What is a Showrunner? Considering Post-Network Television Authorship Derek Kompare Southern Methodist University

Why Study Authorship? Rising interest in issues of production and textuality Instability in media forms, industries, and cultures Conspicuous auteurism throughout media culture

Rising interest in issues of production and textuality

Instability in media forms, industries, and cultures

Conspicuous auteurism throughout media culture

Post-Network TV Authorship Disseminated as publicity (i.e., paratexts) Four publics: Functions as industrial critical reflexivity (see John T. Caldwell, Production Culture) Generated by systemic instability critics fans industry peers

critics

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industry

peers

Showrunner as Editor Amy Sherman-Palladino ( Gilmore Girls ) “ I don't believe that bullshit, ‘If you love it, let it go.’ If you love it, stay there and make sure no one else fucks it up.” ( EW , May 2007)

Showrunner as Boss/Parent Shonda Rhimes ( Grey’s Anatomy ) “ I feel like this is stuff that happened in our family, and I don't want to give specifics. ... But there was a moment when I was sure...it was the right decision to be made for everybody.” (on firing Isaiah Washington, to the Television Critics Association, July 2007)

Showrunner as Brand Manager Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof ( Lost ) “ If the show is lame, none of these things are worth anything.” (Carlton Cuse on Lost ’s transmedia products, NYTimes, October 2006)

Showrunner as Host Ron Moore ( Battlestar Galactica ) “ We’re going to be talking about an episode that I don’t particularly like and discussing maybe the reasons why it doesn’t work and the problems that I think are inherent in this particular episode.” ( BSG , “Black Market” commentary, January 2006)

Showrunner as Worker On the WGA picket lines, November 2007

Authorship Culture What does authorship mean? How is authorship performed? Where else is authorship?