Why was Joe Nunez replaced?

Don't have any questions but I just wanted to say thanks for doing this, i'll be reading every post.

wat are your top 5 TV comedies?

can you go anywhere from being a PA? a book i once read said the most realistic option for most ppl is becoming a PA, paying your dues, then trying to slowly move up to whatever you wanna do in tv/film.

cool thread. i caught a bit of the will arnett show. congratz.

How does the writing process work with your partner?

To those who didn't ask questions but just said nice things, thanks a lot. Much appreciated. Sry I didn't really stay consistent with the format of my answers. Some are bolded within the quote and some aren't bolded outside the quote. I have no good answer for why I did that.

Don't really know. The decision to recast him was made before I came on board by people over my head.


We usually break a story together just by talking it out. This might happen in an office but has also been known to happen in a bar, in which case most of the story beats are forgotten by the next day. Then we turn that into an outline. At times this step has involved going back to a bar during the daytime to retrieve notes that were left there the night before. Once we have an outline, we divide the story up between us (i.e., "you take acts 1 and 3, I'll take 2 and 4") and go our separate ways for a couple days to write our halves. That part usually doesn't have bars in it. Then we marry our halves, print it out and read it and make notes on it. This might happen in a bar or maybe in a Mexican restaurant. Then we usually sit in my backyard with a laptop and go through it together, fixing things, punching up jokes, etc. That might take one or two days. Then we turn it in. Then we go to a bar.

Staff writers get $3300 per week, but are only paid for 30 weeks or something like that, right?

Do you ever go to bars?

fsoyars,

do you have any particular comedians/comedy writers you look up to or count as influences (besides kaufman and his ilk)?

I'm not aware of any limit on how many weeks a staff writer can be paid. Afaik they are paid for however many weeks they work on a show. You might only have a 14 or 22 week contract but if the show goes past that time, you'd just be reupped for the rest of the time. Most of this stuff is left to agents to deal with so sry if I'm not fully knowledgable.

Larry David, Dan Harmon, Gervais/Merchant, Richard Ayoade... a lot of other I can't think of right now... Jody Hill...

As far as comedians? Probably just the obvious ones. Chapelle, Gaffigan, Patton Oswald, Cross, Brian Regan, Sarah Silverman, etc...

I got a chance to work with Dana Gould on a pilot last year and he was relentlessly hilarious and an awesome guy. That was fun.

Hey congratulations on the Running Wilde,

I'm a sophomore in college and very interested in the film industry, specifically becoming a writer one day, and I'm wondering if you could give me some advice as to how I should approach that? Like try to intern or become a PA? (which I'm not even sure how to get that position) And basically just give some advice you have picked up over the years.

Also I have another question...Is it possible to get an agency/producer to view a movie script or a pilot if you are a new writer?

Thanks man, I really appreciate this forum, it's very helpful

it just sounds like you doss about all day drinking, write the occasional joke, all whilst raking in pretty sick cash. i mean i'm sure it's worse than that, but.......congrats!

fsoyars,

Can you place a call and have Better Off Ted renewed?

Thanks in advance,

Wires

Congrats on the job!

What was your plan coming out of college? You mentioned going to school on the east coast. So at what point did you decide to go out to LA and what was your game plan when you went out there? How long did it take u to land you 1st PA job?

Comedy writing had also been a dream of mine. I was even tentatively planning to move to LA to take my shot but got cold feet about moving and how much luck it would take to get in the business, so I went back to school instead. It's inspiring to hear a poker player actually go through that process and succeed. Best of luck on the show.

What kind of personalities do most of the writers you've met have? How much does a drama writer differ from a comedy writer?

Did Hurwitz intentionally name the unattainable/attractive girl Emmy as a meta joke?

The answer to both questions is that the best thing you can do is to move to LA when you get out of college and just start meeting people. That's how you'll get your first PA job and that's how you'll get read at an agency/prod. co. Just come out here with the intention of having fun and meeting people and with a little luck the rest will take care of itself.

I didn't really have a game plan. Right after college I actually moved to Hong Kong for three months and taught English and did some freelance journalism. Then I moved back to VA for a few months and eventually made my way to LA mostly because I had high school friends who also wanted to move there and it had a beach and seemed like a fun place to live. I worked random jobs for I think like two years before my first PA job. I was an assistant to a doctor at UCLA for two months before getting fired for incompetence. Then I was a "Sales Support Manager" at a furniture company that had a store on Melrose for another few months before quitting before my boss realized I hadn't done any work since I'd been there. Then I waited tables for a few months. Then I got a job as a receptionist at a horribly low level talent agency for a few months and eventually became an assistant to an agent there until I eventually quit bc a friend got me an interview to be a PA on Norm Macdonald's sitcom. All that happened over I think in my first two years in LA. I did the PA/writers assistant thing for a few years before quitting that and playing mtts professionally until this hand happened and I realized how much I hated poker. Jk, I didn't quit poker bc of that hand but I did use my time playing poker to write my spec script and not have to worry about a day job and for that I'm grateful.

I don't know any drama writers actually. I imagine that they're super lame and not nearly as fun to be around as comedy writers. Hard to answer the part about personalities without generalizing but most of the TV comedy writers I've worked with tend to be very funny and pretty laid back in general. For some reason, the higher up as a writer you are, the crazier you tend to be. Idk why. Mabe one day I'll find out.

Well, what do you think is more likely? That he did or that he named her that without realizing that?

i'm too drunk to reply to this right now.

done. they've promised to air it as soon as Running Wilde gets cancelled.

I guess this is kind of a personal question, but are all comedy writers a gas in person, or are there some quieter guys that can still churn out a funny script?

The latter is definitely true, but I think the good writers are almost always funny in person. I've heard people say about other writers "he's not that great in the room but he's really funny on the page." So, yeah, I guess people who are quiet in person but funny writers can work but in the rooms I've been in, the most valuable people are the ones who are constantly pitching jokes and contributing verbally.

Any funny stories involving any celebrities you worked with?

What kind of deadlines do you have during production? What are your typical hours in the "writers room"?

Any female writers on your staff?

I'm also curious about the dynamics of the writers' group during re-writes, but not sure exactly how best to get some good stories out of you. How often do personalities or ideas clash?

what advice do you have for someone trying to create/write their own comedy show?

Great thread.

for running wilde specifically, has there been any conscious effort to "plant the seed" for running jokes in the future? or does that type of thing just happen organically?

also, in your experience, has there ever been a clash between the writers room and censorship/standards and practices? if so, how was it settled?

finally, a ridiculous hypothetical: you said you imagine drama writers as "super lame and not fun to be around." if you were dropped into the Mad Men writers room (for example), do you think you could succeed in that environment? what skills do you think you have that they don't, and vice versa? are drama writers really a completely different animal?

thanks for the thread and best of luck with your career.

hey guys, slammed with work right now but will try to get to these later tonight. haven't forgotten about this thread. sry.

OHHHH, MR. TV WRITER IS TOO IMPORTANT FOR HIS OWN THREAD NOW.