On TV, Writers Call the Shots

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.