Television producer

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A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acceptance they focus on business matters, such as budgets and contracts. Other producers are more involved with the day-to-day workings, participating in activities such as screenwriting, set design, casting, and directing.

There are a variety of different producers on a television show, including showrunners, executive producers, supervising producers, coordinating producers, field producers, line producers, among other roles on a television crew.

Because of the restrictions the Writers Guild of America screenwriting credit system places on writing credits, many script writers in television are credited as "producers" instead, even though they may not engage in the responsibilities generally associated with that title. On-screen, a "producer" credit for a TV series will generally be given to each member of the writing staff who made a demonstrable contribution to the final script. The actual producer of the show (in the traditional sense) is listed under the credit "produced by".

Bill Lawrence, a television screenwriter, producer, director and series creator (Scrubs, Cougar Town and Spin City) explained during an interview on Off Camera that:

... the end credits of a TV show, it will say Staff Writer, Story Editor, Executive Story Editor, Co-Producer, Producer, Supervising Producer, Co-Executive Producer, Executive Producer. (While) (s)omeone else will (also) be Executive Producer because they help to run the room, every other title is just ... writer who's been here one year, writer who's been here two years, writer who's been here three years, ... and it's just a pay scale.^[1]

• Film producer
• Producers Guild of America
• Writers Guild of America
• Screenwriter

• Producers Guild of America Frequently Asked Questions