Wonder Con 2014: TV Guide’s Fan Favorite Showrunners

One of the panels held during last weekend’s Wonder Con 2014 in Anaheim was the TV Guide’s Fan Favorite panel spotlighting showrunners; a panel that has become quite popular over the last few years now that creators and executive producers of TV shows are taking a more prominent, or to be more specific, visual role right alongside their cast members.

This year’s panel saw a plethora of showrunners take the stage to talk about their career paths, the changing dynamics within the world of “behind-the-scenes” television and much more. In fact, showrunners were brought together for a documentary called “Showrunners” for which clips were screened to the audience and set the tone of the conversation of the hour-long panel.

Among the panelists on stage were John Rogers (Leverage and the upcoming TNT series The Librarians), Rockne O’Bannon (Farscape, Cult and Revolution), Steven Molaro (The Big Bang Theory), Andrew Kreisburg and Marc Guggenheim (both from Arrow), Chris Carter (The X-Files and the upcoming online series The After), Jane Espenson (Caprica and the online series Husbands) and Steve Callaghan (Family Guy).

Of course, the first thing asked of the panelists was “What is a showrunner?” and in essence they all agreed on several descriptions. They are cheerleaders for their shows in that they have to keep the cast and crew excited about the work, keep the studio heads happy with the show and keep the viewers excited about the show. They have to be masters of organization (even if that skill isn’t their strongest suit) because as showrunner they are running “everything” on set. And, all decisions for their show has to be funneled through them, no matter how big or how small.

No easy task, right?!

Marc and Andrew chimed in saying that for their work on the series Arrow they have to have “mutual respect” for each other and divide out the work. Marc gravitates more toward visual effects while Andrew gravitates toward story development. With all the pressure on the showrunner’s shoulders, Andrew stated that “you don’t sleep, you don’t see your kids, but you don’t sweat the small stuff. You look at the bigger picture” in order to get done what needs to be done.

In terms of switching from being a showrunner for broadcast television to web series, Jane shared that “the writing is exactly the same, but you are down in the trenches for producing too”. But she continued by saying that “it doesn’t matter as much as both (formats) are melding together”.

The one thing that the showrunners all agreed on is that social media has had a big impact on the TV industry and not necessarily all in a bad way. They all get instant information on how the viewers are reacting to their shows and in many cases they receive positive responses (although there are the occasions where fans are not so pleased, of course).

In the end, being a showrunner is a tough – albeit rewarding – job for all of the panelists, that doesn’t leave them much time for much else not even binge watching, which has become a fad in and of itself. When asked if they have been able to binge anything, some of the answers by the panelists were Orphan Black, House of Cards, Sherlock and Orange Is the New Black.

The documentary “Showrunners” is the first feature length film to focus on “the rising power of the TV showrunner and the behind the scenes process that goes into making a hit show”, but it has not been given an official release date yet. You can, however, take a look at the trailer for it below:

[Photo Credit: Deadline]