Matt Warburton Set As Showrunner On ‘The Mindy Project’, Show Lines Up Senior Staff
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.
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.