Speaker 1: Of Course.
Speaker 2: Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode
Speaker 2: was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 1: Yo, Yo, what up?
Speaker 2: This is Fante Antigolo and I'm here with this week's
Speaker 2: QLs classic.
Speaker 1: This week we go.
Speaker 2: Back to February seven, twenty nineteen with our Black TV
Speaker 2: Writers Roundtable, Part one.
Speaker 1: In this episode, we break down the state of black.
Speaker 2: Hollywood with claimed writers and very good friends of mine
Speaker 2: Tracy Ashley Diallo Riddle with Sheer Saladin and Angela Nissel.
Speaker 2: They all get real with our team Supreme on part
Speaker 2: one of this two part Black TV Writers Roundtable, and
Speaker 2: it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: So check it out. QS.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Supreme, Subpremo, roll Supremo, Suck Subremore, roll Call, Supremo,
Speaker 3: upbrame a roll call Subbrame, So Supremo, roll.
Speaker 4: Call, a writer Symposium, Yeah, quest love You Hurt?
Speaker 1: Yeah, strapped in a room. Yeah with nine nerds.
Speaker 3: Supremo, Shun Subremo, roll Call, Suprema, Suck something Supremo roll Call.
Speaker 1: Her name is Fante. Yeah, I ain't no phony. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just here to help Angie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, pay her Aliphony.
Speaker 3: Supremo, rod Subreva, Supremo road call.
Speaker 4: It was younger, yeah, like it was born.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I used to watch on TV. Yeah, scrambled born.
Speaker 3: Suprema Son Sun Supremo roll call, Subreema Son Supremo road.
Speaker 1: Call, Shear and dialla. Yeah, man, I almost forgot you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh now I remember, Yeah, I forgot you.
Speaker 3: Suprema Son Suppremo roll call, Suprema Something.
Speaker 1: Supremo roll call.
Speaker 5: It's like em yeah, and I'm here to impress. Yeah,
Speaker 5: all these folks in here.
Speaker 6: Yeah, my writing prowess.
Speaker 3: Suprema Son Son Supremo role called Suprema Son Supremo role came.
Speaker 7: My name is Tracy. Yeah, you can call me Trey. Yeah,
Speaker 7: I worked all day, Yeah, so I can my pay.
Speaker 3: Rolling Supremo role Suprema Son Son Supremo roll call.
Speaker 1: My name is by Shia. Yeah, and I was late.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of black people here. Yeah, so ship
Speaker 1: is great.
Speaker 3: Supremo Sun Supremo role called Suprema Son Sun Supremo roll call.
Speaker 1: Her name Vallo. Yeah, and here we are. Yeah, hold
Speaker 1: up in such a sound in my shiny new car.
Speaker 3: Roll call Suprema Sun Supremo roll call, Suprema Son Sun
Speaker 3: Supremo roll call my name is and yeah.
Speaker 9: I'm happy to be here. Yeah if I say some
Speaker 9: dumb ship, yeah, blame by ship, roll.
Speaker 10: Up Bremau, su Supremo, roll s Subpremo, roll call Suprema.
Speaker 10: So some Supremo, roll call Suprema.
Speaker 1: Some sure roll.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen. This is a special Black Hollywood Symposium.
Speaker 2: Of course, Love Supreme. Shout out to Barney Miller. The
Speaker 2: Last Common Standing, The One of the Sight's Hilarious, The
Speaker 2: Neighborhood with Sutric the Entertainer, The Last Og, It's Tracy.
Speaker 1: Ashley, Hey, wait til News.
Speaker 2: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Please come Back, Maya, Marty Side,
Speaker 2: Marlon Rise, The Last O, g It's Theyallo Riddle, whoa
Speaker 2: Shot from Glow Superstore, Gringo, Girby Enthusiasm, Snatch, The Tonight Show,
Speaker 2: and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Mindy Project, Bones
Speaker 2: Gray's Anatomy of Russ's development, so much more, and Yes,
Speaker 2: the Last Og.
Speaker 1: We have ran out the theme. I'll do it again.
Speaker 7: We have.
Speaker 1: Salad Salad.
Speaker 11: I've known I just want to say, I've known a
Speaker 11: quest love for like twenty years and he still can't
Speaker 11: say my last I can't I can't.
Speaker 1: Say most words anyway. Words yeah, and and ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: Finally from ok player.
Speaker 8: Now y'all, from the Boom Docks, from Scrubs, from till Death,
Speaker 8: from Tallics Creators, the Jellies, and the last o g
Speaker 8: give it up for the one and only angela Mistle.
Speaker 2: You know stress At the time when when I okay,
Speaker 2: when I when I requested this show, I thought it
Speaker 2: was gonna be like this, this very serious.
Speaker 1: Uh hell, A special edition of Quest brings.
Speaker 12: You know, like the Meredith Baxter Bernie Yeah, yeah, the
Speaker 12: different Strokes, Dudley, Budley goes to the bike store with
Speaker 12: the pedals and right, Gordon jump.
Speaker 1: Instead.
Speaker 13: I see the alcohol here, so I realized this, Well,
Speaker 13: we're shout out the sunset sound.
Speaker 4: We're in the famous studio three Yes with Prince and you.
Speaker 2: Know all this classic albums from eighty two to eighty
Speaker 2: seven also led Zeppelin.
Speaker 4: The Doors Doors recorded the Doors here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the Doobie.
Speaker 2: Brothers also recorded here, and so many others. Total, Oh, totals,
Speaker 2: the Jacks, imagine dragons.
Speaker 1: What you said total? Total? All right? You said total, right,
Speaker 1: not total, You're not total. Hold on now, but where
Speaker 1: did Total. What did Total records?
Speaker 13: Let's do the next podcast there, Total Record.
Speaker 1: I mean, like I be like they recorded kissing you, right, you.
Speaker 4: Be very happy about that? I mean not so much anyhow.
Speaker 4: Now I like Total. I love Total.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're not talking about the serial read the book.
Speaker 2: I actually always talking about the seriales. I'm only doing
Speaker 2: that because I know that you guys.
Speaker 14: Girl crushed on my first I'm sorry, what should talk about?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 4: S w V's first name was t l C. Seriously,
Speaker 4: how do you know that?
Speaker 2: I do a lot of random facts. Nine nerds in
Speaker 2: a room, arm nerds, nine nerds in a room. Okay,
Speaker 2: So why did we all.
Speaker 4: Gather here today?
Speaker 9: Free wine?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 4: Who's paying for this one?
Speaker 6: Actually?
Speaker 5: Shout out to y'all. I mean, he got it from
Speaker 5: somewhere for free, but we appreciate that he gave it
Speaker 5: to us. He could have gave it to anybody, but.
Speaker 6: He gave it to us.
Speaker 1: Shout out to the flood. Game in a box and
Speaker 1: it's really delicious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all the box of wine. The box of wine.
Speaker 2: So damn, I'm about to bring the mood down. Now,
Speaker 2: let's talk about the state of black Hollywood and writers
Speaker 2: need more wine.
Speaker 6: Hold up, hello, Tracy, that bottle of wine.
Speaker 14: Give me to just get the bottle of Hollywood.
Speaker 9: Take the whole wine and take black Woman ran a
Speaker 9: Network half time.
Speaker 4: Okay, well, since the four of you, since the four
Speaker 4: of you have the last o g in common.
Speaker 1: Good show.
Speaker 2: By the way, y'all, that's crazy all of us, all
Speaker 2: of you have watched what what was everyone's specific uh role?
Speaker 4: Or what role did you play? And you can go
Speaker 4: around the room and in that show, since you.
Speaker 5: All have that in common, from who got the first one?
Speaker 5: Who got the call first? Who was the first first?
Speaker 1: Yeah, season one, we were consulting producers on the show,
Speaker 1: and Jordan.
Speaker 4: Peel explained, what consulting producers are?
Speaker 11: You know, it's really just like home Boy. Okay, I'll
Speaker 11: be honest, it's a little it's a little arbitrary. The
Speaker 11: titles are sometimes kind of conferred based on the level
Speaker 11: they want to give you, based on how much they
Speaker 11: want to pay you. Uh so, But really we kind
Speaker 11: of all do the same thing. We go in, we
Speaker 11: all talk about it. We all try to figure out
Speaker 11: how to make a show better. It's not really an
Speaker 11: actual like unless you were like a writer assistant.
Speaker 4: Sometimes consulting producers. They only come in a couple of
Speaker 4: days a week.
Speaker 1: But we didn't have that. We didn't have that every day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had to come in every kind of like
Speaker 2: Will Smith's West Philly homeboy consultant that was always credited
Speaker 2: at the end of the Fresh Prince Bill.
Speaker 1: There by the way, I met Harry Smith last night.
Speaker 13: So shout out to mister Harry Smith from No Will
Speaker 13: Smith's brothers.
Speaker 6: Oh, Harry as an Ellen and Harry.
Speaker 9: I'm enjoying the show already. I would like to say
Speaker 9: that I'm co executive producer on the last so do
Speaker 9: so for the first time, I found out that I
Speaker 9: got paid more than men.
Speaker 1: Yeah, five thousand books, shouts out to them. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I know that there's a major difference, will be a
Speaker 2: major difference in season two than season one. Can you
Speaker 2: tell the difference between the two without burning bridges or
Speaker 2: getting firs?
Speaker 4: Well, take us take us through the process of how
Speaker 4: a show runs.
Speaker 9: WHOA, I mean, it's what basically happened is I know
Speaker 9: that in season one there's almost there's only two people
Speaker 9: left over. Tracey. You can help me because Tracy actually
Speaker 9: opens up for Tracy Morgan on the Roads yeah, so
Speaker 9: she could actually might be able to tell you more
Speaker 9: about the difference of the season one season two.
Speaker 14: Sure, sure.
Speaker 7: The only thing I can I wasn't in the room,
Speaker 7: so I can't speak. I think these two could speak
Speaker 7: poor to it. But when Yeah, there's only two other
Speaker 7: people that I know, Mark the Bold and Dr Kirkpatrick
Speaker 7: that came back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, overall the entire writer's room. Excuse me, Yeah, the
Speaker 4: entire writer's room got over Yeah, pretty.
Speaker 1: Much by the way.
Speaker 14: Yeah, yeah, I would say, wouldn't Tracy, Tracy and Jordan.
Speaker 14: I'm not sure a lot more.
Speaker 7: Bron Yeah, there's definitely more brown. Yeah, completely changed.
Speaker 4: Well, when Sheer and I arrived, like MS Kirkpatrick was
Speaker 4: just was very excited to see us.
Speaker 9: Yeah there, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 4: It was a very different kind of room.
Speaker 13: Yeah, and and no no offense to anybody was in
Speaker 13: that room, but it was nice to have like a
Speaker 13: little injection of us and that by the way, that
Speaker 13: was also when Jordan's movie was blowing up, so he
Speaker 13: couldn't be there every single day, so god know, it
Speaker 13: was uh yeah, And I mean, like I think it
Speaker 13: kind of shows because when Sheher and I showed up,
Speaker 13: the script said, you know one POV, and I think
Speaker 13: that we helped, you know, bring it to a POV.
Speaker 11: That worked with a lot of hours, what he's trying
Speaker 11: to say, a lot of midnight oil, a lot of time.
Speaker 2: Do you think that it was just assumed that because
Speaker 2: Tracy came from thirty Rock, where you know, the element
Speaker 2: of Tracy Morgan was allowed to be shown in that
Speaker 2: particular way. Well, I also know that uh uh, Donald
Speaker 2: Glover wrote all of his dialogue for that show, but.
Speaker 4: That it was okay in their eyes to a lot.
Speaker 9: Of sigh.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I didn't I learned. That's that's new information.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't you didn't know that.
Speaker 2: You didn't know that Tina Fey hired Donald Glover specifically
Speaker 2: to write all of Tracy Morgan's dialogue.
Speaker 11: TV shows are really I'll put it this way. In
Speaker 11: all the Rise of Her can agree, it's really mysterious.
Speaker 11: So like even when somebody wins in the war and
Speaker 11: they go on stage, that actually might not be the
Speaker 11: person who contributed to most of that episode. Yes, right,
Speaker 11: so you really don't know who does what until somebody
Speaker 11: like you just now tells us.
Speaker 9: Yes, I will get cursed out online for an episode,
Speaker 9: and I'll be like, has your name on it?
Speaker 4: People understand, I literally wrote two episode about was common
Speaker 4: knowledge that that.
Speaker 1: I know he wrote on this SI I didn't know
Speaker 1: he was. And also, listen, we call it a writer's room.
Speaker 1: That's on the Sabbath.
Speaker 9: I have heard different things about I will say, I
Speaker 9: have to heard different things about who wrote what on
Speaker 9: that show, but I've never heard I.
Speaker 14: Never heard that. As much as I've tore with Tracy,
Speaker 14: I never didn't know that.
Speaker 1: As much as you work in thirty rocks, you probably
Speaker 1: have information that we don't have.
Speaker 6: Could it possibly be slightly incorrect or no? Okay? Making sure, yes, okay, no, okay,
Speaker 6: because some people.
Speaker 2: He's saying two different things, because y'all tell me two
Speaker 2: different things. Tell us what happens in the writer's room.
Speaker 9: I tend to listen to a woman who worked with
Speaker 9: the man who if he's never said that.
Speaker 13: Okay, But I mean, I think industry wide, we call
Speaker 13: it the writer's room for a reason, right, Like everybody
Speaker 13: usually gets a script, but all those scripts go back
Speaker 13: into the writer's room, and usually everybody contributes to it,
Speaker 13: so you know, and every every show is different. So
Speaker 13: like there might be some shows where like if you
Speaker 13: do the first draft, most of what's in there is you.
Speaker 13: But you know, like on most of the shows I've
Speaker 13: written on, like the person who gets the script credit
Speaker 13: like it's a little bit it's the room's project.
Speaker 11: Because everybody has the task of doing it. And it's
Speaker 11: actually interesting because it's very different at Jimmy Fallon because
Speaker 11: as you know, we were there, Like the writer's riety
Speaker 11: shows very different. You have to take a lot of
Speaker 11: ownership of your bits. SNL is the same way. So
Speaker 11: like we Dell and I used to write slow Jam
Speaker 11: and like they weren't like a couple other times other
Speaker 11: writers wrote it.
Speaker 1: For the most part, it was like, y'all go write that.
Speaker 11: But when you get into a writer room on a
Speaker 11: narrative show, it really is the power dynamic changes the
Speaker 11: who writing, what changes, What voices change, who's writing for
Speaker 11: what characters changes. It depends on how the show runners running.
Speaker 8: The way.
Speaker 13: That's the irony is that on variety shows, everybody's all
Speaker 13: the writers are in the credits at the end right
Speaker 13: on these other shows and by the way, it might
Speaker 13: just be one person who wrote that sketch. The opposite
Speaker 13: is true on a regular show, when in fact, it's
Speaker 13: sort of like the truth is the opposite, because on
Speaker 13: a variety show, like one person might have written the sketch,
Speaker 13: everybody gets the credit. Regular show, one person gets the credit,
Speaker 13: everybody wrote the script.
Speaker 2: One of the questions I have is when a show
Speaker 2: is established at the beginning of the season, is there
Speaker 2: an overall arc that you guys have to follow, Like,
Speaker 2: in other words, if say and and Diallo are designated
Speaker 2: to write episode six, and you're in a room together
Speaker 2: and you have to decide what's going to happen that episode,
Speaker 2: Like what if you just decided that, Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: get I'm gonna shoot this character off, or this person
Speaker 2: is going to break their leg in this episode, And
Speaker 2: then like, how is an arc carried out?
Speaker 4: And what creative freedoms are you allowed to bring to
Speaker 4: your episode?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean if it's a serialized episode. I mean,
Speaker 9: if things track over if you're following stories over different episodes,
Speaker 9: no one writer you follow what happened? WHOA Okay, what
Speaker 9: happens is you track? I'm better at writing and holding
Speaker 9: things in my hand. What happens is you track what's
Speaker 9: going to happen each two individual episode before you start
Speaker 9: assigning episodes to individual writers. So what happens is you
Speaker 9: might get the episode as a writer that kills off
Speaker 9: the favorite character. You can't say no, no, no, I
Speaker 9: don't want.
Speaker 1: To do that.
Speaker 9: You know, that's just what happens.
Speaker 7: That happened many times. We would go in the room,
Speaker 7: you work it all out. You know, we work it
Speaker 7: all out. We know the jokes, we know the direction,
Speaker 7: we know how the characters tracking, what their emotional what
Speaker 7: their emotions are, where they're going. And I've actually went off,
Speaker 7: tried to go off script and try to like put
Speaker 7: my own thing in there, and you know, no, that's
Speaker 7: a no no. And I'm a staff writer, so these
Speaker 7: guys are all way ahead of me, right, So as
Speaker 7: a staff writer, they're like, no, no, Tracy, you need
Speaker 7: to follow what was in that room and track it.
Speaker 7: I'm like, yeah, but I felt like when I was
Speaker 7: writing this that Tracy would actually say this, and they're like, no,
Speaker 7: you got to stay on track, stay on course, because
Speaker 7: if you go off, the rest of the rest of
Speaker 7: the show is now off.
Speaker 11: I think in a lot of situations, though, if it's
Speaker 11: the best version of this it's a lot of discussion.
Speaker 11: So and it really depends on the tones set by
Speaker 11: the showrunner. Whoever's really the boss in the room, who's
Speaker 11: the Kenya Bears in the room, Because that person, if
Speaker 11: they're really great at their job, they're entertaining all these ideas.
Speaker 11: So if Tracy comes says, hey, I want to kill
Speaker 11: off this character, it's a discussion. It's not like a no,
Speaker 11: and they might be like, you know what, that's dope,
Speaker 11: or like if Tracy comes and says like, I feel
Speaker 11: such an affinity towards Tiffany Hattish's character. I really this
Speaker 11: episode where she goes and visits her mother, like I
Speaker 11: should write that one because I feel strongly about that one.
Speaker 11: I want to put something special on that one. If
Speaker 11: the show is functioning the way it's supposed to, that
Speaker 11: tends to be listened to, and you tend to let
Speaker 11: people do what they're good at, especially with the first past.
Speaker 14: Even with the characters.
Speaker 7: Though, like what the show I'm on the neighborhood, it's about,
Speaker 7: you know, a white family that moves into an all
Speaker 7: black neighborhood. I believe in Pasadena and CBS show.
Speaker 1: That's and it's a it's a.
Speaker 7: It's a really big deal and they are extremely excited
Speaker 7: about it, and we literally I don't want to give
Speaker 7: too much away, but in the room it's it's split
Speaker 7: half and half half white, half black. And it's interesting
Speaker 7: to hear the things that we are learning about each
Speaker 7: other that we're putting in the show.
Speaker 14: One little thing I'll tell you. We talked about washed cloths.
Speaker 1: White people don't use them.
Speaker 14: Thank you.
Speaker 1: You did not know that.
Speaker 14: Brought it up in the room and one of the
Speaker 14: writers was like, what their hands, what do you do
Speaker 14: with that?
Speaker 1: I go you wash the safe Guard commercial where you
Speaker 1: just watched with like my bar so is my bar soap?
Speaker 14: No, this was how the room was. No one each
Speaker 14: side could not believe.
Speaker 5: You know, you don't get in your prefaces like that,
Speaker 5: like you're not scraping any dead skin. You're just really
Speaker 5: on the surface. And if you're using dub you're really
Speaker 5: not getting anything.
Speaker 14: That's what the discussion. This discussion, right, and this is
Speaker 14: not what.
Speaker 5: This episode that you need you some peppermint soap, and
Speaker 5: you need you a loopah and you need a nailsty.
Speaker 9: I'm sorry, you will learn. So there is nothing that
Speaker 9: is off limits when you introduce your wife or husband,
Speaker 9: you got to warn them like people in the room no,
Speaker 9: might know a little bit about you or the room.
Speaker 9: Like when I introduced my significant other, don't tell him
Speaker 9: what I said about her underwear his like, they don't
Speaker 9: know everything about you.
Speaker 2: So I was gonna say, similar to what Jimmy said
Speaker 2: the first year of doing the Tonight Show, was that
Speaker 2: everything in your life will be introduced in the writer's room.
Speaker 4: That is true.
Speaker 9: Oh my god, that's something about the story you told
Speaker 9: about how your mother in law gave you the Cracker
Speaker 9: Barrel jacket. Oh yeah, that's your husband and my husband
Speaker 9: is white. Yes, yes, can I say that? Yes?
Speaker 1: If we were like no, walked out the room.
Speaker 7: You know, like my mother in law bought me for
Speaker 7: Christmas one year kid blouse excuse.
Speaker 1: Me, yes, but I don't follow up, follow up, but
Speaker 1: she bought.
Speaker 7: Me a blouse from Cracker Barrel And yes, exactly, and
Speaker 7: that's I was like, it blew blew my mind. I'm like,
Speaker 7: are you for real? And that hurt her feelings? Right,
Speaker 7: So yeah, I'm the asshole for producing the family. I'm
Speaker 7: the asshole the family. So then after the holidays, she
Speaker 7: came up to me. She's like, Tracy, I'm so sorry
Speaker 7: about that blouse. I brought you from Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 6: I said why.
Speaker 7: She said, I did not know cracker bill didn't sert
Speaker 7: black people back in the sixties in the seventies. And
Speaker 7: I was like, that's the reason why she did research.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like.
Speaker 13: That's a cracker barrel. They're like, you're about to get
Speaker 13: some bro leave Cerborough is almostly titled appropriate. Seriously, yes,
Speaker 13: I'm like, who the fuck is.
Speaker 1: Buying and the belle and blouses out of crackerber.
Speaker 11: We went to the super Bowl in Indiana one year.
Speaker 11: We're falling and we ate a cracker barrel. I had
Speaker 11: never had Cracker brow the first time I haven't had
Speaker 11: cracker barrel. And I was like, I don't know why
Speaker 11: people are fighting eat this ship.
Speaker 4: Wait it is.
Speaker 1: It's news to me. I believe that they got a
Speaker 1: record label. They got a record label. Who Kenny Rodgers.
Speaker 1: When Kenny Rodgers was on our.
Speaker 2: Show, he was on Cracker Barrel label and they gave
Speaker 2: us man have a lot of money. Wait, here's the
Speaker 2: weird ship. When Jazzy Jeff got married. Okay, crack they
Speaker 2: catered it like listen Will's gift to Jeff was the
Speaker 2: wedding was in Jamaica, so he had them come down
Speaker 2: and catering, like that's Jeff's favorite spot.
Speaker 4: I am officially protesting hitting beach. I don't want my
Speaker 4: money going to.
Speaker 1: That burning my copy. He was Jill Scott right exactly.
Speaker 6: I know she wasn't thinking that compromises.
Speaker 2: It was her wedding compromises. I didn't know that about.
Speaker 2: I never ate a Cracker Barrel, so I didn't know.
Speaker 2: So what did you do with the blouse?
Speaker 1: She?
Speaker 14: You know, she felt so bad about it. She took
Speaker 14: it back.
Speaker 7: She felt so bad about the blo I felt bad,
Speaker 7: but I just go believe like she really gave. And
Speaker 7: she told me nobody usually tells you when they give
Speaker 7: you a Christmas game. And I got that from She's like,
Speaker 7: I got it from Cracker Borrough.
Speaker 14: She was really poor. So at first I'm like, is
Speaker 14: she trying.
Speaker 4: To say something or you know, like, you know, where
Speaker 4: where is she from?
Speaker 14: Indiana, Indiana?
Speaker 7: In Indiana, Meryllville, Indiana, right next to Gary, Indiana, and
Speaker 7: also next to Chicago, right next to Chicago.
Speaker 1: They don't know, They don't show, you don't.
Speaker 4: Man, it is messed up. Okay, So what else happens in.
Speaker 14: Lots of therapy?
Speaker 4: Can I without without fights?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Without without uh.
Speaker 4: Uh opening up any Pandora's boxes?
Speaker 1: For years?
Speaker 4: Your jobs?
Speaker 1: No barrel of crackers?
Speaker 4: Was the was the was the exodus of the initial
Speaker 4: writers of season one?
Speaker 1: Did they?
Speaker 4: Were they okay with?
Speaker 1: Not?
Speaker 4: No one's okay with getting fired?
Speaker 14: But aren't they white?
Speaker 6: They got jobs now?
Speaker 1: Right? I don't.
Speaker 14: I really don't know any of the ones that I
Speaker 14: don't know them. No.
Speaker 13: I think in our case, like we we always knew
Speaker 13: that we wanted to come on for one season, but
Speaker 13: we had another show. We had a show a Comedy
Speaker 13: Central that was, you know, something that we had created.
Speaker 1: South Side.
Speaker 13: The south Side just got back from Chicago, by the way,
Speaker 13: like two weeks ago, three weeks ago. So for us,
Speaker 13: it was more of a timing thing. We couldn't do
Speaker 13: season two of last Og and do our own show.
Speaker 13: So we actually went to Jordan we were like, look,
Speaker 13: we got a Comedy Central show. He's like, I know
Speaker 13: what that's about.
Speaker 1: Go go forth.
Speaker 2: Well, I meant more from the standpoint of maybe the
Speaker 2: white writers that were replaced with more black writers.
Speaker 13: Look, I think that with that show I don't know
Speaker 13: who listens to the podcast. Maybe maybe they do. I
Speaker 13: think it's to say, you know, I'm saying these particular writers,
Speaker 13: I think it's safe to say that at some point
Speaker 13: somebody pulled them aside and was like, look, you know,
Speaker 13: Tracy doesn't necessarily feel like you have the voice of
Speaker 13: the show.
Speaker 1: You no. Also, most TVs, we're gonna find somebody else.
Speaker 11: You know, this hapn't found Every TV show the first
Speaker 11: couple of years is figuring out who actually belongs on
Speaker 11: the staff, like The Simpsons, you know, my favorite show,
Speaker 11: seasons three through eight.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a reason that season three through eight
Speaker 1: are the seasons.
Speaker 11: That I always say the best seasons because those first
Speaker 11: they were like figuring out like oh, and then you know,
Speaker 11: Conan shows up, and then some other you know, Al
Speaker 11: Jean shows up, and then they figure out like, all right,
Speaker 11: these are the voice we're really gonna take us to
Speaker 11: an oakleyand Weinstein show up.
Speaker 2: You know, I watched like the first season of the
Speaker 2: Last though g and I even told Angie, like I
Speaker 2: thought it was. I liked the show, but to me,
Speaker 2: it just didn't seem to have a tone like it
Speaker 2: would have like these really supposedly comic moments and then
Speaker 2: like these really dark That.
Speaker 1: Part was intentional.
Speaker 13: And let me just say this because you know we
Speaker 13: in one of our conversations with Tracy I'll never forget
Speaker 13: he said, like the one thing that he liked about Donald,
Speaker 13: he actually did say, like, you know, Donald used to
Speaker 13: write for me, and now he's got his show that
Speaker 13: I feel like is poignant but funny and does this thing.
Speaker 13: And he was like, I want this show to be
Speaker 13: you laugh in one minute, you cry in the next.
Speaker 13: So that was that was that was that was, that
Speaker 13: was by design.
Speaker 9: I will also say about white writers that are writing
Speaker 9: for black shows. It's all it's amazing to me how
Speaker 9: all the white shows I've been on, most of the time,
Speaker 9: I've been the only black writer. But whenever on a
Speaker 9: black show, there's always a ton of white writers. But
Speaker 9: I will say that a lot of times when white
Speaker 9: writers come into a black room, it's a shock for
Speaker 9: them that every they don't know everything about the culture.
Speaker 9: If literally, if you have to, if you're writing about
Speaker 9: black people in Brooklyn, don't assume that it's going to
Speaker 9: be like writing for Maud or whatever the hell used
Speaker 9: to write. You know, like study, study up on that. Like,
Speaker 9: if you were writing a doctor's thing, go talk to
Speaker 9: some doctors. But I'm amazed at how many white writers
Speaker 9: do come into a room and it's like, I don't
Speaker 9: have any friends, but I'm here, you know.
Speaker 13: So that's I mean, you said that was John Ames's
Speaker 13: thing back in the seventies, right, Like he was just like,
Speaker 13: I can't believe there is the writer's room on my show,
Speaker 13: but I'm gonna push back as much as possible.
Speaker 1: They killed him. Yeah, whatever he left, I forget. That
Speaker 1: was that's the roll show. I mean, really, she was real.
Speaker 1: He was like, let's talk about that after this. She
Speaker 1: was the one who decided I'm divided by chapters and yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the moth and nothing. We decided with all the lyrics, are.
Speaker 4: Making a way when you can. That's the chow Line songs,
Speaker 4: the chow line.
Speaker 1: Easy credit for bums. Wait, who wrote this is Quincy Jones? Stretching?
Speaker 1: Hanging in the chow line?
Speaker 9: Job hanging.
Speaker 2: And who I think it's standing in the challenge, hanging.
Speaker 1: In the child line? Shout out Chapelle? What the did
Speaker 1: the child line look like in the seventies?
Speaker 4: Super line?
Speaker 1: Who wrote.
Speaker 4: Jim gilstrap and Benkie Williams gilstrap.
Speaker 1: What else they write that we would like? He played
Speaker 1: guitar on Jim he's a guitar player.
Speaker 2: You know what, what a great I think that's him
Speaker 2: singing the first verse of you at sun Shine in
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 1: It is Yes away, what a great gig. That theme song.
Speaker 1: They probably have mansions on top of boats, on top.
Speaker 9: Of man what they're doing now, because we ain't gotten.
Speaker 1: They have mansions on top of boats.
Speaker 9: They have whose dream was to write theme song and
Speaker 9: they grew up and.
Speaker 1: Now that's over. Why don't we have advertising to watch
Speaker 1: this today? I watched a lot of Cheers.
Speaker 11: It's on Netflix, and it's funny because I remember when
Speaker 11: this happened in real life and then on Netflix. It's
Speaker 11: funny to see that show had like a minute and
Speaker 11: a half damn theme song, and then halfway they were like,
Speaker 11: you know what, this is too much time to be wasting,
Speaker 11: and then it came all the way down they cut
Speaker 11: the whole middle out. It's just it's really about space
Speaker 11: and content. You're fighting against commercials and you're fighting against
Speaker 11: a B storyline, which you really need to give the
Speaker 11: A storyline air, so you just there's just no room
Speaker 11: and so to be like and then we're gonna lose
Speaker 11: more space a minute and a half to some singing
Speaker 11: that has nothing to do with the plot.
Speaker 1: I mean, I missed the outro theme. Thing used to
Speaker 1: have like.
Speaker 9: That happened, that's that happened to us on Scrubs. Used
Speaker 9: to say it started off we had a whole song
Speaker 9: like I'm no Superman and by the seventh sees don't
Speaker 9: just man.
Speaker 5: I asked a question, is what was do y'all to
Speaker 5: your recollection? What was the first sitcom that caught you.
Speaker 1: Family chice? What for me? Yeah?
Speaker 4: In fact, I started wearing a tie and carrying a
Speaker 4: briefcase to school.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it kept me on the stat and narrow. My
Speaker 4: favorite episode was My Name is Alex P. Keaton?
Speaker 13: Yeah, does a thirty minute speech he went to therapy.
Speaker 13: By the way, has not aged well?
Speaker 1: Really? Yeah? I read.
Speaker 13: I read a whole post about and they like posted
Speaker 13: some clips like it's it's super self serious.
Speaker 1: I don't think it was good, but it's.
Speaker 6: Well, okay, can I get my answer all my questions?
Speaker 4: Hold on?
Speaker 6: I want because I know the answered. But by she here, Tracy,
Speaker 6: you said the.
Speaker 1: First show that caught you do you mind? Fact? What
Speaker 1: do you mean by that?
Speaker 14: As a kid?
Speaker 5: To your recollection, what was the first sitcom that you
Speaker 5: were like? You said, you laugh, You was like, this
Speaker 5: is the ship, this is the bomb, this is bomping.
Speaker 1: Probably well, I think probably the Cosby Show.
Speaker 11: Actually the only thing about that show is I used
Speaker 11: to did not I did not like that show growing
Speaker 11: up because my family was not like that, and I
Speaker 11: felt very much cheated.
Speaker 1: I was like, what they like the Southside Chicago? Uh.
Speaker 11: But I recognized even when I would laugh in spite
Speaker 11: of myself, so I recognize how great it was. But
Speaker 11: I was also like, this is the lawyer in the
Speaker 11: house where that happened, crack heads outside.
Speaker 1: This is wonderful Brooklyn and they've been really I didn't
Speaker 1: know Brooklyn had parts like that.
Speaker 14: Say mine was a good definitely good time. I love
Speaker 14: good times.
Speaker 4: That was the show.
Speaker 7: I remember thinking, God, they every episode they got to
Speaker 7: get they got to get rent.
Speaker 9: Every episode.
Speaker 4: That writers had to be great.
Speaker 7: It's so funny they had to do every episode they
Speaker 7: needed to pay rent and what they do.
Speaker 14: A talent show always has talent show. You know a
Speaker 14: lot of them.
Speaker 4: You and I know that was at the wedding when
Speaker 4: you're young and in love.
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 11: I was watching that show recently because it's on me TV,
Speaker 11: which I watched when I go to my mom's house
Speaker 11: and me.
Speaker 13: TV is like, it's called memorable entertainment television. That was
Speaker 13: really excuse the shows shows from the seventies.
Speaker 11: I just want to say that I didn't realize how
Speaker 11: much because it was every single episode they have like
Speaker 11: a terrible crisis that they every that's lose kids.
Speaker 1: Falling down there. He's getting burnt over. You know that.
Speaker 13: You know that The Cosby Show got rejected a bunch
Speaker 13: of different places because he would not Every network was like,
Speaker 13: but you got to put him in the get on.
Speaker 13: He's like, no, my black family is going to be
Speaker 13: in a very wealthy They were all like, we'll just
Speaker 13: do it in Harlem.
Speaker 4: He's like, no, we're going to do Brooklyn like him
Speaker 4: make School.
Speaker 14: I did not know women.
Speaker 4: So eventually he drug Brandon Tartakoff. I've I fell off
Speaker 4: the bandwagon.
Speaker 2: Watched my first Cosby episode day before yesterday.
Speaker 1: We watched and I got a little this great. I
Speaker 1: never stopped watching. I was protesting.
Speaker 4: I just didn't know that it was on TV one
Speaker 4: on TV one and it was coming on Bounce.
Speaker 1: I think. I think so the syndication never act stopped,
Speaker 1: did it? But it's not on iTunes anymore. There's supposed to.
Speaker 13: Be runs off Black television all the streaming that I
Speaker 13: can't get on iTunes.
Speaker 9: Anymore on Netflix. What are you gonna say, Man, nobody
Speaker 9: gave a shout out to What's happening? I'm only going
Speaker 9: to want to be that was your ship. Yeah, well
Speaker 9: besides watching the Jefferson being like these kids ain't mixed,
Speaker 9: that's hilarious.
Speaker 4: Still has a big problem that casting that they still
Speaker 4: they still can't do it right. And we have Michael
Speaker 4: McDonald on the show and he was breaking down the
Speaker 4: Doobie brother.
Speaker 2: Classiclastic yes of what that was happening the ball.
Speaker 1: Like, man, yeah, I love that. That's when of the
Speaker 1: the Dowie Brothers had like the Cafe or whatever right perform.
Speaker 1: Yeah that episode, Yeah, that was that was the one
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 7: I feel like back then we gave permission to for
Speaker 7: things that just didn't when you think about it, when
Speaker 7: when rerun dropped the recorder auditorium, it was literally like
Speaker 7: right in.
Speaker 1: Front like a whole auditorium criminal leans, right, And.
Speaker 9: We always talk That's another thing we do in writers,
Speaker 9: and we always talk about how easy it must have
Speaker 9: been back in the day. Just be like, all right,
Speaker 9: we just want to get some people stranded on an island,
Speaker 9: can't That.
Speaker 4: Was supposed to be a one season show, know that,
Speaker 4: and it was too bigg a hit.
Speaker 11: We talk about how much money people used to making
Speaker 11: ride around So you know, everybody I know nowadays has
Speaker 11: fifteen jobs.
Speaker 1: If you have any kind of.
Speaker 4: Show, season five will have an apartment.
Speaker 1: Like the money is not. If you're a writer on
Speaker 1: Cheers for like four seasons, you are ever So it's
Speaker 1: the goal. You don't need money.
Speaker 9: Got to get to her call girl appointment after this.
Speaker 14: Bitch, the one.
Speaker 1: This would be easy, that's convenient. The reason I was
Speaker 1: late when it God damn. Can I ask the profession
Speaker 1: that the four of you are in.
Speaker 2: Is there an instant pressure to always come up with
Speaker 2: a line, like when you're when you're dealing I'm treating
Speaker 2: this like porno, Like when when you're dealing with civilians,
Speaker 2: like just regular people that don't work on your show,
Speaker 2: do you have to hold yourself back from always saying
Speaker 2: the joke and like and just always.
Speaker 4: But that's the thing as long I've.
Speaker 2: Known as for so long, and you always you always
Speaker 2: have the punchline like ready and.
Speaker 9: It's I wasted so many.
Speaker 4: No, but I meant, like, in your can you ever
Speaker 4: just relax and not go for the punchline?
Speaker 9: Catch at hour twelve? In the writers?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean even I found like that writer, I
Speaker 11: wouldn't describe it as like a happy room with like
Speaker 11: joyfulness and well no, no, no, the punchline as in.
Speaker 4: You're always humorous. Because I visited uh ah man uh
Speaker 4: men men Chuck Laurn.
Speaker 2: So I visited the set of two and a half Men,
Speaker 2: and it was during a break, and I saw something
Speaker 2: that just blew my mind. Like I guess the director
Speaker 2: stood in the center and then all his riders was
Speaker 2: in a circle and he's like, all right, I need
Speaker 2: someone to go.
Speaker 14: That's what we go, that's that's not go go. That
Speaker 14: was Tuesday night for me this past Tuesday.
Speaker 13: And by the way, that definitely happens more multi Like
Speaker 13: on I was on Marlin. Whenever we would call break,
Speaker 13: Marlon would like sit somewhere on set and then like
Speaker 13: all these all these people who weren't even I mean
Speaker 13: like some of them are writers and some of them were.
Speaker 1: Just ways.
Speaker 4: Around him, and then he come out with like twenty
Speaker 4: new jokes.
Speaker 1: That happens on single cameras too.
Speaker 11: I mean, I've never been on a single camera where
Speaker 11: you weren't shooting a scene and then they were like,
Speaker 11: all right, we can we do some different jokes in
Speaker 11: the scene.
Speaker 2: But is there a pressure because just the way that
Speaker 2: the director was treating them, it's like if you came
Speaker 2: to the no, yeah really really no.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah.
Speaker 13: And by the way, some writers really perform in those environments,
Speaker 13: Like some people you're like, oh, that dude is a killer,
Speaker 13: you know. Oh, she's always got she's always got a
Speaker 13: punch line ready to go, like a good one.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that.
Speaker 7: That Actually that that actually gets me going because it's
Speaker 7: where that happened Tuesday night. That happens every Tuesday night
Speaker 7: when we tape. You gotta be ready and a line
Speaker 7: that we thought when the room was gonna hit didn't hit.
Speaker 7: The show runners turning around, Okay, be thinking about this line,
Speaker 7: and all of us are thinking, and you.
Speaker 11: Should be thinking about that when you're watching it, the writers,
Speaker 11: you should be watching that, we definitely want to punch
Speaker 11: up these five lines before he comes over here or
Speaker 11: she comes over here.
Speaker 4: Now, do you sometimes question.
Speaker 2: The intelligence of the target audience of the show, In
Speaker 2: other words, the writers you guys might be Harvard material.
Speaker 13: I think that's I think that's a terrible excuse, Like
Speaker 13: if you're like, oh, well, they're just not smart enough
Speaker 13: to get it. I've heard that said. I heard it
Speaker 13: said a lot on certain TV shows, but but it's
Speaker 13: never the truth.
Speaker 2: Not having to me like not having faith in the
Speaker 2: audience is not having faith in the art, Like it's
Speaker 2: it's insecurity.
Speaker 1: Like if you if you can be funny, then motherfuckers
Speaker 1: get it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but then you see the Nielsen ratings come back,
Speaker 9: and then the network people don't understand it. Sometimes what
Speaker 9: we write will want it to be a certain will
Speaker 9: write a certain thing, and then by the time it
Speaker 9: goes through a studio a network, and then they'll say,
Speaker 9: we can't say that because we have advertisers that you know,
Speaker 9: it'll come out and it'll be five times watered down.
Speaker 1: So even okay, you bought that up. Who has a
Speaker 1: Nielsen box? I've never in all my life, I don't
Speaker 1: know nobody never got not a Nielsen box. We used
Speaker 1: to have to do the journals and stuff.
Speaker 14: Knew somebody always.
Speaker 9: My mom made us write down every black TV show.
Speaker 9: But the whole thing is we send it didn't count.
Speaker 1: That's my mama was great.
Speaker 9: Guy Like two two seven.
Speaker 2: Even if you didn't watch I was always lying on
Speaker 2: my because you know, I couldn't write down that I
Speaker 2: was watching Real Sex at ten o'clock on front scrambled
Speaker 2: like real Sex has a zero point one again Niels
Speaker 2: used now or yeah, everything is used?
Speaker 4: Have they come Have they figured out a way to
Speaker 4: figure in?
Speaker 8: Is?
Speaker 13: Yeah, they have to have Live Plus. They have Live
Speaker 13: Live plus three, Live plus five and then Live Plus.
Speaker 13: That's the number of days it took for people to
Speaker 13: watch it when it was sitting on their on their
Speaker 13: t VR. Oh wow, it's built into our cable. Yeah,
Speaker 13: but they don't measure after Live plus seven. Interestingly enough,
Speaker 13: because advertisers don't care if you're watching it twelve days later,
Speaker 13: like they want you to go see, you know, rampage
Speaker 13: this week at the you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: So I was at a meeting for I found out
Speaker 7: that they're even Nelson ratings are also using like Instagram
Speaker 7: like they're.
Speaker 14: The streaming they said that just started last year.
Speaker 11: Well, engagement is another way they measure like there are
Speaker 11: TV shows that get terrible ratings, but they are in
Speaker 11: season six because they're always being written about and they
Speaker 11: have a huge people online ride or die for them
Speaker 11: online and people like, we tweet about it crazy, they
Speaker 11: want to talk about it. So you're like this other
Speaker 11: show that I like has way more ratings, but it's
Speaker 11: going away because people aren't talking about it.
Speaker 9: And no wonder why they had seven characters killed off
Speaker 9: of that show so they could keep affording.
Speaker 4: The budget since they're not getting rating.
Speaker 9: Then people be like, damn it, you ruined my show.
Speaker 9: Well we had to keep you know, the budget down.
Speaker 5: Do you guys feel the pressure to keep like a
Speaker 5: social media situation and be present?
Speaker 1: I don't, but yeah, you like your life goes? You
Speaker 1: have no you don't got no instagra. I don't fuck
Speaker 1: with social media.
Speaker 6: Damn how you doing it?
Speaker 1: I want that?
Speaker 4: Yes, you never had a Twitter.
Speaker 1: I used to have everything. I just got rid of
Speaker 1: it all. I had everything. What made you?
Speaker 11: I'll be honest. I heard I heard Kendrick Lamar talking
Speaker 11: on the radio. Okay, and when he's when is uh uh?
Speaker 11: What's the one that came out before? The one right
Speaker 11: before that Good Kid, Mad City, Good Kids, Good Caid
Speaker 11: mass City came out. He was on the radio and
Speaker 11: he was just talking about how like he had this
Speaker 11: epiphany that like he's like, every minute that I'm like
Speaker 11: on social media, it is a minute that I'm not
Speaker 11: working on my art, and he's like, I.
Speaker 1: Gotta stop doing that. And I thought to myself because
Speaker 1: I wasn't where I wanted to be in my wife
Speaker 1: at the time, and I was like, this young man
Speaker 1: is on something. Now.
Speaker 4: I will say with a year from now and see
Speaker 4: if he's still no social media. How did you two meet?
Speaker 4: Because you're kind of like Ernie and Bert in my head?
Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate Ernie.
Speaker 6: What school did you guys go to Harvard?
Speaker 1: You're not Ernie? We met?
Speaker 4: I do you love pigeons? I feel like your birth.
Speaker 13: I have a I have a sixteen month year old now,
Speaker 13: so I watch a lot more Sesame Street than I
Speaker 13: used to, and I'm like, oh so John Legend singing
Speaker 13: with the Muppins, Now, this is all right, this is okay.
Speaker 13: And we met anapella a cappella group called called Brothers.
Speaker 13: That was the best name on the planet, the best
Speaker 13: name of the smart black kids at hard we could
Speaker 13: come up with. And we all and we all wore
Speaker 13: maroon vests and we sang like boys to men.
Speaker 1: It was a disaster Brothers. No, no, it was like
Speaker 1: it was like eleven but no, no, no, there was
Speaker 1: a core five. Here's the thing. We were like, we
Speaker 1: were like wu tang.
Speaker 11: Here's why he's saying that, because there was like eleven members,
Speaker 11: but like only five would show up to the gigs.
Speaker 1: Because you guys here again, damn anybody give a about
Speaker 1: Brothers tonight?
Speaker 11: All right, man, you gotta sing sing man o man
Speaker 11: for the fucking Bayfish Company.
Speaker 6: Englishman by the impressions, what English majors?
Speaker 1: Or he was pre mad? I was pretty mad. I was,
Speaker 1: And I went to Harvard, so my parents wasn't trying
Speaker 1: to from the hood. I went to Harvard.
Speaker 11: My parents weren't trying to hear me be like I'm
Speaker 11: an actor, So I had to pretend I was pre
Speaker 11: mad for like I was.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 4: I was an econ major, you know, I thought I
Speaker 4: was going to Wall Street and uh, you know, and.
Speaker 2: Both y'all graduated, Yeah, graduated and to people were like, hey, man,
Speaker 2: you a darv oh man, you gotta be a millionaire.
Speaker 1: And it's like, hey, getting there man.
Speaker 11: People are like, all right, but can I say something
Speaker 11: really that my personal personal opinion is if you're an artist,
Speaker 11: I really feel like college is like might be a
Speaker 11: terrible decision. I know a lot of people I won't
Speaker 11: name them at Harvard who I think would be really
Speaker 11: big right now in society as artists. But they they
Speaker 11: just they just decided to go to class instead of
Speaker 11: saying fun that let me go get this hustle.
Speaker 14: I just.
Speaker 1: I don't want to.
Speaker 14: It's a lot of people like college, please, motherfucker seriously.
Speaker 1: That's my two cents. I mean people different people differently.
Speaker 2: About you're a musician, What the fuck are you doing
Speaker 2: in college?
Speaker 1: I don't want What about?
Speaker 6: I don't want my oldest your money?
Speaker 5: College?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't. They don't actually teach that at Counting.
Speaker 1: They don't teach a county.
Speaker 14: Yes, but you need a backup, you need what.
Speaker 7: What my mama told me was I always wanted to
Speaker 7: be a comedian. She said, baby, you need to go
Speaker 7: to school, you know, to go to college and I'm
Speaker 7: from the South. So I went to a community college
Speaker 7: for two years, Miami Dad Community College. And then if
Speaker 7: I grew up in Miami Opaca in the hood in
Speaker 7: a way, So yeah, I went to Miami Dad for
Speaker 7: two years and then I was on the speech and
Speaker 7: debate team. And that's how I knew I would get
Speaker 7: out of Miami. I wanted out of Miami back then.
Speaker 7: It was so bad back then, and so I got
Speaker 7: a scholarship to a college in Ohio. Never been to
Speaker 7: the Midwest, Heidelberg University.
Speaker 14: I was going to go there.
Speaker 7: I was going to go there, but the speech coach
Speaker 7: he was at Eastern Michigan University. So I went and
Speaker 7: got in there and then he quit and he said,
Speaker 7: if you come with me, I'll get you a full ride.
Speaker 7: So I went with him, and I got a full ride.
Speaker 9: I'm with you the way you said, because one of
Speaker 9: the things that I think about all the time, we
Speaker 9: talk about the pressure you could get fired from a
Speaker 9: writing job at any time. I've gone years without work,
Speaker 9: and I'm like, I went to University of Pennsylvania, I
Speaker 9: have a medical anthropology.
Speaker 6: I don't know how to do shit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it.
Speaker 9: Literally I'm like, I don't know how I can't even
Speaker 9: do my own taxes at this point, I don't know.
Speaker 9: You know what I'm saying, We don't. We didn't learn.
Speaker 9: I didn't learn anything.
Speaker 11: You know what eye opening is to that point is
Speaker 11: the number of people who I went to college with
Speaker 11: to this day who will be liked. I'll probably gets
Speaker 11: more than I do, because he's more engaged, like reaching
Speaker 11: out and being Hey man, that right ship seems to
Speaker 11: be going well. So how does one get into that.
Speaker 11: I'm like that you went to You did recruiting when
Speaker 11: you was twenty five. When I came to La and starved,
Speaker 11: you was recruiting and you had a job at Goldman.
Speaker 11: So I'm gonna tell you at this point go back
Speaker 11: in time to work twenty twenty years.
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a break.
Speaker 6: Shout out the rest the piece of Alan.
Speaker 1: How I'm thinking right this right this strokes man, I'm
Speaker 1: looking it up money and Jeanette the Bla look it up.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, but who wrote this one? Range Waters?
Speaker 1: That's her singing. That's her singing.
Speaker 4: But it's okay, Jennett Dubu and Jeff Barry there.
Speaker 10: I could be wrong.
Speaker 1: It's a long ass theme.
Speaker 4: I mean, they would burning a few minutes of content time.
Speaker 1: And they're like, okay, the spread is eight pages, John,
Speaker 1: we got to make some fun. It's only forty one seconds.
Speaker 1: But you know that's so.
Speaker 13: By the way, can I just say, can I just
Speaker 13: say you were playing Barney Miller earlier? So I had
Speaker 13: to look at up Hal Lindon still alive?
Speaker 1: Really?
Speaker 13: Yeah, I figured I was like that thought, it has
Speaker 13: to be out of here. He's eighty seven. Here's something
Speaker 13: I did not know about. This was like forgotten me.
Speaker 15: So the co writer the Jefferson theme song also wrote
Speaker 15: River Deep, Mountain High. Really the dude run Tina Turner
Speaker 15: song and he kissed me Jeff Barry.
Speaker 1: Woos getting page.
Speaker 4: Yeah makes sense, it makes sense, all right.
Speaker 2: So, uh, Bashir and Diallo, would you mind uh sharing
Speaker 2: with us the experience of trying to develop a show
Speaker 2: for HBO. Yeah, the whole experience of brothers in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Oh man, shout out, Brosident and y'all just looked at
Speaker 2: the floor like y'all wanted to pour some liquor on
Speaker 2: the ground.
Speaker 1: Liquor. I mean it's like losing one of your children.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 13: And by the way, we did two pilots for place
Speaker 13: in four years and two months, so that was four years.
Speaker 1: And two months. Can see and acted on shows on HBO.
Speaker 13: Of course you can't do that, Okay, you definitely don't
Speaker 13: have any of it. I'm sorry, because that would be
Speaker 13: that would be illegal.
Speaker 1: Okay. I will say that. I'm so proud of Brothers
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. It's so fucking funny. Fonte is in it.
Speaker 1: It's just but it's still funny.
Speaker 4: So what what what's the process of trying to start
Speaker 4: a car that well, I will.
Speaker 11: Say HBOS process I think is evolving, but it's typically
Speaker 11: a longer process. We were there developing for two years,
Speaker 11: which is on the minimum side. There are other people
Speaker 11: there who've been developing for up to six years.
Speaker 4: Well, there was also that one project that was there
Speaker 4: for eight years.
Speaker 11: Of development, which is I think a testament to their
Speaker 11: sense over there that everything needs to be slowed down
Speaker 11: to the point we can examine it a lot to
Speaker 11: make sure it's great. Sometimes that works. We see some
Speaker 11: of the shows obviously, like Game of Thrones are incredible.
Speaker 11: Sometimes that process that they have leads to I think we.
Speaker 13: Were also there during a period of great executive turnover. Like,
Speaker 13: we were there for three different presidents of the network,
Speaker 13: so when we arrived there was one person who was president.
Speaker 1: She was a big champion.
Speaker 13: We did a pilot there called The Reporters, which I
Speaker 13: think conceptually is still one of the best things we've.
Speaker 1: Ever don so okay, yeah, because I never literally saw
Speaker 1: the best thing in the world. It's about these two
Speaker 1: black reporters.
Speaker 13: We basically we took all the president's men and we
Speaker 13: put ourselves in the roles of those reporters. And I
Speaker 13: don't think it's any industry secret anymore. The concept of
Speaker 13: the show was essentially that every conspiracy theory that black
Speaker 13: people believe in, we were on the hunt to find
Speaker 13: out if it was true or not.
Speaker 4: And the joke was, give me example, is Tupac alive?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 13: Every every episode was us examining a different sort of like,
Speaker 13: you know, because one of them actually came out of Foullain.
Speaker 4: The original one is yeah, no, it was it was
Speaker 4: the search for James Brown's Gold.
Speaker 13: So when Eddie came on, When Eddie Murphy came on,
Speaker 13: Jimmy Fallon, he said that like you know, he'd he
Speaker 13: you know, he was blowing up as a young comedian
Speaker 13: and he met James Brown and James Brown was like, hey,
Speaker 13: are you doing so good man? You know, but but
Speaker 13: but don't put your money in a bank. And he
Speaker 13: was like, well what should I do with the money?
Speaker 1: And he was like do what I do? Hey?
Speaker 13: Man bury that shariot in the woods. He was like,
Speaker 13: what if you forget where you're barried? He's like, hey,
Speaker 13: at least the government won't get it. So we were
Speaker 13: sitting in our desci foul and we were like, what
Speaker 13: if somewhere in Augusta, Georgia, you know, was in the woods.
Speaker 13: There's like tons of hidden treasures, so our characters would
Speaker 13: just go in search of all that stuff. It was
Speaker 13: a really sort of unique concept for a show. We
Speaker 13: also came at a time when like Girls was starting
Speaker 13: to take off for HBO, So I feel like they
Speaker 13: steered us in a way more like Girls and let's
Speaker 13: do a very grounded I mean, we.
Speaker 11: Just to be honest, We just you know what I'm
Speaker 11: learning because we're now we're Comedy Central the South Side
Speaker 11: and it's like night and day. It really comes down
Speaker 11: to support. We just had a support, Like we didn't
Speaker 11: have the support you have to have the support the
Speaker 11: person the top, and eventually the person the top changed
Speaker 11: and they supported other ship and we were still there.
Speaker 11: We were like, oh, well that president, just finish the story.
Speaker 11: That president left. New president comes on. He's like, hey,
Speaker 11: I love you guys. I don't like the pilot you
Speaker 11: did for her. Do a pilot for me. So that
Speaker 11: was another two years of our lives. That it takes
Speaker 11: that long, That takes that long to it doesn't have
Speaker 11: to No, it doesn't happen. But that's the that was
Speaker 11: the way process then. I don't know what the process
Speaker 11: is now.
Speaker 1: What it's gonna change because they got to put out
Speaker 1: like ten times more content.
Speaker 13: We shot a great pilot with with Fante as he said,
Speaker 13: and j Smith and Maya Rudolph and Big Boy from Outcast,
Speaker 13: and it was a great pilot.
Speaker 1: It was all about being in Atlanta.
Speaker 13: Actually, at one point Donald was going to be in
Speaker 13: our another point he was like, Hey, after I come
Speaker 13: up to her, I'm gonna do my own Atlanta show.
Speaker 1: We're also big fans of Atlanta.
Speaker 13: I think like the same way there are a million
Speaker 13: white shows that take place in New York and LA.
Speaker 4: You can have more than one black. It takes place.
Speaker 11: I will say one thing that's a little that was
Speaker 11: difficult and frustrating for me was you know, back in
Speaker 11: twenty twelve, Diallo was telling the network like, Hey, Atlanta, Atlanta,
Speaker 11: Atlanta my hometown. I'm from there. We got to do
Speaker 11: a show in Atlanta, and they just you should see
Speaker 11: the blank stairs. We would get the meetings and to
Speaker 11: the point where we had to wait till twenty fifteen
Speaker 11: where GQ published an article saying, hey, Atlanta has is
Speaker 11: a city where like music is important and then we
Speaker 11: had to like walk that into President Hbill's office, like see,
Speaker 11: We've been saying for three years.
Speaker 1: Like this is the real thing. Now. This frustrating not
Speaker 1: being able.
Speaker 4: To wait with the Columbus to discover Atlanta before they
Speaker 4: us there.
Speaker 13: How do they feel with the success of the other
Speaker 13: Atlanta Like to have you had a I just told
Speaker 13: you so? Or like, no, man, we haven't had time
Speaker 13: to say I told you so. I will say that, Uh,
Speaker 13: you know, there's a I'm I'm happy for anybody who
Speaker 13: gets to anybody black who gets create a show. So
Speaker 13: like people ask me about other black shows, and even
Speaker 13: if I don't love those shows, I'll geninly be like,
Speaker 13: I love it because it is so hard to get
Speaker 13: an idea that is pure through the crucible.
Speaker 1: It's so hard to get that shape.
Speaker 4: So you're telling me just because a show was greenlit,
Speaker 4: that's not mean.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 13: So at the end of the story, so Brothers in Atlanta,
Speaker 13: we shot, we shot the pilot, and uh, it went
Speaker 13: to series and we hired a room full of writers
Speaker 13: and we wrote the entire first season and then we
Speaker 13: were like, okay, so what are our production days.
Speaker 4: So they're like, we'll get back to you, and we'll
Speaker 4: get back to you.
Speaker 13: Stretched out for six months of our lives and we're
Speaker 13: out here in l A like just waiting, and then
Speaker 13: they called us one day and and and uh. The
Speaker 13: new person was like, I think we're going in a
Speaker 13: different direction.
Speaker 4: So I'm curious, who is the sounding board? What do
Speaker 4: you mean, who was the judge in the injury with
Speaker 4: the hands on the guillotine, the whether you know, Oh,
Speaker 4: it's the President's the people at the top.
Speaker 11: But you know, but those decisions are made by the
Speaker 11: people who work in the building, who are in competition
Speaker 11: with each other. So if we've been there for four
Speaker 11: years and somebody's coming in with something that that's new
Speaker 11: and hot and they like and they're true, and there's
Speaker 11: only so much airtime on HBO. Now you're in a
Speaker 11: competition between like, well, are we gonna put out this
Speaker 11: thing or this new thing? And then that's without somebody
Speaker 11: else developed that. I mean, there's a lot of that
Speaker 11: networks with like, well, somebody else developed that project, and
Speaker 11: I don't care about that project. I got this project.
Speaker 11: So we sort of ran into some of that turbulence the.
Speaker 13: Same way at any network, the previous administration developed something
Speaker 13: and then those people are fleshed out the incoming People
Speaker 13: often say, and this is some real talk about the industry. Yeah, well,
Speaker 13: if this thing hits, it's gonna make my predecessor look good.
Speaker 13: It doesn't help me, and it doesn't help me, so
Speaker 13: I'm just gonna push it out.
Speaker 6: I tell you guys, that's for most jobs entertainment people.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's crazy.
Speaker 11: Yeah we're saying, you know, but I will say everybody,
Speaker 11: it did make me thinking, because Fante, you said, that's
Speaker 11: what happens in the record isstruy.
Speaker 1: I think what we went through, by the way, I
Speaker 1: had a really good talk with Raphael to dig about it.
Speaker 11: He is such a good person to talk to anyway,
Speaker 11: because he worked with us on the Maya Rudolph thing.
Speaker 11: But it made me think about, like, how many great
Speaker 11: albums have I never heard because some fucking executive pushed
Speaker 11: it out. But then it also means that, like some
Speaker 11: artists have to have that tenacity to be like, well,
Speaker 11: I have three albums that are incredible that are never
Speaker 11: coming out. Now I got to go make a fourth call.
Speaker 11: That's fucking I can't even I mean, I can't imagine
Speaker 11: it because I've had to do it. But it's incredible
Speaker 11: to think about the volume of good material that one
Speaker 11: person has like kept back.
Speaker 1: From the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to really think it, Like if you're
Speaker 2: I think, if you're an artist just now, you really
Speaker 2: have to have it in mind. Like when people say
Speaker 2: you're in it for the long haul, in your mind,
Speaker 2: you might be thinking the long haul is like four years, nigga.
Speaker 1: That shit is more like ten.
Speaker 9: Mabody, who has judged some of the Diversity Writing Contest
Speaker 9: and watched people's career. I mean some of the scripts
Speaker 9: that some suck, but some are amazing. But then you
Speaker 9: see people's especially for black women. I'll say in half
Speaker 9: an hour comedy and we have we haven't. We haven't
Speaker 9: run a network one since the nineties, so it's very
Speaker 9: it's a voice sore spot. But since living thing, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 9: what about it said half an hour comedy, which I
Speaker 9: care about because they know right hours?
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I mean we haven't.
Speaker 9: And it's like there's I mean, there's guys, there's like
Speaker 9: you know, even Cable, there's Saladin, and there's some princess
Speaker 9: who's running in secure. But just for a woman to
Speaker 9: actually have a voice in half an hour, and I've
Speaker 9: watched this young lady and a lot of times what
Speaker 9: happens is they'll hire diverse writers because they get them
Speaker 9: for free under a program forer year fire. I mean
Speaker 9: they have to start every year at the same level.
Speaker 1: As the staff.
Speaker 11: I just found that also, that they'll hire like even
Speaker 11: if somebody man woman gets a job and is like,
Speaker 11: this is your show, it's greatanlet What America doesn't know
Speaker 11: is that the network then go behind and hire this
Speaker 11: other person to come in and basically sit over your
Speaker 11: shoulder for the whole time and try and direct to
Speaker 11: control what you do because they are more in tune
Speaker 11: with the network actually wants, And I've seen a lot
Speaker 11: of frustrated people be like they have to be working
Speaker 11: with this other writer and they don't really get they
Speaker 11: don't even get black people.
Speaker 1: And it's just like, but that's that's the condition under
Speaker 1: which you get to put your show on the air.
Speaker 1: So that happens often.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So.
Speaker 2: Like during the time you were saying that, you know,
Speaker 2: years will go by, whatever will go by before you
Speaker 2: had a job, or you know, when you're between jobs,
Speaker 2: how would you support yourself?
Speaker 1: How do you eat as a writer?
Speaker 9: Hebe I know how to do that. I mean, I
Speaker 9: wrote the Diaries. I mean, but honestly, it's this is
Speaker 9: what happens a lot of time. There's so many stories
Speaker 9: about being a lot of times there's not a lot
Speaker 9: of This is the first show that I've worked on
Speaker 9: and I've been out here for seventeen years where I've
Speaker 9: written for a lead black woman, you know, and a
Speaker 9: lot of times people will think that it's a black girl,
Speaker 9: she could only write for black women. I'm like, I've
Speaker 9: lived in a white and a man's world my whole life.
Speaker 9: I have to learn to navigate this, like you literally,
Speaker 9: on paper, I'm the whitest person on Earth. It's like,
Speaker 9: if you didn't Angela Ministile, what the.
Speaker 1: Hell is that?
Speaker 9: But it's very it's unless they feel like your voice
Speaker 9: will contribute. They literally look at a lot of times
Speaker 9: on these literal half hour comedies, they only look at
Speaker 9: people of color through a people of color less Like
Speaker 9: even when you're pitching, they'll be like, Okay, here's our
Speaker 9: Latina character. She's gonna take salsa lessons.
Speaker 1: And she's Latina, she probably don't need to take lessons.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 9: I've had such interesting comments with black women about getting
Speaker 9: staffed on shows. I remember one girl saying her go
Speaker 9: to strategy is getting her hair put in corn rolls
Speaker 9: because then people know that she's the authentic black when
Speaker 9: she comes back. She was like, I do it every
Speaker 9: year and it works. She was like, until before that,
Speaker 9: you know, and it's have.
Speaker 5: You watched any of the either YouTube ladies. Have y'all
Speaker 5: watched The Love Is at All? Because it kind of
Speaker 5: shows like the process. But I heard it does show
Speaker 5: when she went to YouTube.
Speaker 1: Is that on Netflix?
Speaker 14: That's on own all right?
Speaker 6: And it's the story of Mara, And I thought, uh.
Speaker 11: About I watched Green Leaf? Yeah, I have watched that's
Speaker 11: the Mother show, y'all, Sleeping on green Leaf?
Speaker 3: I love it?
Speaker 5: Could they show her being a staff writer from Martin
Speaker 5: back in the day before she became who she is
Speaker 5: mar brock and kill and supporting her husband.
Speaker 1: To me, that's those are the most interesting parts of
Speaker 1: the show. Yeah. Yeah, the love story part is it's
Speaker 1: like some beauty but like it.
Speaker 9: Now I'm in.
Speaker 1: That is that her new show?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 1: That show? I never heard back?
Speaker 7: What were you?
Speaker 1: Seriously now I'm here. What happened y'all? What happened on
Speaker 1: the show or the show?
Speaker 14: I don't even remembering?
Speaker 11: No, no, I told her I for that show because
Speaker 11: I had to meet with Mara and her husband Rye,
Speaker 11: who are like the dream team, you know.
Speaker 1: It's like straight up. But that show is about their
Speaker 1: assent through in early days.
Speaker 5: And they tell it through the story of them being older.
Speaker 5: So two older actors telling the story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Clark Peters and I cannot remember the ladies name.
Speaker 2: Let's the Freeman from the Wire and I can't remember
Speaker 2: the lady that plays the older And that's.
Speaker 14: About calloways on here too.
Speaker 1: That's why her. I love her.
Speaker 7: But when I was in the o g Room, that
Speaker 7: was my first that's my first writing job, first time
Speaker 7: ever writing in the room. I've been a comedian for
Speaker 7: twenty years, touring all across the country. You know, got
Speaker 7: on the tour with Tracy and he's like, I want
Speaker 7: to put you in my room. I like the way
Speaker 7: you write, like your jokes. So I got in the
Speaker 7: room and I and I thought that was just how
Speaker 7: it was. I thought this was normal. And then Andrew's like, no,
Speaker 7: you never see this many black writers in one way.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 14: I thought this was because I loved it.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 14: It was like I was home.
Speaker 7: We had so much fun in the room. We let
Speaker 7: We were so loud that the other rooms would come
Speaker 7: over to see what we were doing and they would.
Speaker 9: Say they did that.
Speaker 7: I think they did want to say that, but they
Speaker 7: but when they opened the door and see all these
Speaker 7: black people are like, Okay, we can't we can't really
Speaker 7: say that.
Speaker 14: We can't say nothing funny.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it was.
Speaker 14: But I thought that was normal. And I heard all
Speaker 14: these stories like no, that's this is a first.
Speaker 11: But you have to have a successful show with somebody
Speaker 11: like Tracy, who the network is now in tremendous financial
Speaker 11: business with must listen to like Donald of effects to
Speaker 11: be able to get to that place where you can
Speaker 11: have those types of rooms, because again, it's like they
Speaker 11: meddle in every little part of it, and you have
Speaker 11: to have somebody at the top who's just like, don't
Speaker 11: do that.
Speaker 2: This is what's gonna be, all right. So the room,
Speaker 2: of course, you know, in the past room. The past
Speaker 2: year or so, the me too movement has at least
Speaker 2: started to steer or the I'm sorry already the idea
Speaker 2: of me too has started to uh, I don't know,
Speaker 2: create some dialogue about respect on the on in the
Speaker 2: writer's room and in the boardroom or whatever.
Speaker 4: But uh, at its worst, can you tell us, Angela, what.
Speaker 1: How Toxico?
Speaker 9: I mean, what's interesting to me first before about the
Speaker 9: me too movement is that when I was on Scrubs,
Speaker 9: there was a black writer's assistant and she actually bought
Speaker 9: a lawsuit against the friends writers for some of the
Speaker 9: things that they said, things that.
Speaker 11: I have.
Speaker 9: A famous you know, and it's it actually got rejected.
Speaker 9: The whole thing was that, yeah, she never worked again,
Speaker 9: she had to retire from the business.
Speaker 1: They stopped hiring black women.
Speaker 9: Literally, I was told to my face, thank you for
Speaker 9: saying that, because I was told to my face by
Speaker 9: numerous white men, wow, you're lucky you already have a job,
Speaker 9: because we ain't hire no black women. After that, and then,
Speaker 9: like I said, since the nineties winning one one damn show,
Speaker 9: they literally said, oh, they can say whatever they want
Speaker 9: to say to you. You want to misquote. But it
Speaker 9: was some of the things that they would say in
Speaker 9: the room. I mean, they would talk sexual stuff. And
Speaker 9: this is not stuff that I'm I have not heard.
Speaker 9: I've heard it over and over and I've always been
Speaker 9: told by the white women, one, keep your mouth shut,
Speaker 9: you know, which is what everyone does. And I've been
Speaker 9: and especially even looking at the Me Too movement. Now
Speaker 9: I'm rolling my eyes trac across the room because every
Speaker 9: black woman has come out in the metwo movement. It's
Speaker 9: like even the only one that Harvey Weinstein talked back against.
Speaker 4: Was the black.
Speaker 14: Wait a minute, woman, come up, decent, you go through.
Speaker 9: This that if I speak up, nobody's going to have
Speaker 9: my back, you know. So it's I always feel bad
Speaker 9: because she was the one. If anyone was one of
Speaker 9: the first people to speak up, it was her. And
Speaker 9: now she had she not only they sued her for
Speaker 9: the cost of their legal defense mother.
Speaker 7: What she had, I want to put her on the shoulder.
Speaker 7: And they talk about that cage all the time. It
Speaker 7: comes up a lot.
Speaker 1: It comes up in our HR meetings to this day.
Speaker 14: We just had a meeting, a network meeting came up there,
Speaker 14: So she.
Speaker 4: Came before this, the me too madness.
Speaker 1: This is like late nineties or.
Speaker 9: Two thousand. I didn't start out here until two thousand
Speaker 9: and two, so I had.
Speaker 1: To be like early two thousands.
Speaker 9: Yeah, wow, so I remember. But yes they did, Like
Speaker 9: you said, they.
Speaker 1: Said where she is or who she is or I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I know some.
Speaker 9: People who have tried to reach out to her. She
Speaker 9: went into the military, which I would do too if
Speaker 9: I had all these powerful men try But that's all
Speaker 9: I know, And I know that some journalists have tried.
Speaker 1: To reach I got her training on, she got some skills.
Speaker 6: But talk about to in the room.
Speaker 5: The difference between like, because you know it's jokes, right,
Speaker 5: you can tell sexual jokes and whatnot, But when it
Speaker 5: becomes offensive, like what would have made her be.
Speaker 9: Like if you experienced some ship in the room, Yes,
Speaker 9: I will say that, what makes you cross the line,
Speaker 9: I will say that in these jobs. I always liking
Speaker 9: it to going on too a construction site. I put
Speaker 9: on a different hat, I put on protective gear when
Speaker 9: I go in these rooms, and I give as good
Speaker 9: as I get. But there are certain things that I've
Speaker 9: heard in rooms that means that if you're gonna sit
Speaker 9: there and talk about my ass, I'm gonna make up
Speaker 9: shit about your dick, and I'm gonna sit there and
Speaker 9: talk about your mom and your brother and all that
Speaker 9: other shit, and I'm gonna make you crawl under the
Speaker 9: motherfucking desk, like for real, Like I'm just like you know,
Speaker 9: like I'm just you can't be, in my opinion, you
Speaker 9: can't be like us. Literally, I'm not going to go
Speaker 9: into a room and talk about one of the things
Speaker 9: like we talk about how one of the things we
Speaker 9: talked about the last og because there's a white guy there,
Speaker 9: And I said, you know, white guys is so funny
Speaker 9: when they try to have sex with the black women.
Speaker 9: They're always trying to compete with what they think black
Speaker 9: men do.
Speaker 14: You know?
Speaker 9: So I have I go into a half an hour
Speaker 9: spiel about having sex with white guys. I can't put
Speaker 9: out that much on the table and have people visualizing
Speaker 9: my vagina and not expecting to come back with a.
Speaker 1: Joke about.
Speaker 9: The line to me is watching a basketball game and
Speaker 9: using the end word and looking at me and expecting
Speaker 9: a less wait wait really yeah, And then but then
Speaker 9: getting into the whole thing where.
Speaker 1: They felt that safe to say nigga again like it.
Speaker 9: Was we heard earlier, if they felt safe enough to
Speaker 9: say we're not going to hire another black woman after
Speaker 9: this one black woman messed up? What if someone said
Speaker 9: we're not hire another white man. But yes, of course, yes,
Speaker 9: these are all things that you HR because HR looks
Speaker 9: out for their company. HR is not going to look
Speaker 9: out for H. HR ain't your friend.
Speaker 11: But also, I mean the reason the other reason you
Speaker 11: don't go to HR is because it'll hurt your like
Speaker 11: if you.
Speaker 1: Want to stay a writer.
Speaker 11: People are going like, okay, we got to hire another room,
Speaker 11: and I'm like, oh, well, that person who they hired
Speaker 11: last time they went to HR based on some jokes
Speaker 11: that was.
Speaker 4: Made, you basically went to internal effing yeah.
Speaker 1: Then it's like, why would I bring that person? I mean,
Speaker 1: even the black kid didn't have guns hurts you.
Speaker 11: By the way, even with the me too movement, I'm
Speaker 11: pretty sure, we've only seen a very small snippet of
Speaker 11: people who have stories. There's a lot of women, probably
Speaker 11: every woman in Hollywood has a story about some ship
Speaker 11: that somebody did. But you know, again, there's a cost
Speaker 11: benefit going on, people going like, eh, is it worth me?
Speaker 11: It's working?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I don't want to. It's sad to say, but
Speaker 9: I don't want to be the person now after I
Speaker 9: see what happens to that other girl that anyone ever
Speaker 9: says it, well, you know what, angel is the reason
Speaker 9: they're not hiring any more black women. You know, it's sad,
Speaker 9: but I don't want to be that person.
Speaker 4: No, it's black people. We always have to think about that.
Speaker 2: We always have to think in terms of the collective,
Speaker 2: Like if I do something, it ain't just me doing it,
Speaker 2: I represent thirty other niggas that don't even know me,
Speaker 2: And yeah, that's what's fucked up.
Speaker 1: But every room culture is also different.
Speaker 11: Like some rooms you know, and it's it's it's it's
Speaker 11: absolutely sexist, it's absolutely racist. But some rooms are just
Speaker 11: like hard rooms period where depending on how the showrunner
Speaker 11: is Like, I've definitely been in rooms, but I've seen
Speaker 11: two even white guys viciously going at each other and
Speaker 11: everybody's laughing, and I'm like, yeah, that's just like going
Speaker 11: at each other like personally, like get real personal, like
Speaker 11: your wife shit, and like, oh that's why your wife.
Speaker 1: Let you know whatever that was.
Speaker 11: But like some some showrunners encourage that because they think
Speaker 11: it makes the show better to have a feisty room.
Speaker 11: So it actually it's like sometimes people want that thunderdome atmosphere.
Speaker 11: Yeah true, you know really yeah, people who we worked before,
Speaker 11: Like I've heard directly from some very famous producer that
Speaker 11: his assistant was like, well, you know, he likes to when.
Speaker 1: The writers compete a lot and they're really kind of
Speaker 1: cutting each other's throats. And I was like, really, I
Speaker 1: don't like that. It's not fun to go to work
Speaker 1: every day knowing like if this person says something to me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk shit about him, and it almost come
Speaker 1: to blows with this person and fight this person, you know,
Speaker 1: in a building, and I will say for them to
Speaker 1: right a TV show.
Speaker 13: My personal experience is that most writers rooms have a
Speaker 13: have a general like you like the people that you're
Speaker 13: in the room with, and it becomes like this sort
Speaker 13: of weird family where like you said, all secrets kind
Speaker 13: of come out on the table and you typically grow
Speaker 13: pretty close. I can't speak on what it was like
Speaker 13: to be in one of those all all male rooms
Speaker 13: in like you know, the early nineties, where every dude,
Speaker 13: every every writer was a white guy.
Speaker 4: I don't I don't know what that's ever been like.
Speaker 4: I've never been that room.
Speaker 9: It's it's amazing. Me and Tracy were talking before we
Speaker 9: started recording today and we were like, it's the real world.
Speaker 9: Knew that they had something. We are trapped in a
Speaker 9: room with each other for sometimes twelve hours a day.
Speaker 9: Sometimes we sleep overnight with each other, and unlike on
Speaker 9: TV on the Real World all these shows, but we
Speaker 9: are forced to talk to each other about topics that
Speaker 9: we think will engage America. So it's like and we
Speaker 9: are going to disagree. And if you have a good room,
Speaker 9: it's very diverse and everyone has diverse opinions. So that's
Speaker 9: why sometimes fists will fly, Sometimes people will say things,
Speaker 9: and people will call out people's dead moms, like it
Speaker 9: gets super real.
Speaker 14: I had to I had to pull back one day, remember,
Speaker 14: and I had to hold back.
Speaker 7: I got out it was something, it was something I
Speaker 7: just didn't agree with that we were doing with the
Speaker 7: with our female character, and I just just like I
Speaker 7: was holding it in.
Speaker 14: And I think I said, y'all gonna get letters. I
Speaker 14: think that's what I said.
Speaker 7: I said, y'all gonna get letters, and I just got
Speaker 7: up outvoted or no, no, they It was kind of
Speaker 7: a misunderstanding, But I'm glad that that happened because the
Speaker 7: showrunner then said, oh, did you think I meant this?
Speaker 7: And then other people in the room said, well, that's
Speaker 7: what I thought you mean. Yeah, so and I thought
Speaker 7: nobody in the room at that moment had my back,
Speaker 7: but then everybody was like, no, we were right on
Speaker 7: the same page with you on that, you know, but
Speaker 7: they say, you're not supposed to do that.
Speaker 1: How receptive are like in the rooms?
Speaker 2: Because I'd imagine now being that, you know, with like
Speaker 2: black Twitter, and you know how like shit it is instant,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Like, how receptive are people
Speaker 2: or I guess whether it be the showrunners or the
Speaker 2: producers or the higher ups whoever, how receptive are they
Speaker 2: to y'all's like feedback of saying like yo, when y'all
Speaker 2: do that, yeah, like you're gonna be on Boss of
Speaker 2: the next morning, nigga, like, you don't want these problems?
Speaker 1: Did they listen to y'all on that kind of shit?
Speaker 9: It depends, I mean, so much can change by the
Speaker 9: time it's on the page to the time that it's
Speaker 9: on the stage, and then sometimes by the time black
Speaker 9: Twitter says something, we're like, oh, they gonna hate this
Speaker 9: because we already filmed it, you know.
Speaker 14: So it's it depends.
Speaker 7: I think sometimes if I try to fight for that
Speaker 7: in the room, you know, you don't want to be
Speaker 7: they called the web blanket in the room, you don't
Speaker 7: want to be that person. But you know, certain things
Speaker 7: like if I feel really passionate about it, sometimes what
Speaker 7: I'll do is I'll just talk to that showrunner alone,
Speaker 7: you know, and we'll talk alone because sometimes in the
Speaker 7: room something I you know, it might pop off, So
Speaker 7: I just go and say, I'll wait till I can
Speaker 7: talk to him privately.
Speaker 2: I would I would assume that post the Roseanne situation,
Speaker 2: that most writers' room know that black Twitter or the
Speaker 2: Internet social media has the power to get you canceled
Speaker 2: in a milliseconds. So was it before then they were
Speaker 2: just like, oh, it doesn't make it doesn't matter.
Speaker 13: I know think I think these conversations always said. In fact,
Speaker 13: I'll even say there are times with me and Basher
Speaker 13: don't agree about a law and a dialogue, you know,
Speaker 13: Like so I don't even think it necessarily has to
Speaker 13: be a white black thing, like there can be sometimes
Speaker 13: when like two black people disagree about like what's going
Speaker 13: to set off black Twitter?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, I don't a white black thing.
Speaker 2: I just meant the power of the instant feedback from
Speaker 2: an audience.
Speaker 11: That I mean, I'm gonna be an outlier here and
Speaker 11: say I think people are extremely attuned to that. But
Speaker 11: my personal feeling is that it's terrible to be attuned
Speaker 11: to that because it's gonna stop you from taking bold strokes,
Speaker 11: making bold decisions. And you also have to look at
Speaker 11: the genesis and origin or something like there's something on
Speaker 11: our new show that's a little bit controversial, but a
Speaker 11: black writer pitched it. It was a room full of
Speaker 11: black people there who laughed when he pitched it. I
Speaker 11: was there, you know what I'm saying. So it's like
Speaker 11: it's almost like there's a line between if it's coming
Speaker 11: from us versus if it's like a white TV show
Speaker 11: with a black character where it's like, well, there's no
Speaker 11: agency there. But it's also a case by case, and
Speaker 11: you know, I apologize for being repetitive, but I personally
Speaker 11: do feel like if you live your life constantly like
Speaker 11: worried about well, what's Twitter gonna think about this.
Speaker 1: Then I don't know what kind of life you're living. No,
Speaker 1: I completely agree.
Speaker 9: I'm with you, because it's also times I'll see that
Speaker 9: Twitter gets so excited just seeing black faces on the screen,
Speaker 9: and I want to scream at Twitter there's no black
Speaker 9: writers on that show, there's no black gaffers, there's not
Speaker 9: even black man on the Craft Food Service.
Speaker 1: Mascot for the show.
Speaker 9: Yes, yes, And so it's it's it's I sometimes wish
Speaker 9: that and a lot of people on black Twitter perhaps
Speaker 9: have their own agendas when they rail against or.
Speaker 1: For a show.
Speaker 9: You just got to be careful, Yes, So it's it's
Speaker 9: I agree with you totally.
Speaker 1: I just say also like I'm to that point.
Speaker 11: Also, I myself have prejudices, Like I was talking to
Speaker 11: this black woman at this event one time, and I
Speaker 11: was asking what her favorite TV show was, and I
Speaker 11: thought she was gonna be like, well, you know, Insecure
Speaker 11: and Land and like, name all the shows that are
Speaker 11: like the shows that people were talking about. She just
Speaker 11: named a bunch of random shit that I didn't even
Speaker 11: know was on the air. And myself was like, see,
Speaker 11: that's my prejudice because I assumed because she was a
Speaker 11: black woman that she's only watching TV shows with a
Speaker 11: strong black female lead, and like, no she was.
Speaker 1: She was like the flat well no, but see.
Speaker 11: But here's why though, because when you were in these meetings,
Speaker 11: when you're talking to these executives, that's all they talk about.
Speaker 1: Well, you got to have this person on the show
Speaker 1: because there's a black woman, so you have to have a.
Speaker 5: Black you have black women in your life. Do you
Speaker 5: take that into account too? It does it just become
Speaker 5: so vision.
Speaker 1: Not at all? Actually no, not at all.
Speaker 9: What I'm saying, not at all does black women.
Speaker 1: Shout out to shout out, shout shout out to the wife.
Speaker 11: But I was just wanting to say that, I think,
Speaker 11: listening to TV executives, you would think that only people
Speaker 11: people only watch stuff where they themselves are greatly represented
Speaker 11: on screen. And I think our feeling and what we
Speaker 11: struggle with at HBO, our feeling was that no black
Speaker 11: people are too diverse to be put in the box.
Speaker 11: You cannot tell them what they will like and what
Speaker 11: they won't like. You can't predict that. You have no
Speaker 11: idea what a black audience.
Speaker 5: Will which is crazy because coming from your experience, you
Speaker 5: can't tell an executive like trust me, I know, I know,
Speaker 5: like mad black women.
Speaker 14: They're like the numbers say, those numbers are subjective, you know.
Speaker 9: Now, I feel really bad that me and my mom
Speaker 9: fudged that Nielsen thing. They're like, look at this thing,
Speaker 9: and that's too.
Speaker 1: Dang. You take a break. Okay.
Speaker 2: I figured the jam was coming. I was playing a jam,
Speaker 2: but then I thought you were a thought. Oh no, no,
Speaker 2: go ahead, here we go.
Speaker 1: Oh, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4: I hate to be the bear of bad news. But
Speaker 4: that is all for Quest Love Supreme this week.
Speaker 1: But don't worry.
Speaker 4: Tune in next week. You're gonna hear how this.
Speaker 1: Conversation is all right, Okay, we will see your next
Speaker 1: direct Peace West.
Speaker 2: Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode
Speaker 2: was produced by the team at Pandora.
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