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Matt Warburton (The Simpsons, Community) has joined Mindy Kaling’s new Fox comedy series The Mindy Project as executive producer/showrunner. Also coming on board the medical office comedy created/executive produced by and starring Kaling are Michael Spiller (Modern Family) as executive producer/d
irector, Chris McKenna (American Dad, Community) as a co-executive producer and Malcolm In The Middle creator Linwood Boomer as a consulting producer. Warburton is with WME. Spiller’s deal includes a development component and pilot directing commitment. Last year, Spiller received an Emmy and DGA Award for his directing on ABC’s Modern Family. He is with ICM and 3 Arts. For McKenna, repped by UTA, the gig falls under his overall deal with Universal TV, which produces Mindy.
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A lot of talent involved, but the short preview didn’t exactly say WOW!. Let’s hope it’s better as a whole.
I’m thrilled to work with Mindy, a one of a kind talent.
show is obviously in great hands, but just curious as to why Mindy isn’t running her own show? She has all that executive experience from The Office…
They are co-showrunning. Mindy is the lead actress on the show and won’t be able to be in the writers room enough to do it by herself.
Warburton is one of the funniest, smartest people in this whole town. Mindy is lucky to have him.
Is B.J. Novak joining in some capacity too? Mindy tweeted out that he is one of the writers. Do we know if he’s officially leaving The Office and joining The Mindy Project as well? In any case, excited to see this much talent involved in the show! Can’t wait!
Huh. I guess she didn’t want any female voices at the top.
Um so far I’ve only counted one female writer total other than mindy that’s on this show? – otherwise all (white) dudes? Is that correct? If so, little weird considering the premise and core audience… I assume Kaling will be fairly busy on set, surely they need more than one other woman… I’ve worked on two prestigious “guy” shows and I’m still told I can’t write “guy” shows all the time simply because I’m a woman. I’ve learned from other women writers to just suck it up and accept the horrendous bias and I’ve done that… But this is a perversely annoying double standard to layer onto that. And honestly a little disappointing on Kaling’s part. I sincerely hope the massive lack of women wasn’t her choice.
It’s her show from top to bottom, of course the make-up of the staff was her decision. And she’s got tons of comedy experience so she knows what’s clearly best for the long-term success of her series. maybe it’s not a horrendous bias? the audience is primarily female. maybe guys just have more experience making women laugh? those of us who don’t look like brad pitt have had to hustle to make women laugh since we were lads hoping to paw some booby. plus, there are overwhelmingly more men vying for these jobs so it just makes sense that men would make up most of the staffs. the tide is turning, it just takes time. hang in there, baby.
This is a load of crap.
It’s not Mindy’s show. It’s Fox’s show and they have the final say on who is gonna be the captain of the boat.
So you think they would railroad Mindy into choosing writers she doesn’t want? No.
Not people she doesn’t want, but I can tell you, networks tell you whom to meet at the upper levels. Most are talented, like Matt, and so you are lucky to get in business with them. But if you go against or outside your network’s lists, there can be costs.
Matt is clever in a “Harvard Crimson” kind of way, but this show is supposed to be some TV version of “Bridget Jones Diary.” I cannot see this working. Get your cameras ready – there is going to be a massive 82 car pileup at 9:30 on Fox. There will be blood, and it will be gruesome…
Congrats to Spiller. One of the greatest guys to work with.
yeah you’re an idiot. maybe guys are better at making women laugh? how does that even make sense? do you understand how condescending that statement is? the show is about an emotional single woman who works as an obgyn and it’s for a primarily female audience- you, dude, are more likely to be better at making an obgyn funny to women than other women? I dare you to try. If there really is only 1 other woman on this staff, those are terrible stats that are not even on par with other woman centeric shows and especially not those that are run by women too. And this was probably the girliest pilot of the year. Mindy’s voice is so estrogen drenched, it’s pretty insane there’s not more women on staff. Just doesn’t seem like even good basic strategy on the part of the studio, network, showrunner, other EPs. You don’t know what you’re talking about BABY
GL, the premise of what you’re writing is crazy. Good writers can write for female and male characters, that’s what makes them good writers. It’s sexist to think that men can only write for men and women can only write for women. Were the staffs of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, 30 Rock or I Love Lucy overwhelmingly female?
Really funny, really talented female writers are a rarity in this business. If you are both of those things, you will work all the time and rise to the top quickly. I’ve known several of these people and I cherish them. But most rooms across town have at least one woman on staff who is marginal at best, and only there because they needed a female on staff. The lower levels of many staffs are occupied by women because they are basically throw away positions. It doesn’t hurt your budget a lot, but fills a quota. Women certainly have their opportunities. They just need to make the most of them, like the rest of us, and figure out the game. Being a woman is an asset that will get you in the room. Being talented will get you to the head of the table.
All these stories are about women, why in the world wouldn’t you go right to the source? I’m not saying the whole staff should be women, but how about 1/2? Maybe she wants to rule the roost with no snow whites stealing focus? She clearly loves girl stuff and has lots of female friends and that’s why ladies love her, because unlike other successful women comedians (and writers really) she’s still incredibly girly and makes you feel like you don’t have to give up your girly-ness if you want to be successful- so why wouldn’t she fight for a more female staff unless her own ego is curtailing the success of her own show? I’m pretty surprised and confused and offended and no longer excited about this show. I hope these dudes’ wives/gfs/sisters/mothers give them great stories- I’m sure that’s the exact same thing as walking in with a lifetime of actual personal experience.
Here’s a crazy idea, maybe she hired the writers with the best samples, and in this instance a script written by a woman was only one of the samples? Another crazy idea: that Mindy Kaling and Matt Warburton got in this business to staff a show with great writers and make a great show, and that their primary focus in their careers wasn’t to fill quotas?
People are so quick to judge a show created by a woman and castigate her as a sexist or a racist but virtually none of the same scrutiny goes to shows created by men. A new show written and starring an Indian-American female, and the first thing these commenters choose to pick on is how few women are on the staff. By the way, it seems like 2 of the 8 writers are women, and one of those women is who the show is named after. Is 25% of the staff (including the boss) a fair representative of how shows staff these days?
I am an aspiring female screenwriter and I am always amazed how little we support women who are succeeding in this industry. I would think this message board would be celebrating the fact that another creator and star of a show is a woman, and a minority at that.
Frances, you’re being a dick because you know she was saying all that in the context of this show only having 1 other female writer on it and some dude justifying that with a perverse version of your same argument. If you pick the argument up midstream, you’re getting on that guys team – the one who thinks it’s okay that there’s only 1 other female writer on this show. And you’re missing the personal experience point of her argument – I’m sorry but odds are just in favor of someone who’s actually been in OBGYN’s stirrups being better at coming up with OBGYN stories. I know it sucks, but women writers get pushed out on the same lack of personal experience basis all the time for things that are far more questionable – basically anything dudes traditionally like women get boxed out of- so please, do we at least win the fucking vagina-uterus doctor? Also this situation is completely different than any of the other shows you’re talking about and you kind pf made her point again because the whole essence of this character is her inherent girlyness and how she’s allowed to play in the world of feminine feelings and still be successful. And it’s that specific difference from the Liz Lemons that gives this character and Mindy her audience. And ontop of all that your proof isn’t even well researched – 30Rock, a show that isn’t feminine at all – Liz Lemon is basically a dude – has better stats on female writers that this. And obviously because of the changing role of women in the workforce, both of your other examples – which are still the epitome of women characters being allowed to have a lot of traditionally masculine qualities so the characters could survive – are outdated comparisons. This isn’t an argument over who can write women better – it’s very specifically an argument of can 8 white dudes with seemingly incredibly similar backgrounds and one woman write a very feminine character/world/story (which is literally about a rom-com obsessed woman – that is the premise of the pilot!) better than 7 white dudes with very similar backgrounds and TWO women? It’s not a head to head argument, it’s about the overall makeup of the staff. And really, I have a feeling that those of you that think this is totally cool probably weren’t previously part of Mindy’s actual fan base or you’d get why this is so bizarre. The things she says that resonate the most with her audience sound like they came directly from her ovaries. So let her – god forbid – have a staff where half of everyone has ovaries. I’d be really interested to find out why that didn’t become the obvious best choice for the show. Must be something else going on?
Anyone who thinks Mindy didn’t have near-total authority over who would be writers on her show is an idiot.
Zeus, that is the dumbest comment I’ve ever heard. Nine out of ten comedies on the air suck. Their staffs are populated by “funny” guys. I am a woman who has worked in several comedy rooms with guys who make the room laugh and push others around, buy write nearly illiterate drafts. And I know men and women who are quiet in the room and write hilarious, brilliant scripts. People’s idea of what “funny” means in this business can be incredibly misguided.