by Darrell L. Hope

(l-r) DGA Third Vice President Paris Barclay and director Bill D'Elia. -(Photo: Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

Not too surprisingly, a growing number people who entered the business as directors are now showrunners. These directors bring their inherent sensibilities to television production, successfully, and quite naturally, filling the gap between director's chair and producer's office. Ally McBeal, ER, Malcolm in the Middle, NYPD Blue, Resurrection Boulevard and The West Wing all have a director as an executive producer.

DGA Magazine recently spoke to several one-hour drama directors who currently straddle these two worlds to find out how it's done and what it brings to the package.

Thomas Schlamme has been both directing and executive producing since he and his writer/producer partner, Aaron Sorkin, developed the critically acclaimed, DGA- and Emmy-winning half-hour comedy series Sports Night. That formula has been continued on the equally acclaimed The West Wing for which Schlamme recently took home the 2000 DGA Dramatic Series Night Award.

"Honestly, if someone asked me what my job description is as showrunner, I would say that I am a partner to someone," Schlamme said. "Aaron and I did Sports Night and the partnership was designed the way a playwright and a theater director work together. We shared that sensibility and felt if we could translate that to television--which had been done in the past, but not very often--how much better it would be for the show. I was there to direct and take the production load off the writer so that the writer's responsibility was writing. This is much more a partnership and I can't say enough how important I think that is for television."

Bill D'Elia was one of this year's DGA Award nominees for his work on Ally McBeal. He is also the recipient of two Emmy Award nominations for his direction of Chicago Hope and McBeal. Of his transformation from strictly directing into showrunning, D'Elia admits that he was initially reluctant. "I was very happy with my directing career in episodic television and a couple of movies for television when I got a call from David E. Kelley asking me to become an executive producer on Chicago Hope. I told him I really wasn't interested, but would talk to him about it. In the discussion I got excited about it and talked myself into a job. Once I conceptualized it, I realized my job as the directing executive producer was to direct a company that had to put on a show every week like a repertory theatre company. I realized I could bring directors in who understood the concept of what we were doing and create an environment for them to do great work. I still see myself as primarily a director and at first I thought the role of executive producer would take me away from that, but in fact, it has only enriched my directing."

Jesús Salvador Treviño, winner of the 1995 DGA Dramatic Shows Daytime Award for Power: The Eddie Matos Story, directed episodic television for years before becoming a showrunner on the Showtime original series, Resurrection Boulevard. "I directed the pilot for the show and then was instrumental in setting the look of the series once we got picked up," Treviño said. "As my role expanded I became co-executive producer. My contributions have more to do with establishing the show's visual look and making sure we have a good team of directors that help continue those elements."

Director Mark Tinker

After working as a guest director, Paris Barclay was asked to stay on as first a producer, then a supervising producer on NYPD Blue, where his directing work garnered two Emmys and one DGA award. He then became the co-executive producer, co-creator and principal director of City of Angels before moving on to co-executive produce The Big Time, a new drama series scheduled to premiere next season on TNT. Fresh off a DGA nomination for his work on The West Wing, and prepping to shoot the pilot for The Big Time, Barclay, recalled his initial foray into showrunning on NYPD Blue. "I met Michael Robin and Mark Tinker, who really taught me not only how to direct a successful, on-going show, but how a director can work as a producer. As it happened, Robin left the show to develop other projects, and I was offered his position and jumped at it. I learned everything from budgeting, to casting, to building a crew, to choosing directors. I basically learned from them, on the job."

Barclay's experience isn't unique. Several of the directors who are now in showrunner positions point back to other directors who showed them the tricks of the trade.

"I thought Michael Pressman did a superb job running Picket Fences and so he was a bit of a mentor for me," D'Elia said. "So I took the best of some of the shows I had directed and the worst of some of the shows that I had directed. There were shows I worked on where I was pretty much left alone to figure it out for myself, and little to no support for what I was attempting to do, then there were other shows where I felt they really let a director do what he does best. I took all of that experience and came up with my own point of view."

"When Mimi Leder brought me on during the first year of ER, she said, 'We've seen your work, we like what you do, you know what the show is, now go do it the way you'd want

to do it and stay within the framework of the show,'" Schlamme recalled. "It was very liberating and exciting. It's what I try to do here."

"My idea of a great director/showrunner is Bill D'Elia," Treviño said. "I've modeled a lot of my approach on the way he's done things because he has a lot of experience and a really deft hand at how he makes his presence known in a very respectful way to his fellow directors. There are others who have a similar approach. The advantage is it frees the writer/producers to spend more time on the material."

That is one of the strongest arguments for the director/showrunner position. By having someone with directing experience in that position, it not only takes the production toll off the writer/producers, but avoids the dreaded "traffic cop" scenario some directors have encountered on sets where there was no director/showrunner.

Director Jesús Treviño. (Photo: Holly Stein)

"When we read a draft of a script we give our notes on a creative level and on a production level," Tinker said. "We'll offer up what areas we think are problematic and offer solutions, such as if there are too many sets or too large a cast. That's where having a director in this position becomes really invaluable to a production because that's where you save the money, that's where you save the time and go to the heart of a matter instead of dancing around and trying to figure out what's causing the problem."

A fine line that director showrunners have to tread is gauging how much creative freedom the guest directors can have with their episodes, while still maintaining the look of the series.

"On the best TV shows there is a tone that is established and you must be true to that tone," D'Elia said. "My job is to make sure that tone is translated to the floor. On the other hand the best directors have strong points of view. So if you take a really good director with a POV on a particular episode and a series with very specific tone, it can be a great marriage if you allow it to grow from there. When a director comes in for the first time, I do my rundown of every actor, all the key personnel on the crew and what to expect in the course of a prep day and a shoot day and what some of the pitfalls are. I try to fill the director with everything I know about directing this show and allow them, within the confines of the show's tone, to direct the show that they want to direct and use me as a sounding board on whatever they think might be too outrageous. And when it comes to the shoot day, I try to leave them on their own but be there for them in support. My belief is that everybody does their best work when they're in a comfortable supportive environment and that's what I want to provide. I'm only down on the set if I have the time, and it's a nice place for me to go, or if there's a particular problem that I need to help resolve. Other than that I've got plenty to do as an executive producer and what I really want is a director who will take control and do the job and get it done because it makes my life so much easier. I never liked it when a producer came down to me to try talk to me about how to make my day, because I know my day, so I don't engage in a lot of that. I hire the right people and let them do their job."

On the subject of set visits, "It depends on the show," Barclay said. "The newer the show is, the more involved you have to be. I'm on the set a lot then. On an established drama like NYPD Blue, all the producers would come to rehearsals, and not hang around too much, unless the director was new or wanted our support to deal with a cast or crew issue. I watch the dailies pretty closely for the first couple of days, and if the show looks like a well-crafted episode of our series, I shift my focus to prepping the next director. The more time you spend with a director in prep, the less time you have to spend hovering around, wondering if they're doing what they're supposed to be doing."

A director who hasn't ever done the show before, I'll visit a lot, but I won't be there through a whole scene ever," Schlamme said. "I'll see the first camera rehearsal and really try to be a guide. It seems that everybody has used me to their advantage and many of the directors have asked me to come by and make sure they were in the ballpark. When I would direct, if somebody had been there before me who knew what the obstacles facing me in a scene were, it was a big gift. If somebody has directed the show a few times and has delivered some great shows, then I go just to entertain myself and learn. That's the great thing about getting to watch other directors direct. There's always new stuff that you're learning and seeing how other people confront problems. I went to a recent DGA breakfast for hour directors and many of the younger directors were confused about how much control they had and felt that some executive producers would just take over. If that's happening, I think either you're not working for the right people, or you don't know how to seize the opportunity. When a director comes in here and has read the script more than anybody else and has an incredible idea of what they want to do and is completely truthful to the show, I will acquiesce as much power as I can and I don't know anyone in my position who doesn't feel that way. You desperately want people to succeed. The plate is full enough."

Director Thomas Schlamme (Photo: Robert Hale)

As for conflict resolution with visiting directors, "Push has never come to shove, but there have been times when I've had to say to someone 'you can't do it that way because we just don't do it that way,'" Tinker said. "Nine times out of ten that person isn't going to come back, and more power to their own vision, but you don't deliver a Buick when people have asked you to build a Chevy."

"However, you don't want to put creative shackles on a director," Treviño said. "You want to have them feel that they can contribute and do innovative things that are going to make the show better. If you don't do that, then you're only as good as the vision you had before going into the directing. That totally disrespects the kind of contributions that a good director will bring to a project."

One of the perks of being the showrunning director is getting to pick which episodes they will personally direct.

Schlamme prefers to direct the season openers and finales. Tinker likes to pick a number at the top of the year and spread it out. "It helps to maintain a continuity and direction for the crew and the actors when they're able to know what to expect, and don't have to learn a new way of communicating with a new director. For better or worse, with me they know what they'll get."

"When I did that first year of executive producing on Chicago Hope, I directed six episodes that season and it damned near killed me to do that and executive produce at the same time," D'Elia said. "I've since learned that the most I can do is four, so I do the season premiere and the finale and try to pick two that won't be too grueling. But I miss being on the floor as a director and that's the downside of the job and probably why I resisted doing it for so long."

All the showrunning directors interviewed believe that television would be better if there were more DGA members in that position.

"It makes so much more sense to the creative process and I believe it enhances the project's chances for success," Schlamme said. "I think the studios should not only be making over all deals with writer/creators but also director/creators."

"It's an extremely important job and I don't know what the Guild can do to further promote this idea," D'Elia said. "I thought that the better shows always had a guy like me, but that's not the case. You need someone to share the vision and follow it through to the floor. There's a perception that episodic directors are traffic cops, guys who come in to do the executive producer's bidding and that's far from the truth. An executive producer like me, if he's doing his job right, is bringing in people and allowing them to do their work. These people are extremely talented directors and need to be recognized as that. If the DGA can do anything to promote that image it would be great because that image of the television director as a traffic cop for the writers is a false one."

Schlamme believes that the idea of television being a medium for writers is a notion that grew from the days of radio. "It was sort of left over because in the early days, the art of directing television was basically recording it. As television grew up it became more and more sophisticated and the idea of true collaborators became more and more of a need. We have people like Todd Holland, who's very involved in Malcolm in the Middle and Jimmy Burrows in pretty much all the shows he does. They're prototypes for it and hopefully there will be a lot more. It's something I've talked to the Guild and other director members about because as you begin to step in that position it helps in many ways. It helps the creativity of a TV show, and define the responsibilities of a director. I can be far more sensitive and aware of the process a director goes through when he comes in here than would be a writer/creator who's the sole showrunner."

Barclay notes that, though still not the norm, having a directing showrunner is a trend that is definitely growing in appeal. "Almost all the major drama series and comedies have learned that a principal director who is also a producer is an enormous asset to keeping a show together. The best series have gotten hip to the idea that directors are usually pretty good at organizing, scheduling and keeping a show together. This is not a natural skill for most writers, although there are exceptions. Ten or twenty years ago, it was much more rare. Writers really wanted to run the show, and were less likely to see directors as real partners. Even DGA past president Gene Reynolds, a critical force in the creation of Room 222, never was acknowledged as a co-creator and true partner. But times are changing. Eventually, more DGA members will be recognized as show creators as well as showrunners, which will be good for the overall industry."

Table of Contents   Top of Page