Understanding the Role of Showrunners in Television

TV is a writer’s medium largely because there’s so much that needs writing, and the person responsible for making sure all of that creative work gets done is the showrunner. It’s a massive job that crosses departments and leaves that individual or teams with the title as one of the final word on major decisions.

Insights from Emmy-Nominated Showrunners

As the 77th Emmy Awards approach, Gold Derby spoke with some of the people responsible for this year’s nominated series about the job and everything it entails. For our Meet the Experts Emmys showrunners panel, Erin Foster (Nobody Wants This), Lauren LeFranc (The Penguin), and Mike Price (The Simpsons) discuss chemistry among the writers and what to do when the ideas just stop flowing. Watch the full video above. Click each name to watch that person’s individual interview.

Signs of a Successful Writer’s Room

Gold Derby: How do you know when things are going well in the writer’s room? What are the signs that things are heading in the right direction?

Lauren LeFranc: When the writer’s room works, it’s like the most magical experience you can have. I know there’s a lot on Zoom these days, but nothing beats just one-on-one interaction and you getting to vibe with each other and tell stories and share intimate things to try to get into these characters. It feels especially gratifying, one, when you’re laughing… but also when you have a puzzle and you are struggling to figure out how to do something and you know it’s right there… Then something happens where things start to kind of break open. And then we’re like, “Sh-t, I think we are figuring it out.”

Erin Foster: A writer’s room is kind of like a relationship. It’s chemistry, and you can kind of feel if it’s hitting or it’s not hitting. And by the way, I’ve been the one in the room that’s not hitting, you know? And it sucks. When you have someone that’s a really seasoned writer that maybe isn’t really a good fit and also someone brand new that just fully gets the tone of the show, all of a sudden they’re contributing more than someone at a higher level. And I think it kind of fixes itself. I don’t know if you guys agree, but it’s like the right chemistry sort of finds itself.

Mike Price: I came up doing sketch and improv comedy. Being in a writer’s room, especially a comedy writer’s room is the closest thing I’ve ever been to being part of like an improv group. Every day we’re sort of improvising based on maybe a script that’s already out there, or it might just be starting with an idea. Building on everything that Erin and Lauren said, it’s like chemistry. It helps to be on a show like ours where so many of us have been together for 20 plus years. So we all know each other. We’re all friendly with each other. No one’s competing.

Overcoming Creative Blocks

Foster: In TV, where there can be so many characters and stories, there’s always going to be areas where you just feel either backed into a corner or stuck solving a creative issue. What have you found works to help you out of those problem spots?

Foster: I have a really hard time with that. I don’t know if you guys are like this, but… I’ve never figured something out just by thinking about it overnight. I don’t have like a light bulb moment that happens by just giving something time, so usually I have to distract myself, like “Let’s just look over here and do this thing.” And then sometimes that thing kind of helps you solve it.

LeFranc: Yes! I think when you’re staring at the same problem again and again and you are still staring at it, I mean, it’s the definition of insanity. So you should probably not do that. I think walks help. I think having fun helps, just breaking it up.

Price: Yeah, we’ll put a pin in this and we’ll do something else or take a break. “Everyone go take a 15 minute break.” And sometimes, yeah, I’ll be walking to the kitchen to get a Diet Coke or whatever, and then it’ll [hit me]. Sometimes just staring at the blank screen or blank page just doesn’t get it for you, and it’ll come from the weirdest place.

Optimizing Writer’s Room Hours

Foster: I’m curious what kind of hours you guys have in your room because for us in Season 2, we implemented shorter hours. We’re at 10 to 3 every day, and it actually made us so much more efficient because everyone’s focused. You’re not calling in sick for a doctor’s appointment. You’re not on your phone. You get in and you get it done, and by the time your brain starts to fog over, we’re done.

Price: We start around 10:30 most days, 10 o’clock on table read days. We take lunch around one, and we’re usually done by 5:30. It helps that we have a lot of writers. Our writer’s room is probably much larger than any other show out there.

LeFranc: I do think when your brain becomes mush, you usually can get that vibe pretty clearly. You’re like, “What are we doing here? ‘Cause nothing good is gonna come of this.” And only unless we’re up against it is when we have to do a late night here and there, which is never ideal. I think people can band together when it’s not all the time. When it becomes an all the time thing, it’s just a tragedy to go to work every day.

This roundtable is presented by HBO Max, Disney/Fox, and Netflix.