According to this http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/05/18/paul-lieberstein-the-office-season-finale/?a_dgi=aolshare_twitter it says “Paul Liberstein, who’s best known for playing hapless HR rep Toby, is also the showrunner of 'The Office.”
What exactly is a showrunner? Do they have more say in the story arcs than the producers or creator, or do they simply guide the various show writers on a weekly basis?
bump
A Showrunner is the top Dog creatively of a show in the sense that story lines and scripts will go past their desk (or be written by them) before they get produced. They could be the creator of the show or someone else, it depends. To put it in movie terms, you would call George Lucas the Showrunner of the Star Wars movies.
As far as titles go, they would generally be called Executive Producers. I don’t believe “Showrunner” is an actual title, more of a description of someone’s job.
For a lot of shows, the showrunner really controls all aspects of the show – not only overarching themes, story arcs, and scripts, but visual design, character direction, and on and on. They are THE final authority on the show. Examples: Matt Weiner for Mad Men – he is the creator as well as showrunner and sometime-script writer. MM is HIS show, heart and soul. This is why the drama of his contract negotiation each year is such a drama. Without him, the show might go on but wouldn’t be the same. Another example: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindeloff of LOST. They were not creators, but brought in early on to be co-showrunners. With some shows showrunners can come and go; with others, they are so central to the identity of the show that if they leave, it usually either stops or falls apart. One example is Diane English and Murphy Brown I believe.
Given the importance of a showrunner I’m surprised it’s not a standard TV show credit.
I assume that showrunners fall under some other credit, producer, creator, writer etc., but it sounds like they should be called out separately since they are so critical to the show’s success.
BTW, who decides who gets a show credit or not? I assume there are industry rules around who has to be credited, but is there some latitude in credits?
I assume the unions are pretty strict about this stuff.
The showrunner is left off the credits list in the possibly vain hope that it will help the job maintain its singular usefulness. We’ve all seen how the big stars of a show often end up with executive producer credits. Those used to mean something and were important for the resumes of the people who had them and have now been rather demeaned and turned into a negotiating ploy. Everyone in the business knows who a show’s showrunner is and average joe on the street doesn’t need to know or care.