ABSTRACT

This all-new edition of the best-selling guide The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap provides readers with the tools for creating, writing, and managing your own hit streaming series.

Combining his 30+ years as a working screenwriter and professor, industry veteran Neil Landau expertly unpacks essential insights to the creation of a successful show and takes readers behind the scenes with exclusive and enlightening interviews with showrunners from some of TV’s most lauded series, including Fargo, Better Call Saul, Watchmen, Insecure, Barry, Money Heist, Succession, Ozark, Schitt’s Creek, Euphoria, PEN15, and many more.

From conception to final rewrite, The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to create a series that won’t run out of steam after the first few episodes. This groundbreaking guide features an eResource with additional interviews and bonus materials.

So grab your laptop, dig out that stalled spec script, and buckle up. Welcome to the fast lane.

chapter 1|13 pages

From Concept to Pilot Script

chapter 2|35 pages

Intellectual Property and Adaptation

chapter 4|23 pages

Fueling your Story Engine

Central Questions and Central Mysteries

chapter 5|17 pages

The Power of Empathy

chapter 6|18 pages

The Value Family Dynamics

chapter 7|30 pages

Get to the Heart of Your Story

chapter 8|19 pages

POV and Subtext

chapter 9|17 pages

Antagonists

chapter 10|34 pages

Defying Formulaic Structure

chapter 11|14 pages

Theme

chapter 12|20 pages

Cliffhangers

chapter 13|33 pages

Life on the Cringe

Comedy and Culture

chapter 14|19 pages

Pitching and Selling