While some families gathered round the dinner table to discuss each other’s days at school or at work, Danielle Sanchez-Witzel’s family used the opportunity to compete for laughs ““ providing the young comedienne with impromptu training for her future career as a television writer.
“Whoever had the best joke won,” Sanchez-Witzel said. It’s not clear what exactly the prize was, but in Sanchez-Witzel’s case, the practice has paid off.
Sanchez-Witzel, a graduate of the master’s program within the UCLA School of Film and Television, recently scored a seven-figure deal with Universal Media Studios that promoted her to co-executive producer of NBC sitcom “My Name is Earl” and essentially gave her license to create her own show.
“I’ve always loved TV,” Sanchez-Witzel said, “but it didn’t occur to me that it could be a career until I got to UCLA.”
Sanchez-Witzel, who majored in English and communications at Stanford as an undergraduate, originally set her sights on sports broadcasting covering Stanford’s baseball team. But in her second year of graduate studies at UCLA, Sanchez-Witzel took a class on sitcom writing with Professor Fred Rubin and knew that sitcoms were the path she was destined for.
“The minute I got into the class, I realized it was what I wanted to do,” Sanchez-Witzel said. “I knew nothing about writing scripts … but he broke down the process for me. A lot of people are funny and talented and have potential, but it’s hard to navigate the writing business on your own.”
But the inherent subjective nature of comedy can pose some problems to beginning comedy writers who are unsure of how their funny ideas will stack up against the public’s taste. Sanchez-Witzel certainly struggled with her own comedic identity, saying that she had days of “flinging myself on the couch saying, “˜I’m not funny anymore! I’ve lost it! I can’t do it!'”
Luckily, the format of sitcom writing and production is such that writers are not just encouraged, but required, to bounce ideas off of each other, contributing to a collaborative process.
“It’s hard to sit alone in your apartment and figure out if it’s funny or not funny,” Sanchez-Witzel said. “On “˜My Name is Earl’ we have 15 writers, so we’re able to bounce things off each other and make each other laugh ““ it’s great to have feedback.”
Developing an episode for a sitcom is swift in its turnover. Unlike movies, which can take years to produce, Sanchez-Witzel feels that the process is gratifying, and likes that she’s able to see a show she’s written on the TV just about a month after it was nothing more than words on paper.
Still, the process can be arduous, consisting of numerous group brainstorming sessions, outlining and readings with actors from the show, with constant rewrites along the way. Sanchez-Witzel said that this part of the process can deter budding writers who may not be prepared for this aspect of the job.
“No one spins gold (on the first try),” Sanchez-Witzel said. “If you don’t give up and continue to write and re-write, and re-write, and re-write, you’ll become a better writer. People eliminate themselves because (the process) is so long.”
In terms of gathering inspiration for writing, Sanchez-Witzel said that in addition to the funny genes that run in her family, she finds material everywhere.
“When you’re a writer, you’re an observer of life,” she said. “You keep your eyes and ears open at an airport, you can find a lot of interesting characters. I met a guy on a show I was working on who was really shy and didn’t talk to a lot of people and struck up a conversation with him. He didn’t know any of the writers, but he knew the shoes all the writers wore. … It was such a fascinating trait.”
Despite the challenges working as a writer in the notoriously harsh entertainment business, Sanchez-Witzel said that he work is highly rewarding and is “the most fun job in the world.” She said she encourages those interested in the field because they will be able to succeed, as long as they remain persistent.
“Writing is one of the few things, where the more you do it, the better you’ll get,” she said. “There is no way that the more you write, the worse you’ll get. I find inspiration in that. Even when you finish a (script) and think it sucks, it sucks a little bit less than the last time.”