The Nerdist Writers Panel on TV Writing, featuring panelists Community’s Dan Harmon, The Middle Man’s Javier Grillo Marxuach, and The Good Guys’ Aaron Ginsburg and Wade McIntyre, is both reassuring (writing for dating reality shows for 7 years!) and barf-inducing (selling your first script ever to Robert Zemeckis!), as the writers discuss their breakthrough jobs, the value of networking vs. having a quality spec, and the thrilling conclusion of Seaquest.
“It’s always banana peels and stop lights, as I put it. It’s just, like, a series of random events. The only thing you can do is be persistent about it,†Harmon explains, reassuring the audience that working writers are, in fact, looking out for the up-and-comers: “I’ve always been obsessed with mentoring. I think it’s a Wisconsin thing, it’s a karmic thing. You feel like you have to help people underneath you, or they’ll eat you alive. Then you’ll have no one to blame but yourself because you were so cocky.â€