|Austen.Earl|
I met Austen several years back when I was President of FourBoys TV and he was knee deep into production with his CBS show, Happy Together. Patricia (Heaton) and I met him for a general meeting given they both had overall deals at CBS Studios. We wanted to see if there was something we could all work on together. We hit it off immediately — and born out of that first meeting was our mutual love of ancestry and so, we started down the development road working on a half hour idea called, Linda of Liechtenstein. LOL… at least for me.
We never got the chance to fully explore this seedling because Patricia’s show, Carol’s Second Act got picked up by CBS and Austen went on to sell about a zillion other projects. His latest is the feature, About My Father starring Sebastian Maniscalco and Robert De Niro.
I hope for a day when we can resuscitate Linda, but in the meantime… Who is Austen Earl?
Austen is kind, honest, and incredibly gifted. I’m grateful to him for carving out time from his crazy schedule to have a conversation with me. He shares some great takeaways, his process and how zero days can be restorative.
RS: Describe yourself in five words.
AE: ANXIOUS, DRIVEN, EMPATHETIC , NEUROTIC, PASSIONATE.
RS: You’ve sold multiple projects in the last few years. What makes your pitches successful? What are the special ingredients?
AE: I like to find a fun premise that sounds exciting in a logline, and then build it with a foundation I like to call an “emotional bottom.” While I realize this term may sound straight out of the personals section on Craigslist, it’s the most important part because people want their shows to be about something.
Austen:
People want their show to be about something.
For example, take the comedy I co-created for CBS (HAPPY TOGETHER). That show was based on the real-life story of the pop star Harry Styles deciding to forgo his superstar lifestyle to live in his friend’s attic guest room, which definitely made for a fun logline. However, it wasn’t the most relatable of situations. So, for the emotional bottom, we focused on the couple who hosted the pop star.
They were at that point a lot of married couples find themselves about ten years into marriage, where they’re in danger of losing that spark that once made them a fun and sexy couple. So, while the poster was about a seemingly dull couple hosting a celeb, the show was about a couple trying to keep the magic alive for the amazing person they married.
RS: When ideas are percolating, how much do you take into account what the buyer’s “mandates” are?
AE: Very little. There’s so much turnover at these networks that those mandates change every day and you’ll kill yourself trying to chase them. I like to come up with the best idea I can and then assume there’s a good home for it. Oftentimes, the place where I was hoping to sell my show ends up not being its final home and I’d prefer to win or lose with my favorite version of an idea vs a version of the idea I created to predict what other people might want.
RS: Once you get started, how long does it take you from start to finish? For a pitch? An outline? A draft?
AE: It honestly varies so much depending on the project. I recently sold a movie to Lionsgate starring a well-known actor. It started over Thanksgiving with me receiving a text from the manager asking if I had any romcom ideas. I pitched an idea to her, met with the actor, wrote up the idea, then wrote the pitch and sold it by February. At the same time, I have a TV comedy pilot at FX that I sold in the summer of 2019 and it took over nine months for the deal to close, six more months for me to write the outline, and I currently owe them a third draft almost two years later.
In general, if the idea is good the pitch should come together quickly. The hardest part for me is always going from sold idea to figuring out what the best idea is for a pilot that distills the larger pitch down into one awesome episode. If you can get past that part, and take the time to figure that out and outline it well, writing the script should come fairly easily!
RS: What does a typical writing day look like for you? Certain hours? Amount of time? Is there a certain place (when not in production) where you like to write?
AE: I’m a guy who likes to have a lot of irons in the fire. Yes, because I like to be busy, but more so the sting of possible defeat doesn’t hurt as badly because I know I have other things brewing. So, a typical day for me varies. I like to write out a schedule the night before I’m going to work so I can try to focus.
Typical days might include: Finish outline for one project, practice pitch for another, Zoom call for notes on a third. Other days I will solely focus on writing one act of one script. Some days I will read a book that relates to the idea I’m working on. Other days, I’ll do absolutely nothing but finish up errands, random phone calls, and go deep on TikTok. Long distance trail hikers refer to those as “Zero Days” and when used sparingly they can be restorative!
RS: What are some of your idiosyncrasies — as far as your process?
AE: I have a personal theory that whatever I do first thing in the day will be the best thing I’ll do all day – whether it’s writing, jogging, playing with my kids, whatever. So, when I have something I really want to nail, I like to get up super early to just focus on that. When the sun is just entering the sky, I like to call that hour “Outline O’Clock” because I’m up and usually challenging myself to go crush something like an outline.
RS: As a showrunner, what do you feel your strengths are and what are your weaknesses?
AE: My greatest strength as a showrunner is organization. On our CBS show, which was a multi-cam, we never ordered dinner as a staff. I like to brag about that, and often do, but we also didn’t get a second season so maybe I should shut the hell up. My greatest weakness is sitting in the room and fielding pitches from all the writers, especially during a group write. I just feel too awkward about making decisions with all those eyes on me.
Austen:
Knowing your weaknesses is just as important as knowing your strengths.
I prefer to trust someone else to run the room while I use my energy in other places, be that editing, rewriting, or breaking future stories.
RS: When taking notes from a network or studio, how do you go about addressing those notes? Do you pick and choose your battles carefully?
AE: I have struggled mightily with this in the past, as I don’t totally trust the process of using testing data, etc. to drive notes. If testing worked, why do most shows fail?! Anyway, as I’ve matured (have I though?), I’ve started trying to remind myself that 15 years ago, I would’ve KILLED to get my stuff read by these studios and networks and now I get that opportunity all the time. At the end of the day, everyone is just trying to do their own job as best they can and I genuinely believe that very few people have truly evil intent with their notes.
So, yes, pick and choose your battles. For the most part, even if you don’t end up doing a note, just think about it for a while, because nine times out of ten they end up helping you improve your project. And fighting them, especially in real time, is a waste of energy and goodwill.
RS: For those first time staffers on a show who might not understand why their drafts are getting severely rewritten, what’s your advice to them on how to handle that process?
AE: Someone from the show, NEW GIRL once said (paraphrasing here) “being sent off to script is the fastest journey from being home and thinking ‘oh my god I’m such a fraud’ to being back in the room and thinking ‘if they change one more word I’m leaving Hollywood’.” It’s so true. And I wish I could say there was an easy way to get through this.
Austen:
In reality, there are things happening in the show and the script that you could never have predicted while you were home and usually people are just seeing it now.
It’s almost never personal and you just have to dig deep, run to the bathroom to cry if you have to, and accept that this is the process. If you don’t want to do work in a group, it’s probably best to go write novels?
I will say that on my shows, I’ve stopped sending people home to write scripts and instead prefer to divide up outlines and group write the scripts in our offices, then we all rewrite them together. For me, it removes that feeling of personal responsibility that leads to so much pain and instead keeps everyone in a team mindset. But that’s just my personal choice as a showrunner. If you’re still struggling, I might also suggest a prescription pill in the anti-anxiety department.
RS: What advice did you receive early on?
AE: Two mentors of mine gave me great advice that I always try to pass on to new writers. The first was Tad Quill (Scrubs, Bent, Angel From Hell, The Moody’s) when I got my first staff job. He said, “As a staff writer, try to never be the big idea ‘but what if’ person who blows up stories. Leave that to the upper levels. Even if you think an idea is the worst thing you’ve ever heard, just keep pitching in support of it. And if you have what you think is a solution or better idea, wait until someone else points out the problem, then swoop in with your fix like a G-D hero.”
The second piece was from Greg Garcia (My Name is Earl, Yes, Dear, Raising Hope, The Guest Book): “Treat every job you have like an interview for the next one.” His point is most shows will fail. You will want to get hired by these people for the next one. So, act like it.
Austen:
Treat every job you have like an interview for the next one.His point is most shows will fail. You will want to get hired by these people for the next one. So, act like it.
RS: Do you think zoom rooms will become a permanent fixture in the way a writer’s room works? If they continue, would you consider staffing a writer in a different state?
AE: It would depend on the show. Network comedies, probably not because you have to be there writing while you’re in production. Other shows, I would be open to it because I also don’t want to live in LA for the rest of my life either!
RS: Why do some comedy rooms go late into the night, work weekends, etc. while others only do so occasionally?
AE: It’s all about time management. I feel like so many shows waste their initial weeks of preproduction by doing bonding exercises like trust falls, long lunches, and early nights. You gotta get ahead on stories so fast or you’ll spend the rest of the time falling behind. There are so many other reasons too – testing results, notes, difficult actors – but to quote the WGA’s Showrunner Training Program, focus on “Quality Scripts On Time.”
RS: When you read writers for staffing, what do you look for?
Austen:
I love scripts that are personal and very reflective of the writer.
AE: Like, if you were born on an oil rig in Northern Canada, I want to know that so I know a bit about your life before you even enter the room. Also, I like to fill up the room with people from different walks of life, so it’s nice to read samples that help drive toward that. I also love to hear good things from your previous colleagues. Not at Taco Bell. I’m talking about other shows.
RS: What’s the best part of the writing process for you?
AE: My favorite part is going back in after I’ve finished a first draft. Writing the original draft is so hard and I like being at the place where I’m just trying to make it better!
RS: Last question. What’s a series out there you wish you created? That sums up your style and your humor?
AE: My style is all over the place but shows I’ll say that for are “Catastrophe,” “Roseanne” and “The Inbetweeners.”
And there you have it. Some amazing insights from the Awesome Austen Earl.
Trailer link to the film: About My Father: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txLSE7tpgr0
If you enjoyed this post, you might like: https://rebecca-stay.com/sheryl-j-anderson-finding-success-in-a-genre-were-all-hungry-for
Bio:
Hailing from the great state of Vermont, Austen Earl is under an over all deal with ABC Signature, where he has five pilots in development (one for FX, Disney+, Peacock, and two others for the studio) and is currently attached to showrun the show ADOPTED, written by Jimmy Kimmel, Shawn Vance, and Daril Fanin. Before that, he co-created and ran HAPPY TOGETHER starring Damon Wayans Jr. and Amber Stevens-West for CBS. Previous staffing credits include 9JKL, THE GREAT INDOORS, ANGEL FROM HELL, THE CARMICHAEL SHOW, THE MILLERS, and UP ALL NIGHT. On the feature film side, Austen also has a movie in production at Lionsgate centered around comedian SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO (with whom he also shot a TV pilot for NBC in 2016) and another romcom in development that is starring VINCE VAUGHN.