Playwrights in TV land

"'Playwrights have always written for film and TV,' says [Diana] Son. 'Bertolt Brecht and others would function at movie studios as staff writers, when movie studios had staff writers. It was steady, salaried work. And these days, only TV writing is steady, salaried work.'
"For a long time, the odds have been against making a living solely as a playwright. 'There's a touching naiveté on the part of the theatergoers about the possibility of making a living as a playwright, as though you write for TV as the icing on the cake,' Son says. 'People think it's the difference between making, say, $60,000 and $80,000 a year, when really it's the difference between making, say, $8,000 a year and $400,000 a year.' "

Just one of the thought provoking insights quoted in Jan Breslauer's interesting LA Times piece on playwrights in Hollywood. Not in the movies, but on the writing staffs of our better television shows.

It's no accident that TV drama is in something of a renassance. (Isaac, for instance, is not alone in considering "The Wire" some of the best American contemporary drama in any medium.) I would argue that the smart recruitment of good playwrights has had a lot to do with this. Theatre-nurtured writers have been the genesis behind "Six Feet Under" and "Weeds," and dominate the staffs of "Sopranos," "CSI," and, of course, "Law and Order." (All the "Law and Orders.")

A case is made by some in the piece that some of this phenomenon is thanks to Aaron Sorkin, whose cult hit "Sports Night" and, then, bona fide hit, "West Wing," convinced TV execs that-- gee--writing mattered.

(Of course, Sorkin gets a lot less gratitude from those West Wing writers he allegedly mooched credit from, and, in one case, an Emmy.)

At a time when the fate of "the new American play" is in question on New York stages, it's Hollywood, ironically, that has come to the rescue--for some of the lucky ones, that is.

Aside from the financial subsistence, another benefit, according to Son, is a relatively writer-centric power structure.

"...the head writer is the boss, which is incomparable to the screenwriter, unless the screenwriter is also the director," says Son. "The head writer/showrunner has their hand in casting, scheduling, salaries, everything. The head writer is also executive producer. It's an extremely powerful position."

Of course, there are still plenty of notes from the suits, plenty of compromise and forced collaboration, as Breslauer's article makes clear. But playwrights are benefitting from an ascendancy of The Writer over the producer--resulting in the new figure of the Writer-Producer.

Here's some testimony from Warren Leight. The Warren Leight, remember, who once won a Tony for "Side Man":

Playwrights are not salaried, do not receive benefits and do not have a strong union, as do screenwriters. And even if a playwright does land one of the few and far between most coveted opportunities for production and has a hit, their pay isn't what you'd expect."If you get Manhattan Theatre Club or the Roundabout, they take 40% off all your future income, plus 10% for the agent, and sometimes the director gets a percentage too," says Leight, referring to two prominent nonprofits operating on Broadway.

"One or two episodes of 'Law & Order' is about what I made off 'Side Man,' " he continues, referring to his Tony Award-winning drama, which was widely produced, including at the Pasadena Playhouse.So for the generation of writers now in their late 30s, 40s and 50s, there were pioneers who brought in other playwrights. "To me it's like the dark ages for playwriting, and it's a little bit like getting playwrights to safe ground," says Leight. "I view this as a monastery during the Dark Ages."

The Dark Ages, eh. Let's hope there's light at the end of it.