Episode 17: SHOWRUNNER David H. Steinberg

Home Town: West Hartford, Connecticut

Current Town: Santa Monica, California

What are you working on now?: I’m currently writing a feature animation project for DreamWorks, a half hour series for Netflix, and actually starting a new animated feature for an independent studio. For tv writers/showrunners, my wife and I have been doing a lot of feature work during the pandemic. And a lot of animation!

Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person: I’ve always been a bit of a con artist looking for loopholes to beat the system. In high school history class we had weekly quizzes where we had to do ten short (one paragraph) answers and I quickly realized the teacher counted *down* from 100, marking ten points off for every wrong answer, but she didn’t care what order you answered the questions in. So if I only knew 8 or 9 of them, I’d just put them in random order to disguise the fact that I hadn’t done all ten. She’d see everything was correct, take zero points off, and give me 100%. Of course I shared the wealth and by the end of the year she called us the “crazy class where everyone does their answers out of order.”

I like to write con artist characters because they’re fun, clever, proactively driving the story, and complex as they wrestle with issues of morality.

If you could change one thing about television, what would it be?: More original content, less reliance on IP or pre-awareness. Also, to give shows a chance to find their audience instead of relying on instant data metrics.

Who are or were your television heroes?: Henry Winkler because no one was cooler than the Fonz, and I always loved the way he’d do some business waiting for the audience to stop going wild at his entrance. Also John Ritter, the master of physical comedy. Dick Van Dyke, same reason, but only saw him in reruns. Nowadays, it’s Phoebe Waller-Bridges for her next level writing!

What kind of television excites you?: Big ideas with bigger than life characters who make surprising choices. I just binged Feel Good on Netflix and fell in love with Mae Martin’s writing.

What advice do you have for TV writers just starting out?: It’s great to have a personal emotional connection to the material—that’s a must—but that doesn’t mean you have to write your autobiography. Use what you know as a jumping off point but then make it a television show!

Any Plugs?: Follow me on Twitter @DavidHSteinberg. Watch No Good Nick on Netflix. I have a million shows I had nothing to do with that I love and would recommend. Just ask. It may surprise you but my DMs are open and I pretty much reply to everyone. As long as you don’t ask me to read your script or hear your pitch. But questions about the business are always welcome. I love to mentor new writers.

DAVID H. STEINBERG entered Yale at age sixteen and earned his law degree from Duke before abandoning his legal career to attend USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program. Steinberg’s first spec sale Slackers became a cult classic movie and he has had ten films produced, including three in the American Pie franchise, the DreamWorks animated feature Puss in Boots, and Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Pixie Hollow Games. As a director, Steinberg wrote and directed the award-winning short film, “The Babysitter,” starring Academy Award-winner Brie Larson, and made his feature directorial debut on the romantic comedy Miss Dial. In television, Steinberg was nominated for a WGA Award for his work on The Simpsons, and he has written for a variety of animated and live-action series. He was the Executive Producer and Showrunner of No Good Nick, an original series streaming worldwide on Netflix, and currently has another show in development at Netflix, as well as films at Disney and DreamWorks Animation.