Brooks and Reiner

Abbott and Costello

Martin and Lewis

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Troy and Abed

And then there’s…

|Gans&Register|

Rolls perfectly off the tongue, doesn’t it?

I know what you might be thinking, “Wow. High bar for two people I’ve never heard of before.”

I know. I’m comparing them to some pretty epic legends because with all of these examples, there is a yin to their yang. For me, they share a space and energy that lies within these greats. They’re passionate about what they do and when you’re in a room with G&R, that passion is contagious. Many a writer rooms and development execs would agree with me that there is something magical about them.

I first met this dynamic duo when I did a friend a favor and took them out to dinner when they came to L.A. (from NY) for a tour of general meetings. The dinner turned out to be the meal of all meals. My Dinner with Andre comes to mind. Several hours later it was solidified: We were headed toward a long lasting friendship.

CUT TO:  two + decades later.

During dinner, they expressed an interest in segueing into live action. I told them about a film I had seen and how I wanted to develop a version of it as a TV show. Not long after, they came back to me with a take I absolutely fell in love with… We pitched it to UPN (now known as the CW) and ended up selling it. That’s how special they are… their FIRST TIME out of the gate, a sale was made. And that was just the beginning of our working relationship.

Between their experience in various mediums… stage, animation, tv… I thought G&R would feed us a colorful, engaging picture into all things creative and I was not disappointed.

RS: What made you both think you’d make good writing partners? 

MG: Who knows what makes us good writing partners? We have similar esthetics, but we bring different things to the table.

On Partnership:

We will beat each other to death in the quest for the most truthful version of the story. And the truth is apparent to both of us once it rears its head.

We are willing to really argue until we find the truth and over the course of our years together, neither one of us has actually ended up taking offense to anything that happened during that fight – and that’s what makes us good partners. We will beat each other to death in the quest for the most truthful version of the story.

RR: Right. And the truth is apparent to both of us once it rears its head.

RS: Who approached who?

MG: I approached Richard three times. He doesn’t remember but it was three different times. I even left Broadway and took a job at an all-night, East Village greasy spoon that he worked at to make sure we worked together.

RS: Do you remember where you were when you had that first conversation? To be partners? 

MG: We were in Orlando…

RR: On the Fruitopia Tour…

MG: A cross-country tour paid for by a big soft drink company. The soft drink was disgusting – the money was excellent.

RR: We were at a place called THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE, a gay hotel in Orlando, on a comedy tour, but performing on and off together, not performing as a team all the time.

MG: They were blowing up buildings for LETHAL WEAPON 3 or something, nearby, in downtown Orlando, old buildings were being blown up and we could hear explosions in the distance and we were making up a comedy bit on the terraces of this weird gay motel, just for fun, and we said, “Oh, we’re having more fun and making more money on this tour than we’ve ever made before, we’ll probably make more money doing this together than apart. Let’s do that.”

RR: Right.

MG: We were wrong. They split a writing team’s salary in television and ever since then we’ve had to split a salary.

RS: How does your process work? Did you have to set up any rules with each other — to stave off any unnecessary conflicts?

MG: We probably should’ve, but no we did not set up any rules.

RR: No, we don’t have any rules, we just argue about everything.

Helpful, Pragmatic Rule:

The only rule we have, to dispel confusion with our other partners, is that one of us is the primary communicator for all calls and notes. That way we never send conflicting messages.

MG: The only rule we have, to dispel confusion with our other partners, is that one of us is the primary communicator for all calls and communications and notes. One person sends the emails and that is Richard. So, we talk it out, we decide what the communication will be, we compose it together but all responses and communication go through Richard’s email unless a unique situation arises. That way we never send conflicting messages.

RS: What was the hardest part to master — writing as a team?

MG: You have to respect the other person’s thoughts and you have to know that your brain is only as big as your partnership with other brains. Let’s say you’re Einstein smart, you’re only as smart as you are as Einstein. You have to take in other people’s theories to have a really big brain. Our ideas and our thoughts will be better by having other thoughts engage with ours. Not eschewing the other person’s point of view.

RR: So, the hardest part to master is realizing that.

RS: Who has the final say when it looks like you’re both adamant about a turn in story or have a strong POV when it comes to character or a world your building?

MG: The world has the final say. The truth of the material and the quality of the story or the joke has the final say.

RR: And we both know when we hit that.

MG: And there’s never a question. The question of how you become a good partner is you’re lucky.

RR: You’re very lucky.

MG: Because you don’t disagree on the truth. 

RR: Because the best thing always wins.

MG: We both agree on the thing by the end of the conversation and it’s surprisingly impossible to escape that.

RR: No one has final say.

RS: What’s the biggest conflict you’ve endured as a team and how did you work through it?

RR: That is on a need-to-know basis.

MG: Sorry… That’s in OUR book.

On keeping each other motivated:

Food is the thing. And the fear of becoming obsolete and no one knowing your name.

RS: How do you keep each other motivated?

MG: Food. Mostly food. Buying lunches, fancy dinners, expensive food… and well-cooked food.

RR: If we get together for food, then we’ll do it.

MG: Food is the thing. And the quality of work. And the fear of becoming obsolete and no one knowing your name.   

RS: Has there ever been a time when you’ve wanted to do solo projects — not break up as a team, but rather go solo on a thing or two you’re individually passionate about?

MG: All the time, but we work too much on Gans & Register stuff to ever have the opportunity to do anything else.

RS: Do you have a favorite genre? If so, what about it makes it your favorite?

MG: Shakespeare is probably both of our favorite.

RR: Oh yes. We adore Shakespeare.

MG: We both have a natural affinity for Shakespeare’s work and every incarnation of it is interesting to us. The diversity of the material is just fascinating, the variation in plot and storytelling, the humanity of the characters, the quality of work as regards to motivation and emotional reality is unparalleled… we both talk about it a lot.

RR: It always feeds us.

MG: Otherwise, Coen Brother’s, maybe? John Waters?

RR: Hitchcock? We don’t have a favorite anything…

MG: Tina Fey, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

RR: We love everything. If it’s good it’s good. Whatever genre it is.

RS: If you had to choose a medium for eternity, what would you choose? Theatre? TV? Film?

MG: We would choose not to choose. I hate that question because I think the misery of my life is that I did choose and I hate it. Honest. That’s the honest answer. I don’t hate television but I hate that I’m only doing television.

RR: Yes. We hate that we’re only doing television.

MG: I don’t believe in choosing a medium.

RR: Personally, if I had nothing else, I would rather do theatre for the rest of my life.

MG: I would like to do theatre, I just hate that I don’t do all of it.

RR: Yes. We love all of it.

RS: What’s a show you wish you’d created?

RR: VEEP. 30 ROCK.

MG: I definitely wish that I’d created FLEABAG. Um… SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, honestly…

RR: Drama… as far as hour long… I don’t know…

MG: Well, GAME OF THRONES. And SOPRANOS is remarkable television. And I would have loved to have created that because I’m from Jersey so that has a lot of meaning to me. I wish that I had created all the brilliant television shows that we have created but were never made. I wish that someone would just wake up to the fact that the best television is in our computers.

RR: We have several pilots that are the best television ever made.

RS: What did you learn when on a writing staff that in turn then helped you when it was your time to run a room?

MG: Uh, so much it’s nearly impossible to talk about, but mostly consciousness of the final story. How to marry storylines together into one episode. How to think of them individually and then marry them together. There’s a very particular pattern where you find the A, B and C story, the runner, then take the A story as your lead.

Most important lesson(s) in a writer’s room:

How to marry storylines together into one episode, how to be generous to other writers and how to perpetually feed creativity.

How many days does it take for the A story to happen in the course of your episode? If it’s a two-day story then everything else has to be submissive to that. The rest of the stories have to fit into that period of time. If it’s one night A-story, all of it has to fit into one night and if it doesn’t you have to sacrifice it. Everything is submissive to the most powerful storyline and that is the A storyline. And that’s what I learned in rooms.

RR: Yes. That’s very true.

MG: And how to be generous to the other writers. How to open people up and get them talking. Most importantly how to make people not be afraid but to feel excited.

RR: How to perpetually feed creativity.

RS: If you didn’t write, what would you do? And would you do it as a team or go your own way?

MG: That question is impossible to answer. If I thought about it I would just be sad and crying about it for hours and hours. 

RR: We would be actors.

MG: We would be poor.

RS: Have you had mentors and if so, what was your favorite piece of advice? 

MG: Greer Shephard was a great mentor of ours and the great piece of advice she had for us was the element of zeitgeist – to be conscious of how to take your story from the world and then be conscious of its meaning in the context of the zeitgeist. Listen to the world and be conscious of the world while you’re telling your story.

On Favorite Pieces of Advice:

Trust your instincts. Be conscious of the zeitgiest. Be efficient and practical in the writing, but also emotionally connected. Listen.

If I said that to her she’d say, “What are you talking about? I never said that.” But while working with her, we found that. While working with her and with you, Rebecca Stay.

RR: Yes. It was Greer and Rebecca.

MG: And also, Alana Sanko, while we were working on SPY GROOVE, the first show we created, Alana said a lot of wise things to us, among them was this, “Trust yourselves. Trust your instincts. You’re good.” And “Don’t show your hand in the early drafts.”

Also, Emily Whitesell, on SIREN. She was very efficient and practical about the story building process, but you also felt she was emotionally connected to the show, the characters and their stories. So, there was this perfect, passionate connection to the show and an ability to be critical and pick on stories without it being personal. And that’s very important.

Actually, we have had nothing but mentors. There are DPs that have been mentors to us, showrunners, directors, other writers, actors who educated us on things. The entire business has been a mentor to us.

RR: That’s one thing I really love about television in particular is that there is a tradition of mentoring.

MG: Also, you really just need to listen. Listen to the people you work with from the grip to the makeup trailer, to actor to movie star to DP to director – you will learn a lot from all of them. You need to constantly listen forever and ever.

RS: What piece of advice would you tell those just starting out? (Especially those that work with a partner). 

MG: Recognize that you are very lucky to have found a partner to work with.

RR: Yes. If you’ve found a partner, that’s lightning in a bottle.

MG: And if it doesn’t work? Do not waste any time.

RR: Yeah. Don’t do it.

MG: If you’re having to make it work or you’re dishonest to that other person… if the meeting of the minds is not entirely honest when it comes to the writing then there’s no reason to do it. You should maintain perfect honesty if you’re working with a partner – not just someone you’re doing a script with – but someone you’re going to partner up with, you have to be honest about the art. You don’t have to agree, but you have to be honest.

RS: We’re working in a very over-saturated market, which makes it much harder to break through and sell. Do you feel optimistic as far as where we’re headed in the industry or frustratingly challenged or inspired by the challenge? 

MG: Uh… all the above.

RR: There’s so much more content in the industry currently so there seems like there’s so much more opportunity, which there is to a degree, and that’s very inspiring in some ways, but it seems like it’s trickier to sell a show these days.

MG: I think it’s scarier for executives to make a choice because of the great behemoth amount of content which is so varied. There are tiny successes, huge successes, niche successes, all genres happening on all platforms in all seasons. I think it’s harder for them to really stick with what they want personally because they are told to buy a different trend of thing every five weeks. So, that’s a bit daunting.

RR: The type of content that is out there today, the diversity, that’s amazing. Better than it’s ever been in television.

RS: If you could have an honest conversation with a TV executive, what questions are you dying to ask? 

RR: Why are you doing this? How do you find purpose?

MG: Can’t you just find some money and say yes? The question is: Are you compelled to lie or are you telling the truth with regard to projects you pass on?

RR: Just kidding, we would ask, “What do you need?”

MG: Every executive is different so there is no burning question that we would ask them all. We don’t look at executives as mysterious figures that we struggle to understand.

RR: We look at them as partners.

RS: One of my favorite things you’ve created, was taking Kevin Williamson’s cult fave film (or is it “iconic”?), SCREAM, and making it into an unauthorized musical, which then led to the two of you becoming showrunners on the actual tv show. What inspired the two of you to do this? 

MG: The two projects are not connected. One was not responsible for the other. But we have a passion and a great knowledge of the original movie which benefitted us in both projects. MTV and The Weinstein Company didn’t even know that we had done the musical version of SCREAM when they called us in to do the TV series. They called us in off of our television credits. We told them we had created a musical version and they thought we were crazy people.

But our engagement with the property of SCREAM began when we were working as a comedy duo in NYC. Someone said we should see this movie because it seemed like something we would write. We loved scary movies, so we went to see it and realized that the characters and the structure were laid out just like in the classic musical, OKLAHOMA. The characters fit into a musical paradigm and the movie itself was well scored and it lent itself to platforms for musical numbers.

There was an ability to place a number where it belonged in the classic structure of a musical and you could look at it and say Sidney is Laurie, Billy is Curley, Tatum is Ado Annie and she fits the character of Ado Annie. They all fit their counterparts in OKLAHOMA. Stu is Will and Randy is Alley Hackim, Gale Weathers is Aunt Eller and Dewey is Ike Skidmore. And then there’s a chorus because it takes place at a high school town.

RR: The emotional stakes are big – big enough to sing about.

MG: The structure of the plot supports song placement. Song placement is what makes a good musical. Looking at that movie we saw that it had the perfect emotional structure for becoming a musical. We had approached the Weinstein Company to do a musical version of it on Broadway many years ago but then the company flew into pieces and changed names… but that was years before we did SCREAM: The Unauthorized Musical Parody. So, by the time (we were) approached to do something we already had SCREAM all worked out.

RR: There was actually a time when we were working on SCREAM the TV show during the day and performing SCREAM the musical at night.

RS: Do you ever think of creating a podcast? If so, would it be fiction or non-fiction? What would it be about? 

MG: We constantly think of creating a podcast and in the fiction category. We’d probably do a murder show. Or an artificial history show where you tell the history of something but it’s a complete lie. It would sound like the real history of President Truman but it’s not at all true.

RR: There’s a couple pilots that we think we should just turn into radio play/podcasts.

RS: Where would the ideal place be for a writer’s retreat?

RR: La Quinta resort in La Quinta, CA.

MG: It’s where Frank Capra used to go to write. It’s been a great retreat for Hollywood people to go and write. It’s a very weird and old school, Palm Springs kind of place with private pools and the rooms are like you are at your grandmother’s house but it has FANTASTIC restaurants.  

RS: If you could choose to live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

MG: New Jersey, because it has many beautiful houses and a beach. 

RR: I have a fantasy of retiring to Puerto Vallarta, but I’ve never even been there. I mean I’d love to live in Paris. I’d love to live in a lot of places.

RS: Share your favorite quote. 

RR: Well, there are so many quotes…

Michael’s Favorite Quote:

Illegitimi non carborundum: “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”

MG: “Illegitimi non carborundum.” It means, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” My husband was in a play called DIRTY BLONDE, written by Claudia Shear and I loved this line. It’s mock Latin, but it hits the mark and I always quote it to myself.

RR: I mean I’ve always loved, “Sometimes there’s god… so quickly” from A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE.”

MG: You are such an interesting person because that is the ramblings of an insane person.

RR: It’s an amazing quote.

MG: It’s an amazing quote but she’s out of her mind …

Richard’s Favorite Quote:

Shakespeare’s Ophelia: “Oh, woe is me to have seen what I have seen… see what I see.”

RR: Yeah, she’s out of her mind. There’s 8,000 Shakespeare quotes but one that always comes to mind as one of my favorites – because it’s so fucking simple – is when Ophelia says, “Oh, woe is me to have seen what I have seen… see what I see.”

MG: And, this two-character exchange, but from MACBETH; Macbeth asks, “And if we fail?” and Lady Macbeth responds, “We fail…” The simpler shit is what we love the most.

RS: Favorite foreign film and why?

MG: MY MOTHER’S CASTLE, a Marcel Pagnol story… because it’s nostalgic and it’s a long beautiful story about love and respect. Also, because it’s a movie I went to see with my husband when we first got together. It’s very important to me.

RR: Again. So many. I mean we love the 80s, French film MENAGE. I also love an old Almodovar film, MATADOR because when I saw it, it was so insane that it blew my brain apart. I adored it to no end.

RS: If someone asked you to do a TikTok video, what would you be tempted to do?

MG: An old simultaneous talking bit we used to do as comedians. Our act falls apart before your eyes and we begin a huge argument and before you know it we are yelling at each other and saying exactly the same thing at the top of our lungs in perfect unison.

RR: Yeah, we can’t get out of talking simultaneously.  

RS: The motto you live by is…?

MG: Yeah… we need mottos. (to RR) I mean you kind of have a “I don’t give a shit what you think” thing that you live by.

RR: I kind of do… to degrees. Your motto is… you always look for the real part of somebody.

MG: Yes. I want the truth. That’s my motto. My motto is “I want the truth of any given circumstance.” I don’t want a lie and I don’t want a fancy story. I don’t care how pretty you make a story, I want to know the truth. In life. I want the honest circumstance from an honest person. So, I would say… “Give me the truth or shut up.”

RS: If/When it’s time to retire, do you think you’d continue to talk every day? What would you miss about the other?

MG: We’d definitely talk every day.

RR: If we’re not writing, we’ll still be hanging out and…

MG: Yeah… it’s not going to end.  

RS: What’s next for Gans & Register? 

MG: We’re in the middle of developing several projects. We’d like to do a stage show again.

RR: We’d love to do a stage show again. But we have three TV things in development.

MG: There’s a really cool murder-mystery-musical thing we developed with Mila Kunis and Adam Shankman, a crime story told out of sequence that we really love and we’d really love to do that particular show. That’s really cool.

And there you have it. The grand and rambunctious duo, Gans and Register. I’m hoping to work with them again one day in the not too distant future. Maybe a remake of the film, Withnail and I or their version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

I’ve planted two seeds, G&R — now off you go to mull away.

For more Q&A’s, go to: https://rebecca-stay.com/blog

Bio: 

MICHAEL GANS and RICHARD REGISTER are Creator/EP Showrunners in TV and Writer, Director, Performers in theater. They started their career as a comedy duo act during the NYC alternative comedy wave in the late 90s. They are best known for their EP/Showrunning stint on SCREAM: THE TV SERIES, Season 2 (MTV), as EPs on SIREN (HULU/FREEFORM) and Writers on MAKE IT OR BREAK IT and RECOVERY ROAD (ABC Family). Their television careers started at MTV Animation as creators and many voices of SPY GROOVE and as writers for CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH. Their first live-action, hour long drama was as Creators on SEX, LOVE AND SECRETS (UPN). They have sold over 17 television pilots all to major studios.