Mini-Rooms and Hollywood Decision Paralysis

A top showrunner on why the function loathed by writers was born — and why it should die

(alashi/ DigitalVision Vectors)

Ed note: The writer of this column, a top showrunner, has been granted anonymity due to concerns of professional retaliation. He last wrote on the death of trust in Hollywood. In the current negotiations between studios and writers, mini-rooms have become a sticking point.

In the midst of this closing-in-on-the-record-for-the-longest-WGA-strike-in-history WGA strike where all the arguments and discussions and column inches seem to be going to “minimum staffing” and “data transparency,” can we spare a thought for the mini-room?

Excuse me. I meant to say the “pre-greenlight room.” 

Er, “development room”? 

(Throws hands up.)

I admit I’ve lost track of whatever term is in vogue these days — although I’m occasionally tickled by the apparently ongoing need to rename this pernicious practice, as though it’s a problem that can be solved merely by giving it another name, like rechristening homeless people as “unhoused.”