Screenwriters across the industry are mourning the long-running Warner Bros. Television Workshop, which newly merged studio Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down after more than 40 years.“I got my first staff writing gig b/c of the WB Writers Workshop. The reason I can celebrate the release of a trailer for my movie today ties back to this workshop,” tweeted Akela Cooper (class of 2009), who wrote the screenplay for upcoming Blumhouse feature M3GAN (whose trailer has become an instant viral sensation). “It helped kick start so many careers. To see it scrapped in the name of capitalism is infuriating and heartbreaking.”For more than 40 years, the Warner Bros. writers’ workshop selected up to eight early-career writers (out of more than 2,500 annual submissions) with the immediate goal of staffing them on a WBTV-produced show and the longer-term goal of establishing their careers in the industry. Although the program was open to participants of all backgrounds, as was the Warner Bros. directors’ program, which also is shutting down, both were regarded as crucial pipelines for artists from historically excluded backgrounds who lacked the industry connections to enter the business the “traditional” way. Over time, the workshops became part of the origin stories of countless working TV writers and directors, including Zak Schwartz (Wu-Tang: An American Saga, TNT’s Snowpiercer), Jim Campolongo (The Sandman, Station 19), Jude Weng (Only Murders in the Building, Finding ‘Ohana) and Regina King.“It is the gold standard,” LaToya Morgan (class of 2011) tells The Hollywood Reporter. She was hired on Shameless out of the workshop, signed an overall deal with WBTV Group in 2020 and is now co-writing the upcoming HBO Max series Duster alongside J.J. Abrams. “I am still friends with many of the people who were in my class. We call each other for advice, we help promote each other’s shows, we’re a family. That’s an opportunity that some future amazing storyteller won’t get now, to come up with your crew of folks who are going to have your back because you came up together.”Echoed Morgan’s workshop classmate Justin Doble, now an executive producer on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, “Absolutely gutting. Hundreds of careers were launched through this program – including mine. What a loss for the industry and for those trying to catch their first break. Terrible.”Michelle Paradise, also class of 2011 and now showrunner of Star Trek: Discovery, added, “This is really disappointing. Thinking of all the unique and important voices that have been discovered through this program… and those we may now miss out on. Hopefully other programs of this kind don’t follow suit.”Multiple writers lamented the loss of a valuable platform – from an industry standpoint – for discovering new talent. “This was my start in the business,” tweeted Alexandra McNally (class of 2008), whose writing credits include Under the Dome and White Collar. “Mentoring talent, fostering writer/creator/exec relationships & commitment to staffing is never a bad investment IMO.”At New York Comic Con on Monday, Jensen Ackles and Danneel Ackles, executive producers of The CW’s upcoming Supernatural prequel The Winchesters, mentioned the workshop in response to a question about diversifying the new series. “It’s up to each show if they’re going to utilize that program or not – we have chosen to do that, so we’ll be bringing in new voices who are getting started in the writing room and as directors,” said Danneel Ackles.Even some who were not accepted into or didn’t go through the workshop were impacted by it in some way. In a Twitter thread, WGA East vice president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (The Endgame, Law & Order: SVU) wrote about not being able to apply for the L.A.-based program because she was raising a young family in New Jersey. Then-Warner Bros. senior vice president Christopher Mack, who ran the workshop for 10 years, offered Cullen (at that time a journalist for Time magazine) a blind script deal and personally mentored her through the TV development process. “The workshop was famously difficult to get into, but execs like Chris Mack weren’t strictly gatekeepers,” Cullen wrote. “He knew the path to diversity in Hollywood was to find creative ways to let people like me in. Now is the time to open gates, not close them; fund programs, not gut them.”
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