Erin Foster, Dan Fogelman and More Top TV Scribes Share Secrets of Success at 2025 Night in the Writers’ Room
At Variety‘s annual A Night in the Writers’ Room, top drama, limited series and comedy writers spill the secrets of their processes.
“Nobody Wants This”
Foster: “Everybody passed on it and Netflix felt sort of like an unrealistic place to buy it. It was our last pitch and sort of like a formality — do the pitch so they can say no, and then I go back to all the recipes I learned during COVID. Then they bought it and it changed my life.”
“St. Denis Medical”
Ledgin: “There’s multi-generational households watching our show and laughing together. That to me is what TV was when I was a kid. That was the joy of it. So it’s pretty cool to hear that from people that don’t owe me the compliment.”
“Overcompensating”
“I was worried about some of the specificity of it, because this was my experience in the closet… instead, I’m being met with so many messages from people who I think saw themselves in the show and maybe saw themselves not only in my character, but in this nostalgic world of college, and being able to laugh at that cringe time in their life.”
“Hacks”
“We always said that the heart of the show is the relationship between Deborah and Ava… it’s not a will-they-won’t-they in terms of get together, but, it’s will Deborah allow herself to have one friend? She’s really fighting that for a long time.”
“Animal Control”
“I think [will-they-won’tthey relationships] are the emotional heart of the show. I love having those arcs. When you’re trying to break stories and you have like a romantic triangle to go to or something like that, it just makes everything less terrifying.”
“Abbott Elementary”
“We were told network TV was dead when we pitched the show and, you know, we’re still on the air. It may be dead, but we’re there among the corpses. There’s a bunch of people out there who still like writing comedy, still like making comedy, and we’ve found each other. “
“Cross”
“I had started going through the [Alex Cross] books and I started thinking, a lot of these are set in a time where I’m either gonna have to do a period piece, or I’m gonna have to take something that’s not gonna be as relevant in today’s day and age. But these characters are relevant, this world is relevant, these relationships are relevant. Let me take all of that.”
“Doc”
Kligman: “I’m the only one with an llustrious network [show]. I am gonna ride this until I die. Network does allow for that… I hate saying this out loud because it sounds douchy, but the characters sort of dictate where they wanna go. We make plans but I know they’re all going to change.”
“The Pitt”
Gemmill: “I’ve been doing it a long time, and I also think, at the end of the day, I’m not saving kids’ lives. I’m making a fucking TV show. It’s ‘Gilligan’s Island.’ If it’s still on the air 50 years after I’m dead, wonderful. I’m just so damn lucky to get paid not to have people shoot at me or run into a burning building.”
“Yellowjackets”
Lyle: “The one thing that has gotten a little bit easier [after three seasons] is… the fear that you won’t make people happy. Because at a certain point you realize you can’t make everybody happy. You just have to realize you will make some people happy.”
Nickerson: “We have a tendency to look forward a lot. A lot of it ends up just collapsing and turning into something different… There’s a constant revising as we move forward.”
“The Last of Us”
Mazin: “I’m terrified still [going into Season 3]. But I think that’s probably a good sign— we’re terrified that we’re going to fuck it up, so we try our hardest… But I’d rather be scared and give it my all than be kind of vaguely satisfied.”
“Severance”
Erickson: “I feel like we finally have a sense of what the hell the show is, what it was actually, always trying to be. The pressure keeps going up, but you get a little bit wiser every time, and that does help.”
“Paradise”
Fogelman: “I have a pretty open process with my writers. We take all of our scripts, collectively, and we just beat the shit out of them in front of one another constantly. It seems like a wonderful open process until your writer’s PA is giving you notes for four and a half hours.”
“Long Bright River”
“I’d love to be able to say we set out… like ,’We’re gonna hire all females [for our crew].’ No, that was not it at all. We literally talked to a bunch of different people. Honestly, the women just won the fucking job.”
“The Penguin”
“My hope with the show is that you look at it, maybe you’re looking at advertisements or the fact that it’s called ‘The Penguin’ and you’re judging it… I was really hoping by the end you’d be like, ‘Oh, this is not at all what I expected and weirdly, I feel things.’”
“Dying for Sex”
Rosenstock: “Our writers included a cancer survivor, someone who’d lost somebody to cancer, someone who had chronic illness… We made sure that we had our blind spots covered. Because we had fart jokes and dick jokes covered on our end.”
Meriwether: “We went into it knowing that the tone was gonna be hard.That was actually what drew both of us to it. We decided to just focus on the humanity of the characters and really not try to think about genre that much.”
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
“Menedez is Rashomon. It’s a story told from different perspectives and no one will know the truth. The people who know the truth — two of them are in prison, two of them are dead.”
“What We Do in the Shadows”
“The conceptual joke of the whole series is they’re making a documentary about an entire lifestyle that’s supposed to be hidden. It felt like in the final season you sort of had to deal with that. We really wanted the finale to feel like we were just starting any old episode, and have it feel abrupt and remind the viewer that you have been watching a documentary the whole time.”
“The Better Sister”
“We were never particularly super sticklers, but we were super sticklers for making sure that our entire team knew that the best idea won, and that we wanted that feedback and collaboration that the door was always open.”
“The Last of Us”
“We have this roadmap [from the game]. We don’t quite know how long that road will be and what kind of detours we’ll go on. But we know the main stops and we know the final destination.”
“Nobody Wants This”
Foster: “Everybody passed on it and Netflix felt sort of like an unrealistic place to buy it. It was our last pitch and sort of like a formality — do the pitch so they can say no, and then I go back to all the recipes I learned during COVID. Then they bought it and it changed my life.”
“St. Denis Medical”
Ledgin: “There’s multi-generational households watching our show and laughing together. That to me is what TV was when I was a kid. That was the joy of it. So it’s pretty cool to hear that from people that don’t owe me the compliment.”
“Overcompensating”
“I was worried about some of the specificity of it, because this was my experience in the closet… instead, I’m being met with so many messages from people who I think saw themselves in the show and maybe saw themselves not only in my character, but in this nostalgic world of college, and being able to laugh at that cringe time in their life.”
“Hacks”
“We always said that the heart of the show is the relationship between Deborah and Ava… it’s not a will-they-won’t-they in terms of get together, but, it’s will Deborah allow herself to have one friend? She’s really fighting that for a long time.”
“Animal Control”
“I think [will-they-won’tthey relationships] are the emotional heart of the show. I love having those arcs. When you’re trying to break stories and you have like a romantic triangle to go to or something like that, it just makes everything less terrifying.”
“Abbott Elementary”
“We were told network TV was dead when we pitched the show and, you know, we’re still on the air. It may be dead, but we’re there among the corpses. There’s a bunch of people out there who still like writing comedy, still like making comedy, and we’ve found each other. “
“Cross”
“I had started going through the [Alex Cross] books and I started thinking, a lot of these are set in a time where I’m either gonna have to do a period piece, or I’m gonna have to take something that’s not gonna be as relevant in today’s day and age. But these characters are relevant, this world is relevant, these relationships are relevant. Let me take all of that.”
“Doc”
Kligman: “I’m the only one with an llustrious network [show]. I am gonna ride this until I die. Network does allow for that… I hate saying this out loud because it sounds douchy, but the characters sort of dictate where they wanna go. We make plans but I know they’re all going to change.”
“The Pitt”
Gemmill: “I’ve been doing it a long time, and I also think, at the end of the day, I’m not saving kids’ lives. I’m making a fucking TV show. It’s ‘Gilligan’s Island.’ If it’s still on the air 50 years after I’m dead, wonderful. I’m just so damn lucky to get paid not to have people shoot at me or run into a burning building.”
“Yellowjackets”
Lyle: “The one thing that has gotten a little bit easier [after three seasons] is… the fear that you won’t make people happy. Because at a certain point you realize you can’t make everybody happy. You just have to realize you will make some people happy.”
Nickerson: “We have a tendency to look forward a lot. A lot of it ends up just collapsing and turning into something different… There’s a constant revising as we move forward.”
“The Last of Us”
Mazin: “I’m terrified still [going into Season 3]. But I think that’s probably a good sign— we’re terrified that we’re going to fuck it up, so we try our hardest… But I’d rather be scared and give it my all than be kind of vaguely satisfied.”
“Severance”
Erickson: “I feel like we finally have a sense of what the hell the show is, what it was actually, always trying to be. The pressure keeps going up, but you get a little bit wiser every time, and that does help.”
“Paradise”
Fogelman: “I have a pretty open process with my writers. We take all of our scripts, collectively, and we just beat the shit out of them in front of one another constantly. It seems like a wonderful open process until your writer’s PA is giving you notes for four and a half hours.”
“Long Bright River”
“I’d love to be able to say we set out… like ,’We’re gonna hire all females [for our crew].’ No, that was not it at all. We literally talked to a bunch of different people. Honestly, the women just won the fucking job.”
“The Penguin”
“My hope with the show is that you look at it, maybe you’re looking at advertisements or the fact that it’s called ‘The Penguin’ and you’re judging it… I was really hoping by the end you’d be like, ‘Oh, this is not at all what I expected and weirdly, I feel things.’”
“Dying for Sex”
Rosenstock: “Our writers included a cancer survivor, someone who’d lost somebody to cancer, someone who had chronic illness… We made sure that we had our blind spots covered. Because we had fart jokes and dick jokes covered on our end.”
Meriwether: “We went into it knowing that the tone was gonna be hard.That was actually what drew both of us to it. We decided to just focus on the humanity of the characters and really not try to think about genre that much.”
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
“Menedez is Rashomon. It’s a story told from different perspectives and no one will know the truth. The people who know the truth — two of them are in prison, two of them are dead.”
“What We Do in the Shadows”
“The conceptual joke of the whole series is they’re making a documentary about an entire lifestyle that’s supposed to be hidden. It felt like in the final season you sort of had to deal with that. We really wanted the finale to feel like we were just starting any old episode, and have it feel abrupt and remind the viewer that you have been watching a documentary the whole time.”
“The Better Sister”
“We were never particularly super sticklers, but we were super sticklers for making sure that our entire team knew that the best idea won, and that we wanted that feedback and collaboration that the door was always open.”
“The Last of Us”
“We have this roadmap [from the game]. We don’t quite know how long that road will be and what kind of detours we’ll go on. But we know the main stops and we know the final destination.”