The pros and cons of gangbanging

How's that for a provocative title?    Actually, this is a post about TV comedy writing.  Sorry.  It stems from a Friday Question that's worth an entire post. 

Dana Gabbard asks:

Recently you noted that while in the past show staffs were small and freelance writers were a source of most scripts (at least first drafts) now most shows are room written. Can you describe why? What are the pluses and minuses of having a show staff written versus using freelancers?

The biggest advantage of room writing is efficiency. Drafts can be slapped together fairly quickly. Perhaps that’s why the delightful nickname for this practice is “gangbanging.”

Some showrunners just prefer this method, but primarily the need for it comes from the increased interference producers now endure from network and studio executives. These days almost every step of the process has to be approved by seven departments. That means story notions, detailed outlines, and first drafts are submitted to everyone short of postal inspectors. Getting responses can take days or even weeks. Meanwhile, valuable lead time evaporates. By the time everyone has weighed in there’s no time to send a writer out to do the draft. The next best option is to gangbang.

Advantages: It is more efficient. When you send a writer out with a draft you need a day to go over the story with him and a few hours to go over and revise his outline. Once the draft comes back it generally still needs work. You have to make notes and go over them with the writer. That’s another afternoon or more. The second draft comes in and is closer but still not there. So more time is needed to get the script ready for production. That rewrite can require as little as an hour or two, or it can take days.  And then there are times it's decided that the story doesn't work.  The staff must now still gangbang it, except now weeks have been wasted.

The other advantage is that everybody is on the same page. If you have a good staff the writing can move fairly quickly and there are generally a lot of laughs in the room. It’s a much more social process than writers all off in their individual Starbucks.

Further advantage:  you’re never second-guessing the showrunner because he’s running the room.

For the most part, shows that are joke-oriented (like BIG BANG THEORY) lend themselves better to gangbanging than more character-based shows like MODERN FAMILY.

The disadvantages: You lose any individuality. You’re not a writer in the real sense. You just pitch jokes. It’s a very specific skill and doesn’t always suit the best writers. Some writers craft wonderful drafts but are shy and uncomfortable just pitching jokes in the room. Neil Simon and Woody Allen fall into that category. Imagine having them in their prime and not being able to utilize their talents.

Also, writers I know who have worked in this system for several years start feeling insecure about writing scripts on their own again. To combat that I always suggest that room writers have a script of their own they’re writing in their free time. Keep those muscles strong. Retain your individuality. And who knows? Alan Ball did that while working on CYBILL. He wrote a spec screenplay called AMERICAN BEAUTY.  So another perk of writing specs is that they give you Oscars.

Clearly, there are plusses and minuses. Personally, I prefer to let my staff write drafts. They feel more valued and the scripts are often richer. But if I only have two days to write a first draft I’m going to circle the wagons and room write.

Now blogs, on the other hand, should probably not be gangbanged.