#3 - Janet Leahy (TV writer-showrunner) in Pacific Palisades

TheProcess.Ink

Janet Leahy (Mad Men, Gilmore Girls, Boston Legal, Roseanne, The Cosby Show) talks her creative journey and work experiences.

We talk about:

• The Mad Men writers room
• Women in TV writing
• Women breaking into TV
• Writers Assistants
• Developing characters
• Production Secretaries
• The writers room
• Creating episode stories
• Worst fears-using character fears to create compelling story conflict
• Transitioning from half-hour comedy writing to one-hour drama
• Family of characters
• Story Conflict
• pitching TV shows,
• brainstorming
• playwriting
• road trips for writing

Quotes from the show:

"I pitch why it's important, the characters, the tone."

"What's the worst thing? What are you afraid of? What relationships in your life are you trying to resolve? Why can't you resolve them?"

“It has to entertain the audience, move them, nourish them emotionally.”

“Family of characters… people bringing this family, these characters into their home. Because of the technology, they’re carrying them in their pocket now, too.”

"Whhat are their hopes and dreams? What are they not getting? What's their struggle? What are hoping to gain in their journey? Let's say their journey is life or their journey is a job or what have you. As long as you know all that, you can start playing with that. Then, what I found is once you have your characters,

"People start bringing in stories from their own lives to the writers' room and translate them through the show's characters."

"I try to clear my brain and then the ideas come. I let go of any notion that I'm going to control this thing and then the ideas come."

“This kind of complete camaraderie and yet complete competition in the room for jokes.”

“You’ll be really funny and talented on one show and the next show you work on, that showrunner decides whether you’re funny or not.”

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