Inside the TV Writer's Room by Meyers Lawrence;

Author:Meyers, Lawrence;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 2017-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

Suggested Viewings

Picket Fences: “Heart of Saturday Night,” by Ellen Herman

Twin Peaks: “Lonely Souls,” by Mark Frost

Deadwood: “Here Was a Man,” by Elizabeth Sarnoff

CAROL BARBEE: My first screenplay was called Madonnas of the Field.

LARRY: What was it about?

CAROL: Two female photographers during the Depression. The younger one is traveling with her mentor, and it was about what it was like to be close to one’s hero. But it was also about motherhood and art.

LARRY: So was this a combination of research and life?

CAROL: Yes. I was always struck by the question of, “How was it that women held these positions, especially during the Depression?” I also became a mother while I was writing it, so it became a very real subject for me.

LARRY: So finding things that moved you emotionally were the keys to the piece. As a former actor, were you also able to draw on that experience for your first writing attempt?

CAROL: What’s great about doing acting and then becoming a writer is in the theater you build a character incrementally. Every nuance, every movement—you try them all out to see what fits best, and in the process you create someone from the ground up and know them pretty well.

LARRY: So before tackling that first script, you drew on something that was directly applicable to writing. This is very similar to Dan Bucatinsky. Dan, tell us about your angle.

DAN BUCATINSKY: I wrote and starred in a one-act play. Two characters, sketchlike. It was really about turning expectations on their heads. It was about a guy who wanted to settle down and get married and a woman who was battling an alcohol addiction, who was playing the field and did not want to settle down. I liked the idea of seeing the genders in untraditional roles.

LARRY: How was that first work fulfilling?

DAN: It was about exploring who we are with relationships and how fear keeps us from moving forward. But it was not until I adapted that play into a movie about a gay couple that it was truly cathartic. Then I was really writing about something truthful. I was already with my partner for many years, but when I came out to L.A. I was very closeted.

LARRY: So like Carol, something came from within.

DAN: It happens when you are really not afraid to put it all out there.

LARRY: Persistence is critical for anyone in the arts. Sometimes it helps if you find what you want to do, and you just go for it. That sounds like your story, Jane.

JANE ESPENSON: I wrote a spec episode of M*A*S*H when I was twelve.

LARRY: All that television you watched planted a seed. What was this first spec about and why that of all things?

JANE: There was an interview that appeared in the Des Moines Register about writing for the show and how they sometimes buy specs. I’d always loved entering contests, so I figured, why not?

LARRY: Keep going with that—there’s something there.

JANE: I loved to be singled out whenever I did something really well, to get a reward or praise.

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