FWIW I can answer a lot of the PA questions for people in this thread. You get the job by meeting someone in a position to hire one (ADs, Production Coordinators, etc.), which sounds dumb but there is no real set way to do it. Figure out a way to meet them and make it known you want to PA. I met one, he gave me a shot for a few weeks on days they needed more PAs than normal and it just kind of stuck.

You can absolutely move up from being a PA. There is a ton of down time during film days, so you just have to talk to dudes in whatever department you're interested and make it known you want to learn some things. Most people are happy to teach you things here and there when they get a chance. Or you can get promoted while a show is filming, which has happened to me (PA to Production Coordinator) I don't want to hijack the thread or anything since being a writer is more interesting than this, but if people have more questions I can expand a bit.

Probably the funniest one I have is the I already told about Norm Macdonald eating a whole chicken with ketchup everyday for lunch. He also started chain smoking like a pack a day out of the blue for like two weeks and then quit cold turkey. Weird and hilarious dude.

Deadlines on most shows are a script per week. Obviously a script from conception to finished shooting script takes much longer than that, but that's why you often have many scripts going in different stages of completion (ideally). Hours vary greatly show to show. When I was on the animated show, The Goode Family, we worked like 10:30 to 5 Mon through Fri. It was a dream. But I've also been on shows where we regularly work from 10am till past midnight and often on weekends too. I'd say working 10-8 is about average. Also, new shows tend to have much longer hours as where shows that are into their 4th or 5th season are typically "on rails" as they say.

3 out of 10 are females on our staff.

For the most part there isn't a whole lot of conflict in the rooms I've been in. One reason for this is that there is a clear hierarchy of authority, from the most senior writer on down to staff writers. So even though there may be disagreements, the senior voice always makes the final decision. Of course, when it's 3 in the morning and everyone's tired and we've been stuck figuring out a story for twelve hours, people get testy and yeah I've seen people blow up and storm out of a room or something, but it's rare.

Yes and no. There is discussion about character stuff that we know will come back and there has been general discussion of things that may happen down the line that are set up, but not really in a specific "we'll bring this back in five episodes and it will blow their minds!" kind of way. I think mostly happens organically where things become running jokes just because they are funny, they fit organically into the world and characters and the writers just kind of latch onto them because we like them.

9/10 times we get the notes from standards and practices and just accomodate them and make the joke as funny as possible within what's acceptable to them. Every now and then we will fight for something that is really funny or important to the story somehow. There have been times when network execs have gone over the head of s&p people to get something approved bc they really liked it. In general s&p people are humorless and annoying and I don't know why anyone would want to do that job. A guy I worked with told me a story of how when he was on a CBS sitcom they weren't allowed to refer in dialogue to a Mexican character as "Mexican" even though he was... from Mexico. Somehow that was racist or something.

Obv I was joking when I said that but yes I do think that if I were on Mad Men I could succeed on that staff. Don't mean that to sound arrogant and I'm not at all saying I could create a show like that - it's a brilliant show - but I think if you have a sound understanding of story building and can write dialogue well, then hopefully you have the tools to execute a script when someone as good as Matt Weiner is giving you leadership. Of course, to some degree I'm talking out of my ass bc I've never been on a show like that and have no idea how they operate so I really don't know. I do watch really good one hours like that show and think to myself "wow writing for that show must be really hard." It's certainly impressive.

I SAID I WAS SORRY!!!

Not hijacking at all. Please hop in and contribute with whatever you got. What productions did you/do you work on?

Thoughts on the accurateness of Studio 60?

Can you talk about the show bible? Does it exist? Whose job is it to keep it updated? How long is it? When you wrote your pilot did you just have the script or did you also create one of these?

I only ever really watched like a couple episodes. Among comedy writers that I know (none of them work on sketch shows) the accurateness isn't even close. Basically writing a joke just isn't that dramatic.

Some shows are more anal about that than others. The writers assistants maintain it. I've been on shows where every draft of every script and every notes document taken at any point was kept in binders organized by episode, chronologically. When I was on multi-cameras, sometimes writers would have the bible for that episode with them on stage on shoot night to be able to reference previous versions of the script in case a joke flopped and they wanted to see what some previous options were. I never used one personally. On Running Wilde we have a dropbox where we keep every file so we can just access that from home or wherever.

When we wrote our pilot we just wrote the script. Not really a need for a bible in that situation. I mean we had notes docs and an outline and multiple versions of the script and saved all that of course, but I wouldn't call it a bible.

Only been doing it for a little under a year, but I've done commercials, major features (upcoming Green Lantern movie, upcoming Jason Statham action flick), one indy (which sucked, thankfully I latched on to something else quickly), some reality shows (like Real World, one other that hasn't aired yet), and just recently did a live event (NFL Kickoff Concert). It's been quite a variety. Eventually I probably want to write/produce, but we'll see. Lots of stuff is interesting to me.

Some shows are really good about giving PAs some input into things and including them in conversations about meaningful stuff and others have very rigid ideas about what PAs should be doing (meaning nothing that requires brainpower whatsoever). My last two gigs fell distinctly in the latter group, so I'm really looking to move up as fast as I can.

bump?

What's a show bible?

Sorry, missed this somehow. What kind of show are we talking about? Like, a narrative pilot or a sketch show? Also, it would help to know what you're trying to do with it. Is it something you want to sell? Something you're going to make yourself? Something that will just be a sample to get an agent or try to get staffed? In general I'd say aim for outside of the box, aim for a concept that stands out, try to write something that you think feels original and that will make you and your friends laugh. I think you'll be doing yourself a favor in the long run by doing that instead of trying to write what you think is marketable or what is like what you already see on TV.

A big binder, or series of binders, that contain every document relevant to a show. I think they're somewhat old-fashioned and probably were more common when everything wasn't already on a computer and easily accesible via the internets.

thx for this thread

i just watched the first 2 episodes of running wilde and really enjoyed them...looking forward to next week

Is there one star writer that pretty much runs the show or does everyone value everone's opinion and you sit around bouncing ideas off of each other and giggling while tossing a miniature football around?

I'm almost positive the Mexican thing was from Adam Carolla's recent pilot on NBC a few weeks ago. The character was based on his real life friend Oscar. I know he mentioned this on one of his podcasts. Ridiculous either way.

thx!

Yes and yes. One writer, usually the most senior writer, is designated as "running the room," which means they are guiding the discussion and deciding which pitches go into the script. But also, everyone's opinion is valued. No footballs. Although I was in a room once where someone tried to start throwing a football and it felt super hacky and I just avoided eye contact so he wouldn't throw it to me.

I actually heard this story last year from a writer talking about a specific CBS show. But, I'm sure it's not the only time it happened and you probably can't call a character "Mexican" on any major network.

great thread. this should be in oot proper imo

thanks for the response to my previous questions.

Hurwitz did two interviews recently (avclub/vulture). would love to hear your reaction if/once you've read them.

How conscious are writers while scripting of budgetary and other practical concerns? i.e. you're writing like a dream sequence that has the characters in elaborate costumes, in a different location and using superpowers - do you have to stop and consider how much time and money will go into making that happen or is that something that happens after the writing room?

Links?