Showrunning Duncanville & The Simpsons ft. Mike Scully (PT172)

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Alex and Nick invite Mike Scully, executive producer, co-creator, co-showrunner of FOX’s Duncanville, long-time writer/showrunner of The Simpsons, and writer/producer on Parks and Recreation/The Carmichael Show/Everybody Loves Raymond, to learn all about his writing process and running a comedy room.

From staffing a writers’ room and reading samples, to breaking episodes and producing an animated show, we take a deep dive into what goes into creating a comedy series from the inside.

Content

1 – Beginnings, pitching, and becoming a showrunner (00:00:43)
2 – Staffing Duncanville and other writers’ rooms: reading samples, assembling the right staff and advice for showrunner meetings (00:09:19)
3 – The Duncanville & Simpsons rooms and writing process: best practices, format differences, blue-skying, breaking episodes, tone, structure, and character arcs (00:23:53)
4 – Production of Duncanville: animation, department heads, casting and punch-ups (00:40:47)
Final advice, resources, and next week on (01:11:38)

Links

Duncanville on FOX
Mike Scully on Twitter
Everybody Loves Raymond
Parks and Recreation
The Carmichael Show
What a Country!
Out of This World

Resource

“Tinker in Television” – Grant Tinker

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Special thanks to Alex Switzky for helping us edit this episode.

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