Thursday, March 22, 2012
IN HONOR OF GLORIA STEINEM'S BIRTHDAY: Smash has been renewed for a second season, but creator (and primary writer for Season 1) Theresa Rebeck is going to be out as showrunner. Given how messy the season's been, it's not surprising, but what concerns me is that I believe it leaves Our Friend Shonda Rhimes (who, admittedly, will soon have 3 shows she's running on ABC's schedule) and Michelle King (who co-runs The Good Wife with her husband) as the only female drama showrunners on the big 4 networks (adding in comedy does help, as Suburgatory, Up All Night, and New Girl are all created/run by women). Even shows with strong female leads (Revenge, Missing) are run by men, and that's troubling--admittedly, there are a bunch of great women working on behind-the-scenes stuff (Jane Espenson is heavily involved in Once Upon A Time, Susannah Grant created A Gifted Man), but more female voices are a good thing, right?
I would be happy to step up to the bat, should an opportunity arise. I am one hell of a bullshitter.
ReplyDeleteWait, I wanted to say more relevant things. One of the things I find hilarious about Hollywood is that we work so hard to convey this idea that we're all liberal and diverse and awesome, and we're SO not. I sat in on a roundtable at the PGA conference last year, with Lee Daniels. He said tons of fascinating things, but one that stuck with me was that in his experience, the only people he'd seen treated worse than him by studio execs were women. And he told some stories about how poorly he'd been treated over the years. It's appalling how unwilling studios are to take a chance on an unknown quantity. Yes, it's about money-making. But they're already treating their cable networks like farm leagues. They should be doing WAY more of that. Nurturing talent, and expanding it, and then moving people up to the big leagues when they're ready. But they don't want to. They just want to stick with what they know.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. In my opinion, it benefits everyone to insist on diversity, to push for different voices and new names and more creativity. But it's scary, for sure. I chickened out on any kind of writing path long before I even began it, so I'll never know if I could have pulled it off. But I do feel like there has to be a better system of finding what's out there that's good. Whoever's writing it.
Too lazy (lie: too busy) to look it up, but has Jane Espenson ever been a show-runner? Because with both the volume and the quality of the stuff she's written, you'd think that if she wanted to be, she would have been. Not necessarily on a network (where quality is an albatross), but I would think she'd get a shot on FX or AMC or HBO or Showtime. I realize the skills don't necessarily transfer from awesome staff writer to show runner, but it just seems to me that everybody with a body of work like hers gets to try it. What I'm saying is that if she wants a show, somebody should give it to her already.
ReplyDeleteEspenson was showrunner of Caprica at first.
ReplyDelete<span><span>Yes, and I believe she stepped down by choice, saying she was happier focusing more on writing.</span></span>
ReplyDeleteShe also has a co-created by credit on Warehouse 13, but has never been involved in the day-to-day running of the show. Also, as I understand, Ali Adler basically ran No Ordinary Family last year.
ReplyDeleteComedy helps (in addition to the three I listed in the post, can't believe I forgot Tina Fey, who co-runs 30 Rock)--next year, I'd bet on several comedy pickups run by women. both because the pilots look strong and because several of this season's new hits were female-run.
It's also worth noting that the CW in particular has been friendly to female showrunners--Amy Sherman-Palladino, Brenda Hampton, Stephanie Savage, Julie Plec (Vampire Diaries), Lela Gerstein (Hart of Dixie), Rina Mimoun (Everwood, Privileged), Marta Kauffman (Related), and Liz Tigelaar (Life Unexpected) have all had runs as showrunner/co-showrunner.
ReplyDeleteWhen did the term "showrunner" come into the lexicon? I don't recall hearing the term until the reboot of BSG, but now it's the term du jour. I don't recall ever hearing Larry Gelbart being called the 'showrunner' of M*A*S*H nor Glen A. Larson for Knight Rider.
ReplyDeleteDavid Wild's 2000 nonfiction book The Showrunners might have helped popularize the term, both in Hollywood and to interested laypersons. That's just a guess, though.
ReplyDeleteAs for Smash, I'm thrilled both that they got a pickup (so my Broadway friends will have more employment) and that they're making changes at the top (so maybe the show will be better next year). I haven't yet watched past the pilot, but I'll have to catch up someday...
Wild's book is part of it, but it's also been as shows have gotten more and more densely serialized/authorial in nature (comedies as well as dramas) that there's a single person at the top monitoring that and supervising writing. You didn't need a "runner" for something like "The A-Team," because for the most part, it wasn't serialized.
ReplyDeleteThank you. That explains it.
ReplyDeleteMore power to her, then. Can't get outraged about how she's getting screwed if she doesn't see it that way.
ReplyDeleteThere are two women who have been showrunners on CBS dramas for quite some time: Carol Mendolsohn, CSI and Pam Veasey, CSI: NY.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shonda--I don't watch the CSI's, and wasn't sure who was running them now.
ReplyDelete