TV Writer Job Titles


Mad Men Title Sequence from Caleb Woods on Vimeo.

Ever wonder about the job titles on a TV show?

What do all the people listed at the beginning of an episode do to deserve producer and writer credits?

What's the difference between a Staff Writer, a Story Editor, an Executive Story Editor, a Co-Producer, a Producer, a Supervising Producer, a Co-Executive Producer and an Executive Producer? 

A June 2, 2015 scriptmag.com post by television writer Eric Haywood explains many of the intricacies for you.

Expert Level: The difference between "Created by" and "Developed by"? Good question: The "Created by" credit can sometimes give the writer(s) special privileges, including the right to buy back the property if it isn't produced in a timely manner. Generally, if a writer only receives "Developed by" credit (for example, if the series is based on source material like a book or a play), the screenwriter will not retain the right to buy back their script. But exceptions can be negotiated. And, if a writer has in fact written a substantially new and different story from the underlying material and is entitled to "Television Story by" credit, then the right to reacquire the property (what is known by the WGA as "separated rights") might be available. 

Super Expert Level: For the purposes of separated rights, a team of writers designated with an "&," is considered a single writer and the team members must decide how the rights will be exploited and which of them, if either, will be authorized to exploit the rights on behalf of the team. When writers writing separately (i.e., not a team) share the qualifying credit, each writer shares in the rights to the entire story and screenplay. For example, if two writers share "Story by" credit, neither writer owns exclusive rights in what s/he wrote alone. The writers share the rights to the whole property, and, therefore, any rights must be exploited jointly. (Writers Guild Basic Agreement Article 16.B.1.a)

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