Industry-wide, comedy writers’ rooms have evolved over recent decades for the better, with increased diversity, less unacceptable behavior and wider geographical and technological opportunities returning solid benefits in terms of ratings and audience engagement.
Taking a shorter-term temperature feels trickier, given the fallout of the 2023 writers and actors strikes and subsequent downturn in production starts.
“There’s certainly less Postmates,” admits Sarah Afkami, a comedian and writer of nearly 15 years. “And big picture: you’re more aware of the idea that it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
In dissecting both the good and the bad sides of an industry currently seeing production trending downward as much as 20%, comedy writers are looking to the future while recognizing present uncertainties.
Emmy and Peabody winner Tracy Newman (“The Nanny,” “Ellen,” “The Drew Carey Show”) sees more women’s and underrepresented voices in the rooms. “It’s probably much fairer now than ever,” she says.
Has she ever seen discrimination in the workplace? “Being a woman in this, I did experience some of that at the very beginning,” she says. “I was like 46 to 48 when I got my first job on ‘Cheers,’” she notes. “That was pretty unusual. Not only was I a woman, but I think I fulfilled their age quota at the same time.”
On Max’s animated “Birdgirl,” by contrast, Afkami found herself in a writing room full of women.
Across all career levels, work from home options have overwhelmingly changed the entire construct of writers’ rooms.
“The pandemic turned comedy largely online — turning writers’ rooms largely into Zoom rooms,” says “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” writer Noah Gardenswartz, who now has a pilot in development at BET. “It made it a lot easier to not have to live in New York or L.A. Once you take away those mandatory requirements, the rest of the country opens up to people in entertainment.”
Mike Lawrence, who considers himself a mid-level working writer and has credits on scripted, reality, talk fare, award shows and four televised roasts, including “The Roast of Tom Brady,” maintains that the argument against working from home boils down to faux lamenting about a lack of social camaraderie.
“The commute, the hundreds of hours of your life that you never get back” are an unpaid part of traditional requirements, Lawrence says. “I think the happiness and mental health of people is better when they work from home, for the most part.”
Having experienced both, he acknowledges that, “for newer, younger writers, it probably is better to be in the room for some of it, to learn. But I’ve worked on shows where we have four-hour days, and they’re great shows because we’re all happy and appreciative of being able to have that work-life balance.”
But one worrying post-strike reality is the downshift in production. “There are just less shows right now,” says writer-actor-director Kiran Deol. “The work of these strikes is going to be good in the long run for everyone but short term, people are going to be more conservative. People are going to make safer choices as the industry recovers. You’re going to see attrition in the short term, and then that should open back up in the long term.”
In Deol’s eyes, planning, soul-searching and a healthy dose of optimism are key. “My goal is just not to fuck off,” she says of unanticipated downtime. “Just make it through the next 18 to 24 months, figure out the way to survive and you should be good. ‘Survive until 2025!’ is something I’ve heard from people. That’s the goal right now.”
Source Agencies
