Created By: Inside the Minds of TV's Top Show Creators

by Steven Prigge, Ted Danson (Foreword)

Presents a cast of 21 show creators who talk about writing and selling hit television series. They discuss writing spec scripts; first jobs in TV; getting an agent; being staffed as a writer; writing a pilot; putting yourself in the characters you create; and more. This book is useful for screenwriters, television writers, and TV fans.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Tv, Film

215 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2005

Reviews

[Ryan Berger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me preface by saying yes, I am very bitter.

Let me also say that there are bits and pieces of the advice within the book that is out of date, but the book doesn't lose points for that. Still, beware if you read advice like "I would focus on writing on a pilot rather than a spec script" when everyone everywhere requires both in 2021.

Then again, I think saying something like that reinforces my general gripe with the book, which is that a lot of the creators seem more than a little out of touch. Pages upon pages talking about personal connections that easily landed them in certain rooms or landed them an agent. There are very few stories about scraping and clawing your way to your first TV writing job, which is what a vast majority of the people who pick this book up will be after.

It's not like they're completely out of touch, or that they say something annoying at each opportunity (Only Bill Lawrence "understands the assignment" of this book, to me), but there are some stunning positions in this book. It really seems like they believe anyone can get their foot in any given door, and that the hard part is just staying afloat and writing well. Many people who pick up this book already write well, they want to know how they're going to feed their family and get a paycheck.

I can appreciate the research done in wrangling all of these talents together. Can it be enjoyed as someone who is a TV enthusiast and not a writer? I suppose it could, but even then I'm not really sure. It's not like the stories of how these writers came to be are especially interesting.

You can descend into platitudes about how much of this industry is just being a "good hang", but the TV writing landscape is a wasteland in which everyone is starving and this book, despite it's star power and promise that it will bestow knowledge on you, gets you no closer to your ultimate goal. Very disappointing.

This is one of the books that Disney recommends you should read as a part of their Writers programs. A lot of their recommendations have been hits. This one is a huge miss.

[Bopsterjazz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got what I came for. Other reviewers have said it doesn’t offer much in the way of practical advice and I agree. This is an interesting compilation of interviews. It’s a great resource if you’re just starting to get interested in TV writing and want an overview from different perspectives, but if you’re further into your writing journey and don’t have an interest in any of these names, there are better books out there for you. It’s quite a bit dated now, but it was a fast and fun read. It was cool to see people mentioned here, then take a peek where they are now.

I do think the editing could have been better. Spelling and grammar mistakes bothered me a bit. Overall, though, this was an interesting read that I can see myself revisiting at some point in the future.

[Martynas Kėvišas · Rating 2 out of 5]

One star for the work that the author has managed to put together a group of accomplished writers, producers, directors. Another star for the quality of the material. It is a relatively old book so excluding all the major changes in tv industry I still find the entire content vague. The form itself is very basic - the author gives a topic to a chapter and provides perspectives from 5-7 different respondents. Most of them are more or less the same after all. If the book was not written in this type it would be probably half of the length.

[Jeeps (immovabletype) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly interesting, but not much in the way of practical application for aspiring writers. Has a good balance of sitcom showrunners and drama showrunners, men and women, and white and non-white. Poorly edited in the way of typos, and with the interviews of the various showrunners being conducted orally, Prigge doesn't often do an awesome job of translating what the interviewee said into what they meant (such as keeping grammatic mistakes intact) and making it flow smoothly for a reader rather than a listener. I also missed having some of the showrunners I was most interested in weighing in on all the topics. I wonder if this is because they weren't asked certain questions, or if their answers weren't always included, or if they simply could choose which questions to answer. But that was kind of disappointing.

[Juan Camilo Velandia Quijano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to learn from the experiences of today's successful showrunners, filled with advices, anecdotes and tips, it's a great way to encourage yourself to be a screenwriter and realize that, although it may not always be easy, it's quite an adventure.

[Leila Cohan-Miccio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Necessary reading if you want to write TV, recommended for entertainment if you don't.