The Business
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 46 AUGUST 14, 2019
AnalysisTHOMA
S:^ JASON^ MERRITT
/GETTYIMAGES.^ MA
RS:
MICHAEL^ DESMOND/HULU.Illustration by Maria CorteW
hen it was announced
in September that I
would be joining the
writing staff of Hulu’s rebooted
Veroni ca Mars series, some people
took it as a sign that the zombie
apocalypse was imminent. What
was next? Meat Loaf showrun-
ning Black-ish? Mike Tyson as
dialogue coach for the Downton
Abbey movie? Others expressed
excitement that I would bring a
diverse perspective to the show. I
did campaign hard for more char-
acters over 7 feet tall, but their
systemic prejudice kept most
actors between 5-foot-1 (Kristen
Bell) and 6 feet (Ken Marino).
For those still scratching your
heads at how I ended up in the
writers room, the journey started
a couple of years ago. I was writing
an article for the Los Angeles Times
about some of my favorite young-
adult novels. My writing partner,
Raymond Obstfeld, suggested I
read Slave Day by Rob Thomas,
about how a high school tradi-
tion of auctioning students and
teachers for a day of humiliating
servitude to raise money for the
school affected several students,
including two black characters.
The writing was
sharply intelligent,
the themes subtly
literary. I was espe-
cially impressed by
how well he captured
the conflicted mind-sets of the
black characters. Rob read my
article and, when his publisher
announced it was reissuing Slave
Day, he asked me to write an intro-
duction, which I happily did.
I then asked Rob if he’d look at
a pilot for a noirish series that
Raymond and I were working
on about a black troubleshooter
for L.A.’s Dunbar Hotel, once
the most elegant and prominent
black hotel in America. Because
most of the characters are black,
and its historical setting, we
knew it would be a hard sell. But
Rob enthusiastically embraced
the story and took it to Warner
What I Learned Writing
for Veron i c a Mars
The THR columnist reflects on his recent stint as a new
television scribe: ‘It all had that same fast-break-no-look-pass
feel of the Showtime Lakers working unconsciously together’Whenever I doubted his vision,
he reminded us all with his
exceptional memory of all things
Veronica. We would be discuss-
ing a scene in episode five, and
he would shake his head and say
something like, “We can’t do that
because in episode two, act four,
scene five, Keith eats an eclair.”
We made protocol mistakes at
first. Sometimes Raymond and
I would pitch an idea that Rob
would reject. Room etiquette
demands that once Rob rejected
the idea, it was done. But in our
first days, we would sometimes
revisit our idea because it was just
that awesome. Rob would politely
correct us, and we soon realized
why these rules exist.
Despite our rocky adjustment
period, Raymond and I did bring
something to the show. Rob and
the other writers didn’t need any
sensitivity awareness in terms of
race or other marginalized people
from me. They were acutely sensi-
tive to exploring the destructive
forces of the Haves and Have Nots
on society — as the show has been
from the first season. But being
the oldest writers in the room, we
had some expertise. As a histo-
rian, I was able to give historical
context to some of our discus-
sions. Also, because we are both
mystery writers and readers, we
were able to suggest some of the
plot twists that were used.
Though each writer is assigned
specific episodes to write, we
all had so much input into every
episode that no one writer is
really the author. That was the
ultimate in teamwork. Watching
the episode Raymond and I wrote
(“Entering a World of Pain”), I
could pick out ideas from every
writer. It all had that same fast-
break-no-look-pass feel of the
Showtime Lakers working uncon-
sciously together. I had never
before experienced a period of
such sustained creative intensity.
It was dizzyingly wonderful.Bros., which bought the series. A
couple of weeks later, Rob asked if
we’d join his writing staff for the
rebooted Veroni ca Mars.
If we had been offered to write
on a series we weren’t passionate
about, we would have said no. But
the original Veroni ca Mars is one
of my favorites. It expanded the
boundaries of both the mystery
genre and the high school drama
genre by combining them in
such a clever way that the whole
exceeded the sum of its parts.
Raymond was a superfan: He
teaches the Veroni ca Mars pilot in
his English lit courses at Orange
Coast College. Our only fear:
screwing up a series we loved.
Together, Raymond and I have
written a bunch of best-selling
books from young-adult novels
to history books for which we
received three NAACP Image
Award nominations, including
one win. We weren’t just lucky
Hollywood lottery winners.
Despite that, being in the writ-
ing room proved a challenge. I
knew the other writers would
treat me with courtesy because of
my basketball career. But would
they respect me as a writer, which
was more important to me? Plus,
I was used to being the leader onany team I was on. Now we were
the least experienced TV writers
in the room.
Whatever trepidations the
other writers had — all of which
would have been justified — they
never expressed anything but
warm inclusion. Especially Rob,
our Glorious Leader. I’ve had
the pressure of playing for NBA
championships in front of mil-
lions of people, but that paled
when watching the pressure he
faced every day of the five months
I was there. Yet he came in each
day with good cheer, a clear vision
and a great sense of humor. All
while on a juice diet!
This was our team, and if
there’s one thing I’m an expert on,
it’s teamwork. I quickly learned
that our role was to help Rob
realize his vision. As Veronica’s
creator, he knew her character,
her voice and her world best.TV | KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR
KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR is a THR
contributor and NBA Hall of Famer.
Kristen Bell
and Enrico
Colantoni in
the Veronica
Mars episode
“Entering a
World of Pain,”
co-written by
Abdul-Jabbar.Thomas