On a recent morning at Hollywood's Raleigh Studios, veteran producers Greer Shephard and Michael Robin appeared bright and energetic despite record August heat and even though they had been up past 3:30 a.m. wrapping the Christmas special of "The Closer." They weren't even considering a hiatus. After nine years, Shephard/Robin Co. is just too busy.
"We're keenly aware of the vicissitudes of the business," said Shephard, a former ABC executive, who paired up with Robin, a former director on "NYPD Blue," 10 years ago when they formed a mutual admiration society based on complementary skills, a shared offbeat sense of humor and a passion for original work.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, September 13, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
'Gossip Girl': An article in Monday's Calendar section about TV producers Michael Robin and Greer Shephard said the CW show "Gossip Girl" was about students in a boarding school. The characters attend a prep school.
"If you're fortunate enough to have a period in your life when your tastes seem to be in sync with the cultural tastes of the country, it's best to maximize that," she said.
The partners, whose shows are frequently described as quirky, have struck gold with basic cable's most viewed original series (TNT's "The Closer" which ends Season 3 tonight), basic cable's top moneymaker (FX's "Nip/Tuck") and a new basic cable show (Lifetime's "State of Mind").
Last week, they began preparation for a pilot for TNT tentatively called "Truth in Advertising," written by two "Closer" writers, Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny.
Part of their success can be attributed to the rise of original programming on basic cable. "We were some of the first people involved in it," Robin said. "When you're first in on something, you get a lot more love. And the networks really have a need for these shows to succeed. The marketing efforts that have been put forth on these shows have been stunning."
One reason they've stuck with basic cable, Shephard said, is that while the broadcast networks' philosophy tends to be that ultimately, "failure is inevitable," for basic cable networks, the philosophy is "success is the only option. That slight difference in attitude makes all the difference in the world in terms of your success rate."
By all accounts, however, the pair also have a special talent for finding and nurturing young, passionate, innovative newcomers -- a difficult but necessary ingredient for making programming that works for cable's niche audiences. "Some of the best ideas will come from people you've never heard of before," said John Landgraf, president of entertainment for FX Networks. "The Shephard/Robins make it possible to take that vision and get it through the very challenging development process. They're extremely generous and really cool under pressure."
