{"id":6143,"date":"2026-08-18T18:35:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6143"},"modified":"2026-08-18T18:35:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:35:37","slug":"nominated-tv-producers-shed-light-on-network-notes-and-industry-changes-at-varietys-showrunners-breakfast-ryan-murphy-emotionally-accepts-norman-lear-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6143","title":{"rendered":"Nominated TV Producers Shed Light on Network Notes and Industry Changes at Variety\u2019s Showrunners Breakfast; Ryan Murphy Emotionally Accepts Norman Lear Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tHollywood\u2019s top showrunners and creatives snuck out of their respective writers\u2019 rooms for <em>Variety\u2019s<\/em> annual Showrunner Breakfast on August 14. The intimate gathering was held at Oleander at The Sun Rose Hotel in West Hollywood, California, honoring top showrunners, including some listed in <em>Variety<\/em>\u2018s 2026 Showrunners Impact Report.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6141\">Round Hill Music Sues Suno, Anthropic for Copyright Infringement in Potentially $1 Billion Lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tAs the room finished munching on their breakfast quiches and sipping cups of coffee, top showrunners and producers from Apple TV\u2019s \u201cYour Friends &amp; Neighbors,\u201d Netflix\u2019s \u201cThe Diplomat,\u201d Apple TV\u2019s \u201cShrinking,\u201d FX\u2019s \u201cWelcome to Wrexham\u201d and Adult Swim\u2019s \u201cRick and Morty\u201d joined <em>Variety<\/em>\u2018s executive TV editor Michael Schneider for a panel discussing the timely topics on everyone\u2019s minds \u2014 from network notes, the changing state of the writers\u2019 room to AI.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhen it comes to navigating network notes, showrunners are often tasked with getting their version of the show across against what the network exec\u2019s version might be. For \u201cYour Friends &amp; Neighbors\u201d boss Jonathan Tropper, the most helpful notes ask about the writer\u2019s intention.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cYou know, \u2018I don\u2019t know if that emotion is landing the way you think it is,\u2019 or \u2018I don\u2019t understand, he seems to be acting like a dick here. Do you mean for him to be acting like a dick here?&#8217;\u201d Tropper recalled. \u201cThose are helpful because it\u2019s somebody outside the brain trust reading it and reacting fresh. So I always divide notes into: Are they trying to write or direct the show? Or are they just trying to help me write the show?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tMany of the panelists are hard at work on new seasons of their shows, including \u201cShrinking\u201d executive producer Ashley Nicole Black, who has a lot to live up to after Season 3 nabbed 10 Emmy nominations.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s pretty daunting at first, but I find that once you make one decision, it sort of begets a bunch of other decisions,\u201d Black said. \u201cNow, in Season 4, Gabby\u2019s moving into practicing a different kind of therapy, so we started working with a different therapist, Dr. Andrea Barthwell, who practices that kind of therapy. Once you start hearing her stories and her philosophies, the stories start to come out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cThe Diplomat\u201d showrunner Debora Cahn said it has taken her four seasons of working on the show to learn the most valuable lesson.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cI\u2019m starting to get that the panic doesn\u2019t go away because we\u2019re still trying to do something we haven\u2019t done. We\u2019re still looking to do something slightly different and more,\u201d Cahn said. \u201cPanic is what it\u2019s supposed to feel like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cRick and Morty\u201d co-creator Dan Harmon heavily relies on his younger staff writers, especially to honor the canon of his show\u2019s past seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6140\">Kevin Hart and Henry Cavill\u2019s Netflix Spy Comedy Adds Jason Isaacs, Justine Lupe and Aja Naomi King (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cThe kids, they go, \u2018Well, I think Evil Morty should come back!\u2019 And I say, \u2018Says you, have fun writing that crap!&#8217;\u201d Harmon quipped. \u201cThank God you\u2019re here. Thank God we tend to promote our writers\u2019 assistants so that they have everything on file.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSchneider ended the panel by bringing up the inevitable topic of AI. It\u2019s of particular importance to these showrunners who work alongside the younger writers and assistants hoping to one day create their own show. But how will the next generation of showrunners fare?<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cIt does start to feel like work is getting more and more temporary. A couple of years ago, it\u2019d be like, \u2018OK, I have to work on two or three shows a year.\u2019 But there has to be two or three shows in order to make that work,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tTropper, meanwhile, said he \u201chesitates\u201d to talk about AI because his mindset shifts based on the latest podcast or documentary he\u2019s tuned into.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cHowever fast we think it\u2019s going to change things, it\u2019s going to be faster,\u201d Tropper said. \u201cI cling to the hope that art will still have to be created by the vision of humans, and whether they\u2019re using AI to realize that or not is going to fracture a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe event closed out honoring Ryan Murphy, the prolific showrunner known for creating groundbreaking shows like \u201cAmerican Horror Story,\u201d \u201cNip\/Tuck\u201d and \u201cGlee,\u201d with the Norman Lear Award. It was presented to him by another trailblazing showrunner in his own right, Greg Berlanti.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhile accepting the award, Murphy recalled how watching Lear\u2019s landmark sitcom \u201cAll in the Family\u201d helped him realize how television \u201ccan change hearts and minds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cTV characters really become like friends, which we all know because they\u2019re beamed at your house. And if you do it right, you can reach hearts,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI got to tell Norman that story about the impact it had on me and how I realized so young that tackling important, if controversial, topics was necessary. And the amazing thing is when I told him that, he burst into tears like nobody had ever said a nice word to him in his life. But that was Norman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6138\">\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Sets Collector\u2019s Edition Blu-ray Release With Steamy Posters, Collectible Art Cards and Special Features<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tCheck out photos from <em>Variety<\/em>\u2018s Showrunner Breakfast below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Variety&#8217;s annual Showrunners Breakfast was held last Friday, bringing together top showrunners and awarding Ryan Murphy with the Norman Lear Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[833],"tags":[4779,4037,4780,4712],"class_list":["post-6143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","tag-rick-and-morty-2","tag-ryan-murphy","tag-shrinking","tag-the-diplomat"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nominated TV Producers Shed Light on Network Notes and Industry Changes at Variety\u2019s Showrunners Breakfast; Ryan Murphy Emotionally Accepts Norman Lear Award - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6143\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nominated TV Producers Shed Light on Network Notes and Industry Changes at Variety\u2019s Showrunners Breakfast; Ryan Murphy Emotionally Accepts Norman Lear Award - Relocation Observer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Variety&#039;s annual Showrunners Breakfast was held last Friday, bringing together top showrunners and awarding Ryan Murphy with the Norman Lear Award.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6143\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Observer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-18T18:35:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationobserver.com\\\/?p=6143#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationobserver.com\\\/?p=6143\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationobserver.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2243ff062b31c5195cd0d9f83884e83e\"},\"headline\":\"Nominated TV Producers Shed Light on Network Notes and Industry Changes at Variety\u2019s Showrunners Breakfast; 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