Showrunner Transcript: Vince Gilligan (“Breaking Bad”)
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: Vince Gilligan (“Breaking Bad”)
Are you a control freak or a collaborator?
I’d like to think I’m a collaborator, but the people I work with probably think I’m a control freak. But the most honest answer is, I’m a bit of both and the ratio between the two changes at any given moment. I know in my heart that collaboration allows us to put the best possible work on TV, and that left to my own devices I couldn’t put on a show that’s a fraction as good as Breaking Bad is. But I don’t think you wind up in this job if you don’t have a bit of obsessive-compulsiveness in your nature.
What show do you wish you had created?
The Twilight Zone, and I wish Rod Serling hadn’t died so young. That’s a man I truly would love to have met. He was the first showrunner whose name the country at large actually knew. Or The Andy Griffith Show, which I think holds up to this day. A wonderful show, and it puts me in a good mood every time I watch it. Also SpongeBob SquarePants. I watch that any chance I get.
For more of the article, go here.