On TV, Writers Call the Shots

On TV, Writers Call the ShotsTop of Mind with Julie Rose • Season 1, Episode 788, Segment 6

Apr 11, 2018 • 23m

Guest: Deb Fordham, Television Writer and Producer, Scrubs, Army Wives, Hart of Dixie, Nashville and Impulse on YouTube Red In movies, the director is king. In television, the writers are in charge. They’re the keepers of the plot, the characters, the heart of the story. In fact, in television, it’s common for every episode of a series to have a different director who takes orders from the writers to keep things consistent across the season. Recently a veteran TV writer named Deb Fordham made a visit to BYU Broadcasting and gave us a look at how TV works. Her credits include "Scrubs," "Army Wives," "Hart of Dixie" and "Nashville." Writing for laughs is a lot harder than writing for tears, she says. Writing for television as an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hard, too. And so is being a woman in a chauvinistic field. We covered all that in our chat.

Other Segments

Facebook Under FireApr 11, 201821mGuest: Randy Dryer, JD, Presidential Honors Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spent the last 24 hours taking pointed questions on Capitol Hill. He’s admitted the company made mistakes: It didn’t do enough to prevent Russia from peddling disinformation and sowing discord on Facebook during the 2016 election. It didn’t do enough to keep companies like Cambridge Analytica from misusing data of more than 80-million Facebook users. It hasn’t done enough to prevent hate speech on the site. Zuckerberg’s public grilling came from both Republicans and Democrats. The message was clear: If you don’t get your act together, we’re going to pass laws that make sure you do. And we may just pass those laws, anyway.

Guest: Randy Dryer, JD, Presidential Honors Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spent the last 24 hours taking pointed questions on Capitol Hill. He’s admitted the company made mistakes: It didn’t do enough to prevent Russia from peddling disinformation and sowing discord on Facebook during the 2016 election. It didn’t do enough to keep companies like Cambridge Analytica from misusing data of more than 80-million Facebook users. It hasn’t done enough to prevent hate speech on the site. Zuckerberg’s public grilling came from both Republicans and Democrats. The message was clear: If you don’t get your act together, we’re going to pass laws that make sure you do. And we may just pass those laws, anyway.

Red State, Blue StateApr 11, 201815mGuest: David Scott Kastan, PhD, George M. Bodman Professor of English, Yale University States that vote consistently Republican—like Wyoming, North Dakota and Mississippi—are called “red states.” What is it about the Republican platform that lends itself to red? Or what about Democrats is best represented by blue? Nothing, actually. The color-coded political system in the United States is really just a fluke that only came to be in the last few decades.

Guest: David Scott Kastan, PhD, George M. Bodman Professor of English, Yale University States that vote consistently Republican—like Wyoming, North Dakota and Mississippi—are called “red states.” What is it about the Republican platform that lends itself to red? Or what about Democrats is best represented by blue? Nothing, actually. The color-coded political system in the United States is really just a fluke that only came to be in the last few decades.

Don't Spend Too Much Time on Your MakeupApr 11, 201814mGuest: Adriana Samper, Assistant Professor of Marketing, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University Here’s one of the most famous advertising slogans: “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.” That question of how much attractive women have to work at it is at the heart of some new research, research that finds that people don’t trust women who spend a lot of time putting on makeup and styling their hair. It's a no-win situation for women, it seems.

Guest: Adriana Samper, Assistant Professor of Marketing, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University Here’s one of the most famous advertising slogans: “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.” That question of how much attractive women have to work at it is at the heart of some new research, research that finds that people don’t trust women who spend a lot of time putting on makeup and styling their hair. It's a no-win situation for women, it seems.

Stories from The Apple SeedApr 11, 201810mGuest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio Sam shares a Haitian folktale from Len Cabral.

Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio Sam shares a Haitian folktale from Len Cabral.

A Forgotten Civilization in the AmazonApr 11, 201819mGuest: Jonas Gergorio de Souza, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter The Amazon rainforest is crucial to the health of our planet – it converts a huge amount of carbon dioxide into oxygen and houses more than half the world's species of plants and animals. It’s also an increasingly rich trove of archaeological information. Using satellite imagery, researchers at the University of Exeter have uncovered a bustling corridor of ancient settlements deep in the Amazon rainforest. Archaeologists long assumed people only settled along major rivers in the Amazon. The land deeper into the forest was just too overgrown and inhospitable, they thought.

Guest: Jonas Gergorio de Souza, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter The Amazon rainforest is crucial to the health of our planet – it converts a huge amount of carbon dioxide into oxygen and houses more than half the world's species of plants and animals. It’s also an increasingly rich trove of archaeological information. Using satellite imagery, researchers at the University of Exeter have uncovered a bustling corridor of ancient settlements deep in the Amazon rainforest. Archaeologists long assumed people only settled along major rivers in the Amazon. The land deeper into the forest was just too overgrown and inhospitable, they thought.