Warner Bros.' Peter Roth

As president of Warner
Bros. Television, Peter Roth oversees the studio that has produced Friends, ER,
The West Wing, Nip/Tuck, Cold Case, Without a Trace and many more. In these
shows, as in all the shows Warner Bros. produces, Roth’s aim is to offer the
best of the human spirit—not just that which is entertaining and
escapist, but enlightening as well.

WS: This year, Warner Bros. has 27 new and returning
shows on its fall slate. Did this happen by chance or by design?

ROTH: This is not an unusual year. In fact, last year we
had 33 series. This year we were more target-specific and we scrutinized every
project we produced more than ever before. Because, frankly, the economics of
the business demand that we do. There is not a lot of room for waste. The real
achievement of the year—the ultimate achievement will only be known once
these new series get on the air and we see what scores—but the real
success of Warner Bros. Television was that seven of our eight dramatic pilots
were picked up. And there are ten new comedies on the fall schedule across all
the networks; four of them came from Warner Bros. That’s the stuff of
efficiency; that’s what makes my bosses happy. There is very little waste in
the R&D process, and that is because, frankly, we are very, very demanding
of ourselves, of our time and our resources. We are pretty attuned to what the
networks are going to want to buy. The real accomplishment is that we work
extremely hard to ensure the best possible execution that one could possibly
demand.

WS: How much innovation—use of flashbacks or
different storytelling techniques—do audiences demand today?

ROTH: When I first became involved in tele­vision, I
was taught something which I have never forgotten. Leonard Goldberg [the former
head of programming at ABC, and former president of Twentieth Century Fox] sat
me down and said, “Young man, television is two things: a close-up and a
script.” And for some 25 years, I believed that truism held firm. The
confluence of a great writer, a great script, and a compelling and interesting
personality embodied in a character is what audiences were most compelled by.

In the last five to eight
years, and I [attribute] a large degree of this to Jerry Bruckheimer, with whom
we are fortunate to be in business, a new paradigm was created in
television—the idea of feature television. CSI brought in a new wave of elevated production
values. It has caused the audience to be even more demanding of what they enjoy
and what they are expecting of us. There is a unique visual style that he
brought to television that has now become almost the vernacular of television.
It’s become the commonplace expectation of the viewer.

I don’t mean to be too
personal about this, but my most ardent and emphatic skill is that I love
television with my soul. It has transported me from the earliest memories of my
life. And I love the people who work on television. I’m turned on by the talent
I work with and I am a discerning and demanding viewer. I want to be
entertained. I want to be enlightened. I don’t want to waste my time. It is too
precious to me. So the fare must be compelling, incredibly well executed and
worth my while. Jerry has shepherded in a new era of elevated production value,
which, along with compelling scripts and great actors, have added to a level
and quality of viewing experience that’s never been surpassed.

People often talk and
write about the fact that dramatic television is truly living in a golden age
right now, and I would agree with that. When you are able to work with the
likes of those shepherding Grey’s Anatomy, 24 and Lost; when J. J. Abrams and Jerry Bruckheimer and John
Wells and these extraordinary talents are bringing the best of what they have
in a more demanding environment, the results can be very exciting, and that is
what we are living through right now.

WS: Production costs are rising at dizzying rates.
What kind of creative environment does a writer or producer find at Warner Bros.?

ROTH: That’s a good question. A good producer is a
thoughtful and sensitive partner who understands the exigencies of production
costs. The environment that we try to create is one in which we nurture people
to do the best work they possibly can. We are a passionate, involved group,
whose principal concern is to make people feel as if they can’t wait to come to
work. That is my job, and the job of our company, to create that environment,
where people are thriving and feel as if they are nurtured and taken care of.

In addition to that, there
are economic realities, which are a fact of life, and everyone needs to look at
them. My theory on that is, as long as we are sensitive, thoughtful, honest,
reasonable and fair and we present and create that environment with our
partners, we don’t have problems.

It is frustrating at
times, for all of us, to have restrictions imposed on us. But if we deal with
this honorably and thoughtfully and sensitively and creatively, I think we can
do very good work, and our producers have accomplished extraordinary things in
the last few years.

WS: Are any of the new distribution outlets—from
iTunes to broadband to mobile—taken into consideration during the
development process?

ROTH: No, not for me. I am in the business of manufacturing
product. I oversee two companies [Warner Bros. Television and Warner Horizon
Television] whose job it is to create content. I have people who I work for,
who are far smarter than I am, who know how to exploit that product for other
distribution platforms. Is there money to be made? Absolutely. Is it something
that I think about when we are developing shows? Never. I do not.

When an idea percolates
that has applications elsewhere, companion narratives, brand extensions, all of
these new words that are exploding in this digital age, they are all part of
the picture, but they are never what starts the picture.

Isn’t it Shakespeare who
said, “The play’s the thing?” That must always be the most fundamental truth:
when the play is great, it can be exploited in many, many different fashions.
And never should it be done otherwise. To me it’s an anti-creative process to
say, “OK what can we do now to exploit the digital opportunities that exist?”
No, the question is, “What’s the show? What’s the play? What are we trying to
communicate? Who are the characters? What’s the story? Who are the writers? Who
is executing the property?” That’s what we concentrate on, and then there are
others who can exploit that and do it very effectively.

WS: Does the international audience come into the
picture when you are developing shows?

ROTH: The international marketplace has served as a
critical barometer for me on so many levels. We are fortunate at WB. Jeff
Schlesinger [the president of Warner Bros. International Television
Distribution] and his team are magnificent partners for me. They are almost the
first barometer of just how powerful, how universal and successful, our shows
are. One week after the Upfronts, we introduce our fare to the world [at the
L.A. Screenings]. We hear back very, very quickly just how well or how poorly
we have succeeded. Because you get a wholly different perspective than the
process we go through for an American network. For me, it’s an exhilarating and
eye-opening experience. It’s manifest in money, which is vital to us. We could
never produce the kind of production value you see in any of our shows, without
the help and support of our international partners—it would never happen.
We are dependent on them for that cash, and we’re dependent on them for their
critical feedback. They have become, in my career, increasingly important each
and every year.

The other thing about the
international marketplace is that each year I get increasingly impressed by
their sophistication and their ability to hone right in on the most essential
and important elements of the show. They cut through the bullshit. They know
what works and they know what is of real value and they know the difference
between good and bad.

There was a time in my career
when a lot of conventional wisdom would have suggested that the only thing that
could travel well internationally was action shows. That is absolutely not the
case anymore. I have seen deeply personal, intimate character shows do
extremely well in international marketplaces. And I’ve seen action shows,
frankly, not do very well. So there is an increasingly discerning,
sophisticated and very important eye that I look for in our international
partners.

WS: At the Screenings, buyers all said Studio 60 on
the Sunset Strip was one of the
best things they had ever seen. But they didn’t know if it would travel very
well.

ROTH: We got that same kind of feedback. I think Studio
60 is about an expression of
freedom against the oppression and homogenization of corporate thinking. At its
heart it’s about freedom. It honors subversiveness in a strange way. It also
honors friendships and relationships in a high-powered and pressure-filled
business. It so deserves to
break out.