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MONDAY 12:30PM UPDATE : I’ve learned that writer’s assistant-turned-staff writer, Robin Veith, quit Mad Men before she could be let go by Matthew Weiner.
A source tells me: “It was at the very worst mutual. She needed to move on and see how she would do after leaving the nest. Matt is a genius, and he gave lots of people an opportunity, but never let’s anyone forget it. I’m sure he’d never tell anyone she quit, because that is a rejection of him. Anyway, they are friends and made a mutual decision.”
A show insider replies, “There are staffing changes every season. It is the nature of television shows to fine tune. Why is it news this season?” Because the show won two best drama Emmy’s in a row, and with success comes attention. Deal with it.
UPDATE: A prominent female writer (she asked not to be identified) knows both Kater Gordon and Matthew Weiner and sets the record straight for me: “As a female writer who has worked with many strong showrunners, I have to say that any ‘Letterman’ talk on today’s thread about Kater Gordon really disgusts me. The same kind of talk followed me and my success. So you see, you can’t win. If you’re young and female, you’ll always be suspect. Success or failure, it can’t be because you’ve actually got the goods. I feel compelled to come to both Kater and Matt’s defense on this one. Kater was a fantastic writer’s assistant, the best. She totally got the show and deserved the break she got. There was NOTHING illicit in her relationship with Matt. I believe Kater will go on to great success, if she so desires, and their parting of the ways was amicable.”
EXCLUSIVE: Well, this is a big surprise. As recently as September 20th, Kater Gordon won the drama-writing Emmy 
with Matthew Weiner for the Mad Men episode ”Meditations In An Emergency”. Now that Season 3 has wrapped, Gordon is off the Lionsgate show that airs on AMC. Here’s what I’ve learned: Matt originally hired Kater as his personal assistant. She was soon promoted to be his writer’s assistant, and by the end of that same season, Matt offered her the opportunity to co-write the season finale – a particularly important show for him as Weiner also directs the final episode of each season. Then, without requiring Kater to generate any other spec material on her own (usually required for a writer’s advancement), Matt promoted her to be a full-time staff writer for this past season. (Mad Men has a predominantly female writing staff…)
So what happened? A show insider emails me this explanation: ”One of the great things about Mad Men is the tradition that Matt has established of offering higher-level opportunities to staff, writers and artists in all of the various departments. From the beginning, Matt has fought to get people approved by the studio which almost always lobbied for him to hire more experienced people instead. In every season thus far, relatively new actors have been cast for significant roles, aspiring writers have been given opportunities to write scripts, and first-time directors have been offered their first chance to direct.
“We think [Kater's] done a great job, particularly for someone whose career has progressed so quickly. Now, however, Matt has reluctantly decided that their relationship has reached its full potential. She’ll be missed, but the series has consistently benefited from the influx of new writer talent, and there’s absolutely no doubt that Kater will continue to have unprecedented success in her career as she spreads her wings. She leaves Mad Men with our love and respect and a well-deserved Emmy.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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The Emmys only allow one person to speak when multiple people win an award.
That’s not an explanation, that’s a bad press release. He hires newbies because he wants them to view him as a patron, not a collaborator. He doesn’t want to work with experienced writers because they’re more likely to challenge him in the room.
I know he’s the prince of the WGA right now but everyone in town knows this guy’s a jerk. Ask around. Ask David Chase.
TAM just got it right in the previous post.
Ask David Chase? Shit, ask anybody who has worked with Weiner.
So is this how you succeed as a writer in this biz? You get a job as a personal assistant to a writer and hope that he/she promotes you to work on their show?
I always thought writing great spec material was a path to success, not managing some writer’s schedule, answering his phone and taking out his dry cleaning. My guess is that she really isn’t that good of a writer. The Emmy was mostly for Matt’s work and she just couldn’t pull her weight in the long run.
A “Writers’ Assistant” isn’t the same thing as a “personal assistant to the writer”. Depends on the show, but usually, they’re in the writers’ room, keeping track of ideas, and serving as an important part of the writing process.
Actually, working as a writer’s assistant has been a tried and true stepping stone to getting an episode or a staff writer position probably since the inception of television… TV gigs always go to insiders first, outsiders last. But don’t give up on your spec.
I was a writer’s asst way back when and launched my 15 year career that way. I still had to write the specs and have the ‘goods’. I’m an executive producer level writer now. All earned. No sleeping with anyway, thankyouverymuch.
TV writing is a tough business…
Often personality clashes with the showrunner lead to this kind of ending… doesn’t mean she’s a bad writer, doesn’t mean he’s banging her. Everyone will move on to bigger and better.
I asked my agent to put me up for this show as a writer and she said she’d already had two writers on the show and they both quit saying it was the worst experience of their lives.
i’m sure that’s why your agent didn’t put you on the show after a simple request. keep plugging.
Amazed at the reflexive anti-Mad Men, anti-Weiner crap that pops up here so often. It’s the best show on TV, and Weiner’s exacting nature is the reason it’s so intricately detailed. He’s a great showrunner, and being a showrunner means firing people. Maybe the writer got too big for her britches after the Emmy (and let’s face it, it’s likely that Weiner ultimately wrote every word of the script). Or maybe she got bored and decided to use her newfound cred to land a job on another show.
What a load of crap this comment is.
Wow, thank god this blog wasn’t around when *I*, as a young tv writer, didn’t get my contract picked up on a high-profile show. It happens a lot, for a lot of reasons. Just about every TV writer I know has been fired at least once, for any number of reasons.
The point is, this woman does *not* deserve to be in the klieg lights like this.
good grief is it really the only possibility that Weiner was schtupping this cupcake? believe it or not folks, people get fired from jobs every day, even when you are there behind the scenes it isn’t always clear what the truth is, even less so in television where careers ride on spin…also “arrogance at the emmy’s” is a dumb meme that anti-Weiner folks bitterly spout hoping you didn’t see his emmy speech which was perfectly fine
The one episode she wrote on her own was considered the worst episode of Mad Men ever by its fans, so if they had to cut someone from the writing staff I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that they cut her.
I’m trying to imagine David Chase preferring to keep the writing staff of THE SOPRANOS populated with young women in their twenties. Please.
This is not a story. She was a writer’s assistant and was given a freelance episode to write, and it happened to win an Emmy. Next, she’s made a staff writer, and it didn’t work out. There’s more to writing on a series than talent. You have to be good in the room, you have to fit in with the other personalities on a team, etc. That’s it. Why isn’t anybody talking about how the ENTIRE staff of Fringe was fired before this season, or how EVERY season writers are fired from shows. Again, this is not a story.
Still, better to get fired than to quit – at least Weiner has to pay out a complete season staffer salary…
I don’t understand the ‘explanation’. English is my first language.
First the was war in Afghanistan and now this.
Great fucking line. Well done!
I can see where these accusations fly from because the truth is that Kater Gordon is a beautiful woman. But none of you in the Finger Pointing and Wagging Club have any concept of the talents of this young woman, nor the moral terpitude of Mr Weiner. There’s no “Letterman action” going on, though it’s a classic assumption members of the FPWC would come up with. After all, with the miniscule knowledge and limited intelligence of it’s members (made up of Hollywood suits and television writers), what other conclusions could we draw?
The only journalistically-relevant fact in the above article is that Gordon won an Emmy. TV writers, as you idiots know, are often not asked back. Get back to work on your Gossip Girl specs you knitting club dolts.
I don’t think it’s fair to harp on Kater’s getting promoted despite a lack of experience. She got promoted to staff writer, not producer. And as anyone who’s actually spent time in a writers’ room knows, the assistants often learn and know the show better than people on staff. They’re on that computer all day, every day. It’s a logical position from which to promote, and it’s not at all uncommon to get a script as an assistant and then move up to being on staff the next season.
That said, didn’t Matt fire the ENTIRE writing staff after the first season? That staff included men and women, and from the person I know who was among their ranks, the reasons had nothing to do with sex. Maybe Kater was on the chopping block already, maybe the Emmy win sent him over the top, but the Letterman comparisons are ridiculous.
And by the way, her association with the show all but guarantee she won’t be hard up for work any time soon. Forget the Emmy. In a town that loves Mad Men as much as it does, her credits there are pure gold.
Andy’s remarks are likely the most valid in this case.
Not the entire writing staff. About half. At least three people stayed on, 4, if you count Robin Veith being promoted to story editor.
Unless you are inside the show and know what happened, you have no idea what happened. There dozens of plausible scenarios.
Matt hires women at the lowest level staff positions and then claims to have an all woman staff. Staff of cleaning ladies. There are no women in the EP, Co-Ep, or Supervising producer positions where there is real money and influence. Matt hires women at the lowest position so he can pay them nothing and be their sugar daddy. “I believe in you. I am giving you this chance…” This is a total abuse of power. Then it makes it easier to put his names on all their scripts. He’s going to rewrite and steal the credit from an established writer? Something the classy show creators DO NOT MAKE A HABIT OF DOING. Women with no power will not object. So this assistant made writer won the Emmy with Matt. OF COURSE HE FIRED HER!!!! Can’t be too powerful than Sugar Daddy. That is the deal at Mad Men.
“There are no women in the EP, Co-EP or Supervising Producer positions”.
That’s news, I’m guessing, to Lisa Albert and Maria Jacquemetton:
http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2009/09/mad-men-emmy-win.php
Lisa Albert – supervising producer on 33 episodes
Maria Jacquemetton – supervising producer on 14 episodes, consulting producer on 6 episodes
Marti Noxon – consulting producer on 15 episodes
Are you kidding? Are you callonhg Marti Noxon a “low level” writer. People often take consulting producer credit to protect their quote.
This is like life imitating art or vice versa. Is Kater supposed to be Peggy?
Not really a surprise–episode credits are often given to assistants as a reward for their hard work as an assistant. Sometimes, the assistants don’t even write the episode they get a credit for. Usually, they write a first draft, which is then heavily rewritten. It’s also not uncommon for that assistant to get promoted to a staff writer and then let go the next year–again, the staff writer bump is mostly done as a form of reward. Don’t get me wrong, oftentimes the assistant deserves it…but just as often they don’t.
I’m not saying either way with Kater–I don’t know her. But this feels like an attempt to create an air of sexism where there’s a more realistic explanation that should at LEAST be mentioned. It could also simply be a parting of ways. TV rooms are all about interpersonal chemistry, after all.
I’m surprised Nikki posted this without telling the full story of how television credits and writers rooms really work. Just because your name is on an episode doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed you wrote a single word of it. I’m normally a fan, but this is a half thought-out article.
Finally someone gets it. Does anyone really think that she had anything to do with the episode? Weiner shares credit with someone on every episode now. That’s only so he won’t look megalomaniacal for taking sole credit on every one.
Of course he was doing his assistant a favor by giving her a credit – he now also gave her an Emmy. Just because he didn’t hire her doesn’t mean it’s sexist, get real. It just means that she didn’t do a great job, and isn’t a true fit for the show.
Now I’m not giving Weiner a ton of credit for being an amazing person. He probably runs the show like David E. Kelley and Aaron Sorkin before him – he makes people do a lot of the hard work, he then “polishes” up the scripts, grabs credit and moves on. Heaven forbid he didn’t put his name on every one at this point. What if one of those happened to be the one to win an Emmy? He’d never forgive himself.
People continue to work for the likes of him and Kelley (well, if he can get another show on the air) because of their awardbait reputations, but everyone is aware that the writer’s contribution to those shows is minimal at best. So in effect, the credit doesn’t do all that much. If you have a job and never actually write, how can anyone know what you’re really capable of?
I’m sure this woman will do fine. IF she has actual samples that are well written, and IF she is personable and can do well playing with others. Because really, that’s what 90% of a TV job is all about.
David Kelley writes far more scripts from scratch than he “polishes” from other writers. But I agree in this case Weiner probably rewrote the whole thing/wrote the majority of it and she got credit and an Emmy
Trust me, they weren’t very close, she didn’t have that much to do with writing “Meditations” and the completely professional relationship was becoming strained as the season went on. It really wasn’t a surprise at all.
Matt has begun to realize that he has promoted people too quickly in the past and he’s trying to change the way he does things.
Promotes people too quickly? Are you kidding me? He hires the lowest because he won’t hire the best because he’s threatened! So Matt is just thinking about what poor schmuck he can give an opportunity to? Not a chance.
This all about abusing power. And people who abuse power are always threatened someone will take it away.
I think it is really weird and suspect that Matt doesn’t hire established and experienced writers on his staff. My feeling is that he’s not “promoting people too quickly” but wants a staff he can run over like a steam roller. He has the money to hire qualified people. But out of the goodness of his heart he doesn’t? Give me a break. This not how David Chase operates. Or Alan Ball. Or Vince Gilligan. To name a few of cables best showrunners.
If Matt wants to hire women he should hire experienced one hour or feature writers. They are everywhere looking for work. Then he wouldn’t have to rewrite so much the young and inexperienced women he hires.
“Something the classy show creators DO NOT MAKE A HABIT OF DOING?”
You’re an idiot, Serafina!
Sorkin does this all day and every way to Wednesday. So does Chuck Lorre. And D. Kelley. So much for “class show creators.” Shall I name more? How about feature writers? Ron Bass! And trust me on this one…there’s a feature writer. A female. And this one hasn’t written word one of most any scripts she’s sold (and she has sold tons!) the last half dozen years.
They all do this. And ify ou think they don’t stay up late at night figuring new and improved ways to screws younger writers…you’re a bigger idiot that I thought.
Anonymous–you’re wrong. Kelley and Sorkin both got a ton of shit from both other writers and the WGA for big-footing their staff on credit.
The majority of show-runners let their staff take the credit for even heavily re-written work.
The face that you cite feature writers means you have no clue about how the two different worlds work.
Do your research before you start calling people idiots.
Thanks Jorge. You are a prince among men. These are different worlds. And although Kelley and Sorkin were credit hogs they were wrong to do it. It hurt the moral of their staffs and crew. The majority of showrunners give their staff credit. They are getting paid big bucks. No need to take money out of the bank accounts and pensions of their staff.
Just because Matt has decided he may have promoted people too quickly in the past or wants a fresher voice in the writers room doesn’t make it appropriate for him to publicly humiliate Kater in this manner. There are a dozen classier ways this could have been handled, and leaking “insider” statements to Nikki Finke isn’t one of them. Because trust me, no “insider” would have released such an extensive and canned statement without Matt’s prior consent.
You know what? I’ve decided to take this at face value–Kater Gordon has proven to be a wonderful writer, and her smarts and talents allowed her to move up from assistant to staff writer. If Mad Men and Matt Weiner had anything whatsoever to do with it, good for them. Nice to know people can recognize talent and nurture it, no matter what direction it goes.
I don’t see anything in this news that indicates that any of the participants should be anything but very proud.