‘It’s a Dead End’

With TV writers rooms returning post-WGA strike, support staff vent about frustrations as many quit the business

For decades, the one identifiable stepping stone on the nebulous journey to becoming a TV writer was landing a job as support staff, which encompasses work as a writer’s production assistant, writer’s assistant and script coordinator, among other roles. Even these positions — which, depending on the role, can involve tedious tasks like taking copious notes in the writers room, grabbing coffee for the team or even letting a handyman into a showrunner’s home — have been hard to come by, relying on the time-honored system of knowing the right people or getting a tip on message boards. But now, these gigs feel like dues-paying that never actually, well, pays off. While the writers strike is over and rooms for broadcast hits have reopened, few jobs in this space have surfaced since then. “I would never advise someone to be an assistant anymore,” Nate Gualtieri — who worked in support staff roles for five years, including on The Morning Show, before getting staffed as a writer last year on the short-lived Gotham Knights — tells THR. “The pay is too low. The hours are too long. It’s too thankless of a job most of the time.” Nick Perdue was a podcaster when he met a Brooklyn Nine-Nine producer, who helped him land a job as an office PA on the comedy. This led Perdue to spend seven seasons on the show in support staff roles, moving up to writers PA, then writer’s assistant and script coordinator, and writing two freelance scripts. After working as script coordinator for Hacks, Perdue is back on the market. “You get pigeonholed into this dead end. It shouldn’t be, but as of right now, it’s a dead-end position that’s a very skilled position.” The evolution from broadcast TV to streaming, where shows receive shorter episode orders, has increased this frustration. In an earlier age that saw most seasons stretch to 22 episodes, each series might have a few freelance script assignments for those outside of the writing staff, meaning an assistant or script coordinator could see this as a reward after a couple years of hard work studying the show. These days, even staff writers fear going a season without writing a script. “I’ve made peace with the fact that I don’t think I’ll work again the rest of 2023, and I’m just hoping and praying that things get better in 2024,” says Alison Golub, who has been a member of IATSE Local 871, which covers support staff, for three years but hasn’t landed a union job in that time and has been taking nonunion work, including a role as a writer’s assistant for a pilot. “Streaming has absolutely destroyed the support staff ladder. Because the ladder is broken, it’s not entry-level jobs anymore. I know people who are script coordinators in their 40s,” Golub says. “They have families and mortgages.” Danielle Weisberg, who has worked for nine years as support staff — including three and a half years as a writer’s assistant on The Simpsons — taught a paid workshop for those hoping to get hired as support staff and had to cap attendance at 100 people. She says that landing her first staff writing gig is her focus despite the job market, and calls support staff work fine as a foot in the door but wouldn’t recommend it to anyone expecting a promotion to staff writer. “I have more friends who have quit the industry in the past couple of years than I have who have stayed,” she says, “because there’s no viable path at the moment.” Amy Thurlow is set to return as script coordinator for a streaming series after having worked in support staff roles. “It’s quite heartbreaking knowing that there are people who want to staff you, but that there’s no opportunity for them to do so,” Thurlow says. “Maybe I’m a fool, but I keep coming back to work because I feel like, maybe it won’t be this season, but eventually I will get the opportunity to show what I can do.”