TheProcess.Ink

Tom Benedek talks the creative process with writers, showrunners, directors, producers, actors, executives, agents, managers and other cultivators of truth and beauty.

  • Contact
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • VISIT IN ITUNES
You are here: Home / Archives for UMass Amherst.

#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.”

Read More

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.

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in