Taylor Sheridan slammed Hollywood studio executives for trying to control “every element” of getting a show made.
While speaking on “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” the “Yellowstone” and “Landman” creator laid out his case for why current studio executives are making it increasingly difficult to get shows made. He argued that the number of notes given by people who aren’t creative is stifling productions and extending timelines because of “endless rewrites.”
“It didn’t used to be this way when Steve McQueen was a movie star at Paramount and Bobby Evans ran the studio because writers were turned loose. Directors were turned completely loose,” Sheridan said. “There weren’t endless rewrites. There weren’t meetings with executives about tone and mood and all this nonsense. You didn’t have a lot of people. By the way, the studio executives and the network executives … these are marketing executives for the most part. Or maybe they studied law or whatever. Then they came and they got a job in the mailroom at CAA or WME and hated that s–t. So, then they ended up as an intern at some network. Then through attrition, they find themselves the head of development. Well, what do you know about developing story? You know nothing. So they get terrified, panicked that the audience won’t get it because they actually have no storytellers.”
He added: “Our business, at this point, is truly governed by these executives because they’re the ones that are going to determine whether or not your script is going to go into production. They’re going to try and control every element of that.”
Sheridan explained further that when he signed a deal with Paramount to make his shows it would cut out a lot of those note sections. They’d ask him for a show, and he’d deliver the show to be made.
“This is not a democracy. There’s no committee,” he said. “You’re going to pay me and you’re going to give me a bunch of money and I’m going to deliver you these shows. I’m pretty common and I’m going to tell stories that common people are going to understand. That’s most of America. You’re not going to win no Emmys with me, but I’m not trying to win Emmys. That’s not my goal. My goal is to sit somebody on their couch and move them, make them think, make them laugh, scare the s–t out of them, excite them. That’s what I want to do, because that’s what I want from a show.”
Despite being at the helm of some of the biggest shows of the last decade, Sheridan’s work has struggled to break through in above-the-line Emmy categories. Paramount+ campaigned hard for Billy Bob Thornton’s performance in “Landman” but ultimately secured only a Golden Globe nomination.
You can listen to Sheridan’s full podcast episode here.
