THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 51 NOVEMBER 6, 2019
strange. We tend to think of what
we’re making as having a shelf
life. We used to describe it as a
salad bar: Everybody watches it
on Thursday night, and then on
Friday morning it’s not worth
anything. Now people are discov-
ering things they’ve never seen.
I’m watching shows that are 4 and
5 years old that are new to me.Given how much a library like ER
would be worth now, did that show
sell too soon?
Maybe. I don’t think that you can
ever look back because the busi-
ness is changing so quick ly. We
have a deal that we were happy
with on Netflix for Shameless.
Now five, six, seven years later, it
was probably undervalued.This year, you were offered overall
deals by multiple parties before
opting to re-sign with Warner Bros.
What was the appeal?
I know everyone there and have
faith in the executives. They want
to continue to sell everywhere,
which is important to me. They
also provided money to maintain
a company, discretionary funds
for overhead and purchasing IP.
We’ve purchased or optioned five
times as many pieces of IP in the
past year than we ever did before.Would you want to make The West
Wing again today?
Everything is so polarized. We’ve
been afraid that it would get
turned into a political football inthe current climate. If there was
a different president in the White
House, a conservative one — but
not this one, in which everything
is immediately “them or us, with
us or against us” — I think we
would be more inclined to talk
about it.You’re a former WGA West presi-
dent. Did you expect the standoff
with agencies to go on this long?
It’s disheartening to see abso-
lutely nothing else happening,
as if this impasse may actually
be the new normal. While there
are many things that need to
be repaired in the way in which
packaging creates fiduciary con-
flicts, I do think that agents and
their relationships with writers
do benefit writers in most cases.So how would you resolve this?
Agencies should not be in the
content creation business. I don’t
think that there is a way to bridge
that fiduciary gap. There also
needs to be substantial disclosure
in how packaging works so that
the agencies are never able to have
a better deal than their client.Interview edited for length
and clarity.something else in their life, it’s
sad, but you know you’re going to
see them again. It seemed diffi-
cult to think about how we would
continue. The West Wing and
Southland are the two shows that
we could’ve done more of.Will 10 be the last season?
I never like to approach the end
of a show that is character-based.
We’ll probably do a season 11,
and Bill [Macy] has said he’d do
that. I’d make this show forever
because it’s about life and income
inequality. Few people are tell-
ing those stories. We have oddly
moved into the zeitgeist of what
is actually being discussed in
the country.Does the show go on without Macy?
Doing it without Bill would
be tough. His is the charac-
ter it’s hard to imagine ever
going anywhere.Shameless is locked into Netflix
for a while. What do you think of
library titles like Seinfeld fetching
$500 million for global rights?
If it starts to pull too much cash
out of the creation of new things,
it will be bad for the industry, the
business, the art. You want the
majority of the investment to
go into new programming,
where you find new actors,
writers and voices. You
don’t want it to become
like ballet has been for
years, where these are
museums for old shows.When ER launched on Hulu in
January 2018, 35,000 people
watched all 331 episodes the first
two months. Did that surprise you?
All of us who’ve had successful
shows in the past and now see
them finding new audiences, 20
and 25 years later, find it a littlePresident
Bill Clinton sent Wells
a congratulatory
letter after The West
Wing took home the
best drama series
Emmy in 2000.A signed
John Elway
Broncos helmet is
one of the few
sports-related items
in the Denver
native’s office.RÉSUMÉ
CURRENT TITLE
President,
John Wells Productions
PREVIOUS JOB
Writer-producer for
ER, The West Wing, Third
Watch and Southland
BIG HIT
Shameless, Showtime’s
most-watched series,
entering its 10th seasonWells keeps a framed
letter from former
NBC topper Warren
Littlefield behind his
desk in honor of a
40 share on ER: “Talk
about a different
generation.” He was
photographed Oct. 23 at
his office in Hollywood.and if a West W ing reboot could
work today.
How did Emmy Rossum’s departure
compare to some of the other actors
who have left your other series?
The West Wing was the most
difficult. John Spencer died in
the middle of the seventh sea-
son. When someone pursues
Wells’
office is filled
with numerous
awards from
his three-decade-
long career.The napkin,
featuring a handwritten
campaign slogan
from The West Wing,
is one of several
props Wells kept
from the series.