The Golden Age of Tone with Ben Blacker

First Draft Episode #239: Ben Blacker

Ben Blacker is a writer and producer known for The Thrilling
Adventure Hour, Supernatural, Hex Wives, and the new Audible
audio series CUT + RUN. He also hosts The Writer’s Panel and Dead
Pilots Society podcasts.


Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode




Hear Ben’s writing partner, Ben Acker, on his episode of
First Draft here!




Beverly Cleary, author of Beezus and Ramona, and Ramona
Quimby, Age 8 was one of Ben’s early favorite authors




Zilpha Keatley Snyder, author of The Egypt Game and The
Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case was another early influence




Three’s Company




The Love Boat




Ben wrote fanfiction for the TV show Scarecrow and Mrs. King




Francine Prose, author of Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For
People Who Love Books and Those Who Want to Write Them, told
Ben Blacker he would never become a writer




Ben and Ben wrote two spec scripts for Buffy the Vampire
Slayer as some of their first collaborative




Ben wrote a spec script for Mad About You and his teacher at
Emerson (who wrote for Roseanne) sent it to Paul Reiser




Dharma and Greg




Meanwhile, Ben Acker was working as an office PA for
Will&Grace




Marc Evan Jackson, Paul F. Tompkins, and Paget Brewster were
part of the constant cast of Thrilling Adventure Hour




Ben’s interview with Traci on The Stacks Podcast is great and
you should listen to it! In fact, you should listen to all of
The Stacks Podcast because it’s ALL great and Traci rules.




Len Wein who created Wolverine, Swamp Thing, editor of
Watchmen, and more




Bewitched (TV show)




In this episode of Comic Book Commentary, colorist Marissa
Louise explains her process for coloring Hex Wives to Ben




Hear director Maggie Levin on a recent episode of First
Draft, as well as an episode of the Writer’s Panel podcast!




The Writer’s Panel started 826 LA




Ben recommends the recent episode of The Writer’s Panel
featuring Mark Frost (co-creator, Twin Peaks), Steven Canals
(co-creator, Pose), Harley Peyton (Project Blue Book; Channel
Zero; upcoming: Child's Play) as a jumping off point to get
into the podcast




Ben also loves this recently re-released episode with Carlton
Cuse (LOST, and Bates Motel), Mike Shur (who got his start on
The Office and then created Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn
99, and The Good Place), and J.J. Philbin (New Girl, creator
of Single Parents)




The Sopranos and Mad Men are some prestige shows that ushered
in a time of “showrunner auteur”




Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad




Damon Lindelof, co-creator of LOST




Marc Evan Jackson hosts The Good Place podcast, which was
running concurrent to new episodes of The Good Place, the TV
show — and now he’s doing one for Brooklyn 99’s podcast, too!




Andrew Reich, writer for Friends and Worst Week, created The
Dead Pilots Society podcast




Dexter




Fargo, Weeds, and later seasons of Breaking Bad are shows
that Ben says are representative of he and Ben Acker’s
writing tone




Weeds creator Jenji Kohan (side note, I really loved the
Emily Nussbaum feature profile about Jenji featured in The
New Yorker and her book, I Like to Watch)




Edgar Wright (Baby Driver), Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal
Tenenbaums), Rian Johnson (Knives Out), and Greta Gerwig
(Little Women) are all filmmakers Ben cites as great examples
of people with very specific individual tones




Humphrey Ker and Katie Wood were staff writers for CUT + RUN,
and you can hear them talk to Ben and Ben about the writing
process on The Writer’s Panel!




Hear Janet Varney, comedian, writer, and co-founder of SF
Sketchfest, on her episode of First Draft!




The cast of CUT + RUN is amazing and includes: Meg Ryan, Sam
Richardson, D’Arcy Carden, Rachel Bloom (listen to the
episode of The Writer’s Panel where Ben sat down with Rachel
and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend showrunner Aline Brosh McKenna), Ed
Begley, Jr.




Why would I miss a chance to mention The Princess Bride? And
why not link to the book, written by famous screenwriter
William Goldman




Aimee Mann and Ted Leo recorded “Dynamite Lady,” an original
song to play over the credits of CUT + RUN




 


I want to hear from you!


Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her
guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998.


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Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author
of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture
Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator
of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael
Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender;
John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and
frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their
careers and creative works.


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