Gansa speaks on working in television industry

Alex Gansa ’84, the executive producer and head writer of the current Showtime series “Homeland” and a writer/producer of “Entourage,” “24,” “The X-Files” and “Dawson’s Creek” spoke on Tuesday about his career path and the experience of working at both network and cable shows.

Acting chair of Lewis Center of the Arts Michael Cadden led the discussion with Gansa, asking him questions about his time at Princeton, his career path and the behind-the-scenes work of “Homeland.”

The talk began with a discussion of Gansa’s early life and time at the University. Gansa grew up in San Francisco, attended the Groton School in Massachusetts and came to the University intending to play soccer and study in the Wilson School. However, a right-knee injury caused him to reconsider his plans.

Gansa said he took both photography and creative writing classes following his injury. He added that he was captivated by both his professors, including Joyce Carol Oates and John McPhee, and his classmates in these classes.

“There were other students there that were unbelievably talented,” Gansa said. “I wanted to be as good as they were.” Gansa soon decided he wanted to be a novelist and elected to concentrate in English. It took him three months to write the first chapter of his thesis, a novel titled “Jeremey.” In a meeting that turned out to be very significant for Gansa’s future career path, Oates — his thesis adviser — told him she was not pleased with the beginning of his novel.

“She put down the first 11 pages, and she said, ‘Well, this isn’t very good, is it?’”Gansa said. “Call me sensitive, I could not help but take it personally.”

Oates then recommended Gansa read a novel by Saul Bellow for inspiration, an author with whom he said he quickly became enamored. He bonded with classmate Howard Gordon ’84 over their mutual appreciation for Bellow’s work, and Gordon later convinced Gansa to forego a creative writing fellowship at Stanford and go to Hollywood with him to try to make it in screenwriting.

“We starved for a while,” Gansa said. “The first year or so was pretty tough. It was an adventure, but if adventures don’t turn out well, they’re disasters.”

After an unsuccessful year in Los Angeles, Gansa and Howard created an SAT prep course targeted at Los Angeles-area independent schools to make money. “It was just beautiful,” Gansa said. “It played on the rampant college paranoia that was just beginning. We were Ivy League graduates, we could work miracles and parents sent their kids out to us in droves.”

In a lucky break for the duo — who often write together to this day — one of their student’s fathers happened to be a television producer. Gansa and Howard gave the girl’s father a script they had written, and their television writing careers began soon after.

The two began writing pilot episodes for new shows, which helped them gain exposure in the television world. Gansa said that the duo relied on their Ivy League background a fair bit, noting that their Princeton educations helped them get some opportunities that they perhaps did not deserve.

Gansa later spoke about the differences between writing for network television and cable television. On network television, he said that the writer does not have as much freedom and is forced to create “artificial highs” before commercial breaks. But on cable television, he noted that executive producers pay each show more attention and that writers are able to focus more on each episode because of the shorter seasons.

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Gansa said he serves as “show runner” for “Homeland” in that his responsibilities include everything from the script to addressing directors’ concerns to last-minute issues with costumes.

“It’s undoubtedly the worst job on the show,” Gansa said. “I often describe it as trying to pilot a private plane through a thunderstorm with people throwing rocks at your head.”

Approximately 65 people attended the talk, which was held in the Stewart Theater at 185 Nassau Street.