The Showrunner Model of Production
By Cheryl Binning
Mark Farrell, winner of the 2009 WGC Showrunner Award, points to an irony in Canadian television production: “we try to copy everything in the U.S., and getting a show on American television is the Holy Grail, but we don’t make TV like they do.”
Farrell’s not talking the distinct culture line; he’s talking about our approach to the craft – and chiefly, the issue of creative leadership in TV production.
Mention to Canadian screenwriters and producers the names Matthew Weiner (Mad Men), David E. Kelley (Boston Legal), Steven Bochco (L.A. Law), Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), and Shonda Rimes (Greys Anatomy) and you get wistful looks of admiration. Those names and the names of other showrunners in American TV (David Simon, Hart Hanson, etc) seem to function as a kind of gold standard in TV production. They shine out as examples of writer-producers with strong visions, whose deft creative hands guide all aspects of their series.
Writers in Canada look to the showrunner model in use in the U.S. as a better way of making quality TV. But it’s a model that has found only limited traction in the Canadian industry. Andrew Wreggitt harkens back to his days writing The Beachcombers. That show had no showrunner and no staff writers. “Instead,” says Wreggitt, “a non-writing executive producer and story editor oversaw freelance scripts.”
Peter Mohan, winner of the 2008 WGC Showrunner Award, notes that showrunner positions in Canada have often been glorified story editor positions because production companies retain so much creative control.
Heather Conkie (this year’s winner of the WGC Showrunner Award) recalls that while she was showrunner on Pit Pony, she was rarely called by the title. “They said, ‘she’s the head writer’ when in fact I was the showrunner.”
“I have been in the situation,” says Farrell, “where someone hires me as showrunner and, as we go along, I realize what they meant is they want me to be a head writer and they want to be the showrunner.”
Most writers and producers agree that the reluctance to adopt the role and title, the reluctance to give autonomy to a writer-producer, comes down to a fundamental difference between the studio-based U.S. production model and the Canadian approach which chiefly operates through an independent producer. And that difference, says many, often comes down to cash.
American studios will finance a slate of shows they’re making for several networks. The network will have their own slate of shows, from that studio and others. Both the studios and networks are taking a gamble that at least some of their shows will succeed, but no-one expects them all to become hits. So they’re willing to take some risks, and place their bets on a show creator’s vision, hoping it’s the one that will attract audiences.
Canadian producers, on the other hand, usually only have one or two shows on the go. Many producers say that they have spent their own money and time up front pitching the show, arranging the options, and pulling the financing together – sometimes putting up the company itself as collateral. So they have a lot more invested – literally – in making sure their one show is a hit.
“In Canada, the producer is very passionate and brings a lot to the table,” points out Adam Haight, senior supervising producer at Shaftesbury Films, “and a production company lives or dies on the success of that project, so they won’t relinquish all the control. Producers here aren’t just a bank.”
Seven24 Films’ Jordy Randall, executive producer of Heartland, says that as it becomes tougher to finance shows and a fragmented market puts broadcasters under more pressure, producers often react by tightening the reigns. “The competition is more cutthroat so I think everyone has more at stake in the creative process and you don’t have one person calling all the shots,” he explains.
But in some cases, the fear of failure makes producers second guess writers, and control becomes an issue. Farrell says he’s seen producers who freely admit they can’t write a script or direct an episode start tinkering in the edit suite.
The good news is that writers are noticing a change, and see Canada moving in the direction of the writer-showrunner model because, they argue, the people who give the green lights are noticing that it makes for better and more successful shows.
For the complete article, please see the print edition of Canadian Screenwriter
