Showrunner Transcript: Graham Yost (“Justified”)
In conjunction with the annual broadcast network upfronts, New York magazine is running a series called “Showrunner Transcripts.” We will feature one each day for the next two weeks on GITS. What’s a showrunner? For a primer, you can go here to Wikipedia. The short answer: “The person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television series.” It’s more than just managing a series. Someone has to guarantee to a network they can deliver 12, 22, or however many episodes for which the series is contracted. That’s the bottom line of a showrunner’s reality.
Today: Graham Yost (“Justified”)
What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned, and from whom?
Back in the nineties, I worked on an uncredited rewrite of Operation Dumbo Drop. Denis Leary, Ray Liotta, and Danny Glover were in it. And I remember that the stuff I was writing for Ray Liotta’s character just wasn’t ringing true, and Bob Cort, who was one of the producers, in a gentle way just reminded me: “Never forget that every character is the hero of their own movie, and they have reasons for doing what they’re doing. They don’t wake up in the morning and start twirling their mustache thinking, I want to be a bad guy.” It’s a simple thing, but man, that really struck home and has really paid dividends, especially in a show like this where we have a lot of bad guys and we have to treat them as humanely as possible.
Do you have a showrunner philosophy?
I don’t know if I have one particular philosophy other than set the course, and then we’ll find the way. I don’t have to have everything worked out before we start the writers’ room; I come in with ideas, the other writers come in with ideas, Tim might have an idea or two, as might the studio and the network, but I sort of come up with a basic plan, a guidepost, and try to stay close to that. When Elmore Leonard writes, he doesn’t know where he’s going, and he doesn’t outline. So he just tries to have fun with the characters and what odd things will occur to him, what will surprise him. That said, the other thing, I suppose, is always be looking for the theme of the episode. Sometimes you don’t find it until you’re in your third draft, but then it can inform everything that you’re doing in the episode.
For more of the article, go here.