The Closer is written by show creator James Duff along with a team of writers who collaborate to develop the season's theme, storylines and episodes. The writing team consists of three to five additional writers, along with at least one story/script editor. The show may occasionally hire free-lance writers to write a given script. Among the writing team is Mike Bercham, a now-retired LAPD Robbery-Homicide detective who began as a story/technical consultant and is now a full-fledged writer.
The Closer's writing team remained fairly stable over the life of the show, with some writers part of the team since the second season. Former writers include Wendy West and Nancy Miller, who went on to develop "Saving Grace" for TNT as well as Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny, who created the A&E hit series "Longmire."
The Writing Process
A script is never the product of one writer's work, despite the way they are eventually credited. Development of an episode takes place in the writers "room", a traditional model for writing American television shows. The writers gather in the room to develop season-long story arcs, such as the Phillip Stroh story, as well as plotting character development over the season. Individual episodes are subsequently plotted out. Many good ideas for episodes never make it past early development stages because they don't lend themselves to the four-act television format.
After an episode is "broken" into a series of acts and scenes by the writing team, a short episode overview, then a full-length script is written by one or more writers, assigned in the writing room. Individual writers may do extensive research or work with consultants when developing their scripts, adding to the accuracy of the show. They may also elect to take liberties for the sake of plot. The writer(s) for any given script are generally on set while the episode is being filmed, where final edits can be made during production.
Credits
Writers for The Closer are members of the Writers' Guild of America (WGA). The WGA represents writers during contract negotiations, and governs, among other things, how writers are credited. When more than one writer works on a script, the use of "and" versus "&" indicates the nature of their collaboration: "and" indicates the two writers worked independently on the script, either one after the other, or on separate sections of the script. On the other hand, the use of "&" indicates the writers collaborated on the whole script.
Season One Writing Team
- James Duff
- Mike Berchem
- Nancy Miller
- Wendy West
- Rick Kellard
- Roger Wolfson
- Hunt Baldwin & John Coveny (writing team)