World View: Power of Pairs

NEW YORK: Anna Carugati, the group editorial director of World Screen, shares her thoughts on the creative collaborations taking place in the TV marketplace nowadays.

A common assumption is that singular works of art or innovation or scientific breakthrough are often the result of one person’s efforts—we often envision the lone artist or mathematician or writer toiling away in isolation. Think Pablo Picasso or Albert Einstein or William Shakespeare.

A new book, Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Pairs, by Joshua Wolf Shenk, posits that it is in fact not from lone thinkers but from duos, either working together or in competition with each other, that the greatest breakthroughs come about. Einstein came up with his theory of relativity by using the engineer Michele Besso as his sounding board. Picasso developed Cubism alongside Georges Braque. A number of scholars believe Shakespeare borrowed ideas from Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.

Shenk builds on his theory of creative couples by touching on findings from branches of social psychology and neuroscience that show that pairs trump single individuals when it comes to creativity:  Marie and Pierre Curie together discovered radioactivity; George Balanchine and Suzanne Farrell advanced dance; Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak gave us the personal computer; John Lennon and Paul McCartney published some 180 songs that became the soundtrack of a generation; Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of South Park, opened up a new wave of animation. All of these are cited in the book. I could add a slew of other duos. I spent the summer interviewing showrunners for this issue. Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman work together on Person of Interest; Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk on American Horror Story; Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields on The Americans. Carlton Cuse partnered with Damon Lindelof on Lost and has worked with Guillermo del Toro on The Strain, Kerry Ehrin on Bates Motel and Ryan Condal on Colony. Shonda Rhimes has relied on Betsy Beers for years on Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal.

Even in Britain, where entire series are written by one person—and Julian Fellowes is the notable exception to the “pairs do it better” rule, as he has single-handedly written every episode of Downton Abbey—writers are starting to collaborate. Fellowes credits executive producers Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge for perfecting his scripts. Chris Chibnall says he couldn’t have written Broadchurch without his script executive Sam Hoyle. The two of them also worked with Anya Epstein and Dan Futterman, the duo who served as showrunners for Gracepoint, the U.S. version of Broadchurch.

Without question, creating television shows is a collaborative experience. At this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards, we heard actors and writers repeatedly thanking crews and editors, without whom no show would ever get to the small screen. We also heard that from the actors we interviewed in this issue, starting with Kevin Spacey and Ted Danson, on to Taylor Schilling and Julia Stiles.

To balance out our list of creatives in this issue, we have an equally impressive number of top executives, including CBS’s Leslie Moonves, 21st Century Fox’s James Murdoch, BBC’s Tony Hall, RTL Group’s Anke Schäferkordt, Seven West’s Tim Worner and Bertrand Meheut of CANAL+. Their successes are also the result of creativity and collaboration. They all rely on production, programming, marketing, legal and business teams to run their companies—the better the teams, the greater the accomplishments.

Collaboration is obviously the name of the game here at World Screen as well. As World Screen approaches its 30th anniversary, this is the most ambitious issue we have ever tackled. Our contributing writers have provided us with features that hit the pulse of the television industry today: from working with creative minds to the current wave of consolidation; from over-the-top services in Europe to the evergreen quality of wildlife documentaries; from the staying power of legacy formats to the popularity of singing competition shows; from the vibrancy of the U.K. kids’ television market to what children’s commissioners are looking for to trends in girl-skewing shows.

In house Kristin Brzoznowski handles World Screen Newsflash and all the other online newsletters, which our online director, Simon Weaver—who also edits our video interviews—makes sure reach you each day. Kristin also does interviews, including the one with Taylor Schilling, and writes features. Joanna Padovano assists Kristin. Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari heads up our Spanish-language publications, with the help of Jessica Rodríguez. Joel Marino assists both the English- and Spanish-language teams. Then there is Mansha Daswani. We joke that she doesn’t have enough heads to accommodate all the hats she wears. She dives into in-depth interviews with Robert Kirkman and M. Night Shyamalan. She writes features. She has tremendous business acumen. I don’t feel comfortable with my copy until her eagle eye has proofed it. She manages the layout and production of this 710-page issue. Take a moment to peruse it. Look at the design—isn’t it classy? That’s the work of Victor Cuevas, our production and design director. Cesar Suero and Faustyna Hariasz work with our fearless leader, Ricardo Guise. Yes, I am a believer in the power of pairs, as you know, I am half of one myself—collaboration is everything.