MADE: To start off, can you give us a
rundown of your journey to success?
up hiring me for The Good Wife so many
years later.
CK: Well, here’s the thing. Something
interesting about that. It wasn’t smooth.
I started a doctoral program in English at
Columbia University. I left there after I got my
Master’s and went into magazine journalism.
When I was at GQ, I wrote an article about
interracial dating. Two writers Chris Alberghini
and Mike Chessler (who now run Awkward on
MTV) - those guys read my article and wanted
to turn into a TV show. We pitched that show
at HBO when I knew nothing about TV and
it didn’t go anywhere. But, what was nice is
that I realized that’s what I wanted to do - I
wanted to write for TV. I went back to New
York, I worked at the J.Crew Catalogue (writing
the catalogue) and I worked at Origins doing
makeup and facials. I wrote and then I went
back out for staffing season the next year. I
got nothing. Went on a bunch of interviews, I
had an agent at that time so I was very lucky
because they are the same one I have now. I
flew back. We laugh about this now, but I got
an interview with the TV show Girlfriends and
I flew back out the same night to meet with
Mara Brock Akil, who didn’t end up hiring me.
MADE: Understanding your journey, what
three things would be key for young writers
who are looking to pitch a television show?
MADE: It definitely sounds like a rollercoaster
ride. How did it pick steam?
CK: [laughs] So, fail, fail, fail. I ended up
writing a “spec” for Bernie Mac. That spec got
me a meeting on The Bernie Mac Show. But in
that interim, my (then) husband and I decided
that I should move to California. Moved
to California on June 16, 2004, and I got a
meeting at The Bernie Mac Show in July of that
year. A month later I had a pitch meeting
there, and then they hired me. So in August of
2004, I started as a staff writer on The Bernie
Mac Show. And then I got fired at the end of
that season because I wasn’t very funny. And
that’s okay, because that’s not what I was
supposed to be doing. I wasn’t supposed to
be doing comedy. I’m supposed to be doing
drama. So, I wrote a spec for CSI, and that spec
CSI got me a job on In Justice (which is was
my first drama job for the Kings [Michelle and
Robert King]). Robert and Michelle King ended
CK: They have no business pitching a
television show. I believe it so firmly. If
you’re a young person, and you have
not worked in TV, you have no business
pitching a TV show. They will take the show
from you and give it to a showrunner. You
are not going to be able to run your show.
You have to have experience. Although
Power was the first show that I ever pitched,
I’ve been working in the business for ten
years before that happened. I had already
reached co-VP level before this happened,
so people seem to think that it’s just as
simple like, “Oh, I have a great idea for a
TV show.” First of all, a great idea doesn’t
make a TV show. But second of all, they
have no business (literally no business)
pitching a TV show. If you are young, you
don’t know what you’re getting into. You
may or may not have the right protections
in terms of agents and a team behind you.
I see this happening all the time now with
young people and then they’re all like,
“What happened, what happened to my
show? Now, I am unemployed.” So my three
tips would be: Get a job getting coffee, get
staffed on the television show and wait until
you know enough to run it yourself.
MADE: Anything else young writers should
keep in mind?
CK: I think that young writers need to
constantly be writing. They need to have
spec scripts of existing shows in their
arsenal. They need to have pilots. But if
someone wants to work for me, I don’t want
to read your pilot.
MADE: What was the biggest challenge that
prepared you to be that fighter and work
through it?
CK: Ultimately, it’s a freelance business. So