“RUNNING A SHOW IS LIKE CHILDBIRTH:”
We are
living in a golden age of television; never before has there been such
high-quality TV, nor so many choices. At October’s Film Independent Forum, we
presented a panel of top showrunners, writers and producers of current series
to talk about what it really takes to launch a show. Indiewire’s TV editor Ben
Travers moderated the panel, featuring Nicole Yorkin, writer and executive
producer on The Killing; Jake
Avnet, COO of Indigenous Media and executive producer of WIGS; Kenya Barris,
creator and executive producer of Black-ish;
and Ray McKinnon, creator and executive producer of Rectify.
The
panelists came from diverse backgrounds, all of which continue to inform
their work. Yorkin used to be a journalist. McKinnon is also an actor. And
Barris has worked in all different genres and formats. “I realized from all the
different things I had done—in doing sketch, in doing drama, in doing
reality—they all teach you something different,” he said. Avnet works primarily
in the digital space, which he says he fell into when he got out of college. “I
just happened to be in digital sort of by accident in the very early days of
that,” he said. “I think it’s an incredibly interesting time to be a content
creator in general, but particularly in digital.”
When
Travers asked everyone how they got their starts, and whether they got
into the business using industry contacts, some acknowledged that mentors
had had a major impact on them. Barris makes a point of paying it forward: “It
has been such village that helped bring me up,” he said, “I feel compelled to
always have a few lower level writers who we try to reach out and get them
started.”
When the
question got to McKinnon, he enthused, “Networking! Oh, yes! I live by
networking!” After the laughs died down, he admitted that it actually had never
been his approach. Though he knows networking can be effective and
important for others, he insisted that just doing good work is also a way
in. “A lot of people out in the business are looking for good story and good
scripts, and they will find it. There’s not a conspiracy to prevent really good
writing from coming into Hollywood.” Yorkin agreed: “If you work at your craft,
if you’re really a good writer, you will get your opportunity.”
Travers
asked about dealing with criticism and audience reaction. “If you pay too
much attention to the audience that you think is out there, it can be
inhibiting to what it is you’re creating,” Yorkin warned. She and Barris both
had bad experiences with vile Internet commenters after a series finale and
before a series premiere, respectively, and agreed that you just have to learn
to tune out the haters. “If you listen to that sort of negativity, it’s hard to
be creative,” Yorkin said. “People don’t really know what they want until you
give them something,” Barris added, “and if you can be honest and clear with
your vision, people will see it.”
Avnet
agreed that the audience doesn’t always know what they want, but working in the
digital space gives him a different take. “We have more comment action and
audience data than we know what to do with,” he said, “which is both a blessing
and a curse.” While he agreed that content creators ought to stick to their
vision, he added, “If there’s an avalanche of sentiment in one direction, you
have to sort of take that into account.” After all, with no audience, there can
be no show.
“It’s
the hardest thing in the world to try to run a TV show,” Yorkin said. “It’s
like childbirth. You can be right next to it, but until you’re the one giving
birth, you don’t know what it’s like.” It takes a special kind of person, too.
Travers asked all the panelists what they think is the most important trait in
a showrunner, and Yorkin and Avnet agreed that he or she needs to be something
of a jack-of-all-trades. “For me, stamina,” Barris said. “Really, you’re the
only one who can get certain things done. That’s the biggest thing I didn’t
foresee, just the pure amount of time and energy.”
“For me,
it’s like, trying to keep everybody that I’m working with off-balance and
living in a constant level of fear,” McKinnon joked. As an actor on Deadwood and Sons of Anarchy,McKinnon learned a lot from watching David Milch
and Kurt Sutter at work on those shows. Yorkin stressed the value of
collaboration: “I think you get a lot from having writers in the room and
getting to listen to other people’s ideas,” she said, to which Barris added,
“As a showrunner, it’s not a bad thing to be the dumbest person in the room.
Just know what you want, and have other smart people that can help you execute
it.”
“It’s
difficult!” McKinnon admitted. “It is the hardest job I’ve ever done, by
far—but it’s the greatest job I’ve ever had.”