Ahead of this weekend’s Toronto Screenwriting Conference, Playback spoke with writer/producer Mara Brock Akil. Brock Akil’s credits include Girlfriends, which aired on The CW and UPN for eight seasons and its spin off series The Game. The Game ran for three seasons on The CW before it was cancelled and revived on BET. 

PB: You were successful in developing and launching Girlfriends, which ran for eight seasons, and then the spin off series The Game. What does it take to create a successful spin-off series?

A spin-off series needs to be just as well-developed with strong characters and a premise that can stand on its own as the series it spins off from. With The Game I was always fascinated by the world of football especially during games when the camera would pan across the stands and you would see the players’ girlfriends, wives, and mothers. I was drawn to those women and simply wondered what their lives were like and how they supported the athletes.  I knew there would be 100-plus stories in exploring those high-stakes dynamics. That’s where the concept of The Game came from. And by simply making (The Game main character) Melanie the cousin of (Girlfriends‘ protagonist) Joan, it allowed us to immediately know our main character who would then portal us into this new world and a cast of characters.  I must admit, it was a pretty flawless backdoor pilot, because from day one The Game took on a life of its own.

PB: What lessons did you learn from creating a spin-off series? How do you manage and meet expectations of the existing fan base from the original series? 

MBA: It’s funny, with the journey that The Game went through it’s easy to forget it’s a spin-off. It helped bring viewers to The CW (when UPN and The WB merged). Then they cancelled it, and fans demanded that it be brought back on social media. That’s the major difference; when Girlfriends was cancelled fans shut down the CW’s phone lines, but the CW didn’t have to report that. Girlfriends never really got the closure it deserved, but it ran for 172 episodes and I’m very proud of that. When The CW cancelled The Game social media was key to understanding that there was still a demand for this show. Coincidentally, we were already in talks with BET to bring it to their network. The Game wasn’t done yet. Throughout that journey of changing networks, new cast members, we always tried to serve the characters and story and world of fame and football. I’ve learned over the years that you can’t serve two masters. I love our fans, and couldn’t do it without them, but at the end of the day, we’re telling a story and we have to do that as truthfully and as best we can. The Game just wrapped shooting it’s final season with 147 episodes and a season finale worthy of the characters the fans know and love. I’m extremely proud of that fact.

PB: What advice would you give to up-and-coming screenwriters?

MBA: For up-and-coming screenwriters: Stack your scripts. So many people talk about being a screenwriter, but that’s just it, they TALK about it. They are not writing enough.  You have to sit in the chair and write.  Even if there is a job that pays the bills, that’s not an excuse not to write.  You must order your life so that writing is a commitment.  That order includes, keeping your overhead low, keeping drama and drama-filled people out of our life, reading etc.  Writers must treat that writing time like a priority, not the thing you get around to… so when that big break comes, you have scripts ready to go for whatever opportunity is at one’s door.

For showrunners: Fill your team with the best and most supportive talent you can find. There are many voices and great collaborators from the writers’ room, cast, and crew…but you must lead them by a clear vision. What is vision in TV?  It’s creating a world and characters to help you say what it is you passionately want to say.