Breaking into the television industry has become increasingly competitive with many just-out-of-college students heading towards Hollywood in the hopes of finding success. Although many are never lucky enough to get hired, a handful of others, like Jared Friedland '98, do manage to land jobs.
Friedland, a staff writer for the NBC sitcom, "Lateline," launched his career by sending writing samples to several agents. "Basically, I had written a couple of what are known as basically TV 'spec' scripts for 'The Simpsons,' 'Larry Sanders' and 'Frasier'," Friedland said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
A spec script, he added, is essentially a teleplay for an already existing series.
"I had some vague connections to a few different places through friends, but mostly I just submitted blindly and just sort of crossed my fingers. And it worked out perfectly," Friedland said. Ultimately, he was picked up by the prestigious agency, ICM.
After being signed, Friedland's scripts were then passed on to various script runners including Al Franken ("Saturday Night Live") and John Marcus ("The Cosby Show"). "They liked my 'Simpsons.' They agreed to meet with me, and they hired me [for 'Lateline']," Friedland said.
As a writer for "Lateline," Friedland spends a good amount of time revising jokes or throwing around story ideas. "There are ten writers, including my bosses and a few of the senior writers. There's a hierarchy, but we are all writing collaboratively. They give me assignments to fix a joke. I pitch a lot of story ideas. Hang out a lot, eat cereal."
The team begins writing episodes long before they actually air. Shows written in June and produced over the summer only reached television audiences this January. "What you are seeing has already been produced. Whereas on Letterman or Leno, whatever you produce you see immediately," Friedland said.
Friedland noted that of the writers, there are "a lot of Ivy Leaguers -- a couple of Harvard guys, a couple of Harvard Lampoon guys ... well educated."
In addition, many of the other writers have had experience in television prior to "Lateline." One writer worked on Letterman for 12 years while Franken's position at "Saturday Night Live" lasted for 18 years. Friedland added, "I was the youngest one by 12 years."
At Dartmouth Friedland had pretty much decided that he had wanted to write for television. "The whole prospect of basically making absurd amounts of dough to sit around a room with a bunch of other writers cracking jokes was pretty irresistible," he said.
Friedland admits that he didn't go very far out of his way to pursue his television career. "I honed my skills at Psi U," he joked. In reality though, neither classes nor activities at college were the major source of his success. "I did not [do that] much. That's probably closest to the truth. I read a lot, which I enjoy ... I just hung around a lot."
Ultimately, if anything at all, Friedland suggested that to break into the business, off-campus work is the best, although not surefire, option for college students. "If you want to do this as a career, make it your business to intern," he said.
However, Friedland noted that even internships don't guarantee writing positions: "I don't think it [interning] is a direct connection into writing, and people have a risk of stagnating for a few years. If people become staff writers, it would be better."
Friedland now resides in Los Angeles, despite the fact that "Lateline" is filmed in New York City. "If you want to do this career, you have to resign yourself and say, 'I want to live in L.A.'" he said.
Despite a strongly positive reaction from critics, the future of "Lateline" is still tentative. Nevertheless, it airs tonight at 9 o'clock on NBC.
