Running the Show takes you inside building a show from the ground up and what a showrunner's life looks like in Hollywood. This unique job covers aspects from the creative to the managerial and everything in between.

Seasoned showrunner Jeffrey Melvoin shares his fascinating insider's perspective on how to call the shots and make the final decisions when choosing and writing scripts, hiring staff, casting, making the budget, and juggling schedules. Along with the managerial responsibilities that keep the show afloat, they are also the visionary for the series and the characters. Melvoin describes how to confidently communicate abstract ideas so they can become the show's reality.

Running the Show reveals the ethical side of show running and writing with humor, integrity, and wisdom.

As a writer/producer/showrunner, Jeffrey Melvoin has worked on over a dozen series including Designated Survivor and Killing Eve. He has taught courses at USC, UCLA, and Harvard, led workshops at the Sundance Institute and the American Film Institute, and chaired the Writers Guild of America's Showrunner Training Program. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Running the Show takes you inside building a show from the ground up and what a showrunner’s life looks like in Hollywood.

"A must for readers interested in breaking into the business of writing or running a TV show. This entertaining guidebook gives straightforward, no-nonsense advice."

For me, this was the best book on showrunning I've ever read. It's for anyone who wants to run shows or just know how they've been run across the years, even as the medium has changed greatly. It captures the many changes our business has gone through and the larger-than-life personalities and vast challenges one has to navigate and be successful at if you want the dream job of telling stories for TV.

Whether you aspire to produce a television series or just want to know how it’s done, there’s finally a book with the answers. Invaluable! It’s rare that a “how-to” book is also a page-turner, but Melvoin has great stories to tell and invaluable skills to share. An essential book for anyone interested in the form. RUNNING THE SHOW is mandatory reading.

There’s no one in the field who has mentored as many young writers and contributed more to this generation of showrunning than Jeff Melvoin. A powerful and necessary read.

Jeff Melvoin is the oracle and Yoda of showrunning, and this book demonstrates his decades of hard work and earned wisdom running award-winning one-hour drama series. Melvoin is also the founder of the Writers Guild Showrunner Training Program, now entering its 18th year, guiding hundreds of top showrunners through the unique challenges and rewards of becoming a successful showrunner. Each compact chapter offers his experiences in the trenches, along with practical advice on developing, pitching, selling, getting staffed in a writers room, and, ultimately, running a show—all with candor, nuance, humility, and humor.

An insightful, entertaining, insider's look at the entire process of showrunning written by one of the foremost practitioners of the craft. Jeff Melvoin's book is a gift to anyone who's ever considered pursuing a career in television or wondered what a showrunner actually does!

A wonderful ride through the raging waters of creating television. It’s a book full of sharp insights, great advice, and legitimate wisdom.

Melvoin has done pretty much everything in this business. And, more fundamentally, thought about everything. I recommend this book for any writer, or aspiring writer.

Running the Show is as valuable to would-be showrunners as it is fascinating to veterans. Jeff Melvoin offers that rare combination: up-to-the-moment accuracy about a changing television landscape and an insightful historical perspective. There's great advice in every chapter.

I've spent the last 23 years of my life trying to understand all the tricks, nuances and pitfalls of being a television showrunner and Jeff Melvoin just goes and puts it all in a book for anyone to read? Where was this when I created my first show? Not only an indispensable guide to the mysterious art of creating, selling, staffing, casting, shooting and posting a television show, but also a humorous and humble journey of one man's Hollywood career through some of your favorite shows. For any aspiring television writer, this is just about the most affordable grad level education you can get.

What's it like being a showrunner?" "How do I break into writing television?" "What are writing staffs like?" Doesn't matter what the question is--from now on, anyone asks, I'm just giving them a copy of Jeff's book. All television is personal" according to Jeff, so I'll get personal. I always knew Jeff was a great teacher--the appendix alone is more valuable than any class I ever took. I also know he's a great drama writer--just look at his credits. I find it annoying that he's so funny. It pains me to say, but it's rare that a book this educational is so damn entertaining.