The Golden Age of Tone with Ben Blacker

First Draft Episode #239: Ben Blacker

Ben Blacker is a writer and producer known for The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Supernatural, Hex Wives, and the new Audible audio series CUT + RUN. He also hosts The Writer’s Panel and Dead Pilots Society podcasts.

Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

Hear Ben’s writing partner, Ben Acker, on his episode of First Draft here!

Beverly Cleary, author of Beezus and Ramona, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 was one of Ben’s early favorite authors

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, author of The Egypt Game and The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case was another early influence

Three’s Company

The Love Boat

Ben wrote fanfiction for the TV show Scarecrow and Mrs. King

Francine Prose, author of Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and Those Who Want to Write Them, told Ben Blacker he would never become a writer

Ben and Ben wrote two spec scripts for Buffy the Vampire Slayer as some of their first collaborative

Ben wrote a spec script for Mad About You and his teacher at Emerson (who wrote for Roseanne) sent it to Paul Reiser

Dharma and Greg

Meanwhile, Ben Acker was working as an office PA for Will&Grace

Marc Evan Jackson, Paul F. Tompkins, and Paget Brewster were part of the constant cast of Thrilling Adventure Hour

Ben’s interview with Traci on The Stacks Podcast is great and you should listen to it! In fact, you should listen to all of The Stacks Podcast because it’s ALL great and Traci rules.

Len Wein who created Wolverine, Swamp Thing, editor of Watchmen, and more

Bewitched (TV show)

In this episode of Comic Book Commentary, colorist Marissa Louise explains her process for coloring Hex Wives to Ben

Hear director Maggie Levin on a recent episode of First Draft, as well as an episode of the Writer’s Panel podcast!

The Writer’s Panel started 826 LA

Ben recommends the recent episode of The Writer’s Panel featuring Mark Frost (co-creator, Twin Peaks), Steven Canals (co-creator, Pose), Harley Peyton (Project Blue Book; Channel Zero; upcoming: Child's Play) as a jumping off point to get into the podcast

Ben also loves this recently re-released episode with Carlton Cuse (LOST, and Bates Motel), Mike Shur (who got his start on The Office and then created Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn 99, and The Good Place), and J.J. Philbin (New Girl, creator of Single Parents)

The Sopranos and Mad Men are some prestige shows that ushered in a time of “showrunner auteur”

Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad

Damon Lindelof, co-creator of LOST

Marc Evan Jackson hosts The Good Place podcast, which was running concurrent to new episodes of The Good Place, the TV show — and now he’s doing one for Brooklyn 99’s podcast, too!

Andrew Reich, writer for Friends and Worst Week, created The Dead Pilots Society podcast

Dexter

Fargo, Weeds, and later seasons of Breaking Bad are shows that Ben says are representative of he and Ben Acker’s writing tone

Weeds creator Jenji Kohan (side note, I really loved the Emily Nussbaum feature profile about Jenji featured in The New Yorker and her book, I Like to Watch)

Edgar Wright (Baby Driver), Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums), Rian Johnson (Knives Out), and Greta Gerwig (Little Women) are all filmmakers Ben cites as great examples of people with very specific individual tones

Humphrey Ker and Katie Wood were staff writers for CUT + RUN, and you can hear them talk to Ben and Ben about the writing process on The Writer’s Panel!

Hear Janet Varney, comedian, writer, and co-founder of SF Sketchfest, on her episode of First Draft!

The cast of CUT + RUN is amazing and includes: Meg Ryan, Sam Richardson, D’Arcy Carden, Rachel Bloom (listen to the episode of The Writer’s Panel where Ben sat down with Rachel and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend showrunner Aline Brosh McKenna), Ed Begley, Jr.

Why would I miss a chance to mention The Princess Bride? And why not link to the book, written by famous screenwriter William Goldman

Aimee Mann and Ted Leo recorded “Dynamite Lady,” an original song to play over the credits of CUT + RUN

I want to hear from you!

Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998.

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Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

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