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Writing for TV Create a series, build a career, and stop complaining that there’s nothing good to watch
Whether it’s “Law & Order” or “CSI” or “Ugly Betty,” it all begins with the script. In film and television, the script is the basis for the action and the foundation of life on the screen. In the ever-expanding world of television, with countless channels and choices, it’s not always easy to find a program worth watching. Of course, every so often a program comes along that breaks away from the herd. From groundbreaking shows like “All in the Family” to “The Simpsons,” and fan favorites like “Lost “and “Desperate Housewives,” diverse television writing clearly can be executed in a creative and intelligent manner. These programs have one thing in common — top-notch script writing.
Every aspiring writer dreams of having his or her script beamed to 300 channels by digital cable or satellite. Hold that vision, though; there are bills to be paid, and a rookie television writer will often have to take a job that will simply pay them. More often than not, the job that pays the bills isn’t the one that receives critical acclaim. Recognition will come in time, but writers must first get a jump on the thousands of other writers out there. This begs the question: How does a would-be TV writer get his or her foot in the elusive doorway?
Break In and Break Out “Be monomaniacal,” advises Emmy winner and New School Professor Mort Scharfman. “Obsessive, imbecilic determination and obduracy will get you there where all the talent and genius won’t. Unrewarded genius is a proverb.”
Scharfman’s experience speaks for itself: He has worked as a contributing writer for “Three’s Company” and as a supervising script editor, creative consultant and executive script supervisor for TOY-Tandem Productions (Norman Lear & Bud Yorkin), which was responsible for hits such as “All in The Family,” “Sanford and Son,” “What’s Happenin’?” and “The Jeffersons.” He has also taught classes on sitcom and drama writing at NYU and sitcom and screenwriting at The New School and Gotham Writer’s Workshop.
According to Scharfman, it’s not necessarily talent that makes a successful writer; it’s persistence, or, as he puts it, “obsession.” He adds that another essential ingredient for success is “studying with a teacher who is a practitioner of it.”
The question arises as to whether having an agent or representation is a necessity, or is it simply beneficial to have that ace up the sleeve? Scharfman makes it clear. “Agents are a must. Unless the script has been solicited by an agent, a producer or any representative of a show is prohibited by the Writers Guild of America bylaws, common sense and a possible plagiarism suit, from so much as opening a mailed script. All such material must be solicited via a licensed agent or entertainment lawyer to keep it kosher.”
“It is crucial to have an agent,” adds veteran stage and screenwriter Glen Merzer, whose television credits include “St. Elsewhere” and the sitcom “Blossom.” “Membership in the WGA will follow hiring. No other writing organization is mandatory, although some may be helpful.”
Members Only Club Being a member of the Writers Guild of America is imperative, according to those in the industry. Scharfman asserts, “Working for anyone not a subscriber to WGA Codes of Standards and Practices is regarded by the industry as illegitimate.”
To top it off, it’s not exactly an effortless procedure to cut through the static and attract the attention of the people who might make or break the beginning television writer. In order to secure an agent, according to Scharfman, a writer must have two sample scripts of an existing top-rated television show. “That won’t happen until an agent responds to a query letter about your spec scripts and then invites you to send them for his/her consideration,” he adds. There are “untold numbers of aspiring TV writers out there and only a couple of dozen agents taking the time to consider new talent.”
“To break into television primetime writing,” says Merzer, “traditionally, writers familiarize themselves with one or more current, highly regarded shows, and write spec scripts for those shows. Obviously, one is better off writing a spec script for a proven show such as ‘Scrubs’ than a failed show such as ‘Greek Life.’”
Scharfman takes pains to hand out the following advisory to the unproven television writer: “Beware. Close ties with a top producer notwithstanding, it is absolutely, positively a waste of time, talent and effort to hatch an original pilot script without already having impressive credits to your name,” Scharfman warns. “Unless he or she is looking to get fired, no programming executive in his or her right mind will even look at it. Why on earth would they buy something from an unknown writer when they have a ‘development’ list of writer-producers who have credits on ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘Frasier’”
In the business, no particular type of education or training is necessary — just the ability to write. “An educational background is not something anyone asks for when hiring a writer,” says Merzer, “but obviously the more you know, the more subject matter you have to write about. It’s generally good advice to write about what you know, and so the corollary would be: try to know something. Whether that involves getting a degree or not is irrelevant.”
Location, Location, Location? Education and training notwithstanding, it’s important to take geographical location into account when considering television writing. Though New York is a town where television is regularly produced, is it preferable for writers to live in the Big Apple or is it more beneficial to take the show on the road to Los Angeles? “If you’re going to write for television, it’s nearly required that you live in Los Angeles or New York,” says Merzer, “with New York in a very distant second place. If you have Canadian citizenship, there’s work up there, too. There’s no significant work in the middle of the country. If you write screenplays, there are advantages to living in L.A. or New York, but it’s not as critical.”
If the heavens smile and you find employment in the television writing industry, it doesn’t mean you’re now part of the writing elite and are a creative force to be reckoned with. Powerful writers such as Alan Ball with “Six Feet Under,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” Joss Whedon, or David Chase of “The Sopranos” didn’t launch their careers in a day.
“Your first gig is usually as a writer’s assistant or an intern on an existing show,” explains Scharfman. “This will usually come about by dint of you having sold them a story and/or did a fine job of scripting it, as a contributing writer.”
Whether you’re an intern or writer’s assistant, you’ll be positioned somewhere on the inside, affiliated with a program and figuring a way to integrate the program (and yourself) in the industry. As you (hopefully) begin to ascend the hierarchy toward success, what kind of atmosphere can be expected?
“Generally speaking, the world of television is the most business-like segment of show business, with more reasonable and better-behaved people than in other realms of show business,” says Merzer. “Maybe I was lucky, but, with only a few exceptions, most of the people I dealt with in television — writers I worked with, executives involved in the shows I wrote for and certainly my own representatives — were kind. I was overpaid and generally well-treated. When there is a decent amount of work, people behave reasonably well.”
Merzer is also quick to point out the downside. “On the other hand, writing for television generally implies a lack of control over your own writing, working by committee, being rewritten by others, making sure that each cast member has enough lines in each episode, making sure that your allusions conform to your demographic and paying attention to the act breaks for commercials.”
At the end of the day the television industry is a business, according to Scharfman. “TV shows cost millions to produce. It’s important to understand the process of opening the doors while not making an ass of yourself. It’s a big business in a small town and everyone remembers everyone else.”
According to Scharfman, the best way to get ahead in the field is to study under someone who knows the ropes of entertainment writing. Not everyone has time for classes, though, and in that case, you may opt to read a book on the subject. These include Vale’s Technique of Screen and Television Writing by Eugene Vale, Story Sense: A Screenwriter’s Guide for Film and Television by Paul Lucey and Robert Hilliard’s Writing for Television, Radio, and New Media. Books, while helpful and inexpensive, aren’t a perfect solution. “You can’t talk to or ask questions of a book,” Scharfman adds, “or have it edit your work.”
The Closing Credits Art and commerce inextricably mingle in the realm of television writing. It might be a difficult task to break into the business, and it may be even more difficult to raise the profession to a level of personal artistic satisfaction, evoking an honest audience reaction (and possible critical raves) while still paying the electric bill on time, but it’s the challenge for any adept writer in nearly any medium.
“It is, in short, less an art than a business,” says Merzer. “As long as one understands that, it can be a lucrative field. If you view it as an art form, you are almost destined for frustration and fury. For me, it was a business in which it was well-worth investing 10 years of my working life.”
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