For TV writer and producer Don Reo, the best moments on the job have been when nothing works. Whether a joke didn’t land, or a scene didn’t fit during a weekday run-through, Reo welcomed the challenge of immediate rewrites on shows such as “Blossom,” “Rhoda,” and “Wizards and Warriors.”
“There was one Tuesday afternoon when the actors ran through the show and the second act kept falling flat. People from the network were coming the next day to watch, so we had to go back to the writers’ room, start from scratch, and get the finished pages to actors by Wednesday morning,” Reo told Bryant students during his visit to the university on September 16.
He noted that — in addition to their restricted time frame — there was no room to build new sets, and the show was limited to the guest actors who’d already been hired.
“We wrote a brand-new script that night and shot it Friday night in front of an audience,” Reo recalled excitedly, as if he could once again feel the rush of adrenaline from that evening.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Reo is the creator of numerous iconic TV shows. Visiting Bryant as an Executive in Residence within the College of Arts and Sciences, Reo toured the Communication facilities in the Koffler Center and Communications Complex and the Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center before connecting with current students over lunch. The culmination of the day was a meeting with Senior Lecturer of Communication and Language Studies Thomas Zammarelli’s “Advanced Digital Media” class to talk about writing for sitcoms.
“There's some kind of magic to show business,” Reo told Zammarelli’s students. “The possibilities become endless when you cross into the show business world; something changes in the chemistry of your body.”
Walking through the day-to-day, Reo shared how producers will actively work on three shows at a time — though that number can increase to five or six. While you’re editing one episode, you’re filming a second one, and writing a third. This “merry-go-round process,” as Reo described it, continues for 20 to 23 episodes. Reo also noted that rewrites are constant. A joke that didn’t work on stage would prompt writers to create another joke on the spot and feed the actor their new line.
“There’s no time for writer’s block and no room to fail. Nobody’s going to forgive you if you don’t have a script,” Reo said. “Somebody’s going to say action at seven o’clock and there better be something happening in front of the camera.”
To be successful in show business, there must be collaboration between actors, writers, and directors. In many cases, a writer can have an idea of who their character is, but an actor may come in and do something unexpected that builds upon what was written. Improv can also bear great fruit.
“I've worked with a lot of very funny people, including Damon Wayans. We made a deal that he'd do a scene as written, and a second tape where he would ad lib. Depending on how many takes you do, really funny people can say something that's funnier than anything I could have thought of,” Reo said.
Wrapping up his talk with students, Reo shared how it feels fantastic when a network picks up a show because the possibilities are unlimited and what you create might be viewed by millions of people. On the flip side, when a show gets canceled, “a piece of you dies,” he said, because these characters are part of you, and you know everything about them — from their speech patterns to what their hair looks like.
Despite the potential for heartbreak, it’s all worth it for Reo.
“When I look back, I remember only the moments that I loved,” Reo said. “For all of you, focus on what you love because, if you love something, it gives meaning to your life.”
