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1. This is four years old -- but I found Showrunners the Art of Running a Show - it features a panel discussion with a bunch of television series show-runners. (Stephen DeKnight (Spartacus at this time), the show-runner of House of Cards, Damon Lindeoff (Lost, Leftovers), Rizzoli and Izles showrunner, Men of a Certain Age Show-runner,

I'm hunting down the documentary film. Because I find the process of making things, regardless of what they are -- fascinating. I think it is available on Starz. Ah, I'm wrong -- found it -- it's available on Amazon Prime. Yay! This means I can watch it!

Oh, and with the exception of one person? All the show-runners are male.

It fascinates me partly because it was a career I thought I wanted and I'm relieved I didn't go down that path -- because I know I'd have been miserable. But the what-if is interesting to me.

2. Laying back a bit this weekend. Was extremely stressed most of the month of May. Now, really, relaxed, no stress for a bit.

Also IBS is less prevalent.

3. Update on "cockgate#"

For those that missed it or have no clue what this about, a romance novelist attempted to trademark the word "cocky" in association with the romance genre. She sued various writers who used her trademarked word in the titles of their books. One in particular.
The Romance Writers Association of America and the Author's Guild teamed up to fight her on it. After reading the court case transcript -- I've come to the conclusion that this was instigated by a fight with her former friend writing similar novels - aka grudge match. The writer got pissed off at the former friend, who'd sold 300,000 novels with a similar title to the 600,000 sales of her novels. So, decided to fight back by trademarking the title to punish the former friend in a grudge match. Which is interesting considering that by doing that -- Hopkins managed to royally piss off two big writers' associations and people who have never heard of her. Not to mention make a complete ass of herself in the process. She'd have been better off ignoring former friend and meditating away the pain.

* Freedom to Publish Author's Guild Wins Cockygate Court Ruling

* Actions Leading up to and including Court Case

* Romance Novelist/Attorney Courtney Milan summarizes it

* Transcript of the Cocky Trademark Hearing -- Hopkins lost on the preliminary injunction, but they are still moving forward. The opposing attorneys are filing an action to dismiss.

It's complicated. Because there are a lot of interesting legal questions here:

- Does the trademark hold-up? (Just because the US Copyright and Patent Office registered it, doesn't mean it can hold up in court, different requirements.)

- Did the defendants willfully infringe on the trademark for reasons other than good faith? (ie. was there malicious intent, or did they just not know it was copyrighted because the idea is patently absurd. And did their infringement really hurt Hopkins all that much?)

And others...

The case is funny and confusing, making me very glad I'm not doing that for a living.
Another bullet dodged. I'm suddenly feeling quite grateful for the career I fell into to.

Showrunners - The Art of Running a Television Series (Review)

Just finished watching the 2014 documentary film, Showrunners - the Art of Running a Television Series, which featured interviews with the show-runners from the following series: The Good Wife, The Shield, Terriers, Big Bang Theory, Men of a Certain Age, Revenge, Rizzoli & Isles, Fringe, Battlestar Galatica, Lost, Felicity, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Dollhouse/Firefly/Angel/Marvel Agents of Shield, Spartacus, Leverage, House of Lies, Sons of Anarchy, Bones, Dirt, Husbands, Without a Trace, The Shield and Left-Overs. (Some of the show-runners interviewed included JJ Abrahams, Joss Whedon, Ron Moore, Mike Kelly, Damon Lindenoff, Jane Espenson, Mathew Cavannach, Shawn Murphy, and Michelle & Robert King.) They also interview the executives of TNT and Showtime. Also feature interviews with actors from Without a Trace and The Good Wife, although actors aren't as involved in the documentary.

It's good. And informative in places. A lot of the stuff they relate, I already knew from other things. (But I'm insanely well-versed in the topic, because I find it interesting. And have as a result watched and listened to lots of interviews and documentaries on it, also read lots of interviews. As one of the show-runners points out, the one from Bones, they aren't writing their shows for people like me, but for the folks who don't know how the soup is made, and there is about a 5% of the audience that thinks it knows how the soup is made and you ignore them. This explains why I disliked Bones, I prefer the shows by the showrunners that target folks like me -- the ones who are intelligent enough to know that the leads on Bones are just actors and can't come up with any of their lines on their own and this is just a television show written by writers who know zip about criminal procedure unless they did some research. I'm willing to handwave a lot, just not when it comes to procedurals.) What is interesting is DeKnight and few other show-runners point out how the procedural is often not as interesting as the serial, because you don't get to play with the characters in as much depth. Nor is it as good, but that an audience doesn't really care if it is one or the other, the network wants to put it in categories, but the audience just cares if it is good. Weirdly they put Hill Street Blues in the procedural category, and I'm not certain I'd have put it there.

Also, at one point, Anthony LaPaglia, who starred on Without a Trace, validated my low opinion of that series -- when he said that sometimes a show-runner's scripts are so poorly written that you just have to give them notes on it and interfere. And he didn't get along real well with the show-runner. Although he'd give the show-runner credit on Without a Trace, he was young, inexperienced, it was his first time doing it, and the best episodes written on it -- were by that show-runner. Well, I thought, that's why I couldn't watch Without a Trace -- it was horrible. (I know something about criminal procedure and it was obvious to me five minutes in that the writers didn't know a thing. People blame actors for not adding anything to a show -- but folks? An actor can't save poor writing and direction. And Without a Trace was unwatchable -- I tried to watch for James Marsters and kept going to sleep during it -- didn't hold my attention, and there were long speeches that went nowhere.) But, to give the writer credit -- you aren't taught how to be a show-runner. The writer left during the second season. He just couldn't hack it any longer and Anthony Lapaglia, the star, missed him. Because he was the best writer on it.

They also mention the pros and cons of network executive interference. Whedon states that if the only person in the room who knows how to fix it is the studio executive that you hate -- you really should listen to him. And how coming across as a Maverick and fighting the studio had put him in a bad light -- he didn't understand how it happened (FIREFLY and Dollhouse? Hello!), that he always saw himself as a Company Man and he's afraid of four year olds.. While the writer behind Dirt states that he should have known that was going to have a problem from the start, when the network insisted he change the lead to a woman and cast Courtney Cox in the role. He'd wanted to do something else, but went okay. Then whoa, the second season it was just note after note after note -- to the point that he still can't look at that season. It was crap in his opinion. And Ron Moore states how he let the series he'd been working on "Pern" die before it got out of the box when the network insisted he shoot a script he hated and felt was all wrong for the pilot. He loved the books it was adapted from and refused to go the network's route. The show never got past the planning stages as a result. The Leverage writers state that you have to pick your battles, if you fight all the time, they'll see you as difficult and you'll get nowhere.

From the network's perspective -- they have to get involved in some respects to ensure the show works. And Leverage writers state that the network is throwing a lot of money at a show, it's not the writers money or theirs, it's the networks, and it bodes well to listen to them, at the end of the day it is a business. Which is echoed by both David Nevins of Showtime, who states that he ensures that the series writers are on the same page he is, and they share the same vision, and the TNT/TBS executive who says he gets involved if it appears the show really isn't working.

They discuss pretty much the entire process, the pit-falls and highs and lows of what it is to be a television show-runner and how much it has changed over the years. Also the degrees to which network interference, fan interaction on social media, and ratings affect the process. The skinny? It's a mixed bag. And a lot of shows now are being presented on other platforms.

It's fascinating in places and if this topic interests you at all, I highly recommend.

That said, it also only has one black showrunner and two maybe three female show-runners featured, the rest are all white guys. This was filmed in 2010 and released in 2014, so things have changed a great deal since then. But, I couldn't help but wonder if they even considered approaching people like Marti Noxon, Shondra Rhimes, Amy Pallindino-Sherman, and a few others out there. It felt like the documentary filmmakers went after one small nitch group. So my quibble is that I found it limited in scope.