Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show

“Being a showrunner is utterly consuming. You’re editing and writing and doing a hundred different things at once. It’s draining; it’s awful. I miss it terribly.”
Joss Whedon

For those of us who love television, and especially for those of us who write about it, there are many aspects of the medium we have explored. We have discussed why shows rise and fall; we have discussed the actors who play the roles we tune in to watch every week; we have discussed plot lines and tried to guess where the stories are going. The seminal change in how we discuss television, however, is that we now know who is producing the shows and we follow shows based on where those people we respect and admire turn up.

NewsFlash: Strange(r) Teaser from JJ Abrams?

J.J. Abrams' production company, Bad Robot, released a mysterious teaser on its YouTube channel on Monday. The video is called "Stranger" and is just over a minute long, ending with the tagline "Soon he will know." Although there has been no confirmation from Bad Robot, the internet has decided that we're being teased as part of a promotion for Abrams' upcoming co-written novel, titled S. A Novel.

Newsflash: J.J. Abrams and Star... yes?

So the newest news about the upcoming Star Wars trilogy is that at Episode VII will be directed by none other than Star Trek director J.J. Abrams. As a fan of both franchises I find this to be exciting news... yet I'm also a little conflicted about it as well.

Lost Party: Secrets at the Beach

[Originally published on a now defunct web magazine in April 2005]

On April 16, 2005, a hundred and fifty well-dressed fans congregated at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel to schmooze, talk, and dance with some of the producers, writers, and actors from the television series, Lost. (There was some begging for photos and autographs, too.)