Neal Baer
Appearances
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
They want to be left alone. They want to live a fulfilling life. And I think Modern Family did a good job at that. And Will and Grace, they normalized it. We haven't really been able to, quote, normalize trans characters. I brought trans characters on my show. I think it's normal for me as a physician and a gay man, but it's certainly not normal for a lot of people.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
So I want to tell more of those stories and not in like cadre ways. So I think that's where we have to go.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
The first takeaway is to listen to other people's stories, to tell them your stories. We can tell our own stories. We can tell about our own feelings, but we have to listen to other people's stories. We don't know what's best by telling people what their story should be. We should welcome people to tell their stories.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
The second takeaway, I think, is to read widely and all kinds of things, novels, nonfiction, that will help develop compassion and also rage and what I call accompaniment. I think it's important. And the third takeaway is to go back and watch these movies, particularly that inspired you as a child and ask you, do they still inspire you? Do they still move you? Share them with folks.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
It's not just what the latest thing is on any streamer or on YouTube or TikTok because it's so ephemeral. But there are films that speak across generations. I watch Wuthering Heights, the original, and I cry. I cry and cry because it speaks to me about love that just doesn't quite work out.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
Thank you, Lynn, for having me. It's been really fun.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
Thanks so much, Lynn, for having me. And thank you for the lovely introduction. I've been extremely fortunate to work on these shows. The first two shows I did, ER and SVU, covered 18 years of my career. And that is really unheard of. And I don't know if that could ever happen again. Probably not, though SVU is still on year 26, which is incredible.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
I also want to say that when I did Under the Dome, I like to say it's the two Stevens because it's based on Stephen King's book. And I worked with Stephen King, who is the consummate storyteller and kind hearted person. So I have been extraordinarily lucky to work with so many amazing people.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
what are in your opinion some unforgettable stories and why are they so powerful what are the most powerful stories that you have seen so for movies i had the great fortune of working with sally field and i pitched that she should play maura tierney's mother on er because maura's character has an alcohol substance problem. And it's not uncommon that a parent might have bipolar disorder.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
So we gave that disorder to Sally. And I was standing with her one night when we were shooting. And she said, why did you want me to come? And I said, well, you know, when I became a writer, you were the first person I thought of. And she said, why? Because you watched Gidget or Flying Nun when you were a child? And I said, no.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
because I saw you and Norma Rae stand on the table and hold the sign and stand up to what was going on in the factory, the sewing and the manufacturing of fabric and say union and how you defended your mother. And I just said, oh my gosh, I want to work with someone like that. I want to tell a story like that.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
And so when I saw movies that moved me, like Norma Rae or old movies that I watched as a kid about the war and what happens after the war, like the best years of our lives, it really ignited me. And I think it's because they're real. But for myself, it's been films that have been about the outsider.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
like Norma Rae or folks who've had HIV when I was young growing up and their struggle that motivated me and have stayed with me. And that's what I try to write about as well.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
Well, first and foremost, it's the relatability. It's like, we understand Sally as Norma Rae. We understand the position she's in. And her husband, Beau Bridges, is supportive, but he's not standing on the table with her. Her mother is being treated horribly. It's not well. And so we're for her. We love fighters for justice. So I think what makes...
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
These films, for me, stand out are the social justice that's embedded in them without being preachy. But it's just part of the fabric of these movies, like a movie like The Best Years of Our Lives. It's showing you what's happening with these World War II vets coming home, and one of them has lost his hands. Actually, Harold Russell, he won the Oscar for that. And
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
you see his struggle in a way that feels so real. Well, it was real for him, of course. But the other actors in it, Frederick March, Myrna Loy, all of them really capture the struggle after. That yes, there was jubilation after World War II, and we won and beat the Nazis. But there are also a lot of terrible things to deal with at home, just like what's happened again with Vietnam.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
And then we can look at a film called Coming Home with Jane Fonda, Bruce Dern, and Jon Voight. Again, another great film about... that struggle of a Vietnam vet coming home and not being seen. I guess really what makes these movies resonate for me, and I think for the audience, it's about people being seen. People who haven't been seen and they become seen. And we all want to be seen.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
Well, you hire the best actors possible, first of all, because don't scrimp on the actors and don't scrimp on the script. Get the best actors to tell the story. I've been so lucky because I've always demanded to have the best actors. And the best actors are people who can really... bring on that character that we can relate to. Why is Clooney so popular? Why is Mariska so popular?
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
We relate to them. There's something about them, some magic that we feel comfortable with them. And then you just have to be as honest as you can in your storytelling. We've all been on the line. We've all had to prove ourselves. So I'm always thinking about the sociological, anthropological, psychological elements that we're all human beings. We all share these moments.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
And if we can make them honest and relatable with great actors, then we're way far down the road of getting something really good.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
I ask myself, what is their drive? For key first character, I asked myself, because I only did year three on Netflix, not the first two on ABC. Can a man of ethics and dignity run for president and maintain his ethical stance? And I'm going to put him through Dante's Inferno. And every week, every episode, give him a bigger and bigger challenge and see if he can do it.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
And so the answer was a man of his ethics couldn't because he got caught up in running for president. And in the end, he can because he makes decisions that are maybe not in his best interest. And so I look at what is this character's journey? And for him, it was, you know, he was the head of HUD and he becomes president and he's not prepared. He wasn't a politician.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
So can he maintain his dignity and his ethics? And no, not always. He's disappointing people, his daughter, others. And in the end, yes, it is TV. And it's like, I didn't want to be a nihilist. So yes, he did do the right thing. Sometimes people don't in the end. But I think it's important to have hope. So I look to develop characters that interest me.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
And I haven't gone wrong in the sense that if I think the story's amazing or shocking or it's captivating, I've been lucky. They have been in general for the audience. And that's, I think, been helpful to me not to worry about pandering. Like, I'm going to teach you or I'm going to do this. It's like, how does this mother cope with a child that she has to watch die in front of her?
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
No way around it. No hope. No miracles. None have ever been reported. How does she live this life? That's a character I want to see. That's what life is about. Then I have compassion for what she did. I might disagree with her. I might say, hey, she should go to jail. But I have the other side saying she spared her child even more suffering and pain. That's what life is about, right, Lynn?
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
Well, I like to engage them and then they're surprised when it doesn't go their way, but it's not jumping the shark. It's not duex machina. It's, oh, of course, that turn, of course. I didn't see that coming, but it's because... I was with that character and I believed what they were believing. I believe that person who was lying.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
How many times have we been lied to in our lives by people we're close to? It happens. So in plot, I'm more interested in. So we talk a lot about procedurals and characters. So I've done procedurals. ER is a medical procedural. SVU is a detective crime procedural procedure. Under the Dome is really not a procedural. It's about fascism.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
Stephen would say that, King as well, who's going to run the trains under the dome ultimately. And Designated Survivor is a procedural, political kind of procedural where every episode there's an issue he has to deal with or problem, but character drives it. So it's not so much about the plot that I'm
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
most interested in i'm interested in how the plot can ignite reflect and refract who our characters are so in other words when george clooney in year two i did an episode about a kid who wanted to be allowed to die who had cystic fibrosis yes he's end stage he's under 18. And George is like, I got to save this kid. I got to save this kid. And Laura Innes' character says to him, who is this about?
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
You or the kid? What does the kid want? It was a big turning point in the story arc of his character. And so he ultimately doesn't intubate the kid when he's dying. And the mother comes in, wonderful Veronica Cartwright from Alien and The Birds when she was a child. Leave it to Bieber as a child. She says, intubate him. And she has the authority then.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
It's changed a bit now in the United States, not so much in Europe. And George is forced to do it. So the plot is pretty straightforward. I just told you the plot. But what the plot gave me, what the story gave me is, how do I find some medical story that will illustrate what Clooney is going through in year two now? Or year three, I should say. So he's always like, I'm saving the kid.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
And the year two, I did where he saved a kid in the tunnel, and he was the hero. And I thought, you know, now I want to go deeper with him. And so I constructed a plot where he's forced to choose, is it about him, as Laura Innes says, or is it about the kid? But the point was, is that plot serves my characters always. So that's how I think about it.
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
The best example is Will and Grace and Modern Family and Gay Marriage, I think. It's like, they're just like you and me. They're just like, they have kids, they have a family. Modern Family and Will and Grace really changed, I think, the way people viewed gay marriage because
3 Takeaways
Secrets of a Wildly Successful TV Writer (#226)
They didn't really challenge people in ways that maybe some queer activists wanted them to in the sense that they didn't go into the wide range of cultural, behavioral, social things that queer people might do that might quote, quote, quote, quote. offend, but they did really show that there's really not that much difference. They want the same thing. They want families.