I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Ken Levine. The veteran TV guy has kind of done everything, from taking over as showrunner (“M*A*S*H*), to producing, writing and consulting on everything from “Cheers” to “The Simpsons” to “Wings” to screenwriting (Tom Hanks’ awesome Volunteers), and to creating a show (“Almost Perfect.”) The guy has even done play-by-play commentary for Major League Baseball for a few years. He’s been around. He knows the business. He’s highly respected, and he’s old enough now that he can say what he wants and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone thinks. Now, he doesn’t know Dan Harmon personally, but he hears things, knows people, and has a fairly great understanding of the business, so his take on the situation certainly carries some weight.
His take? 1) The industry is heartless and brutal, and 2) Dan Harmon pretty much shot himself in the foot. He wrote at length about it on his blog, but here are some choice excerpts:
On the history of sacking showrunners:
Networks have been firing showrunners for years. You just never heard about it. Before social networks and the internet, showrunners were essentially invisible. Just names in the credits. Now showrunners have become quasi-celebrities themselves, which I think is a good thing. Only 70% of the viewers think Joel McHale makes up those funny things he says instead of 90%. But the point is, this isn’t precedent setting.





