# When did the term "show runner" become popular?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-show-runner-become-popular/754536>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 11, 2016, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-show-runner-become-popular/754536 "2016-05-11T12:23:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-show-runner-become-popular/754536/2 "2016-05-11T12:47:42Z")

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Funny enough, [it was exactly one year ago today that the previous Thread on the topic got it’s final reply.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=756390)

In that Thread, **zombywoof** quotes the OED which gives 1989 as the first citation for the term:

> [@](#):
>
> 1. Television. The executive producer having overall creative authority and management responsibility for a television programme.
> 
> 1989 Wall St. Jrnl. 2 Aug. b6/6 The riskiest part of Universal’s gamble is that Mr. Marlens and Ms. Black haven’t yet proved themselves as ‘show-runners’. Mr. Marlens lasted only a handful of episodes on ‘Growing Pains’ before departing.  
> 1995 N.Y. Times 1/1 Day to day, a show runner makes all important decisions about the series’ scripts, tone, attitude, look and direction.  
> 2001 Dreamwatch Oct. 7/3 Straczynski will serve as the project’s showrunner and executive producer.  
> 2010 K. Richardson Television Dramatic Dialogue iv. 67 The vision of the show as a whole does not come from the freelance or even the staff writer, but from the showrunner.

**Colibri** cites Wikipedia for clarification of the term:

> [@New term: "Show Runner"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-term-show-runner/719513/23):
>
> Actually, per [Wiki,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showrunner) it developed because the term executive producer was being applied to a wide variety of roles.  
> _\<snip\>_
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Typically, the showrunner is the creator or co-creator of the series, but this is not always the case. In long-running shows, often the creator of the show moves on, and day-to-day responsibilities of showrunning falls to other writers or writing teams.

Most posters responding to that Thread agree they first started hearing the term in the past 10 to 20 years.

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