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#1 – Brent Forrester (TV writer-showrunner) at Sony Studios

July 13, 2016 by tombenedek@gmail.com

Brent Forrester (Love, The Office, The Simpsons, King of the Hill) talks about the TV comedy writers’ room, story development, and character and plot in comedy.

We talk about:

  • How to write a TV script in a writers room
  • Plot vs. plotlessness in TV comedy
  • Planning and writing the season’s scripts for Love
  • Differences between creating a series for Netflix vs. the networks
  • Working with Judd Apatow – The Apatow Touch
  • How Brent runs his writer’s room on Love
  • The writer’s room on The Simpsons
  • Writing comedy for emotion/behavior more than plot
  • Brainstorming episodes/breaking story

BRENT FORRESTER - SONY STUDIOS - LOVE OFFICE BW 1

Quotes:

“A really interesting element of this show, and part of the tone that people are responding to, is that we have prioritized authenticity of behavior over plot.”

“Emotion in performance is aided by slowing things down.”

“Carl Reiner would say to the writers, ‘I want you to tell me the situations you got into over the weekend. Where did you make a jackass out of yourself? That’s going to be our show.’”

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Filed Under: Podcasts Tagged With: Alison Silverman, Claudia O’Doherty, Gillian Jacobs, improv, Judd Apatow, King of the Hill, Leslie Define, LOVE Season #1, Mike Mitchell, Nurses TV series, Paul Rust, Paul Witt, Season #2 (Netflix), The Larry Sanders Show, The Office, The Simpsons, Upright Citizens Brigade, Witt Thomas Harris

#2 – Peter Tolan (TV writer-showrunner & screenwriter) in Santa Monica

July 13, 2016 by tombenedek@gmail.com


Peter Tolan (Rescue Me, Outsiders, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Analyze This) talks TV pilots and his creative journey.

We talk about:

  • The central idea, the nugget, the central question of what a show is and writing to it
  • Mapping out the season/seasons of a series
  • Episode balance of comedy and drama on Rescue me
  • The Larry Sanders Show

Quotes from the show:

“You slowly put everything in place so you can get to that last moment. We knew what the last image of the first season of Rescue Me was so we could always write to it. We slowly could make our way towards that.”

“If you’re young and starting out,  you can shoot on your phone. Write something and make it. Put it on YouTube  and people will see it.”

“You write somebody who’s a dick – who has outrageous behavior, but then how do you have an audience empathize with that character, care about that character? So an essential character is not the dick, it’s the other guy.”

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Filed Under: Podcasts Tagged With: Analyze This, Billions, Billy Crystal, Broadway Theatre, Candice Bergen, Carol and Company. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Jim Gaffigan, Carol Burnett, Del Close, Drew Carey, East Coast vs. West Coast, Gilbert and Sullivan Human fertilization, Harold Ramis, Home Improvement, Matt Williams, Multi camera, Murphy Brown, One Act Plays, Outsiders, Paul Giammati, Rescue Me, Second City, Showrunners, Showtime, Single camera, The Drew Carey Show, The Drunkard’s Walk, The Jim Gaffigan Show, The Larry Sanders Show, The Manhattan Punchline, UMass Amherst.

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