THR Full Comedy Showrunner Roundtable: Judd Apatow, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Kenya Barris & More!

[Music] where do we talk abouts about wearing a bush that's what these are all black hi and welcome to close up with The Hollywood Reporter comedy show runners I'd like to welcome Phoebe Waller bridge Scottsville very Gloria Calderon Calot Tanya Varys Judd Apatow David Mandel and I'm your host Lacey rose let's dive right into this what is the craziest thing that's ever happened to you during a pitch meeting it wasn't exactly a pitch okay but I was living in New York working Sarah alive and I was kind of coming out here to kind of figure out if I want to make the move to LA and I had a whole bunch of meetings lined up and OJ Simpson was hoped on in the white the Bronco and I basically went to four meetings in a row where I would come in sit down we would watch TV together for another half an hour ago nice meeting you I would go to the next meeting we would sit down watch more of the change me too and that was my day so it wasn't exactly oh it was real like I have some news here yeah I shouldn't say this Cooper I love it anything is the darkest yeah I'm now only a BT card of I did not want it to be there but I was happy to be I don't want to experience I wish it wasn't there but I'm in the pitch in the middle of the pitch the executive goes like this no keep going I was another and I was like I was great this thing up yeah about a 30 second forty second conversation said keep going did you feel again like audition ones because I have an audition so Downton Abbey oh yeah no it is also good but I went in I remember this is quite a serious part and I've really been auditioning for comedy couple years and I was really filled coming to this part so really put my heart and soul into it and I'm thinking I'm going to give my best sincere heart breaking it was a really beautiful scene in a church little clue and I went in lo and I gave this really hot Oh audition when I finished they were like we had no ideas he was so [ __ ] hilarious really given myself here you're not right the costing thing I was saying can she be funny oh oh yeah I have the craziest thing I've done in a writers room go for it I overheard somebody talking mm-hmm that when I was breast I'd leave the room to breastfeed that I was taking an extra 30 minutes to breastfeed and that was like a break so I was like I'll breastfeed and I'll do it in the room and I pumped in the room yes every day it was my big jump Wow yeah I did it take 30 minutes on the daytime time and that all delicious oh by the way milk she's rolling out to everyone super pitched I think they were you know they came from more of a tip place my best friend's bit that apparel and it gets ooh the gluten yeah everyone kind of fell asleep yeah a little bit it was kind of a lulling 30-minute hour I do also your own will keep going you put them on and then you go keep going and you never do all right judge you must have had a weird pitch I mean to me it's just when when they don't like it but you know like I like to impede homes that I went to HBO to pitch crashing Pete didn't make any jokes the whole pitch talked about it philosophically intellectualize the idea with religious man it was communion and he went on and on and on and and I we walked out of like Pete that was the worst so terrible and it just took me months to fight back from that passion he likes to talk like that but why don't you stand up it's fun to fight it is great though when you know the pictures just dying don't you think this could not be going anywhere in a movie pit yeah no that's why I still just keep doing TV like I've done the movie pitches and you know if you're if you're sucking wind at five minutes and you're still talking yeah yeah oh yeah we're going to be we're going to sit here gonna listen to this for a long week at that part is that fast for 120 pages of stuff no oh you're pitching every joke of the whole movie no wonder they're psycho how much pressure do you guys feel to sort of build an empire today to take on as many sort of projects and say yes to as many things as possible why don't those of you with Empire was here and I like growing up I was saying like a literal so I would be the black Judd Apatow because I was like I wanted to be able to jump around and do that and I don't know how you do it like it was unbelievably hard to multitask in that sort of way because as a writer you get passionate and you know that your best work comes from something that you're really focused on and whether you like it or not when you start sort of having taken more more things it comes to a little bit of a filtered down process only if you're better than your writers but everyone that I work with is better than me I'm not around things improve you actually want him going he can do it is it is I don't know how to is very very did you feel pressure each time to say yes and we recently spoke to Ryan Murphy and Noah Hawley and they felt like for so much of their career they were hearing no so when they started to hear yes they felt like oh I got to do this and I got to do this and then all of a sudden there was 10 projects and they were over committed and terrified yes like when you guys called me and asked me to do this I was like yes no but you do feel like you know as a writer there's always that fraud you're going to be found out soon so get it out before you you know before they find out and at the same time you feel like you get on a roll and you're like I want to have a something to say and I want to say it I do think the pressure to say yes after you've said yes enough starts to become less I'm definitely at the place now I want to definitely get some shows on but but I don't want to take away my focus or you know from the things that matter and you have the confidence to say no I have yes of the conference a little bit more money I never think things will go yes my father you know Paul rust and I were working on the the pee-wee Herman movie for Netflix and and we would kick around this TV show you know with him and his wife Leslie our friend but you know I thought this is a great idea no one's ever going to do this oh so fun to talk about and then you know when we got the order if you know it's a two-season order from that stuff ok I've got another show complicated but I always think it's about you know the teens you know you're like a captain of a team and when you're when you're collaborating with people it's all if you have great people around you like for me I just try to go where the problems are I'm just reading scripts all day long and if the script is good I thank the Lord and I read the next one and sooner or later there's a problem and you know where I staffed well we've had a good time and then when you don't your life to tell us yeah but you feel is there a surf strike while the iron is hot mentality you take it on yes yes any questions but how to assess what makes sense for you to take on what makes sense for you to act in versus write and create how are you making decisions I mean nice the time it is just a yes situation especially when my crashing but when crashing first came out and then I was writing crashing when seabag commissioned and that was very exciting but I knew that was gonna have two shows in one year which was and I was going to be in both them at the same time in that problem by my feeling like you're gonna I was writing crashing but going that's a joke that I think was really painful and I was like am i giving it to that Joker I love that so more that was that was kind of um you know a nightmare problem where we still runners watching dancing I'm spreading yourself thin then you realize actually the work that you're doing especially if you want to put your heart into it you know that it's only going to be good if it feels authentic to you and you actually care about it you can stand next to it and say this is something I really believe in and I don't feel that you can have that all fine and so after those two shows came out I did and other other things that are coming up and it was actually a show some listening to show at the moment called killing he which I am too and that was luckily so that I had started working on before free bag had to come out or anything so it still felt like something I was attached to before words and my heart was sort of still in it in that way so the kansai haven't really had time to think of like what this fellow will after that about BBC America okay yeah so but yeah there was a period of time and I was saying yes yes and when we didn't know what was going to go and for you to say yes to everything then everyone wants your time or time and you just end up hating everyone but really it's as you please help and then that spiral happens yeah I think it's I have no aunt I could go on - all right all right so Gloria has said quote we're trying to make people laugh but we're also trying to open hearts and minds do the rest of you feel that wait do you have a responsibility to do more than simply make people laugh I don't feel the responsibility to do that frankly and the times that I've tried to teach lessons and to inform they just fall flat and nobody's interested at all even me in my case I will say if you're going to take on an issue at all you Dan will do your homework because invariably they'll be those who want it to represent you know in our case disability there isn't a ton of representation so people will look to it and say well that's not my life that's and this is you know one of few things that depicts it so you have to get it right I don't feel the imperative to to inform - to advise I don't know that much so it's easy not to to continue not to impart the little I know but I think I think go in go in and know know what you're going to talk about know what you're know the know the field that you're that you're that you're playing on but I I think it's hard enough just to just to make these damn things make you may I know I'm just the only one on TV right now that's where the pressure I do feel the pressure of like oh like there's no like no Latino shows got picked up nothing and it's like oh no so there's no I don't want to be the only Latino show on TV or the Latino show I would just love to be known as a good family comedy home really so I just can't not have that right you know on me because there's there's obviously such a misperception about who is he knows are in America and constantly and I really do feel a response and that's where the pressure comes from like I'm dying for an empire can't wait can't wait house of immigrants the beak and the beacon I've been told by all my family that use a guiding light go I'm not live in a mansion together because together my family too exactly right here at my house probably right now they have a key there at my house every day yeah at it you know goo on oh right here ah my parents would still like me to go to medical school but okay but II feel sometimes crippled by the responsibility creatively you think oh god I can't filter I mean I can't possibly represent every Latino experience obviously so I can only sort of represent mine so by putting it out there though and trying to be very as specific as I can because it seems like in specificity comes sort of more universality should I just make a board no oh yeah and I feel that when I watch now actually so many of these shows is that I feel like with the more specific you guys wear them I feel a kinship we just got our just having that conversation I start like literally all you can try and do is tell the most honest version of your story and hopefully that connects in the specificity that every time I've ever tried to do something for everyone you miss everyone totally you know I literally just trying to tell you know my version Joe and I were talking about just a sort of the alchemy of just how a family works he was saying return our daughters and he was saying his daughter you know if I wants to get off the phone with Miles like I honestly think my daughter hates me like I was like I'm not sure it's a joke and you know I was like oh my god we're going to the same and I think that sometime in just telling your story it will connect to more people running then you think sometimes it feels like it's just yours but really we in humanity there's something that combines us all and the stories come out through that my daughter said to me the other day dad I hate your jokes so much ha ha ha sometimes my friends make jokes which are funny and I don't laugh at them because you make Joe all right so there is a tendency to want to prolong success by crafting spin-offs of shows and there are also plenty of failures Kenya is something you obviously there's at least a fertilizers going off at some point on girls I am curious when does it makes sense when is it something that you want versus what a network wants for you I think this story has to dictate it not the market you know and that's yes for those of you who have forgiven me or in forgotten I co-created the the Joey spin-off of friends and my initial reaction when approached to do it was oh god no there's just no way this this works and then I thought well after a couple days LeBlanc is a special guy get to continue working with him and it scares the hell at me and sometimes the things that scary most of the exact things that you're supposed to do or thing you're definitely not supposed to do it's very hard in the moment to choose which one so if there is the idea driving it that's the time to do it when it is decided that this is going to happen we are going to make this spin-off this sequel and that's what drives it it becomes a more cynical thing and which is not how we went in with open hearts and open minds and tried damn hard and the funny thing is like the only problem with that show is that it had to succeeds you know any other show similar to that we had a lot of talented people involved we had like so many of the writers from 30 rock from the first year of 30 rock came from there and went to 30 or so basically Joey - me is 30 but a lot of counts and what people don't understand is like the stinky set the sucky show they easier than the good ones and you can get you know torn apart by the by the by the by the critics and by the fans but for a TV show to work 100 things have to go you know it's not a question what went wrong with that it's it's what didn't go right we had maybe 70 things that went right when you need it or we can debate how many when you needed 100 but I think when you start with something that is we're going to do this rather than well what's the idea where's the passion you're already on shaky ground yeah it's always funny though what the network or the studio whoever you want to pick thinks is the spin-off like which isn't I think always I'm not that they're necessarily should or shouldn't be it's going up but what they think and the sort of a perfect example back in the Seinfeld days it wasn't specifically a Kramer spin-off but the Michael Richard show was basically be Kramer spin-off which of course was not a good idea no the show that I think if I remember correctly but Larry was vaguely interested in of course that the network had no interest in was a Jackie Child spin-off the sort of uh the the lawyer character that was based on I got John Cochran Hilaire whom are still is with really funny guy and and it is that thing of like I don't necessarily know what the heck I'm Michael Richards like Kramer thing is but that that was interesting I mean of course never went anywhere but it right right I think it's that make sense me reboot is is no different and you have the same did you have when it was brought to you did you have that moment of like a I don't know how should we make a Norman Lear said I told Norman not to do it I really do I really honest like full disclosure I just wanted to have lunch with Norman Lear they were like you want to I was like yeah who says no to that and he's so just disarming and lovely and curious that all of a sudden you're like spilling secrets out to him so he was like so what do you think about and I was like you know Norman I don't know I was like you're drunk on the Norman of it all I was like I don't know I just feel like people have been trying to do it and it always gets sort of I don't know something happens and I always want to watch those shows and support them and just a lot of times they go wrong and I don't know you haven't you've done great stuff and he goes well what would you do and then we had this great 45-minute conversation about what I thought was important and what I'd like to see and at the end of it he was just like all right let's do that so I'm like what I'm doing that alright but really just is it part of it though for someone to say I trust you go I think you have so much more creative confidence I'm realizing especially when passing over their baby like that instead of going wrong with it yourself yeah it was losing when we did ours oh the idea that really came was completely copying the notion a different world for me and growing up that made me want to go to college that was a big spike lee's school days and different what made me want to go to college and so the oldest daughter on my show was based on my actual oldest daughter she's going to USC it was sort of the idea of i wanted to inspire because it's we're at this place right now where college is not a big deal to kids as it was for us because there's this really big notion of sort of overnight success and all these other things and the idea of sort of rebooting the notion of college you know for kids was a really big thing for me so if you can call my daughter every week she's like dad I think I got enough out of it there's so many kids I mean when you if I'm a kid and I'm looking on television there's not when we were growing up if someone's parents were doctors or lawyers that was a big deal it's like my kids right there I mean I guess I mean you know they and it's not as the the sort of impetus to sort of want to do that it's not there as much there's so many other things I know so trying to have one of our kids who as a real person she actually is very studious and academic but trying to have her sort of talk about what her experience was going to be and do what that show did for me really it was the natural we were going to lose her anyway she's a knocked out in every single she applied to her let's try and extend this a little bit longer and see if we can sort of shift it so it that was that was my idea the network was very very receptive quickly and didn't put up a lot of fight and we got a do we did it as a backdoor pilot which is a little bit different we didn't have to go through the hoops and things like that so you have to say that the whole world watching is yeah the whole world watching you fail that's not the things we'll go on yes no little idea ah no way there was a meeting early on at the upfront so it's like how we gonna replace friends how we're going to replace Frasier this is how we're going to cue the big screen and then I was told all this needs to do is be like 85% my friends was like oh you're not kidding like just 85% of the big okay great so let's let's let's do that yes don't be then I come out big yeah yeah it was a little bit but it was trying to recapture lightning yeah and it was it was months after the original went off the air you can't you can't you know what was special about that show most special was was the the chemistry between those six and you can't just say let's do that again you can't decide to do that you have to get very very very long Kenny you were going to take a back seat in the writing process of blackish this season men Donald Trump was elected president what changed in you and why did you so badly want to be back to the table and part of that writing process was a combination of things it was interesting it was the night watching my kids you know watching my wife my wife has become obsessed a person who was not very politically active has become obsessed with politics and I think that if there's a good you know some good to came out of that but watching my kids break down watching my wife just be like literally distraught and then all interesting with my writers room you know coming into my writers room and saying like us not be able to work you know and it went from me being with them to me being sort of angry at that moment you know and and sort of echoing around and it really was was more of a thing of like I started having conversations with you know because writers as a rumor just were unbelievably liberal you know so I said sure ones one way swinging room that I was like the things that you're saying to me we're almost echoing this other side and I was like there's no bridge to this conversation you know saying like we're building up for a civil war there's no bridge to this conversation we need to figure out a way you know I'm millions and millions of people felt differently we were off in a lot of different ways and so maybe we weren't listening and maybe they're not listening and maybe let's try to find a way and it really it was interesting Chapelle that we did which i think is probably since probably prior you know one of the best monologues I've ever seen and and it was just there was a sort of shift and it was so interesting to me how things break down culturally there was a shift in the perception of how we were seeing was going on and ultimately what we all were were American and we needed to sort of see like how we can take this gut punch and really get up and fight together you know not just as as red or blue but as a country tonight should be a pretty uneventful election night [Music] everybody go home there's no way we're getting any work done today so well reconvene tomorrow I can't believe this I just read that he may not even live it the White House what that is a donkey punch to the back of the head this day is a wash we'll start fresh tomorrow luckily they let me write that in a weekend and change the order around I don't know network television never gets the ability to do that somehow they let us do it in the staff and crew and studio and everybody let us get it out where it actually landed while I was still in the fight ice enough and it was one of the best writing experiences for me yeah I've gotta say how fast was that term because because it was like Neil Young writing like what like like me wrote it no I wrote it in the weekend we you know like I had it we didn't get notes I'm saying that we're at that point right at that Monday shot it our post was amazing we did a three-day post turnaround color-corrected like it was it literally happened in two weeks I I just enjoyed it so much I like not only the level of the statement and the discussion but also from a producing sampling when did they fix it there's a time like this call on shows to sort of speak out and in the loudest way possible and what kind of pressure does that put on you guys depends on the show do you feel it I feel it yeah when we're doing a Norman Lear show I mean a corpsman I think is probably jealous of the shrug fest because we shoot and then six months like we finished our episodes we didn't know who was going to be President we made jokes in the room about president ruff we were so cocky and I mean I was the person like with my daughter I was like watch me as I feel out my absentee ballot to the first female president so I was you know we're watching I had bunch of the writers over at my house and we were like had balloons and champagne really what's that like we were so done like you captured so yeah on our show also a Hispanic family living in Los Angeles like we have we have to talk about it there's no choice so it will it has to come out in a different way because we're going to air again probably in February of 2018 so people are watching it at all different right and who knows we might only dead by then you know so we're we have to be sort of cognizant of that and how do we talk about it in a way that will hopefully still feel relevant and even though it's six months in the future it's to that point my wife would kill me if I like depression nature of veep is yeah it is it is uncanny I'm asking babe so you'll be happy she's like how do they do this yeah how did they know it's a very specific process which was we used to sit around and think to ourselves what is the stupidest worst president of the United States could do what's the worst thing the staffer could do what what would be the dumbest most silliest thing a press secretary could do and then they sort of steal from us I mean you should get story about yeah they have me next to Gerald Ford is this the hall of half-term wonder this great team can nothing go fight for me what can I do what can I do I will fix it oh I didn't even have a wax figure sors the real one was may have would get him to move me next to to link in return our some other game changing my god that's why I am doing that noise David what from Trump's first 100 days felt most like a leap storyline when people were doing it online where they were basically taking like those clips of Spicer explaining the Holocaust remarks and just adding the credit squeeze and the end that was definitely up there I mean you can pick Civil War Andrew Jackson or with the CBS reporter where he basically just went I'm done and then picked up papers that might as well been upside down and been like now I'm reading you should leave like come on man ed just just insane but I mean the challenge for us was also and again we also fought hillary was going to win for i guess somewhat obvious reasons although now I'm reading this shattered book which anyway um luckily and not because we knew anything but luckily we are not in the White House because I do think it's easier to be sort of not in the White House making fun of things that remind people of what's going on the White House but not doing the same exact shots and stories so he's sort of a season behind us but you know it's tough and I mean I don't necessarily feel a responsibility but I did notice kind of coming into our airing that I definitely felt like more people were kind of like I can't wait for the show to be back and again I didn't create the darn thing you know Armondo initiative but this sort of like not like oh I like your show but it was like I can't wait for it to be back so we can laugh about this stuff again and you know again we didn't sit down and go that's our mission statement our mission is always you know to sort of address your other question earlier our mission has always been sort of the comedy writer ego thing which is just going to try to make the funniest [ __ ] show we can humanly make but I did notice the people really wanted the show back and you sort of go okay I hope they can live up to the monster in your mind of what you think the show is going to say or do because we're not trying and relating out yeah yeah yeah it's quite cathartic for the audience I think they know and it was a laughs it is sort of you know it always helps yeah much in the way I last you know yesterday when I got giant tax cuts and most of the people that voted for Trump lost their health care I found that whole era so you know again you sort of take it where you can get it judge you are somebody who speaks your mind to get in social media curious how much pressure you feel or desire you feel as a storyteller to let what's happening in the sort of political climate infiltrate your work you know I do think about you know what I'm saying publicly and it's interesting on any position whatever you say you know 40 percent of the country violently disagrees with you if you tweet something out and then people just say horrendous things you know but you need that audience I mean those are people you want to come see your movies and watch your show now not on HBO what do you think about that do you think about the fact that that is an audience that you you would welcome that you would enjoy having this from a sheer number of perspectives I don't really think I don't think like well that guy hates me but I'd like to take you just a so they had Twitter then people are like go jump in an oven jus and you're like all right and always it's always something that sounds very sane and then it becomes that so it's like you need to give him a chance he was elected in a lawful way jump in the oven we did this thing where they wanted us to ask the fans questions about beep and so it was a mix of some very real questions about plot stuff and then we just mixed in a couple others and it was sort of like our question to the fans was in the age of Trump does it bother you too that your love it that you're enjoying a show written by a mostly Jewish writer and need to say just crickets in the receivers like a large portion of the I have confused that question why do your hard part is that we're against policies yeah and we're against certain people who are you know in charge but not the people because I feel like a lot of people been manipulated into believing something which i think is crazy which is that if you give rich people enough money they'll find a way to take care of you and I generally don't think that that's how the world works that when you you know when you when you give a guy a lot of money he doesn't think I'm gonna create jobs he thinks how do we make the robots work better and I make more money up on this one it's interesting Jed and I became we had a Twitter moment the other half and that's how we became friends and it was around Cosby and I was seeing tweets and I'm drunk one night and I come home and I'm like why are you tweeting so much about Cosby he meant so much and I literally I haven't done nobody and I have no idea the next morning ABC publicity but my phone is blowing up there it's like taking off like literally all of me I'm like and if you're concerned for my mental health oh yes we like seriously mentally we get it and I also think the great thing about it is that you do have way we connected and we had a real and I now said that I got on the wrong side of an argument haha like now and I'm like I look back and I'm like more people are coming up but anyway it was the great thing that I do think is that it's it has the greatest good and the greatest evil right at your palm I'm saying but at the same time you can connect with people that you would never been able to connect with and really make real change and have real conversations in a way that you wouldn't be able to have but you can also connect with people and may have conversation that you were going to be able to have so I think that there is with us I think I mean I very much try and separate the two which is hard which is to say I guess David Mandel voted for Hillary Clinton donated money to her campaign is outraged on an hourly basis by what's going on but that's me but the show veep isn't the show Vee prides itself on equal opportunity sort of attacking both sides the hawk see if power which right now might be a little more hypocritical than perhaps other times but it is still about the hypocrisy of power we go out of our way not to mention Democrats Republicans the issues we pick are very much chosen to be downright confusing and if you I guess are bothered by my Twitter feed so be it it shouldn't stop you from watch will show you like but that's not always good enough for other people the people who tell me to jump in an oven I choose not to watch their show I'm going to take a turn here when in your careers have you felt pigeon-holed and with that what are the things that you are to approach for as we want we expect and want this thing from you and you were sort of tired of needing to deliver that well when I first started I was on the short-lived quintuplets that was my very first rating Wow and after that I got offered a huge bump like a double bump remember those two go on the George Lopez show or I could repeat and be a staff writer again on how many mother and granted this is I was thinking I was just newly married I had a lot of fun stories about being in my 30s there was a gut thing that told me how I met her there was the right fit for me however there was also a huge part of me that was like that Calderon if I go down the George Lopez path I'm going to be latina writer forever so I did I went to how many mother and had a glorious time you know I'm asking did your agents push one one another they they were pretty cool once I explained it to them but it was a lot less lot it was all they were leaning the other way they were leaning the other way they were because it was a double play I'm not as curious as yeah what do they want advisory we're leaving the other way and then it took you know 10 years before I do another let's not show because I wanted to show I could do all that other stuff and then now I can do yes you know and then this last year all I've talked about is being latina remember I talked about happy to think about those things yeah you know I had on and off this shows on and off but I did girlfriends in the game and then it was like you know other officer come up and I was like I just have to get off the bike show and I shouldn't have to think that way but my mom because I walked in and over the game I had literally broken every table record on television when it may be literally broken every one of them and I walked into a staff meeting for the next year they were like which show is that I'm like mock you right there's no way any other show that did that and then one of my best friends white guy who's was like he was like yeah but those are all black people watching do you like me I was but I understand they're friendly I understand where his head was at where I was at but at the same time - Gloria saying I took the pigeonholing for me and embraced it you know and felt like that was how you know it you sort of we can't be enjoying them was like you know what I am the black guy you know and I'm not going to wear a blazer today I'm saying and I'm going to sort of because I can't be you know if I'm going to be the most honest version of Who I am I have to be the most honest version of who I was told to wear a blazer what do you put on something you guys whether people want from you what does this town want from you or perhaps historically has wanted from you I think more masturbation or the Coyotes does that on TV the kind of pink behind the curtain email experience kind of thing has come up quite a lot then again I jumped into this other show so quickly and it was really important to me that at the moment an opportunity came around it could be drama so dumb to comedy shows no no that's free back in my heart with always a tragedy disguised as a comedy and that was kind of kind of move over into the other side and then killing evening as a full-on thriller drama you'll always be an evil lawyer and broadchurch to me yeah girl eyes yeah yeah a bad girl now yeah so that was from a writing perspective yeah it was really when opportunity came up I'd absolutely jumped on it cuz I think that the more the faster you can take a left hand I think oh you know I've never been I guess I'm shocked by sort of Hollywood's inability to sort of think beyond like where you are who you are and I believe me please I do not I'm not likening this to being considered the Latina writer or the black writer I'm just saying I can remember steps in my career and you probably have this a little bit too which is like okay well you can write a 5 minute sketch but how in the world will you write a sitcom right or oh my god you wrote a sitcom how in the world will you deal with the three-act structure of a movie and so they do just sort of like to you know put you in a box the good news is you know they're also very cheap so when I did want to write a drama and I said just pay me the minimum they went even you can convince them but it is that thing and I had a sort of a similar experience once with my old writing partners Jeff Shaffer and Alan Berg where we went in to pitch on the eighteen movie which we really wanted to do I love that studio thank you with a full action pitch and they just kept sort of laughing and going like so ok so then when I was like it's poof no it's we're making an action movie this is actually not funny it was sort of that wrong and it's just like because you're just you're you're a comedy writer we can't study you done drama a little bit like I said I've written some stuff that sort of I wrote a movie years ago but I still to this day love about but I was a story I had sort of found and then sort of help piece together and then like I said I had to ultimately just say look pay me the bare minimum about in 1973 there were two pitchers on the New York Yankees Mike heck agent Fritz Peterson that swapped wives and families is a real fun a lot so it was sort of a giant scandal but in the age obviously pre-internet and whatever so it like even that story it took like six or seven days until Carson started doing jokes and it's not it was a real thing and I you know would say maybe it's a black comedy but so there's that element of sort of like you know sort of gallows humor quick a bit harder but for the two of you how much of your own experiences gets infused into your show and do you hesitate before writing these things in yeah they tell you to write what you know they don't say it will kill you or well when you want to try to do it for me writing about my experience growing up it was really liberating the first draft of the show that we did the script for speechless isn't it was very close to my actual experience and then and it was just suffocating you know you have it's it's it's hard enough to make one of these things entertaining or funny that but when you're walking that line between you know therapy and comedy writing you know like this is like you don't get paid for therapy and yeah so we don't what's interesting to me because it's me and what's actually interesting and there's also the added burden of like what in this script is going to piss off my uncle yes thank you and so I found it far more liberating to like sit down like alright what do I really want to do much in the same way you were talking about your development what do I really want to hold on to here and then let's take liberties around around the margins when did you memory serves you I think you honestly know each other I had to get that draft out of your system yes I think the ship knows you know how uninteresting my lifeboat yeah drafted wasn't what we got nothing what were the biggest changes made three nice and what we see there were you know there were changes in terms of in terms of the disability the significance of the character's disability which is very different from my my experience my brother's experience we also have you know it was more of a one-for-one this guy's my brother this is my sister this and it just became like you don't want to be playing the game of like well she didn't say that we can't do that story because if you're going to keep cranking these things the old Burke's yeah you saw one of the gas station down misery will get me doctor ticket for you there's three 12:28 just quick picks just get quick John is ready I got it I got gimmick so it's really in there I'm stuck Oh God we're gonna die in here you know times I've been in those rooms with people writing about their own thing like you know when they'll say back that's not how it happened like what if it did that have been more interesting than your actual life so yeah I think I think being able to take a little bit of license just takes a lot of the pressure off how much do you feel of it I mean do you how much do you put from your own experiences and where do you draw that line um I people approached me thinking that I've been through all of that hesitation writing because know that people are going to approach you thinking oh you've lived Oliver yeah I'm always like really disappointed I'm really authentic is beginning and I wrote originally a play was the humor and and the and the terms of phrases at that particular character would have because that's the kind of stuff that was cracking me up at the time and the stuff that I hadn't really seen that much in the character and I also needed up scouts I wanted to play and that he said that humor the jokes a lot of the kind of anecdotal stuff I had amplified for my own life was that funny when balancing happen in my own life and then weaved a dramatic story out of that but the beginning it was like what happened to me that was embarrassing happened to me that was embarrassing all on post-it notes whatever acts them all up so they were like painfully humiliating and then found a story within them so what's up like you can't have my number or were we yeah yeah I guess that's a yes oh my gosh great okay but now and I'll be sure to treat you like a nasty little [ __ ] um there was a joke I know a lot of the time when I was being asked about the show it was through the prism of the of feminism which yeah one it's a very important part that shows me and the confusion the character felt but it was like one strand in the story of this character and there's only other themes in it I was grappling with in so many ways I was trying to [ __ ] with the genre and all that kind of stuff but it was always that just always outweigh that word and I just started feeling like then I was suddenly being moved into a different position that it was wasn't so much that I was a writer was that I was a feminist writer yeah which I am of course I am and I'm a FEMINIST person but it was that became a category of writing and then I felt that made me wanna have a glass of wine and rail or apologize not because that's not what I'm trying to do and I'm proud of the fact that that's how my work is being received yes but it's not I do think especially with female writers who who might want to see about women and their experience that I feel like is like oh that's a famine - yeah and then but by the way I don't even think it's necessarily about just female writers or about like that sort of thing I mean I'll to this day I mean I'm lucky enough to work with Julia Louie Dreyfus I mean her accomplishments speak for themselves and to this day she's asked by major publications and what not be sort of as a woman kind of like about he about which has not much time een do I mean she's a woman in it but I just still that sort of lens are trying to sort of and in her real life that's important of course for but the show is the show and yet just to this day the same questions yeah and I'm going to ask you a question about girls and which ended with this speaking of your pumping of breastfeeding a storyline which I believe was your idea why was that the thing that you felt would ultimately draw the Hannah character out of herself and whether other ideas have explored early on Lena thought that you'd wind up with a single mother and they have been a lot of people been you know pregnant on TV and we were trying to find unique you know ways to talk about that and Jenny and Connor I came up with a lot of ideas for the last episode because we're both parents and you know the basic idea was that episode 9 would be basically the last episode and then we would give you a little peek into the future because when you watch the shows you always wish all right which was one more Sopranos so I would know why don't we just show them a little taste of the future and it'll be like a movie after the series ended brass bed for six weeks then you just expect on are you pumping oh my god yeah I'm pumping so much I'm like a soft-serve machine he just he will only take it from the bottle OMG getting it didn't there like an issue with bonding like isn't it important heartless breastfeeding is Osteria sometimes it's a piece of cake and sometimes there's something the chemistry the fit is just off Jenny and I were talking in and about just people who have postpartum depression and what would happen to someone who has you know OCD issues and some mental health issues and not just in a lot of ways the baby just I think she'd kind of go crazy in this little house and then we started kicking out how could you show that and how can you discuss a character that we've seen be very selfish for a long time that when you have a baby the baby looks at you and that's over uh-huh this is all about me now enough games and so the idea of breastfeeding and and being present enough to be there for your kid was what we were trying to express hmm I love that Gloria one of the big story lines on your show is this 15 year old latina girl coming out which is not something we have seen on television before what did you hope the sort of intended impact would be and did you have any concerns about the sort of audience response that given that you have a young girl at the center of that I was really surprised if there hadn't been and as we were talking about in the room we have 2 lesbian writers in the room and they were speaking so much about their lack of representation and that like there's a gay episode and then everyone's moved on and they were like it would be so interesting and you know my partner my co-creator Mike Royce his daughter was coming out and I was so moved he would come to work and he was the guy that wanted to do it right you know like be the perfect dad for the coming out and I was so moved by that and it's like we need to put all of this in there I just came out to Anita you did a nice in it's beautiful you do not owe and I accept it immediately no questions asked well that is great we knew we were building to the canvas there's a traditional Hispanic thing coming out party campus yes watch that you'll see so we were building to this coming out anyway and we were like I would be great to just infuse it into this show and then unfortunately there's still a lot of Latinos that are really steeped in old school thoughts about that and so it's unfortunately still sort of a hot-button issue with a lot of our communities so it felt like such a great way to really have a slow she has a long time where she discovers it and comes to terms with it and then talks to her parents about it and then we have a whole episode where the unknown to the child the mom is having a tough time with it like she has friends are gay she's totally fine with everyone gay in her life and then now that it's her daughter she feels weird and why do I feel weird what's wrong with me and we got to explore that in whole episode you do you sit down with with the actress and her family and discuss here's what could happen yeah here's what you may hear I mean the comments you wish were talking about on Twitter that could happen to you well also I was like this is a Latina girl like I don't know that her family's going to be okay well there's my underage and so I sat down and she was so her and her family were so lovely and they were so excited to tell the story and and we're really proud to represent it so it was it was really lovely and we used a lot of the growth of our lesbian writers in the room we would that you know really leaned on that who to tell us the experience a lot of it was through the lens of a man like they kind of did me she did me I was a guy first just to kind of try that on yep it wasn't for her and there was a lot of discussion of should we seize the framework of a man first can you just be gay and not you know yes all of that gets discussed but now ultimately we were we were yeah we were happy with how it turned out absolutely Greg Harris Jed I want to go back to you for a second you mention love we talk about girls crashing these are all shows or that are basically about through messy people trying to figure their [ __ ] out what draws you to that type of story and when in the process do you know that's what it is I don't I don't think there is any story but that's I don't I can't imagine what else will be I don't I never think that anybody has their [ __ ] together or I guess I guess maybe that's what people like superhero movies or so yeah I just think everyone's a disaster and it's nice to see people try to figure it out and try to find love or I've been every favor can hire Nando's so then with that said how some dark can you go I mean you talked about the crashing pitch how sort of sad do you want an audience to be with a character to then turn around and want to see them figure their [ __ ] out I don't know I I it's hard because I don't have a you know a bar that I think about I think I lean sad I like believable and I read for miserable people I've had so I I probably make that mistake more than most other mistakes as things that are a little darker I don't notice they're so dark I remember when we watched the Cable Guy with an audience or the first time we all went oh we didn't think this was this you know that we were doing it but you know there's somebody said you know the dramas just putting someone in a corner and seeing how they get out of it and I always just think you know you got to beat up on people you know someone's a handsome and happy guy with a lot of money and a happy family I don't know where that where that goes but someone just bought that yes yeah yeah yeah favorite you know obviously those flawed characters and ones we remember and stick with this forever those are the ones that you want to see the flaws you know in people and because they actually make useful more human you know those experiences make you feel and just like even like you know thinking about this is 40 though and that was a mopping I was turning 40 when that was coming out or whatever and it was the mole or Pavarotti was using the bathroom issues what are you doing in there yeah and I was like oh my god like this is so dark and sad and wonderful because it's at all of us I think those flaw that that relationship was not perfect you know and I think that when you because it was we knew the relationship from another movie you felt like you liked the flaws in that relationship and it made that family feel even more we're sure my wife used to watch my Twitter feed while I was in the bathroom one other thing you've said which I found fast a land of the handsome beautiful people and now it's the opposite if a is that true of everywhere on the television dial no no no but I do think why - I you know when I started in television with the Ben Stiller shows and first TV series I did and when we were doing freaks it seemed really weird when we did freaking geeks that we said let's do high school show with these kids and and and they went for it but ultimately didn't seem that happy about it and it was odd it was the era of Dawson's Creek and a lot of fantasy fulfillment TV and it's like that in a lot of ways out but there are a ton of shows that are about you know the freaks and geeks the of every age and I think you can get those shows through now where when we did it people looked at us like we were nuts and and it was depressing because we thought these are the shows that I wish existed and the fact that there are so many now I couldn't be happier TVs turned into exactly what I dreamed it would be on television at one time we could have had freaks and geeks Family Guy undeclared very shortly after that those were shows that all were like canceled and or any wicked controls like all these shows that were like could have been the best shows on television Family Guy comes back in a huge Freaks and Geeks became everything else became sort of derivative of that after a while like you know it just it seems so like often times Network thinking is so counterintuitive well the single camera they really didn't understand what to do with it when we were doing freaks and geeks or undeclared there was Bernie Mac you know and that was great show and there was one day years and that was kind of it for the half-hour dramedy show one day years I was it and so they would did anywhere to schedule you they're sure to be a laugh track engine yeah yeah never tried it we did a show it was Amy Poehler Jason Segel Kevin Hart and Judge Reinhold the pilot about you know people striving to get into show business in North Hollywood and we did it for ABC and then as soon as they saw it it was you know very inspired by Curb Your Enthusiasm they just look at us like where would we put this mom what show does this go with and then it was over the second we handed in they just like yeah just doesn't fit anywhere but now these things do fit everywhere absolutely but they still I mean I will simply say on some of the more I guess I'll say the mainstream networks and I mean I haven't been in that world for about two years but we had a pilot there about two years ago and there was definitely a pressure of like we were casting a mom and I can simply tell you there were the funny people we wanted and then there were sort of the you know people that I can only assume they thought you know sort of had a nice rack basically did ya know dad yeah I mean that were that we're down right and money right people you idiot downright enemies of comedy I mean just like honestly like where to some extent and it was definitely a decision that like sort of I think you know 40 year-old showrunners make which as opposed to have it been like 1995 and in 1995 we would have just said yeah whatever we want Dennis are on TV and ultimately we sort of said no so that instead of having just another shitty pilot in the pile we still have whatever happened to that script that was kind of me not much to hang your coat on I haven't made it better over dinner so yeah the big difference now is with all these streaming services they're not obsessed with your casting the welding and network television is they say wanting to do for show we believe in you and I'm going to pick your actor and it's a very bizarre process where they force you to bring in multiple people have to bring and even if you find the greatest person in the world you have to bring in a second person and invariably the person you bring in they don't like I may go we have this happened they went we like that second person we went we only brought them in because you know the other person we don't want to cast that person at all and they're like well you can't do that when you made us do it we're going to end on some lightning round questions what TV family did you most identify with as a kid starting in the side of the table I was I was with a with the Keaton's I was Sally ties all the way I was a just at just a hyper little very driven weirdo who understood that sort of you know dynamic with mom and dad and thinking you know better and often being proven wrong at the kitchen counter at the end of my half hours with my parents - yeah that was us Thank You Kitty I mean the first time we came into my head was absolutely fabulous they're like Oh goodbye I think we should take that yeah believe it I mean coffee mmm did yeah yeah it's almost yeah we did like what's thinking things in my house I wish the Ghazis felt like I was the I was good time I wanted to be a guy I was probably Michael I was Booker Thank You me I've done that so as the Booker sir I was into taxi as a kid I love actually I was obsessed with that show not just because the Leeds name is Jed I love that group of people in that family and Andy Kaufman and Danny DeVito and and everybody yeah I was going to go time really family Bosnia like early mash like Wayne Rogers memory on Harley mash if you weren't a showrunner you would be looking at whole NFL quarterback either a lawyer I've been making documentaries lately in it and it's really been as creatively gratifying as anything I've ever done I'm doing a documentary about Garry Shandling for HBO oh I haven't enjoyed anything as much and and you get a lot of the same fulfillment from solving problems when you need to do documentaries restaurant front of house restaurant guy I love that just like schmoozing kind of drunk like knighted hey yeah yeah can't cook have nothing behind it if I like out saying you're welcome to a bunch of people yeah all right last one the writer you most look up to almost table pretty while I was boring they hear normally too man yeah or Spike Lee I was out of Norman Lear's house recording a podcast and Pete Holmes he was interviewing Norman and he has every episode of all the family leather back leather-bound I hate a random one out just boom how good is this show just open to any page the page is about the fact that Sally Struthers is depressed on the subway so it's about depression I think it's season one and she's only depressed because just her life it's just it's it's just getting there doubt just the repetition of her life and the joke I remembered that I opened up to is uh Rob Reiner says well you know that's under understandable you know everyday you know I get in a little battle in my mind as I take out my my razor and shave and and this apartment just wants a slit my throat had been RG Berger says I wish you would have lost that battle how amazing is Norma's that you could open to any page it is that great yes mmm-hmm okay family Wayne like mission writer and I'm sure happy valley my very very good I just can't bear how good that you should be an evil lawyer unhappy lawyer is what I would be actually that's also something I would be if it wasn't actually sign up for long you should go to everyone it was just like year that you blow Red River to be looking at the camera yeah loves being evil lawyer everything funniest writer I've ever gotten a chance to work with I was very lucky to get a chance to work with is a Jim Downey attending live a former head writer producer whatever and he is unworldly it from other levels also SAR this bud beer commercial and we make chain on thang on anything there will be blood and what's the other word right-hand of the season is really interesting pleasure thank you hi I'm Oprah Pam it's alright Kevin Bacon Billy Bob Thornton Elizabeth Mars Kris Jenner Minnie Driver thanks for watching much thanks thanks for watching thanks for watching The Hollywood Reporter on YouTube on YouTube hold on be sure to hit subscribe for more videos cool

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 346,399

Rating: 4.8944659 out of 5

Keywords: thr, the hollywood reporter, hollywood reporter, entertainment, hollywood, Gloria Calderon Kellett, One Dat at a Time, Scott Silveri, Speechless, Judd Apatow, Girls Crashing Love, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag, David Mandel, Veep, Kenya Barris, Black-ish, comedy, showrunner, comedy showrunner, HBO, Starz, comedy series, emmy, emmys 2017, comedy showrunner roudntable, comedy roudntable, emmy roundtable, tv, tv series, roundtable 2017, full roundtable, thr roundtable, roundtable, 2017

Id: Wp5o4-p2vsM

Length: 63min 29sec (3809 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 24 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Blacknarcissa]

I really need to see Fleabag and Crashing. Phoebe seems lovely and very funny.

[u/VinylSeller2017]

nice. i'm a fan of the Writers panel podcast so this looks right up my alley

[u/Heda1]

Anyone know who will be on the drama showrunners