer.

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