In a professional writing environment, this strike-shortened TV season has shown the importance of developing a succession plan in creative environments. One of my favorite freshmen shows from this season, Moonlight, is a great example of just why.
Moonlight, the sudsy CBS drama about a vampire private eye, started off life last spring with veteran Angel scribe David Greenwalt as the show runner. When health concerns took him out, a replacement was found; and when the strike ended, leaving Moonlight without a boss due to Greenwalt’s replacement moving on, the show was pushed forward without a creative head.
If the show is greenlighted for a second season, a replacement will be named, but if the producers had a plan in place to deal with such eventualities, they would not be scrambling now to produce three or four more episodes without anyone running the show to really creatively oversee the direction of those episodes. Too bad.
