The TV Showrunner's Roadmap: 21 Navigational Tips for Screenwriters to Create and Sustain a Hit TV Series

A little out of date but it is so hard to find good information on showrunning and this book has it.

The title is misleading. Not really a "roadmap" to the nuts and bolts of the mechanics of being a show runner.Great stories about how a show gets pitched. Great interviews with very talented and successful show runners about their experiences with certain shows. However, I expected a step-by-step account of what you do as a show runner on a day-to-day basis from start to finish. Not included with this insightful book. Just stories and anecdotes.

Amazing, amazing book. It contains everything you could ever want to know when starting out in the field. Landau gifts you with a genuine inside glimpse, and he keeps it engaging. Note my choice of word there, "gifts" - for this book is filled to the brim with gifts, information to highlight the path for those who follow. If you're looking to break into the field, or have landed in it, and want to speak the language, and be able to identify potential landmines, this book will be your bible. Seriously, grab it now. Why are you still reading, click and buy it already*.* I do not know the author or publisher; I just genuinely found this book to be an incredible resource.

If you're looking to break into TV writing or are just curious of the process, I highly recommend this book. It lifts the curtain on the process of creating hit television shows and I really enjoyed this read (there is SO much work that goes into making TV shows!). Check it out.

While this book primarily focuses on the "Showrunner" aspect of the business, I bought it to get a better idea of how to write for TV, especially a pilot with a series in mind. I have been studying movies and features for a long time, but needed a resource to start focusing on TV, the business and creative writing aspects of it as there is a difference. It certainly explains in detail how Showrunner's work within the industry, but also has a lot of interviews and insights into character development, creation of pilots, necessary elements to a story, etc., that beginning writers and wannabes like me find very helpful. After starting this book, I am now going back and re-watching many of the pilots with these new insights and loving it. I highly recommend.

A must-read for anyone interested in a career in television -- it's a complete master's level class in one volume. Neil breaks apart the complex world of showrunning and brings to light all the moving parts that go into a successful series. Featuring in-depth interviews with legendary producers such as Vincent Gilligan (BREAKING BAD), Shonda Rimes (SCANDAL), Michelle and Robert King (THE GOOD WIFE), Glen Mazzara (THE WALKING DEAD), David Shore (HOUSE, M.D.) and many others, this book is an indispensable guide to the best/worst job on earth.

Most books about writing for television focus on the basics and leave it at that.But what the author does so well is present a series of tactics that are applicable whether you're writing your first pilot or your 15th, trying to get staffed or trying to move up the food chain. He avoids the tone of other writing "gurus" that attempt to boil down the craft into some easily digestible formula. There is no formula here, just great advice from the best minds in the medium. A must-have for the aspiring TV scribe.

A comprehensive book on TV writing and showrunning that is written by someone who is both a working screenwriter AND has spent many years teaching the craft at some of the best film schools in the world. It's so rare to find a talented screenwriter who is also an incredible instructor. Neil Landau is that rarity.Buy this book. Devour it. Then keep it by your side as you brainstorm your next great pilot idea.

DISCLAIMER: This review will most likely be biased as my dream is to be a show-runner either in the UK or the US.This book is amazing! (I wasn’t kidding with the disclaimer) The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap is a chapter-by-chapter reference guide on 21 pivotal ingredients that culminate in the creation of a successful and sustainable television series. Landau is a professor in the MFA in Screenwriting and Producing Programs at UCLA School of Film, Television and Digital Media, (a course I very much wish I had the sense to apply to in my final year of school) describing himself as a pilot junkie and avid TV watcher, who offers invaluable advice to budding TV writers by describing the conventions of popular television shows and using examples of shows that adopt said conventions. Each chapter, except one or two, ends with an interview with a show-runner wherein Landau asks the fundamental questions of what it means to have that job title. The show-runners that provide insight include my personal favourites; Damon Lindelof (co-creator/producer/writer Lost, co-creator/executive producer/writer The Leftovers), Vince Gilligan (creator/writer/executive producer/director Breaking Bad), and Shonda Rhimes (creator/writer/executive producer Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal (whom infuriates me at the same time)). Their documentation of their time as show-runners are unbelievably fascinating and eye-opening, which also provides another dimension to your favourite television series once you have peaked behind the proverbial curtain.The varied topics and aspects of the television business are all mentioned within the pages of Laundau’s work, from the difference between broadcast networks and cable networks to which shows subscribe to which act structures. You leave each chapter feeling both terrified and exhilarated by the hard work that goes into being a show-runner and how little time there is to sleep between each task. Some of the interviews do read a little slowly and you long to get to the next chapter before the interviewee ruins the magic of being a show-runner due to the fact that they’re in the middle of crafting a season at the time they gave the interview. With that aside, the knowledge attainable from these 21 navigational tips is unparalleled and priceless to anyone that wishes to work in television; even if you know certain aspects prior to reading this book, the benefits of revisiting said aspects are incredibly useful under the framework in which Landau presents his advice.All in all, this book has been of immense use and insight to me as an aspiring show-runner. Even if you do not have any ambition in this area, you can still revel in the knowledge of how your favourite show came to be.5 out of 5 stars.

Really interesting read for anyone interested in a career in continuing drama.

Truly excellent roadmap for screenwriters or novelists alike.