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“The job of a writer is to be open to the world around them. I’m always listening, looking, and sniffing. What’s the story? Who’s that person and why are they behaving that way on the subway?” – Tom Fontana

Intro

How does a 3-time Emmy winner create the most psychologically complex characters in TV history? Join me and the legendary Tom Fontana, showrunner of many series including “Oz” and “Homicide: Life on the Street” as we deconstruct the creative process, storytelling, and the human psyche.

In this episode, we dive deep into the “Origin Story” of a master storyteller. Tom shares his unique 3-part framework for building three-dimensional characters and explains why everyone has a story they are dying to tell—if only someone would ask. If you’ve ever felt “stuck” in your creative journey or want to understand the moral complexity behind groundbreaking dramas like Netflix’s Borgia or Saint Elsewhere, this conversation is for you.

Highlights:

• 3:50 Tom’s origin story as a groundbreaking television writer and producer
• 6:15 Why Tom tells stories about the messier side of human nature
• 10:30 How Tom creates characters who feel like real people
• 14:00 People want to tell their stories
• 20:35 How access to storytelling has changed over the course of Tom’s career
• 24:30 What Tom has learned about resolving problems on set
• 30:00 All about Tom’s Substack

Connect with Tom Fontana

Tom Fontana has written and produced such groundbreaking television series as ST. ELSEWHERE, HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET, OZ, and Netflix’s BORGIA. Fontana wrote the HBO film STRIP SEARCH, directed by Sidney Lumet, as well as contributed two pieces to the September 11th special AMERICA: A TRIBUTE TO HEROES. He was an executive producer and co-creator of the AMC/Canal+ series MONSIEUR SPADE. Most recently, he wrote/directed/produced SUGARLAND. He has received, among others, three Emmy Awards, four Peabody Awards, three Writers’ Guild Awards, four Television Critics Association Awards, the Cable Ace Award, the Humanitas Prize, two Edgars, and the first prize at Geneva’s Cinema Tout Ecran Festival. He was executive producer of AMERICAN TRAGEDY for CBS, THE KILLING FIELDS for Discovery, SHOT IN THE HEART, PATERNO, YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, and WIZARD OF LIES for HBO. He also produced the documentary THE PRESS SECRETARY for PBS and the independent films, JEAN, IN GOOD CONSCIENCE and ANYTOWN USA.

Fontana has had numerous plays produced in New York, where he lives, as well as at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the McCarter Theatre Company and the Berkshire Playwrights Lab. Fontana has written articles for such periodicals as The New York Times, and Esquire and has taught at Columbia, Syracuse, Rutgers and the State University College at Buffalo, his alma mater, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Producers Guild of America, the Players Club, the Writers Guild of America, East, from which he received the Evelyn F. Burkey Award, the Richard B. Jablow Award and the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Fontana co-founded the charitable organization Projects with Care and serves on the board of The Writers Guild Initiative and was president of Humanitas.

Find Tom’s Substack here: https://tomfontana.substack.com/

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