Read Online Joss Whedon: The Biography by Amy Pascale - Free Book Online

the
other
showrunner, who blew off every idea that Joss had and called him out for not being prepared enough, or being overrehearsed.
    Joss realized years later that the response was more about the showrunner’s relationship with Tom than about Joss’s own ability. But that didn’t make it any easier for father or son. After one of the failed pitches, Tom came home and was almost an hour into a conversation before he told his son that he didn’t think Joss would get to write for
It’s a Living
. “He couldn’t even get up the nerve to tell me,” Joss said. “My poor father. It was harder for him, I think, than it was for me.”

    Feeling that he had been “eviscerated by weasels,” Joss didn’t pursue television writing opportunities any further for the time being. He still had his job at the video store, but that didn’t mean that he stopped writing. One project was a musical parody of the Oliver North hearings, to the tune of the songs from
Oliver!
North, a former US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, came into the public spotlight in July 1987 when he testified before a joint congressional committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair, an American political scandal that exploded in the finalyears of the Reagan administration. North had admitted the previous year that he had been partially responsible for the sale of weapons via intermediaries to Iran, the profits of which were channeled to anti-Communist rebels in Nicaragua. “We didn’t ever shoot it or anything,” Joss said. “I just recorded it with my family, with my little brothers, my dad and my stepmom, and me.”
    Tom played the recording at parties, where a producer for a new series heard it, liked it, and asked Joss to lunch. The producer asked if Joss had any other writing samples and Joss responded that he didn’t, but if he could get all the scripts from the producer’s new show,
Just in Time
, he’d write one of those. Unfortunately,
Just in Time
was canceled after two episodes aired, and before Joss could finish his script.
    Joss buckled down and developed several more speculative, or spec, scripts for sitcoms that were on the air at the time. Spec scripts are the all-important calling card for aspiring writers. They’re generally intended not to be produced but simply to showcase a writer’s voice and demonstrate how well he or she can develop a story and write to the tone of a particular series. Once a writer has polished specs for a few different shows, he sends them out to agents in hopes of connecting with someone who likes and will champion his work. Joss wrote specs for his father’s show,
It’s a Living
, as well as the sitcom
It’s Garry Shandling’s Show
.
    When he showed these scripts to his father, Tom had only encouragement and praise—which was something that Joss didn’t know he needed until it was offered. Tom was so supportive that he insisted that Joss skip the traditional path to becoming a television writer—serving as an assistant to a producer, writer, or agent—and hold out for a staff writer position. “I had no idea how huge that was for me until it happened,” Joss said. “This guy could have crushed the life out of me if he had a mean or competitive bone in his body. He has been completely, gushingly supportive since the day I picked up a pen.”
    Tom even called in some favors on his son’s behalf. His literary agency, Leading Artists (a precursor to United Talent Agency), was willing to have someone read his scripts. Another young upstart, Chris Harbert, had just joined Leading Artists as an agent in 1988. After graduating from Boston University, Harbert had worked his way up from the mailroom at ICM before moving to Leading Artists. When he had Joss in for a meeting during his first year on the job, he was surprised by the length of the writer’s hair.
    “It came down to about the middle of my back,” Joss says. “Yes, I was often mistaken for a rock star. Not anyone in particular, usually