Writing a Legacy: TV & Film Writer, Meredith Post -Part One-
Typically, a new writer's first goals are simple: write something and then sell it… right? As writers for film and TV, we hope selling a script will lead to our big break in the industry. But what happens next? Overnight success and steady work until we retire rich and respected by all? Unfortunately, it's not always that simple. Even when a writer makes it to the top of the mountain, it doesn't mean they're guaranteed to stay there, as I learned from my screenwriting mentor, showrunner Meredith Post. When an unexpected tragedy halted her skyrocketing career, she was faced with a series of obstacles that made the young screenwriter wish she could rewrite the most personal story of all: her life. For most people, the obstacles in her path would have meant the end of their careers. But Meredith Post is not most people.
My first conversation with Meredith was in August 2015, when she interviewed me as a potential intern to complete my film school program. Meredith is a playwright and a WGA award-winning, six-time Daytime Emmy nominated screenwriter of nearly twenty years. Her next project was a series she created called "The Grass Is Always Greener" (or "Grass" for short), which would shoot in Connecticut later that fall, and she was in the process of choosing me to become her next intern.
COLD OPEN
Meredith's pilot for "Grass" was an engaging, funny, heartfelt fictional dramedy about the first medicinal marijuana dispensary in Connecticut and how it affected everyone from ailing patients to stoners, politicians, religious groups, pharmaceuticals, and the media itself. On the surface, the script was a clever satire that found laughs in a world where nothing is sacred. The tightly-woven ensemble piece was a clever, inspiring tale — and the pilot even enticed Producer Mark Lipsky ("The Nutty Professor", "Coming to America"), who quickly became attached for a brief time. And Lipsky wasn't the only one "Grass" impressed; Meredith's dark humor and wit, coupled with her epic story, made the project an opportunity I couldn't afford to pass up, either.
The theme of Meredith's pilot was easily accessible. As she explained in her press packet: "I know there are a lot of sick people out there and people who know someone sick, and I want to write this show for them so they can see their lives portrayed on TV. I feel like sickness is the last taboo that has never really been addressed, and I want to be the one to pull the band-aid off and make all the other sick viewers out there watching feel a little less alone. As well as laugh. Because I am a firm believer in that old adage 'Laughter is the best medicine'."
The show's premise was so appealing to Meredith's interns that, in addition to working with her to write and flesh out future episodes, many of us took crew jobs on the show to be involved in any possible capacity. Due to budgetary constraints, the one-hour pilot was inevitably rewritten and shot as a three-episode proof-of-concept web series. The show included veteran actors, up-and-coming stars, and staffed additional cast and crew members from New York City. After a rigorous shoot, the trio of webisodes were cut together in a tight editing window with a release date scheduled for October 30th. That afternoon, "The Grass Is Always Greener" premiered at New York's Magno Screening Rooms, where the cast, crew, and potential investors and producers had been invited to enjoy the exhibition. Unfortunately, due to a video exporting mishap, the sound ran out of sync from the video and grew further and further apart by the second. Later, the media was correctly re-exported and screened online on November 1st, but unfortunately, Meredith's "The Grass Is Always Greener" was not picked up, and the series was shelved for the foreseeable future.
It was a shame to know everyone's hard work on "Grass" would go unseen (unless one manages to track the webisodes down on YouTube), but sadly, this is a common outcome for many film/TV/web projects. Now, you may be wondering, "Why was it so difficult for a successful Emmy-nominated showrunner to get a show picked up in the 21st century?" That was a question I pondered myself, and Meredith was willing to share every triumphant and heartbreaking detail during a rare video interview. But, what she revealed was a story wilder than the drama found in all of Meredith's scripts combined…
ACT I: A Writer Is Born!
Susan Meredith Miller was born in Manhattan, New York, to her father, Phillip Miller, an art director at McCall's magazine, and her mother, a receptionist for 20th Century Fox, Lila Kotler, on December 10th, 1953. (Meredith notes that her mother gave birth around the corner at the now defunct Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital during her lunch hour; under the circumstances, she took the rest of the day off.)
The Millers moved to the suburbs of Connecticut during Meredith's early childhood. She suffered terrible tragedies at an early age, including almost losing her pregnant mother, who fought Polio in an iron lung, and then mourning the loss of her sixteen-month-old brother Michael, who didn't survive open heart surgery shortly after — and that was just the beginning. When her parents left to attend her brother's funeral, Meredith was left alone for eleven and a half hours with an elderly babysitter whose heart gave out after drinking a cup of coffee. The future writer would be unattended while keeping her sitter's dead body company for hours. Did early exposure to life and death situations turn Meredith into the daytime drama writer she became?
Meredith's parents considered themselves intellectuals. First-generation Americans read the New Yorker and only allowed their two daughters to watch educational programming on the family TV. No animation, variety shows, sitcoms, game shows, or soap operas. So how does a girl who wasn't allowed to watch soaps grow up to write two of the most iconic soaps in history? Meredith fondly remembers hiding under the ironing board while Estelle, her family's maid, ironed clothes and watched her favorite show, a soap opera called "As the World Turns" (or "ATWT"). Meredith fell in love with the show and began watching it with Estelle. Little did anyone know Meredith would grow up to write for, among other shows, "ATWT" itself. Meredith lost touch with Estelle, but she named a "beautiful, glamorous" character after her, and she hopes Estelle saw the tribute.
ACT II: The Days of Her Life
In Meredith's teen years, writing for television was a dream she wasn't supposed to realize. Her parents wanted her to attend an Ivy League school, become a doctor or lawyer, and/or marry one. Meredith chose to attend Brown, but as the school did not offer TV writing as an option in the 70s, Meredith created an independent study through the English department, which required her to write a novel, which she did. In the process, she discovered that her passion was not writing prose. It just goes to show sometimes we have to discover what we don't want to do to determine what actually sets our hearts ablaze. It was the closest she could get to writing for television, and she used her time as an opportunity to write her first novel.
While at Brown, Meredith befriended groups of visual artists and musicians just down the hill at the Rhode Island School of Design, developing a strong appreciation for multiple art forms. As she studied them, she must have, at least subconsciously, noted how heavily TV production relied on each one. But Meredith longed for the opportunities and excitement found only in big cities like L.A. and New York City. Though she didn't know a soul in NYC, Meredith noted that it was much closer than La-La Land.
After Meredith graduated — not in a cap and gown, but in a black dress and armband to protest the Vietnam War (to her parents' horror) — she immediately headed for New York City. Armed with her sketchbook and Rapidograph technical pen, Meredith set out to become an illustrator. Meredith hoped to write and illustrate children's books, but she quickly found success as an artist-for-hire. "I believe all that time studying art history … with famed Professor (Kermit) Champa … and making my own art helped create the very visual writer I became." Champa's in-depth analyses taught Meredith that every visual work of art tells a story through images, and he inspired her to look for the stories behind the stories.
Like the famed works of art, there are stories behind Meredith's story as well. In addition to her encounters with life and death, Meredith credits her time at Twin Oaks (a commune in Virginia), relationships with unhinged billionaires, and a thwarted kidnapping attempt for some of her most extreme story ideas, but those are tales for another time. It would appear Meredith's growth as a person and an artist/writer came less from her Ivy League education and more from taking chances and living an adventurous life.
Meredith worked as an artist until she met Frank Post, who was neither a doctor nor a lawyer but another talented young artist. Meredith remembers being blown away when she first saw Frank's art –– she said she couldn't compete. Frank was the yin to Meredith's yang; they inevitably fell in love, got married, and had three children.
New York City was an enlightening experience for Meredith; she became immersed in the artistic culture that existed all around her. Meredith recalls meeting some actors in a bar one night. They were looking for a stage play, and Meredith offered to write one for them. As she does before undertaking any project, Meredith researched the hell out of everything from the subject of her play to decades of produced manuscripts; she hunkered down in the public library and then The Dramatists Guild Store, where she immersed herself within the world of stage plays, reading everything she could get her hands on, and leaving no stone unturned. After about six weeks, Meredith presented her first play, "Josie," which was the first of three plays she wrote that were produced and performed simultaneously Off-Off-Broadway, all within her first year out.
A nice review of her first play in "The New York Post" landed Meredith her first A-list agent, Rick Leed, who helped her make the transition into writing for television. Leed helped a then twenty-something Meredith to enroll in the P&G Writer Development Program, taught by Harding (Pete) LeMay and Kathy Talbert, where she was one of the five people chosen (out of thousands of applicants) to be trained as a daytime television writer. Before long, Meredith was staffed on the popular CBS soap, "As the World Turns". There, Meredith cranked out one to two scripts and/or script breakdowns fifty weeks a year for many soap stars-turned-future movie stars such as Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore, Jason Biggs, and others.
Meredith's rise in daytime television was swift, but as with any strong protagonist with a solid goal in mind, daunting obstacles loomed ahead. Just as Meredith was set to take over head writing duties for "As The World Turns" from her beloved mentor, Douglas Marland, who she believes started preparing her to pick up the show's reins the day she started, Marland died tragically, days before the arrangement could be made official. With Marland gone, the show changed direction, and when Meredith received a better offer from "Days of Our Lives" ("DOOL"), she happily moved there.
Meredith's experience following her mentor's death comes with many lessons. For one, life (and death) is unpredictable — and business is equally unpredictable, so be ready for anything. Another lesson is that life is short, and we should make the best of it while we can while helping others around us, as Mr. Marland did for Meredith and others. And perhaps the most important lesson of all is that networking is a crucial element to succeeding in the entertainment industry. Connect with people, make a good impression, treat them well, and deliver on your promises. Whether you call it luck, karma, a miracle, or simply being rewarded for good, hard work, things have a way of coming back around, and people will remember their experiences with you.
Meredith is extremely proud of her work while writing soaps and working with Marland. Soap writers like Meredith were able to connect with their audience and create the romance, drama, humor, and suspense their viewers craved and went crazy for.
ACT III: Everyone's A Critic
Despite being a top writer for popular soaps, Meredith's parents were not initially thrilled about her success, but once they saw their daughter's name listed in the shows' writing credits, not to mention she was able to support her family with the salary she earned, they slowly but surely came around. By the time Meredith was recognized with various awards and nominations and impressed their friends by writing shows they watched, the Millers gave their full support and even watched the shows themselves.
By the end of her run as a daytime TV writer, Meredith received 6 Emmy nods for "As the World Turns" and "Days of Our Lives," and also earned an award for an Outstanding Television Script she wrote for "Days of Our Lives" (plus one more nomination) as presented by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) between 1986 and 1999. What parents wouldn't be proud of that?
Meredith moved her family to their new home in Norwalk, Connecticut, to be closer to her mentor, Marland, just as she was at the height of her profession. But shortly after, a doctor's misdiagnosis would unexpectedly alter the trajectory of her career and change every aspect of her life forever.
ACT IV: Healthcare Hell
One night in January 1996, Meredith woke up at three in the morning with a blinding headache and went straight to the hospital. Though, in hindsight, she believes she was suffering from a migraine, the doctors would diagnose her condition as Late Stage Chronic Neurological Lyme Disease that night. Meredith was prescribed high doses of steroids, which she was told she'd need to take every day for the rest of her life — and that was just the beginning. Her doctors went on to diagnose (or misdiagnose) several conditions for Meredith to be treated for, including body dysmorphia and bipolar disorder — though she had not exhibited symptoms of either one. By 2002, Meredith suffered headaches so bad that she had to relinquish her writing duties at "DOOL". As if the gaslighting and misdiagnoses weren't enough, Meredith learned her ever-worsening headaches were the result of her prescribed steroids, which had destroyed her adrenal glands, leaving her in an adrenal crisis and in danger of dying. Having quit the steroids cold turkey caused the headaches; her body now required the very steroids she never actually needed in the first place.
From adrenal crisis to near kidney failure and being treated with medication that only made her worse, including medicine that causes her to experience tremors (she takes meds to control them), Meredith suffered — and continues to suffer — physical chronic conditions that would slow most people down, but not Meredith. Around that time, it occurred to Meredith that her doctors were causing more damage than they were curing.
One night, after waking up to the sound of her baby Philip crying at 4 A.M., Meredith almost literally fell apart. Prolonged steroid use of high-dose steroids caused her bone to deteriorate in her sleep, leaving her unable to move, terrified, and in need of an immediate artificial spine replacement. But, after a thirty-two-hour surgery, Meredith was implanted with a spine that was six inches too short. Meredith's height was reduced from 5'4" to 4'10" overnight, causing multiple organs to rupture, and she would be rushed into surgery once again. As Meredith examines a photo of herself lying in a hospital bed in 2013, looking frail and emaciated, she says, "That was when they gave up on me and thought I was going to die."
Meredith's body and career were not the only ones to suffer; spending almost twenty years in and out of hospitals plagued with new illnesses and a seemingly endless cycle of operations that traumatized her husband and children. Meredith often wonders if history repeats itself, as she relates watching her mother's medical struggles to what her own children must be feeling. To help keep her family afloat in her absence, Meredith hired nannies to tend to her children, but despite her efforts to recover, Meredith fell deeper and deeper into a medical pit that drew her away from her family and life with every passing day. Though the time Meredith spent bedridden was understandably excruciating, the worst shock of all came when, following myriad tests run in 1995, doctors revealed that Meredith showed no signs of ever having had Lyme Disease at all.
Continue with Meredith in Part Two.
