On the Line with Eileen Heisler - Part 2

Eileen Heisler and writing partner DeAnn Heline, currently Executive Producers on the hit ABC freshman sitcom The Middle, may not attribute all of their successes to luck, but it certainly was a stroke of something that led the talented duo down a path that has included work on Doogie Howser, Rosanne, Murphy Brown, How I Met Your Mother, and Lipstick Jungle. 

In Part 2 of my conversation with Ms. Heisler, she talks about her present role(s) on The Middle, working with network executives, and (I had to ask) her opinion on the Jay Leno Experiment!

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“Showrunning, you wear a lot of hats,” Heisler said.

For those not in the know, “showrunning,” a term heard far more often on the Left Coast (I’ve never actually heard it used on a New York set) is industry speak for Executive Producer.  And as Heisler can attest, “It’s very demanding on all fronts.”

The first hat worn by an Executive Producer is that of the head writer.  “You’re in charge of all the scripts,” Heisler said.  “That doesn’t mean I have to write them all myself, but we have to come up with the stories with our writers, approve them, give notes, rewrite the scripts, and – when they’re not good enough – write some of the scripts ourselves.”

Between writing sessions, Heisler drops that hat in favor of the one she wears on set during shooting of the current episode.  There she oversees production, making sure the director and actor’s are working happily – or as Heisler terms it “being the spiritual leader of the show” – and chiming in with performance notes when necessary.  (Her early training as a thespian coming in handy after all.)

Then she’s off to put on her post-production hat to ready the previously shot episode for its air date.  She watches edited versions of the show and gives notes.  She listens to music cues and gives feedback.  Then she watches edited versions with music cues and – you guessed it – gives notes and feedback.

“I have days when I don’t sit down,” Heisler said.  “Well, I sit down, but I don’t ever stop working.  You wouldn’t believe how many meetings take place to put a half hour show together that people sit and eat their dinner in front of.”

As Heisler put it, she is essentially the production head of every department, approving everything down to the color of the carpet in the bedroom.  She and partner Helene are the Ultimate Decision Makers…next to the network, that is.  And that’s where the “talking to the network hat” enters the picture.

Heisler explained that, while she and Helene are the creative heads of the show, that creativity is always subject to approval by both the network and the studio.  Laughing, she said, “There’s a lot of talking to people at the network and people at the studio.”

“It took awhile for me to realize that the network is not there to just make sure that I get to deliver the vision of the show that I want,” Heisler said. “They’re there because they bought a product that they need.  They bought the thing I came up with, but they are my ultimate boss.  They give you a lot of creative freedom, but definitely, there’s a lot of creative interaction with the network executives.”

Although the nature of the Showrunner-Network relationship may not have always made perfect sense to Heisler, she appreciates it now:  “You go to upfronts and you see the network President standing up there in front of all the advertisers and you realize, ‘Well, everybody has a boss.’  All of a sudden it clicks – what a piece of the big picture your little show is.”

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So what does this hard working, multi-hat wearing talent think of the deviation-from-traditional-scripted-programming “experiment” over on her rival network NBC?

“I thought it was a really bad idea from the beginning,” Heisler said.  “I think it’s a really bad idea.”

But more than that, she finds it disappointing.  “I think it was the continuing of the chipping away at the NBC brand.  I think NBC had this lovely reputation of being this place of quality drama and quality comedy.”  In sum, to Heisler, The Jay Leno Show “is a cop out.”

…What isn’t a cop out is Heisler’s own original, scripted show The Middle, which can be seen Wednesday’s on ABC at 8:30pm!