�� Writers Feed

How I made the move from the UK to the US, writing on shows including Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene (now on �� iPlayer)

2020-07-22T14:40:10+00:00

As Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene comes to �� iPlayer we took the opportunity to catch up with Leo Richardson, who was previously an actor, playwright and then a writer for EastEnders, before he made the move to the USA. Since moving, Leo has been part of the writers' room for Katy Keene (and previously the Lee Daniels' show Star).

Leo introduces Katy Keene and describes how the US writers' room and pilot season system works as well as offering some great advice.

Watch Katy Keene on �� iPlayer from Saturday 25th July

Watch a trailer for Katy Keene. This Riverdale spin-off witnesses the highs and lows of fashion designer Katy Keene, singer/songwriter Josie McCoy, performer Jorge Lopez/Ginger, and 'It Girl' Pepper Smith - as they chase their dreams together in The Big Apple.

Hi Leo, we last spoke to you when you attended a �� Writersroom writer’s residential back in 2015 how did that work out? Did you take anything helpful away from that experience?

Yeah, I picked up some really good tips for pitching and made some great connections! It was fun!

At the time you were writing for EastEnders, when did you decide to make your next move and what prompted that decision?

Dominic Treadwell-Collins, who brought me onto the show had made the decision to leave, and I decided after three plus years it was time for me to do something different and scary. I had just sold an idea for a pilot to ABC Studios in America and a friend had a spare room at his house in LA, so I jumped on a plane and never came back… Mostly because I met a great guy and got married.

EastEnders Halloween episode 2015 written by Leo Richardson

Your next credits (according to IMDb) are on the Lee Daniels drama Star, about a trio of women forming a musical group in Atlanta with a cast including Queen Latifah. How did that come about?

After spending three months in the USA I decided to apply for an artist visa. It was a bit of process but having worked on EastEnders really helped. It was a dream of mine to work in a writers' room. I was at a friend’s party and happened to be introduced to an executive. We chatted and it was perfectly pleasant. A few weeks later my friend was running late to meet me at the gym and so I went to grab a coffee where I ran into that same executive, who told me they were looking for writers for a new show called STAR by the creator of Empire, whom I would come to realise was Lee Daniels (who made Precious and The Butler etc). I was super nervous. Luckily, he read my work, loved it and gave me a job. Never let anyone tell you “networking” isn’t valuable. And thank you to my friend Daniel for being late to the gym that day!

When we last spoke you talked about how you were a fan of the US style of writing drama in a writers’ room. Was that the model on Star and subsequently on Katy Keene? Can you explain more about how it works?

Yeah, sure. The writers' room is great because it’s like having a full time office job but it’s writing and you get to hang out with other writers all day. Some writers like that, some don’t, but I love it. I’m definitely more of a people person.

In the UK if you sell a series, you’re often doing 6 episodes and writing it yourself but US shows can be up to 22 episodes and you can’t do that alone! A typical network show will usually consist of about 12 writers at different levels of experience and background. The showrunner (usually, but not always the creator of the show) is at the top of the chain. You come into the office every day and the hours vary but it’s normally a work day (9-5). Some people torture writers and make them work all day and night until the small hours, but that seems wildly unproductive to me. You break the season as a group and then get assigned episodes to write as you go along. Sometimes you “group write” a script, which means you all write individual scenes and/or storylines and then the writer of the episode gets to stitch it all together then do their own pass on it. This just helps get the script written quicker because network TV moves so fast. Sometimes you get to write the whole script by yourself. It just depends on what the showrunner prefers and how much time you have.

Pepper Smith (JULIA CHAN), Katy Keene (LUCY HALE), Josie McCOY (ASHLEIGH MURRAY) in Katy Keene (Image Credit: �� / The CW Network)

The other great thing is that the writer mostly always flies to set to “produce” their episode. This really just means you’re representing the showrunner and writers' room to make sure the right words are said, or handle any changes. You’re really representing the showrunner on the ground.

One of the parts I love about set is working with the actors because that’s how I started out my career. I remember my first time on set at STAR when Queen Latifah called me over and whispered to me: “This is a weak line”. I sh*t my pants but she was totally right. And she was really kind about it. She let me go away and come back with something that was actually way better. That was a good example of how to handle that situation. Some actors put you on the spot in front of the entire set and you fantasise about writing them out Joey Tribbiani “Days of our Lives” style (he falls down an elevator shaft, if you didn’t get that reference).

All in all, set experience is one of the most rewarding parts of the job - watching it all come together is magic. You barely get any sleep but it’s absolutely worth it.

You also mention being both writer and producer, can you explain?

There is a very set hierarchy in the USA writers' room. Once you get to a certain level of experience, you become a producer on shows and you get more responsibility.

Katy Keene (LUCY HALE), K.O. Kelly (ZANE HOLTZ) (Image Credit: �� / The CW Network)

Can you describe how the US pilot season works? What has been your experience of the pilot season?

Yes, basically, every year around August/September, the broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox etc) will hear pitches and buy ideas. They’ll foster writers through the writing process and select a handful of comedies and dramas to shoot as pilots. Out of those, they’ll select their favourites to take to a full series. I’ve been through this and it’s chaos. Tight deadlines and a lot of notes. But with the emergence of so many streaming services, pilot season is becoming less and less important. You can sell a show to Netflix or Amazon any time of year!

Katy Keene is set in the same universe as the massively popular Netflix show Riverdale. Can you give us an introduction to that world and the Archie comics and how Katy Keene fits into that world?

Yes, Katy Keene is a comic book character from Archie comics, created in the 50’s. She was a model/actress and fashion designer and pretty effing fabulous. In the TV show Katy Keene is an aspiring fashion designer trying to make it alongside her friends; Josie McCoy (From Riverdale) a singer and musician, Jorge aka Ginger Lopez, a drag queen with Broadway ambitions and Pepper Smith, a con artist and socialite. The show is about being in your 20’s and being broke but having big dreams. It’s about the climb.

Josie McCOY (ASHLEIGH MURRAY)(Image Credit: �� / The CW Network)

Does the world of Katy Keene have a specific aesthetic? What can we expect from the show?

The TV adaptation is set in an elevated and fantastical New York of the imagination. It's heightened and escapist, which people need right now. There is so much darkness in the world. I first saw the pilot when I had to meet the showrunners (Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Michael Grassi) to interview for the job and I was hooked within minutes. It reminded me of the first time I saw Ugly Betty. So much humour, heart and charm and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Expect it to feel like a warm hug. You could probably watch the entire season over a weekend.

Katy Keene (LUCY HALE)(Image Credit: �� / The CW Network)

Katy Keene has been praised for its inclusion and diversity. That seems to be a running theme through your work. Why is that so important for you?

Yeah, I would say Katy Keene is probably the most female forward, diverse and queer show The CW has on its platform - and the fans here have been very vocal about the stories that they connected to. I am so proud to have been even just a small part of that. When I was younger, I used to watch Queer As Folk in my bedroom with the sound down so my parents wouldn’t know. I was terrified of anyone finding out I might be gay, especially while I was still figuring it out for myself.

When I write, I love to ask what my 16-year-old self would want to see but now it’s become so much more than that. The idea that you can connect to someone through that box in the living room and give them a little hope when they are going through something hard is the real magic of television. I’m proud that every show I have written for has tackled homophobia, transphobia and racism. Right now, LGBTQ+ people are being persecuted and tortured, for example in Chechnya and Russia. We still have so much work to do. I try to support charities and do my part, but in entertainment we can help make a difference, too.

Ginger (JONNY BEAUCHAMP)(Image Credit: �� / The CW Network)

What happens next for you?

Despite the great critical reception and an overwhelming outpouring of love Katy Keene was cancelled, so there won’t be a second season. The CW had announced 13 more episodes (which would have been season 2) but I think when Coronavirus hit, a lot of things changed, networks lost money and shows got cancelled. Had it not been for that, we would be writing season 2 now. Our start date was actually the day we went into lockdown in California. It was a dream job and the hardest part of being a writer is having to say goodbye before you’re ready to. But I have been using the time trapped at home to work on my own ideas, mostly things I’ve been excited about but never got to. I have a half hour drama with �� Studios that I am ready to pitch and some other cool things over in the USA. I don’t want to jinx any of them, so I guess stay tuned?

Leo Richardson

You self-define as “queer and working class”, what would be your advice to other writers from a similar (or any) background who are looking to follow you into the industry? Are there practical steps that you think the industry should be taking?

Firstly, the working class is desperately underrepresented on TV and that’s probably because there aren’t enough of us at the top. I’ve always believed it stemmed from us not always being able to support ourselves through the ups and downs of life as an artist. My biggest advice for someone trying to break in is to be prepared to take rejection and keep going, even if you have to work other jobs on the way up, like I did. I’ve been a personal trainer, a (terrible) builder, a waiter, a receptionist… you name it. Write every day, read plays and scripts, watch theatre, TV and film, find out who people are and know your s**t. Apply to every workshop, programme and competition because eventually, if what you write truly stands out, someone will see it. But you have to have a point of view. Don’t write what you think people want. Write what you want. That’s the stuff that stands out. And I guess remember that luck is being ready for when an opportunity arises.

My advice to LGBTQ+ writers is the same. We are not nearly where we need to be. Homophobia is still there, it’s just hidden better. Whenever I have pitched a TV show with gay leads in Hollywood, the resounding answer is always “it feels too niche”. We all know this means “too gay”. There are great shows that become the exception, but they are not in the majority. And let’s be honest, commissioners and executives look to the same select few writers to do “the gay shows” over and over. There should be room for us all but the only way we can make that happen is to keep writing, creating and putting ourselves out there. Every queer voice counts.

Watch Katy Keene on �� iPlayer from Saturday 25th July

Follow Leo Richardson on Twitter

Watch an interview with former X-Files showrunner (and current head of Big Light Productions) Frank Spotnitz about the US and UK systems

Read EastEnders scripts in our library including Leo Richardson's script for the Halloween episode in 2015

A Quick Chat With Tom Rob Smith, the screenwriter of The Assassination of Gianni Versace - American Crime Story

2018-03-21T17:20:00+00:00

How did you get involved with The Assassination of Gianni Versace - American Crime Story?

It was never called that at the beginning. The producers Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson sent me the book which the series is based on by Vanity Fair journalist Maureen Orth, called Vulgar Favors. They said they were thinking about doing a mini-series based on it. Both Brad and Nina knew my writing from my novel CHILD 44, and the scripts for LONDON SPY. And that was how it began.

What was it about the project that attracted you?

The material was challenging, the main character - Andrew Cunanan - is intriguing and human in his early years, but gradually descends into addiction and murderous madness, so the challenge was how to structure the story because once Cunanan starts killing he can't be the centre of the episodes.

Watch the trailer for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

Was the fashion world one you were already familiar with?

I knew a little, I guess. I read everything that had ever been written on Versace. I was surprised by how little attention and scrutiny he'd been given, considering he was such an amazing man.

How did you carry out research?

Maureen Orth is the journalist, so she provided the bulk of the research, I also read through all the FBI files, and as I said, everything that been written about Versace. I also travelled to San Diego and went to all the most important places in Andrew Cunanan's life, just to get a feel for them.

Watch a clip from The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

During the writing of the drama did you warm to the principal characters, as you found out more about them? Did your preconceptions change?

The most unusual aspect of this show is that the victims are the central characters, they are the heart and soul of the piece. I have to admit, before I read the book all I knew of the case was that Versace had been shot on the steps of his Miami mansion, it's remarkable to me that the entire story was in shadow. Those other victims were extraordinary people, their stories deserved to be told.

"You're trying to impress me" - watch a clip from Episode 3

How different did it feel writing your first true crime story? How much did you have to fill in the gaps of existing material or ‘dramatise’ events?

There are gaps, but any dramatisation was only ever done to support the larger truths. We all knew that David Madson had nothing to do with the murder of Jeff Trail, we all felt that very strongly, so we needed to figure out how to convey that innocence to the audience, to show why David left with Andrew.

"They won't believe you" - a clip from Episode 4 - Andrew tries to convince a panicked David that in the eyes of intolerant lawmen, he is equally guilty of a murder he has just witnessed being committed.

Do you think the title of the show represents what it is really about?

I actually didn't choose the title so I can't address that question but I don't think the title of the non fiction source material would have been right.

We understand the Versace family are not happy with the show. Has this been very disappointing and how have you dealt with this?

Their position is the same as they had with the source material - their statement is very similar. In the end, this is a celebration of an amazing man, it was a tragedy that Versace was taken from the world, both from his family, and from a creative perspective. We set out to contrast why one man was so great, and one man became so despicable.

Do you think your background as a novelist helps or hinders screenwriting?

Both! There are advantages and disadvantages, but mostly advantages I think. This series plays a long game, the lie that Andrew tells Versace in Episode One, seems like a piece of nonsense, but we reveal how much truth there is in it, how much sadness, in Episode Eight.

Is it very different working as a screenwriter in the USA from the UK? Are there key differences?

At the moment writers are considered more central to the process in the US than in the UK, but the UK model is in the process of changing.

What have you got coming up next?

A new show for �� Two, called MotherFatherSon, an eight part original show.

Watch The Assassination of Gianni Versace - American Crime Story on �� Two on Wednesdays at 9pm and on �� iPlayer

Read an interview with Tom Rob Smith about his writing career and the drama London Spy

Read the script for Episode 1 of London Spy

Listen to an interview with Tom Rob Smith on Radio 4's Front Row

Listen to a Radio Documentary about the murder of Gianni Versace

Writing Feud: Bette and Joan

2017-12-13T12:43:28+00:00

The Emmy and Golden Globe nominated Feud: Bette and Joan tells the story of the rivalry between Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and the making of the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? We spoke to the show's writers, Michael Zam and Jaffe Cohen ahead of its UK debut on �� Two.

Watch the trailer for Feud: Bette and Joan

What was the origin of your writing partnership? Is this the first thing you’ve worked on together? How does it work, do you actually sit and write together or work separately on different parts of the script and then edit the other’s work? Do you bring different strengths?

We’ve been friends for decades and our writing partnership evolved naturally because we’re passionately interested in so many of the same things: writing, teaching, history (especially Hollywood history!). More than that we love spending time together. We collaborated early on with a few ideas for TV shows and worked together on a play, but then mostly went our separate ways for a few decades. Michael taught at New York University and wrote a few screenplays that almost got made on his own. Jaffe primarily did stand up as part of a pioneering trio of comics called Funny Gay Males.

In terms of our process, the best answer is all of the above. We get together and talk…and talk…and talk, working on increasingly detailed outlines of our story. Then one of us usually writes a first draft and we start sending it back and forth. If we’re working on more than one story at a time, which is more and more the case these days, we can literally be emailing drafts of outlines and scenes to each other from across the room, across the city, or across the ocean (as Michael teaches theater in London every summer). In terms of our strengths, we’re both pretty seasoned at this point and, in many ways, have absorbed each other’s strengths and points of view. Perhaps Michael is more focused on the overall story. Maybe Jaffe is happiest finding the drama in individual scenes. But it definitely goes back and forth depending on circumstances and, at any given time, one of us can be the midwife while the other is giving birth. But then, of course, we raise the baby together, polishing and perfecting.

Bette Davis (SUSAN SARANDON), Joan Crawford (JESSICA LANGE) in Feud: Bette and Joan (Image Credit: �� / Fox)

What attracted you to this story specifically?

We were both at a point in our lives when we only wanted to write about subjects that clearly interested us and few things interest us more, as said above, than Hollywood history.

So that led us to Bette and Joan, two of our favorite stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. At first Jaffe had the idea to write about two women like Bette and Joan, two middle-aged stars who have competed with each other for decades who make their comeback in the same film. And it was Michael’s idea to simply write about the real Bette and Joan. And when we realized that our research would primarily be sitting on a couch and watching all of their best films …well …we simply dived right in.

Feud: Bette and Joan. Joan Crawford (JESSICA LANGE), Bette Davis (SUSAN SARANDON) Image Credit: �� / Fox

Is it correct that Feud: Bette and Joan began life as a movie script? What was its journey to an 8 part TV series? Can you explain the Blacklist to a UK audience and how it was picked up by Ryan Murphy?

Yes, we originally wrote Feud as a screenplay called Best Actress which got a lot of positive attention early on from agents, producers and especially from an amazing list of actresses who wanted to play the parts. In 2009 the script made it onto a top spot on the Black List, which is a list of the year’s best unproduced screenplays as rated by producers, agents and managers. Plan B, Brad Pitt’s company, read the script and they thought it would be perfect for Ryan Murphy who at the time was looking to a feature film. But this was also the year Murphy’s TV show Glee became a phenomenon leading Ryan to work primarily in television.

Three years ago Ryan decided that the best way to tell the story in Best Actress was to keep the basic structure of the screenplay but expand it into eight hours of television. At this point we were brought on as producers and writers and began offering ideas for subplots, many of which we wanted to include in the original screenplay but didn’t have the space, like the character of Victor Buono, an unapologetically gay character actor who co-starred with Bette and Joan in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Is it unusual in the US for a TV series to be ‘authored’ rather than the product of a Writers’ Room?

We believe so, especially with the kind of super talented head writers and show runners currently working in television. Often the plots and subplots are worked out well in advance - whole seasons, multiple seasons! - and then the episodes are farmed out to writers whose job it is to faithfully dramatize the original vision.

Joan Blondell (KATHY BATES), Olivia de Havilland (CATHERINE ZETA-JONES) in Feud: Bette and Joan (Image credit: Image Credit: �� / Fox)

Did you have a meeting of minds with Ryan Murphy on the project?

Yes, it was obvious when we met that we all had a very strong connection to the material and we were convinced that Ryan would protect our vision. It was important to us that whoever made it felt strongly about the theme: that it’s tragic how Hollywood tosses aside women at a certain age, no matter what their previous contributions have been to the industry.

You both work teaching screenwriting. What about the story of Feud: Bette and Joan matches the advice you pass on to students? Does it contain those elements that you tell your students make up a successful screenplay?

Yes, thankfully! Mainly we want our students to write about something they love. Characters in our screenplays become our companions so we better like them and want to know more about them! We also emphasize how characters need to have high stakes, and what makes Bette and Joan so fascinating is that they are both fighting for their dignity, their legacy, their futures, and their self-esteem. In other words: their lives. For them, this is the equivalent of life and death. They were also witty, daring and, at moments, perverse. In short, we can’t take our eyes off them!

Jack Warner (STANLEY TUCCI)(Image credit: �� /Fox)

How do you make this story interesting for people who may not know anything about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford? What about it resonates for today’s audience, especially in the light of recent revelations of abusive behaviour in the industry?

We purposely wrote our original screenplay to hold people’s attention even without ever having heard about Bette and Joan. Our model at the time was the movie, The Queen with Helen Mirren, which worked so well even if you didn’t know or care much (as many Americans don’t) about Elizabeth II. The stakes were so high and the story so specific (as well as often quite funny), it didn’t much matter how much you knew walking into the theater. In fact, some of the people who liked Feud best were people who knew very little about Bette and Joan, but became fascinated by what they actually did, like Joan’s actively campaigning against her co-star when Bette was nominated for an Oscar and Joan wasn’t. So, part of the fun of watching Feud is learning some history, especially when the facts are stranger than fiction. And what these women faced, particularly from the powerful men who did all they could to use and manipulate them, is astounding. Hopefully that’s a pattern that will soon be history.

You have an amazing cast – were you involved in the casting or have to fight for these actresses to be involved?

Ryan mentioned some names when we first met. There were some great actresses who wanted to play Bette, but Susan Sarandon’s name was always at the top of his list. Jessica Lange read the script a little later, but she completely latched onto the idea of playing Joan. And in the years when we weren’t sure if the story was going to be produced, Jessica was the one who kept the project front and center. Needless to say, we were over the moon about all the casting – Alfred Molina, Stanley Tucci - all great. We were really excited about Judy Davis, who we’ve admired from way back in My Brilliant Career. We were blown away when she played Judy Garland some time back on American television. And we adore Jackie Hoffman, who plays Mamacita, and Alison Wright, who plays Pauline, both of whose work we knew well from their stage work in New York, where we live.

Hedda Hopper (JUDY DAVIS)(Image Credit: �� / Fox)

What does telling a story as a drama add that isn’t possible in a documentary?

Oh, so much! As writers of historical fiction - as opposed to die-hard historians - our guideline is not what happened, but what could have happened – and what about our characters helped make it happen. Naturally there are guidelines imposed by the known events and the personalities involved. Drama is often described as the lie that tells the truth. In historical fiction, the lie simply needs to be plausible. It has to feel like it could have happened. And if we add to our story a little narration – and narrators aren’t always reliable – we have a pretty wide berth to re-create all the delicious scenes – the private moments, the confrontations - that might have gone unrecorded.

Robert Aldrich (ALFRED MOLINA)(Image credit: �� / Fox)

What have you got coming up next? Do you have more stories from classic Hollywood?

You bet and some of our projects take place in Britain! We’re currently working on a project about the turbulent monumental romance between Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. It’s an amazing story about two of the most talented and celebrated actors in the twentieth century who fell madly in love and stuck with each other for two decades of extreme highs and lows.

We’ve also completed a screenplay on William Haines, who was a handsome, funny, sexy leading man in the 1920’s and 30’s – and was openly gay. And we wrote a script that’s a very unconventional, but honest look at Kate Hepburn.

Feud: Bette and Joan writers Michael Zam and Jaffe Cohen on the Emmy's red carpet

Something else we’re working on is a screenplay about Mama Cass, the brilliant warm-hearted singer who shot to stardom as a member of the Mamas and the Papas and then spent the last few years of her life trying to find her own voice as an entertainer. By all accounts, she finally found that voice, “making her own kind of music” during her last public performance, a two-week gig at the London Palladium, but then dying tragically the next day. See truth really is stranger than fiction. We’ll keep you posted on the casting, and needless to say, we’re dying to get to London to do a little research!

Feud: Bette and Joan begins on Saturday 16th December 2017 at 9pm on �� Two and �� iPlayer

Watch interviews with the stars Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange

More interviews with the cast and the director, Ryan Murphy (who describes how he met Bette Davis)

The US Perspective - 3. From The Onion via 30 Rock to The Mindy Project

2015-03-13T16:30:26+00:00

Editor's Note: In the last of our 3 blogs from US writers, Lang Fisher on her journey from satirical newspaper The Onion to The Mindy Project writers' room, including some great advice.

Being a comedy writer, as I would assume being any kind of writer, is a vastly personal experience. When you write something that’s “not that funny”, you immediately take it as a referendum not only on your talent, but on your personality as a whole. “If this isn’t funny, then maybe I’m not funny, and I guess my whole life has been a total lie, why didn’t I go to med school?” But the truth is, writing is a practice, even comedic writing, and every job you take can teach you something different.

The Mindy Project

I joined the writing staff of The Mindy Project at the beginning of season two. Before that, I had worked on 30 Rock and the satirical newspaper, The Onion. From each of these jobs, I took valuable lessons. From The Onion, I learned to have a thick skin. 99% of the joke headlines there end up in the garbage. So even if you thought something you wrote was the most brilliant joke ever to be constructed on this Earth, if they didn’t use it, you had to let it go with grace and not have your feelings hurt. '30 Rock' was a comedy boot camp. I learned there never to be satisfied with a “pretty good joke”. '30 Rock' taught me that in those moments of writer’s block when you’re incapable of thinking of a funny line even if a gun were pointed in your face, to dig into the deepest recesses of your brain, because that’s where true hilarity will reveal itself. 'The Mindy Project' made me realize how important it is, even in the funniest of comedies, to tell a story with depth and an emotional center. What I like the most about 'The Mindy Project' is that even though every moment is bursting at the seams with hard jokes, our characters have real hearts and are grounded in a reality that the viewer can identify with. When Mindy’s heartbroken, so are her fans.

Mindy Kaling as Dr. Mindy Lahiri

I don’t remember as a child ever wanting to be a professional writer when I grew up. At that time, I was torn between the very-easy-to-achieve professions of supermodel and music video dancer as my definite future paths. In fact, the only indication from my childhood that I would become a writer was my affinity for lying. In kindergarten, we had “show and tell” time, where most kids would bring in a cool rock they found or a birdhouse they built with their grandfather, but I always chose the “tell” option and would stand up in front of my classmates and regale them with an elaborate falsehood about how, just that morning, my dog saved me from the dangerous rapids of a river I had fallen into. Luckily, my dog knew CPR and so, here I was, right as rain, standing in front of them. After enough of my tall tales, my teacher removed the “tell” half from the activity.

As I got older and the reality of my genetics became clearer, I had to let go of supermodel and dancer as prospective careers and embrace something that came naturally to me: being funny. In my teen years, I fell in love with shows like AbFab and Strangers With Candy. These female-driven comedies made a real impact on me, because the protagonists were as outlandish and irredeemable as any male comedy character. Sometimes, there’s a tendency to protect female characters and to make their flaws precious characteristics like being klutzy or awkward. But I think when female characters on TV are allowed to have real objectionable flaws like being selfish or salacious or sociopathic, there’s nothing funnier. So, I guess it’s not surprising that the two television shows I’ve written for are based around hard female comedy characters created by two of the funniest women in entertainment, Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling. I think both of these shows have had real feminist impacts on the comedy industry, because these main female characters aren’t afraid to be unsexy or loser-ish for the sake of hilarity.

The Mindy Project

It’s probably very rare in the UK to find a television show with a 22-episode season, but that is the norm over here in the States, at least for network shows. What this means for our writing process is that we are writing at the same time the show is being shot. We are usually working on an episode or two ahead of production. This goes for both comedies and dramas. Where they differ, though, is that drama writers work more individually, while comedies are very collaborative.

Working on a network comedy show is like being in the longest business meeting of your life. We sit in a room together everyday, all day. In 'The Mindy Project' writers room, each writer sits in front of a computer monitor that is controlled by our showrunner, who does all of the typing. One writer will go off and write the first draft of a script and then bring it back into the room, so that, as a group, we all sit around and “punch it up”. This means that we read through it and find areas that need better jokes. The best part is that without being aware of it, we all pitch jokes in the characters’ voices. So, for instance, when I think of a joke for Danny Castellano, I do my closest approximation of a 40 year-old Italian New York guy. I don’t think Martin Scorsese would be at all impressed. Once we’ve done our punch pass, we have the cast perform it in a table read and then we go back to our writers room and do another pass after we’ve seen what gets laughs and what doesn’t. We do this basically from June until the beginning of March. So, you get to spend a whole lot of time with your writing staff. Luckily, I love everyone on mine. Which is a good thing, because it is possible that we may be legally common law married to each other in terms of hours spent together.

The Mindy Project

Hopefully, 'The Mindy Project' has many more seasons to come, but I look forward to whatever future writing endeavours come my way and the lessons that I will glean from them. I think the biggest piece of advice I can impart to future writers is to share your writing and to be open to criticism. Some writers are so afraid to let others read their work that they never evolve. Being a professional writer is all about being critiqued, adapting, and rewriting. It stings at first, but after a while, it’s just part of the job.

Read all 3 of our blogs from a US Perspective - House of Cards, Nurse Jackie and The Mindy Project

The Mindy Project is broadcast in the UK on E4

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Lang Fisher on IMDb

Enter our Comedy Script Room (closes 2 April 2015 at MIDDAY)

The US Perspective - 2. Nurse Jackie

2015-03-03T14:57:46+00:00

Editor's Note: In the second of our series of three blogs examining writing for US productions we spoke to 'Nurse Jackie' writer Ellen Fairey.

Edie Falco as Nurse Jackie Peyton

What inspired you to become a writer? Where did it come from – did you always know you wanted to write?

I think writing stories was a way to understand the world around me, interpret (or reinterpret) it and maybe most importantly a way of controlling it. My first short piece, written in the form of a storyboard was titled 'Husband and Wife'...very Cassavetes. I was seven.

What was your journey to where you are now? How did you get your first break?

My journey has involved many things: romance, adventure, boredom, curiosity, tragedy... a propensity to wonder and reflect and see the world and life as some kind of narrative.

I left high-school when I was 16, went to art school in Chicago at 20, worked as a waitress for years, travelled with musicians, worked in advertising. I wrote my first short play when I was 35... it got attention and to my surprise, praise. So I wrote another and then another and eventually a full-length play that had productions in both Chicago and Los Angeles. I knew that playwrights often transitioned into television writing and while the prospect seemed completely out of touch, I got a little obsessed. I started combing through episodes of 'Six Feet Under' like a detective - timing scenes, tracking arcs, to see if I could decipher a pattern of how a great TV show was written. I talked to friends who knew people in the industry, had coffees and lunches - 'informational interviews'. People were very encouraging.

I left my well paying, secure advertising job in Chicago and moved to California. (Note: moving to Los Angeles as an unemployed woman in her 40's is not for the faint of heart.) Luckily my new play, 'Graceland', had a successful run in Chicago that spring and 'the stars started to align' for lack of a better term. A writer friend sent the play and reviews to his agents at CAA, they took me on as a client and within two weeks had procured a New York production as part of Lincoln Center's LCT3 program. That production coincided with 'staffing season', a time of year when shows are hiring new writers. I met with the executive producers of Showtime's 'Nurse Jackie' who happened to be moving their writer's room from Los Angeles to New York and they offered me a job. I wrote on four seasons of 'Nurse Jackie', living half of the year in New York and the other half in Los Angeles. It was an incredible show to land at for my first TV job. I thank those aligning stars every day.

We hear a lot about the US Writers Room system, can you describe it? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

I don't think there is necessarily a prototypical 'US Writers Room'. They all vary. In size. In vibe. The tone is set by the showrunner - some are inclusive, some are not, some are encouraging, some are threatened. They can be large - up to 10 writers on some shows - or very small, 4 to 6 writers on others. Some shows don't have rooms - the executive producer will simply meet with writers individually and break stories that way. Some rooms are located in New York but most are in Los Angeles. One thing I've noticed is that if you meet a writer from another show you immediately start downloading about what your particular room is like. Compare notes etc.

Nurse Jackie

US shows have notably longer series than in the UK. What is the production process like? What is the work/life balance?

If you are working on a cable series you usually have a 10 to 12 episode order which is completely manageable. Network shows can order up to 23 episodes. I have not worked on a show with that large of an order - at least not one that lasted - but the people I know that have are usually in a state of utter exhaustion. The pay is higher. The creative freedom can be much lower.

Jackie has been a drug-addicted mother who traded sex for prescription drugs – how difficult was it to convince TV executives to run with the character?

As far as Jackie trading sex for drugs I would argue that her relationship with Eddie (the pharmacist) is much more than a transaction. Though I do understand how one might come to that conclusion especially if they had only seen the earlier seasons of the show.

I was not involved in the pitching of the show but the general idea is that networks, especially cable networks WANT controversial, difficult, 'noisy' stories and characters. Yes, they use the word 'noisy'.

Jackie has been described as a breakthrough TV character. We’re used to male anti-heroes such as Frank Underwood and Walter White, but is it more difficult to present a ‘flawed’ female personality?

I think different people watch television for different reasons. Some want to be comforted and soothed, others want to be surprised or amused or freaked out or challenged... Do you want to see people you recognize? Or people you wish you could be? People you admire? Or people you love to hate? In my opinion all characters are 'flawed'. On TV and in life. Which is what makes it all so interesting.

Edie Falco as Nurse Jackie

How would British writers wanting to work for US shows approach show runners?

Talk to everyone you know in the business, tell them what you're hoping to do. Get introduced to people. More importantly, have multiple great writing samples - especially original specs (as opposed to specs of existing shows). If you're a playwright you've got one foot in the door... maybe more so for cable shows than big network. It also helps tremendously if you are in Los Angeles.

Also what are the challenges of selling single character-led shows?

I think the challenges of selling any show are quite large - whether they be single character or ensemble pieces. People want to see characters they've never seen before. Find a way to relate your own life experience to the show you're pitching. Open a vein. Write something only you could write. Make it personal. Those are the pitches that sell and get made. See Amazon's 'Transparent' as an example.

What advice did you receive that has stayed with you and do you have any advice you can share?

Some funny advice I got when I was first going out on meetings was to say yes if they offer you water, and to sit on the couch, if there is a couch in the room you are meeting in.

More seriously, my own advice, with regard to Hollywood and life in general, would be to become a tremendous, curious and genuinely interested listener... with others and with yourself. Mine the depths. Wonder. Reflect. Engage.

Ellen Fairey at IMDB

Find out more about Nurse Jackie

Seasons 1 & 2 of Nurse Jackie were broadcast in the UK on �� Two

Nurse Jackie is now broadcast in the UK on Sky Atlantic

Read about the House of Cards writers room on a blog by writer Laura Eason

The US Perspective - 1. Behind the Curtain: The House of Cards Writers' Room

2015-02-27T12:21:53+00:00

If film is a director’s medium, then television is certainly still very much the writer’s. It’s often said television is going through a golden age at the moment – especially for writers. There are so many fantastic television and online shows which really embrace the authorial voice and don’t shy away from wordiness and complex storylines in their exploration of the human condition. It’s brilliant news for writers because the bar has been set so high, the medium is getting the respect it deserves and it attracts the best talent across the board. Also, with the advent of online, there are increasing outlets to have your work produced.

Whenever I ask writers to list the shows they are excited or inspired by, it’s unavoidable to ignore the dominance of the US. It’s easy to sometimes believe the grass is greener when it comes to work, as a writer. Writing for US productions is often viewed as the holy grail. The salaries, power and environment are seductive and almost mythological in status. So, I decided to ask three US writers to give us a little insight into their lives as writers on three very different shows: Nurse Jackie (a cable show, broadcast in the UK on Sky Atlantic), The Mindy Project (a network show, broadcast in the UK on E4) and House of Cards (an online show, available on Netflix).

I hope it will go some distance to demystify the landscape in the US and really shine a light on the fact that in the end, writing is all about hard work and perseverance – no matter what or where you are writing for.

In other news, I am heading off on maternity leave. Simon Nelson from C�� is covering my position. He has fantastic production and script editing experience and is a fierce champion of new writing. I know the �� Writersroom will be brilliantly served by his profound knowledge and insight.

Enjoy all three blogs!

Abigail Gonda, Development Producer �� Writersroom

Laura Eason, staff writer on House of Cards

Before I started writing for television, the process mystified me. I’m asked often how TV “works” – how is it written? It was the thing I wondered most before I started work on Netflix’s 'House of Cards'. Every show is unique. But I think hearing how a specific process works in a very brass tacks, step-by-step kind-of way can be helpful. So, here is how we write 'House of Cards'.

A couple of weeks before the room convenes, the six writers on staff get an email from our visionary showrunner Beau Willimon. He gives us an overview of broad storylines he’s thinking about for the season and for our main characters, Frank and Claire Underwood. Each writer also receives a “To Read and Watch” list that includes books, articles, movies and documentaries that helped shaped his thinking or relate to possible storylines yet to be developed. We also watch the whole season, all 13 episodes, and take very specific notes. We dissect each episode, what we liked, what we didn’t, what worked, what didn’t, which we share with the room on the first day back.

House of Cards - Francis and Claire Underwood (Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright)

That first day, we talk for a couple of hours about the previous season. Beau and the team try hard not to be precious about anything. The goal is to raise the bar every year and part of the way to do that is to be brutally honest about what worked and what didn’t. The way our timeline works, the previous season won’t be streaming yet. So, we’ll wait and see how the public responds, but our own opinions about our successes and failures help us inform choices as we move forward.

After the season debrief, we look to one wall of the room covered with an empty grid drawn on two huge dry erase boards. Along the left side of the grid are the names of our main characters and the major storylines for the season. Along the top of the grid are the numbers of the episodes, 1 - 13. For the next four weeks, we will work and fill in this grid with information. The major storylines, plot points and essential moments of character development are all noted. Everyone pitches on everything – ideas for every character and storyline. Writers are not assigned a specific character to write. The team will also determine interesting “set pieces” – an anthrax scare that shuts down the capital or a civil war re-enactment are two Season Two examples – and possible stand out/indelible moments for each episode – i.e. SPOILER ALERT Zoe getting pushed in front of the train! So, for seven or eight hours a day, it’s a lot of idea generation, listening and riffing off your colleagues. It can be an incredibly exciting and interesting process, especially if you are lucky enough to be in a room with the kind of remarkable thinkers and writers I get to work with at 'House of Cards'.

House of Cards - Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey)

For a month, in conversation led by Beau, we imagine and reimagine the story of the season, filling things in the grid, erasing them and putting up better ideas. We all continue to watch and read and explore as much as we can that might be helpful in our story development. Each writer is assigned several newspapers, magazines or blogs to read daily and bring in stories of interest or that might help spark ideas in addition to usually reading a relevant book (or two or three) going at the same time. We also have a fantastic political consultant as well as the many experts we speak to (experts in government, the law, journalism, international relations and many other fields) who all help us shape and vet story.

After four to five weeks, we have enough information to begin the “season bible”. This bible is a prose version of the grid, expanded and developed another step in terms of specificity. The team works together, all tackling different parts assigned by Beau who also writes key parts of the document. Our season bible consists of a mission statement (AKA the guiding want and/or need) for our leads, a description of the story arcs for each of our major characters and all narrative threads over the whole 13 episode season and a brief bullet-point breakdown of events, actions and key character development for each episode.

This document takes about two weeks to write. In comes in around fifty pages. It is sent out to collaborators (producers, executives, consultants, etc.) Beau hears the response and decides what feedback speaks to him. We then incorporate those changes into the bible and generate new, better material as well. Generally a third to one half of the first pass at the bible is thrown out and rewritten. This second pass becomes the document we work off for the rest of the season.

House of Cards

I will digress here to note, though, the bible IS an essential document but 'House of Cards' continues to evolve. Beau is open to incorporating surprises and better ideas during production. This is true in small ways, line changes, locations changes, action reimaged, but also in large ways. For example, sometimes an actor brings a character to life so vividly; the writers want to expand their role in the season. That was true of Corey Stoll who played Peter Russo in Season One. His role was only supposed to have a two or three episode arc. But Beau loved his work and figured out a way to bring him back that felt, in the end, inevitable, as though it has been constructed that way all along.

Once the bible is approved, “breaking” of individual episodes begins. This process is pretty typical of many hour-long dramas. We turn our backs to the grid and face the opposite wall. It has four huge empty corkboards on them. The first thing we do is put up colored 3 x 5 index cards (different colors for different characters or storylines) that chart each “beat” – each important story moment, often a scene – of that episode as outlined/described in the bible.

As a group, in conversation lead by Beau, we then pitch ideas to strengthen and flesh out that episode. We write new index cards to replace the old as the episode takes shape. We vet the work as we go along, trying to make the show ever smarter, better, more surprising. To that end, we tear up a lot of cards. After about a week or a week and a half, we have around 30 to 35 beats or scenes we really at least like and hopefully love.

House of Cards (Kevin Spacey as Francis Underwood)

We then move to the “white card” phase. This is where we place a white card with a very specific description of what happens in the beat or scene. Each colored card will get at least one and sometimes as many as three filled white index cards placed under them. The content of these cards is also worked out with the group all pitching ideas. Ultimately, Beau decides what gets the green light.

Once Beau has approved the carded, broken episode, the writers move to an outline. At 'House of Cards', the writing staff writes the outline collectively, sometimes one person taking a story thread, sometimes just taking a certain number of cards. We all write in the same document. The outline is a prose version of the carded episode taken to the next level of detail, writers conceiving scenes very specifically (and pitching ideas in the process that may or may not end up in the final outline). Once the outline is completed, all the writers go through it, making changes as a group until we have a document the six of us feel is ready for Beau to evaluate.

Beau then reworks the outline until it meets his approval. That approved outline is then handed to one writer who will write the whole draft by themselves. They will have two weeks to complete a first draft. After that, they will meet and get notes from Beau and have a week to do a rewrite. Beau then does a final unifying pass of the script before it goes to production.

Once the outline is done and the scriptwriter is off “on episode”, the rest of the writing team moves on and breaks the next episode. This process happens a total of thirteen times.

There is much more to say about the experience of generating the work, the dynamics of a writers’ room and the writers role in production but I hope this is an interesting peep behind the curtain at 'House of Cards'.

House of Cards (Robin Wright as Claire Underwood)

Laura Eason is a playwright and story editor on the Netflix show, House of Cards (Writers Guild of America nomination for outstanding writing in a drama series.)

Find out more about Laura Eason on her website or follow @LeasonNYC on twitter.

�������� Writers Feed

How I made the move from the UK to the US, writing on shows including Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene (now on �������� iPlayer)

A Quick Chat With Tom Rob Smith, the screenwriter of The Assassination of Gianni Versace - American Crime Story

Writing Feud: Bette and Joan

The US Perspective - 3. From The Onion via 30 Rock to The Mindy Project

The US Perspective - 2. Nurse Jackie

The US Perspective - 1. Behind the Curtain: The House of Cards Writers' Room

�� Writers Feed

How I made the move from the UK to the US, writing on shows including Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene (now on �� iPlayer)