Emmy-nominated writers congregate in Beverly Hills to discuss their craft

A panoply of very-accomplished writers shared their career experiences and views last night (September 15, 2017) in the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills at that group’s “Sublime Primetime 2017” panel discussion.  Moderated affably by Larry Wilmore, the panel consisted of:

Steven Davis and Kelvin Yu, co-writers of the “Bob, Actually” episode of Bob’s Burgers.

Lena Waithe, co-writer with Aziz Ansari of the “Thanksgiving” episode of Master of None.

Gordon Smith, writer of the “Chicanery” episode of Better Call Saul.

Jo Miller, head writer and showrunner at Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, whose writing staff won the 2017 Emmy for the variety special “Not the White House Correspondents Dinner.”

Matt and Russ Duffer, co-writers of the pilot episode, “Chapter One:  The Vanishing of Will Byers.” of Stranger Things, of which they are both also co-creators.

Ms. Miller and her team have already won an Emmy.  The others are nominated for Emmys for their works cited above.  The awards will be presented on Sunday, September 17^th.

Ms. Miller answered some questions from Etopia News in a brief video segment.  She declared emphatically during the interview that the political satire she produces has no effect on anything. Nevertheless, she says that when the work coheres, that’s a great joy in itself.

After regaling the attentive and enthusiastic audience of dignitaries, press, and others with their origin stories as writers, their tribulations with clueless studio executives, and the dynamics of collaboration, a consensus was reached favoring advice from Lena Waithe to “be great.”  Also agreed upon was the need to “be yourself.”

The moderator and all the guests were themselves, and they were great.