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
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.’”
