James Parriott

James Parriott is a writer and showrunner whose credits include Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Sons of Anarchy and many more. Recently he came and talked to writers and producers at the BBC about what it's like working as a writer in the US.

His new series, Defying Gravity, is currently showing on Thursday evenings on BBC2.

Tell us how the writers room system evolved over the years.

I've been in the business 34 years, and when I started the business was very similar to the UK model. You were all freelance writers, and you came in and you pitched to a story editor, and they would then go pitch to the executive producer, who'd decide which stories they wanted to buy. And then you'd go and write the scripts. 

What happened around 1980 and Hill Street Blues is that the networks started to realise that writing was key. They had favourite writers on shows, they decided to start tying up the writers to long term contracts and to the shows. And that was the beginning of the writers room that consisted of staff.

The early 80s, many staff still would meet and talk about ideas but they'd go off and write their individual scripts. Because it didn't make sense for all the writers to not know exactly what they were doing on each other's episodes and how it affected the overall arc, we began to meet in rooms. At first maybe two or three times a week and then it's become every day, 10 to 6 or whenever, you all get together and break the stories.

Why does it work? What's good about it?

What's great about a writers room is the camaraderie and the synergy of bouncing off other smart people who have the same goal. I believe very strongly in the writers room.

Everyone says writers in the UK feel such a sense of authorship that they really only want to be alone. And I understand that feeling being a writer. But I've got to tell you it's wonderful to be around other people and to hear other great ideas and to bounce off them. It'll make your work better.

I think the adjustment that has to be made is made doing longer series. I believe in the writer's vision, but I also believe in the creator's vision. There's a huge difference in doing six episodes a season and doing 13 or 22. When you do 13 or 22, in order to get those shows to be consistent and make sense, you need to have a group of people because one person just can't do it. It's a massive amount of work.

The room gives you consistency. You want three or four writers or writing teams in the room that are capable of writing a shootable draft. And you might only get that in season three. First seasons tend to have to go through the creator to get the consistency. But then the pipe widens.

I feel this season now I have a writing team and a writer who can finish shows for me, who are capable. So if I get another season and get some new writers, the pipe will widen. When you get a wide pipe that's perfect. And if you can get a wide pipe of people who are trained to edit in the editing room, you can take that burden and then the load spreads and you don't have heart attacks. You make it through a season in one piece and your marriage stays together.

How do you think the US system of developing drama will change over the next few years?

Well, those big studios owned by GE and Disney and Fox don't have money any more. The model for those networks was we'll develop 70 scripts. Out of those 70 scripts we'll shoot 12 pilots of five million dollars a piece. Out of those pilots we'll pick up two, maybe three. And out of those maybe one - if we're lucky - sticks. That doesn't make sense does it?  The GEs and the Disneys and the Hoover bosses look down and go: where's the profitability?

Right now they're doing cost-cutting measures but it's going to change where they'll be back to where they were in the 50s. They'll be acquisition companies and broadcasters, not developers and producers.

International co-productions will start to flourish. The deficit finance pain will be spread and all of us will be making shows that will be 13 episodes or more that they can sell globally to America and to Canada and places where six episode shows don't work instead of six to the Beeb.

I could be wrong. But that's what I see in the next five years.

I took a gamble and did this project called Defying Gravity. The model for this is an independent film model, where you sell the foreign markets first, finance your movie that way, then sell back to the United States. So, that's what we did. 

We pitched it to Fox Television. They paid me to write a script and do a bible, and then the writers strike happened and I walked away while they went out and tried to sell it. They sold to BBC, didn't get any other takers. The strike ended, I was able to come back into the picture and we were then able to get people to read it. We were able to put together the pieces and make 13 episodes right off the top without a pilot.

It's significant in this particular show because to do our pilot would probably cost 11 million dollars. Because it's space it had big shots. But there's a huge amount of production value that we were able to get because we had 13 episodes to amortise the cost of this. So it's high quality, it's a big network look, but for less than would have been done normally. And I think it can be the future.

But I do believe that this type of show can be done with UK partners and UK writers partnering with the US and it may be the way of the future. It broadens your market in that it can take you guys into the US and take you into the longer format shows.

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