Film Courage: What are 5 things a writer should know about the TV writing room?
Jeffrey Davis: You take 2 and a half and I’ll take 2 and a half.
Peter Desberg: [Laughs]
Jeffrey Davis: Go ahead…want me to start?
Peter Desberg: Yeah.
Go ahead.
Jeffrey Davis: Know that to get in you’ve got to…90 percent chance you are going to
have to work your way into the room as script assistant, as a writer’s assistant.
Those jobs are plentiful and great and you will get training.
Know that it will take awhile.
Also know that when you are a baby writer…don’t talk, listen.
No one likes someone who answers questions.
Know that people are good at one or two things but no one is good at everything.
I think I answered three that leaves you two.
Peter Desberg: And don’t be the smartest person in the room.
Ever, ever…
Jeffrey Davis: Never be the smartest person in the room.
Film Courage: Why?
Peter Desberg: Because everybody will hate you…
Jeffrey Davis: Especially the show runner.
Peter Desberg: And you won’t be the smartest person in the room and everyone will see that.
And really, you cannot be full of yourself.
Jeffrey Davis: I’m not going to mention the show.
I will mention that it was my friend Bob who was very close to as I said Chuck Lurie (who
gave Chuck Lurie his break).
And Chuck will call Bob every once in awhile even though Bob is semi-retired and say “I
really need help” and it was a point a of couple years ago when he had five shows on
the air.
And he went on one of the shows and he pitched a joke and he said to Bob “Was that funny?
When you were working on My Two Dads, was that funny back then?
Or on Facts of Life?”
And Chuck went to Bob and said “Look, I don’t need the money.
I’m out of here.”
And he left.
If you’re a show runner, the best show runner you can be is the kind of person who mentors
other people.
Who is secure enough (like Phil Rosenthal) to really care about getting the best out
of people.
That’s the best kind of leader.
Peter Desberg: We had [in Peter and Jeffrey’s new book Now That’s Funny) a lot of great
stories about rooms and show runners.
And Peter Casey was great.
He said “I worked on The Jeffersons.
And I came to the room late one day.
And I hadn’t eaten breakfast.
And I brought a little box of Corn Flakes with me.
And I went to the corner where the coffee was, poured it in and took a little of the
cream and poured it on there.
And the guy said ‘That’s not for your cereal.
That’s for the coffee!”
And he charged him like 25 cents for doing that.
Film Courage: Oh…my!
Peter Desberg: And they would feed us the worst food ever.
He said when I went to work on Cheers with The Charles Brothers, they would take us out
to really good restaurants or if they had to work late they’d call up one of the really
good restaurants and we’d order from the menu and they would deliver it.
They said they treated the writers with so much kindness and respect and they got such
great work out of us.
Nobody complained if it was late.
Where with The Jeffersons everybody was grumbling all the time and hated being in the room.
So he said that The Charles Brothers made us purr like kittens.
Jeffrey Davis: I don’t think he actually said that.
Peter Desberg: Alright, I am taking license.
Film Courage: Was there another because I think you only got one in?
Jeffrey Davis: No that’s four altogether.
Film Courage: Four?
Five total…
Peter Desberg: Be careful!
Film Courage: Be careful.
Okay.
Know where the exit is?
Jeffrey Davis: This is sort of repetitious but I think it bears repeating.
It’s really important that when you get into a room you use it as a learning experience
because you are one of the very few people.
When I started there was still a freelance market.
There really is no freelance market anymore and so if you have the luck to get into a
room take advantage of it and be humble and Peter’s right…
Peter Desberg: But I will add a fifth just for the sake of completeness that every room
has a culture…
Jeffrey Davis: Oh…that’s true.
Peter Desberg: And you want to spend a lot of time observing before you jump in and just
because one person makes a joke doesn’t mean everybody makes jokes and if one person
kids another person that doesn’t mean that everybody teases and you want to wait and
when you really understand how people interact, then you slowly test the waters and start
to do it.
Even then…you do it slowly.
Jeffrey Davis: My two wonderful former students who are on One Day at a Time were on the show
(now they are on their second season).
They are not the baby writers anymore.
You see how that works?
So they were on the show, they were on like three months, they were on like show seven
or eight.
And they hadn’t said that much.
I mean they’ve done their work, they were the first script their mentor wrote with them
(so it was the three of them writing it) which was really generous of her (that doesn’t
always happen).
And they didn’t say anything one day and one of the writers said “Caroline, we’d
really like to hear what you guys think.
You guys are one of these character’s age.”
Opening and yet she began by the “What if” thing.
So that left room to be wrong if they didn’t like what she said.
And after that day they were like “You guys should…whenever you have something to say,
say it.
Don’t be shy.”
But they were smart to wait because they were learning, they were observing and they were
only 25-years-old.
That’s young to be in a room.
And they didn’t think the show was going to get a second season.
And now it’s big heads, it’s Emmy-nominated and it’s a big hit.
Peter Desberg: By the way, you tricked us.
You said only three more questions and the first one is a five-parter.
Don’t think that went past us.
Jeffrey Davis: It went past me.
You make her laugh.
Peter Desberg: She has a low-threshold.