Discovery Showrunners fired; Kurtzman takes over
- Thread starter StCoop
- Start date
The only thing that's changing is who the showrunner is. The actors are still getting their scripts. They're still dealing with whoever the director in question is for each episode. The actors aren't in the writer's room, so this changes nothing for them.
Why would they want to leave a show that just fired two people for bullying behaviour, especially with the current hollywood trend of calling out such behaviour? My guess is that the actors were not the ones who took the brunt of Harberts and Bergs behaviour but might speak out in solidarity with the affected writers. We'll probably see some comments from the cast over the next few days.
I don't know. They are still people so they must have some kind of relationship with them that is kind of personal. Maybe they were friends or just co-workers or they hated their guts because they didn't like how their character was being written. Of course it might also come down to who hired them. If a outsider comes in they might have no desire to do what the old showrunners were doing with a character which in turn might piss of the actor if they make changes.
Jason
It's possible but we don't know what their realtionship with the writers were. They could have treated the actors better than their fellow writers. If that is the case then they might not have cared about the other stuff as long as the scripts kept coming in and they liked how their character was being written.
Jason
The writers are in a different department. I don't know if they visit the actual set but, if they don't visit that much, then the actors have very little interaction with the writers. Not enough that it would make them leave.
For the actors: the head writer did not cast them. The casting director cast them. The producers cast them. The head writers and the lead producers are not one and the same.
And, as mickmike said, people are starting to finally push back against bullies. And it's about time. No one wants to side with someone toxic unless they're benefiting from the toxicity. Before you say something about the actors wanting to suck up to Berg or Harberts, they would only want to do that -- if they hypothetically did -- so that they could keep their job or get in good with them. They already have their job as actors and Berg and Haberts are no longer people they'd want to get in good with now, even if they wanted to.
I know everyone likes a juicy story and wants more sensationalism from the sensationalism that's already there but two showrunners, who a lot people probably didn't like, were fired and that's likely as far as it goes.
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If that were true, the cast would've jumped ship with Fuller's departure. You're underestimating just how much positive and negative influence a showrunner has on a series. They've got about the same importance as a director has with a feature film. Negative, pushy, micromanaging, pains-in-the-ass to work for don't keep people around them for long before the cast or crew get fed up with it - case-in-point: Don P. Bellisario on NCIS.
Typically, the episode's credited writer is on the set for the shooting period, in case any rewrites have to happen.
The head writer/showrunner actually is responsible for casting the roles in a pilot/series, along with the show's executive producer(s). Casting directors only suggest actors for the parts.
That being the case, then wouldn't it have been Bryan Fuller at the beginning of the series?
Either way, I don't think any of the actors would leave just because of a change in head writers.
The Discovery cast come across as a pretty good bunch who are close with one another and I've seen from After Trek, that the cast generally have a great deal of respect for the writing team. The cast may not have actually known what was going on but I can imagine that they would be disappointed with these goings on, especially someone like Anthony Rapp.
Yep.
It's possible. I mean I have been reading the Mark Altman Trek book and Brent Spiner didn't even know what Micheal Pillar looked like. He basically described him as "The one who wore a baseball cap." I guess the one I am most curious about would be SMG. As the star and lead of the show I would think she would have more access than any other actor on the show.
Jason
Renaissance Pictures series are weirdly run by American TV standards. There isn't one showrunner. It's more akin to how on Classic Doctor Who you had the producer (like Philip Hinchcliffe) and story editor (like Robert Holmes) essentially splitting both the creative aspects and day-to-day duties of the role we know as "showrunner". Except the producer was clearly the boss of the story editor rather than an equal creative partner/co-showrunner, despite both of them being equally responsible for the creative vision of the series.
I think the Renaissance Pictures shows are ran this way primarily due to Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert being indie filmmakers from Michigan that didn't know how the hell TV worked when they first started out. Tapert is the higher up and direct boss of the showrunners, much like Hinchcliffe's role on his seasons of Doctor Who. Here's all the ones anyone really needs to know.
Xena: Warrior Princess (Seasons 1-4)
Showrunner: R.J. Stewart; Executive Producer: Rob Tapert
Ash vs Evil Dead (Seasons 1-2)
Showrunner: Craig DiGregorio; Executive Producer: Rob Tapert
Ash vs Evil Dead (Season 3)
Showrunner: Mark Verheiden; Executive Producer: Rob Tapert
DiGregorio was a writer on Reaper and the equally painfully short-lived time travel comedy series Making History. He's available.
Verheiden was a writer on Battlestar Galactica and Daredevil. He's currently showrunning the upcoming Swamp Thing TV series.
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Kurtzman is a talentless hack. You wonder how he keeps getting work. He seems to be well connected.
I'm not sure how to take this news. It's hard to imagine this show could get any worse than it already is.
Trying to look on the birght side, there may be a few positives. Perhaps with less cooks in the kitchen the show will be more focused instead of a mishmash like season 1. Also, Akiva Goldsman is gone which is great news. He's worse than Kurtzman if you can imagine that.
I'm not sure how to take this news. It's hard to imagine this show could get any worse than it already is.
Trying to look on the birght side, there may be a few positives. Perhaps with less cooks in the kitchen the show will be more focused instead of a mishmash like season 1. Also, Akiva Goldsman is gone which is great news. He's worse than Kurtzman if you can imagine that.
Well if the internet is to go by I hear Kathleen Kennedy will be needing a new job soon! Who knows?Actually I am not looking forward to some of the more toxic complaining that is bound to happen but otherwise I am glad they might be bringing in a new person or person's to fix some of the problems with the show both fro ma creative angle and the behind the scenes asshole stuff.
Of course in sound logical thinking they choose to do this, 5 episodes in. Sure no tonal shift at all will be noticed after episode 5 and the second half of the season. Also no bottle shows because they blew to much of the money already.Any chance they might have the ole Berman era cave sets in storage?
My choice would be Cotto or Moore or someone mentioned Roxxan Dawson. Would be a interesting choice but doesn't that job usually go more towards people who have a history of being a writer instead of simply a director and actor? Another choice is Joss Whedon. I don't know what he is doing right now but he knows how to write strong female characters and do humor and drama and action and all that stuff.
Jason
No Star Trek alumni, please.
#timetomoveon
#noreturntostale
#newfuckingideasplease
This came completely out of left field, but isn't likely (IMO) to result in much narrative change.
Of course that was the idea of season 1 but it also felt uneven like you didn't know what was a Fuller idea or something they came up with much later. The black badges going away being one big example.
Jason
For all those people who worry about Kurtzman being in charge, just remember in normal work offices, you can have very mediocre bosses, but amazing talented people working for them, which makes all the difference. I at least trust Kurtzman not to do anything monumentally stupid and wrong with Star Trek. Most of Into Darkness' problems were from Abrams and Lindelof. Orci and Kurtzman just kinda had to follow a template they were given and flesh it out. On feature films, writers are often told "write something like this...follow these guidelines" and not told "just come up with something cool." On TV, they can do a little more their own thing.
With Kurtzman in charge, I'm in a "wait and see" mode. I'm not going to write him off yet.
With Kurtzman in charge, I'm in a "wait and see" mode. I'm not going to write him off yet.
I'll give him and Orci Star Trek '09 and the episodes they wrote for J.J. Abrams' two season run on Alias (Seasons 1-2), but that's all I'll give them. Everything else on their collective resume is crap.
For the record, the last time Kurtzman was the showrunner of a TV series, he and Orci ran Xena into the ground with Season 5. They were fired towards the end of that season and replaced with Seasons 1-4 showrunner R.J. Stewart (who had left to do Cleopatra 2525), but the damage was already done.
For the record, the last time Kurtzman was the showrunner of a TV series, he and Orci ran Xena into the ground with Season 5. They were fired towards the end of that season and replaced with Seasons 1-4 showrunner R.J. Stewart (who had left to do Cleopatra 2525), but the damage was already done.
I loved ST'09 and Into Darkness, so I'm cool with Kurtzman being in charge.
But not so cool with him picking up someone else's work-in-progress who was fired because DISCO is a BTS clusterfuck. Hoping it doesn't end with a damp squib finale like S1 did where it really felt like someone different was brought in to figure out and tie up loose ends.
Oh well. Guessing BTS strife is the show's "thing" now.
But not so cool with him picking up someone else's work-in-progress who was fired because DISCO is a BTS clusterfuck. Hoping it doesn't end with a damp squib finale like S1 did where it really felt like someone different was brought in to figure out and tie up loose ends.
Oh well. Guessing BTS strife is the show's "thing" now.
