Sarah Watson Requests a Bathtub

First Draft Episode #238: Sarah Watson

Sarah Watson is a television writer, producer, and novelist.
She’s the creator of the Freeform series, The Bold Type, and was
a Writer and Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed NBC
drama,  Parenthood. She has also written for About A Boy,
Lipstick Jungle,The Unusuals, and The Middleman, as well as other
series. Her debut novel, Most Likely, is out now.


Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode


Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan

Sarah basically wrote a book report for the movie War Games

Felicity (TV show) was a game changer for hour-long dramas,
and Dawson’s Creek and Buffy. Before that there was mostly just
Thirtysomething

Sarah was an intern with someone named Damon Lindeloff, who
went on to create LOST, The Leftovers, and Watchmen

That’s so Raven was one of Sarah’s very first jobs out of
college

Eileen Heisler (executive producer of How I Met Your Mother
and The Middle) and DeAnn Heline (producer on Murphy Brown and
executive producer Ellen), the women behind Lipstick Jungle

The Middleman is where Sarah met Javier Grillo-Marxuach

Jason Katims, showrunner and executive producer of Friday
Night Lights (created by Peter Berg, based on the book Friday
Night Lights written by Pulitzer Prize winner H.G. “Buzz”
Bissinger [not for nothing but the documentary Buzz was
fascinating]) was the creator, showrunner, and executive producer
for Parenthood

The 1989 film Parenthood, written by Lowell Ganz (who also
wrote Splash and A League of Their Own, among others) and Babaloo
Mandel (who also wrote City Slickers, A League of Their Own, and
Forget Paris)

In the writing room for Beyond the Break there were only
three writers

Sarah shadowed Joanna Coles in researching for The Bold Type

The Bold Type was originally at NBC in a more West Wing style
iteration before it settled into Sarah’s vision at Freeform

What Happened by Hilary Clinton

Kate Testerman at KT Literary is Sarah’s agent

The Deadline announcement for Sarah’s new TV show, about a
The Goonies remake

Sarah got the chance to create her new TV show with Gail
Berman, Chairman and CEO of The Jackal Group, an independent
production entity formed in partnership with Fox Networks Group.

Richard Donner, the director of The Goonies, Superman, Lethal
Weapon, Scrooged, and more

Greg Motolla, director of Superbad and Adventureland, is
directing Sarah’s pilot



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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Enni


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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