The Showrunners: A Season Inside the Billion-Dollar, Death-Defying, Madcap World of Television's Real Stars Book

"David Wild's insights on the world of television are so acute that his articles on South Park have often been our sole source in analyzing what we have done, and what we should try to do next."-- Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park Showorunoner n: one who has been deemed capable of overseeing a television show or series For an enormous amount of money [Fin de sicle Hollywoodism Fr. English show--a public exhibition or entertainment or facade + runner--one who competes in a race or one who flees at the first sign of syndication.] also: Show Runner, Lucky Bastard, or Poor Soul The Showrunners is the ultimate channel-surf through one tumultuous television season as seen by those who know the industry best--the creative "geniuses" who, for better and worse, make TV what it is today.With candid and revealing interviews and vivid, behind-the-scenes drama, longtime Rolling Stone journalist and New York Times bestselling author David Wild demonstrates that today's real TV stars aren't the high-profile actors but rather the select few writers and producers identified by the networks as bankable televisionaries. Wild offers a riotous, informative guided tour through that TV twilight zone where art and commerce meet, and often butt heads, in an increasingly Darwinian marketplace. Tune in As: The trio behind Friends attempts to juggle three shows while keeping America's night of television must-see-worthy. Paul Simms, the young Harvard-educated comic talent behind NewsRadio, copes with the death of Phil Hartman and endures a season from hell.Renegade South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the ultimate bad boys of TV bathroom humor, go where others fear to flush.The producers of the critically acclaimed Cupid ask the age-old question: What is the sound of one viewer clapping?The team that gave us Party of Five takes their "Love" on the road with a new spin-off for Jennifer Love Hewitt.Exiled Saturday Night Live eccentric Norm Macdonald hooks up with The Drew Carey Show creator, Bruce Helford, and finds out whether he's ready for prime time.Two former Seinfeld scribes, Peter Mehlman and Larry Charles, find that there is life after Seinfeld--not that there's anything wrong with that. The Showrunners is a fascinating group portrait of what it really takes, at century's end, to live and die in prime time.Read More