My name is Lena Waithe, I'm an EP on Boomerang,
and you are Inside the Writer's Room.
So, you know, my episode is set in Black Pride,
but I'm pretty sure we've never actually seen black,
queer characters at Black Pride.
In our episode, I think something we wanna talk about
is relationships between men. We share more,
especially about our past and things that bother us.
So, this is like our big board of everything.
You know, I guess when you're starting your writer's room,
you wanna put together your writer's schedule first.
You kinda know what timelines you're up against.
So, everything pretty much starts at the air day,
and we kinda work our ways backwards to give ourselves
enough time to write all 10 scripts.
I did a lot of writing on the show,
but also, we really opened up for these younger writers
and they got a chance to come in the room and have a voice.
As far as the millennial culture,
I think with our episode
and the whole flashback of it all,
it's giving an appreciation for nostalgia,
and understanding where you come from to understand
where you're going. I understand with this culture
they're very forward and progressive,
and keep it moving, keep it going.
But sometimes it's just important to go back
sometimes and reflect on the past
and see where you came from and see how we've evolved.
And that friend group has really been in each other's lives
through periods that are very important.
Well, you change a lot from college to even 26, right?
And so, you can kind of see that these aren't just kids,
they're young adults.
They're tackling all their issues
and trying to make it work.
My former assistant and my current assistant,
who used to work together, got an episode together
and it's actually a flashback episode.
It's really phenomenal.
I think something that we did was lay the ground work
for their interest in advertising,
seeing them be groomed by their parents,
and hit college, like, that's all I wanna do.
But then we get the contrast of that in 101,
and then also too, at the end of the season, things
[inaudible] topple.
So now they have to come up with another plan.
I always welcome pressure.
I think that's always a good thing.
I'm not allowing the pressure to affect the work
is because it's a new take on an old thing,
and I think if anybody comes to the show
expecting to see 30 minute increments of the movie,
they're coming to it with the wrong idea.
What we wanna do is keep the spirit
of what the movie was about, which is a New Black Order.
A big thing for me is always dealing with trauma,
even in comedy, and even though these characters are iconic,
that we love,
that doesn't necessarily mean they make for great parents,
and these characters are reflections of that.
And they're dealing with the trauma
that has been passed down to them by their parents
and then they're also trying to step
out of their parent's shadow,
but at the same time they can't escape where they come from.
So, that's really what we're playing with.
And, action!
All of our episodes kinda stand alone as short films, almost.
And when we assign writer's their scripts,
we gave them the autonomy to,
okay, you're gonna write this short film
about this subject matter in the series.
We really wanted to have all our writers
take ownership of an episode,
have a big set piece, have a big emotional storyline.
And I think, for us,
it just makes the show feel a lot more palatable
and feel a lot more entertaining.
What are some of the absolute things
you guys think from the movie
we have to include in the first episode?
We need to see Bryson that make that entrance.
One of my favorite quotes that Reginald Hudlin,
who directed the film, told us is that
"One of the most revolutionary acts you can do
is just to show your life in its normal state."
And so, our act of revolution right now is to show young,
black people in a professional setting,
but still trying to figure out their emotional lives,
and trying to fall in love.