Something that came out of a Q&A last night. Lotta people asking "can I become the showrunner first time out?"

Here's the deal, you don't want that job, certainly not alone, 'cause while there's a ton that's artistic, fun & thrilling...it's mostly a MANAGEMENT position. Like...

...what do you do when the set calls and they are two hours behind? Do you tell them to drop a scene or shoot the fourteen hour day? How about when you have two actresses who like to ad lib; one who gives you great stuff and one who... doesn't. Do you go to a "say the...

...lines as is" process or do you try and navigate the politics? How do you find money for that song? Can you steal from the amort budget or maybe you assign a half script to the staff writer, saving 50% of a script fee. When do you start to tell a writer that their work...

...isn't up to snuff. Too early and they start to shut down. Too late and you don't have enough of a track record to let them go at the end of the season. How do you get the studio to embrace a casting choice they don't initially love? Especially if you're new to them and...

...they're new to you? Most writer's got into writing because they HATE numbers and actual conflict and business. The showrunner job is all that and a meeting about "product integration". Take out the stakes and the science and its the same as why you don't want to...

...become an astronaut go into space your first time out. That switch there... either gets you to Mars or causes you to fly straight into the sun. Do you flip it?