By Nick Marini, social media coordinator
Cable and network television are different on so many levels. No matter taste or preference, watching ten minutes of “NCIS: Los Angeles” and ten minutes of “Mad Men” will yield very different experiences, subject matter notwithstanding.
Enter: Betsy Beers. She’s a busy woman. As a key player in the Shonda Rhimes-run production company called “ShondaLand,” she is executive producing critically lauded shows like “Scandal” (recently renewed for a fourth season); is a major name behind the scenes of “Grey’s Anatomy” (now renewed for an 11th season); and is the fifth recipient of the rare Director’s Guild of America Diversity Award.Coming out of Williams College with a degree in theater and English, she has a professional background in moviemaking and a resumé that is rife with popular network dramas. More are on the way.
On the cutting edge of entertainment, Betsy helped make two of the most popular shows last year. She’s trying to “reflect the world we live in on television,” achieving the rare combination of being both progressive and populist. She’s a part of shows that are more like the world we live in than they are fantasy – born of the type of drama that could only exist in real life, but at the same time offer audiences something of an escape. According to her, it’s what keeps audiences coming back to all of their favorite shows each week.“Scandal” is able to pack the emotional punch of your favorite Sunday night R-rated dramas, but it doesn’t come from the fist of a male antihero. And it’s on network TV.
She offered the type of insight only an expert could give: “I think as the world gets bigger and things get more chaotic, it’s great to be able to sit in your house with people that you know and that continue to surprise you and delight you.” A change of pace in who those people are can be even more surprising and delightful.
She spoke to the News about the rising quality of television, what drives viewers to the darkly moral dramas populating award nominations everywhere and what it means to be an executive producer of a television show in this day and age.
Huntington News: Two of your biggest shows, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” deal with a lot of moral conflict or ambiguity and sometimes feature heroines or heroes that are difficult to root for. How do they succeed in capturing an audience as well as they do?
Betsy Beers: Well, I think from the very beginning when we first started developing “Grey’s Anatomy” and Shonda [Rhimes] created the show, and through “Private Practice” and through “Scandal,” and actually with our new show, which isn’t created by Shonda Rhimes it’s created by a guy named Pete Nowalk, um, I think one of the things that we’ve always been interested in are flawed, very human, very vulnerable, very real people. And I think there is something about getting to watch somebody on television who isn’t perfect, and is flawed. And certainly, on the “Scandal” level, has flaws writ very large. I mean, it’s a very, very dramatic canvas, the world of Washington and the decisions are all gigantic. And I think one of the great things about Shonda’s writing and all the people who work on the show, and the acting, is that something about the natural vulnerability of the characters is relatable.
When we started with “Grey’s [Anatomy],” one of the things we were most interested in was we wanted deep, flawed, messy, interesting, weird workplace families on television that kind of reflected some of the same issues that we were all going through. So, you know, a show about interns who were all growing and changing and were younger. I think “Scandal” is a different issue, that’s not how do you grow into your life, but how do you deal with power. And how do you deal with the ramifications of power and even on a daily basis it’s something I think all of us can kind of identify with. And I feel like I can certainly identify with, and I hope other people can, you know, what do you choose? Do you choose love or do you choose work? What is an acceptable trade off? What is worth it in your job? And although the canvas in “Scandal” is very large, I still think the core issues are very relatable.
HN: So based on your experience in the industry, why would you say such quality filmmaking has begun to shift to the small screen in the past ten years or so?
BB: Well, you know, I would certainly be one to argue that for a while television was underrated. I think there have been periods of time when there always have been really great television shows but people didn’t talk about them so glowingly because they were on TV. I also feel like the old golden age of television was really comedy, and I think like this is the golden age of drama on television.
But I think it’s a bunch of different things, I think that it’s a different kind of storytelling in TV, which people have discovered that they like, I think the idea of – when serialized shows started hitting we were sort of – along with “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives,” that year in 2005, I think this sort of ongoing dramatic serial began to become really appealing for audiences and I think the combination of things – I did movies for fifteen years before actually starting to work in the world of television and I think there’s sort of two things: I think movies have become incredibly expensive to make, and the slightly more personal, internal emotional stories that have helped generate what I would call the golden age of TV, a place for them to go was television because as movies got larger and there were more sequels and as it got much more grand in vision it got harder and harder for a lot of the writers and actors and directors, a lot of talented people, to get to make the movies that they wanted to make. And so what was great was television, where you work all the time, where there’s constant deadlines, where you always have a product and get it on the air, was a great place for a lot of these talented people to go. Shonda Rhimes came from movies, I came from movies, you know, my old boss Mark Gordon [“Saving Private Ryan,” “Criminal Minds,” “Grey’s Anatomy”] came from movies, like we all were people who loved making movies but also, in a weird way, loved the fact that in television, you have to make a little movie every week. And, you can also continue to tell the same story.
Movies are about people who fundamentally go through a gigantic change, you know. Movies are, like at page 80 or 90, you hit this moment and you say, “oh, oh I’ve been doing it all wrong, I have to turn into a superhero,” “now I realize I was an idiot and I have to get the girl” or “I have to save the world.” But the great thing about television is that it’s people who don’t change very fast. And you get to go in week to week and spend time with people that you’re getting to know. And there’s a sort of reliability there, there’s a normalcy, an “oh, I know this person, this is like my friend.” And I think there’s been a different kind of storytelling, and it’s a really fun kind of storytelling, and I think a lot of us discovered that we loved the growth world that was slower but a serialized world in which you could actually accomplish more and tell more story over a season, than you could in a movie.
HN: There are a lot of different kind of roles that an executive producer can fill, from executive to manager to legal, really. How would you describe your role when working on “Scandal?”
BB: My role in “Scandal” has been similar to my role on the other shows and we’ve produced some shows that have been written and as I said the new show that we have on Thursday nights at 10 o’clock, but I actually provide the same services for that executive producer/writer that I have for Shonda. It’s a two part question and answer. When you are an executive producer on a television show that’s brand new, you tend to do a lot more than you would for an older show. So, like when a show starts, it’s like you have a baby. So, in essence, when a show is brand new and off the ground, I am touching every single aspect of the show, except writing. So I’m talking to the line producer, I’m consulting and making reels, I am in casting, I’m on set, looking at sets and looking at budgets, I’m talking to studio and networks, I’m interfacing between the writers in the studio and network, I’m doing whatever anybody needs me to do to keep the show going, except write. And there’s a lot of it. When the show is new, there’s a lot of it. As the show gets older it’s like the kid getting older. So, “Scandal” is four years old now.
What I find on “Scandal” now is I still am actively involved in reading the scripts and the post production aspect of things, which is a whole other aspect of editing and music. I’m available for people whenever they need it. Everything is running kind of well but whenever there’s a problem, you show up. I’m available for actors all the time if there’s a problem, I also continue to make the deals and sign the writers and help find the writers, so it’s literally like in year four of a show, it’s like having a kid in elementary school. You still have to drive them to school, and they still get in trouble, and you put them in bed at night, but you’re not responsible for a baby. And “Grey’s Anatomy,” is like, you know, in high school or college. I don’t have to drive them anymore, but I’m still there for problems and working situations where I’m helping to negotiate. Pretty much what it is, is as a show gets older and is incredibly confident to stand on its own, you’re there for times of trouble. Like, you’re there when there’s a problem. You’re less there on a day-to-day basis but I’m still approving everything and available, and I’m aware of what’s going on in every show I do, but how much do I actively have to stomp around and take up gigantic weeks at a time? That’s usually with a baby.
HN: Lastly, can you tell us anything about your upcoming projects? What can we expect from Betsy Beers in the near future?
BB: You can expect that I’m happily working here at Shondaland, we’ve got the new show which is on Thursday nights at 10 o’clock, ABC, and Pete Nowalk created it, and Shonda and I are executive producing it. It’s called “How To Get Away With Murder,” and Viola Davis [“The Help”] is the star of it. It’s a legal, thriller show that has a lot to do with a very, very charismatic law professor and her group of students who she uses as sort of aides in her court situations. And it has an ongoing, very, very juicy mystery, which you’ll discover in the first two minutes of the pilot, and it’s really good. It’s really fun. We’re in the process of trying to put together a couple of projects for cable, you know, for not-networks, which we’re excited about. We’re just sort of starting out on, and your timing is interesting only because the development season for next season is just starting now, so I don’t have a freaking clue what we’re doing about that.
HN: Either way, you’re gonna be busy.
BB: We are definitely gonna be busy, we have three shows, and we’re looking forward to developing some more, so it’s – we’re having an incredibly good time, and I wake up every day and feel incredibly fortunate that I love my job and get to do this for a living.
You can see a full list of Betsy’s work here.
Photo courtesy Betsy Beers.
