An Interview with Allen MacDonald

Allen MacDonald started out on the show Saved by the Bell, but now he's working as a writer on the CBS show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Allen talked with Shane Saunders about his job on CSI and what it's like working on the show.

SAUNDERS REPORT: First off, congratulations on being back at work. What did you do during the strike?

ALLEN MACDONALD: A lot of picketing. At first the CSI writers picketed together, but after the writers guild closed down picketing at Universal, we sort of spread out to different locations.

SAUNDERS REPORT: Now, you joined the show during Season Three. Can you describe the feelings you had going into a show that already had an established writing staff?

ALLEN MACDONALD: Well, I actually started as the writers assistant. On CSI, that means you sit in the writers room with the writers as they pitch and develop story ideas and take notes. So, it was very exciting to be hired and know that I was going to be a part of that process. At first I was very quiet, but eventually, when I got more comfortable, the writers encouraged me to pitch my own ideas and become a part of the room dynamic.

SAUNDERS REPORT: On CSI, how does a writer get assigned an episode to write?

ALLEN MACDONALD: Well, nobody takes a writers assistant job that doesn't want to eventually become a writer themselves and 'go on staff'. So, when Season Four wrapped, I went into Carol Mendelsohn's office and asked for a freelance script. Now, a freelance script is exactly what it sounds like -- you're hired to write one episode, but you're not on the writing staff. It's an 'audition episode' to see if you can successfully capture the tone and characters. So Carol and Naren Shankar decided to assign me Episode 18 of Season 5 which was called , "Spark of Life".

Thankfully, my audition went well and a few days after I turned in my draft, Carol let me know that she was going to be hiring me on staff for the following season (season 6).

Breaking into TV Writing is very hard and from what I've seen, is only getting harder as the TV landscape changes. So getting a job on a TV show as a writers assistant is one of the better ways to break in.

SAUNDERS REPORT: Now many people don't know that you actually worked on Saved by the Bell! How does the work on their compare to the work you do on CSI?

ALLEN MACDONALD: They were completely different jobs. Saved by the Bell: The New Class hired me as a production assistant ("P.A." for short) -- which is a fancy title for what is essentially a 'go-for'. I ran errands. I got coffee for the writers. I got lunch and dinner for the writers. Photocopied scripts then delivered them to the homes of cast and crew members, writers, etc.

Saved by the Bell was a sitcom, so it taped in front of a live studio audience, which is completely different format than a one-hour drama like CSI, which shoots on a closed set. I took that job because it was my opportunity to get into the business but I knew two things within a week: 1.) I wanted to be a writer. 2.) That I didn't want to write comedy.

I'd always loved dramas and knew that I was eventually going to have to get a job on one if I were ever going to become a drama writer.

SAUNDERS REPORT: Working on a show for several years, it seems you would come to know and love the characters that you write for. You had a huge part in writing "Goodbye & Good Luck," Jorja Fox's last episode. How did it feel sending off her character that you had been working with for five seasons?

ALLEN MACDONALD: It made me sad. I had the good fortune to write a lot of episodes for her and I love the character, so saying goodbye was bittersweet. But at the same time, I was extremely excited by the prospect of bringing back Sara's nemesis from "The Unusual Suspect", Hannah West. Sara and Hannah had a lot of unfinished business left between them, and since Hannah manipulated Sara so well in the first episode and helped set her brother Marlon free on murder charges, it felt like the right case and the right characters to revisit in order to make Sara realize that maybe she didn't have the stomach for CSI work anymore after nearly dying at the hands of Natalie, the miniature killer.

SAUNDERS REPORT: As a writer, do you enjoy watching the final product that you've written or do you skip it in fear that you feel you could do something different to a part?

ALLEN MACDONALD: Yes, I do watch the final product when it airs. By that time I've seen them so many times during the post-production/editing stage that I have absolutely no perspective. So I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about what could've been different because. Plus, by the time an episode airs, I'm usually deep into the writing or production on the next one. I think that's one of the nice things about writing for television, you don't have the time second guess because you've already moved on to another story.

SAUNDERS REPORT: Is it easier writing with a partner or on your own?

ALLEN MACDONALD: I don't think it's easier, it's just different. Usually, it just means you're still writing by yourself, but you have less pages because someone else is doing the rest. I've written three episodes now with Dustin Lee Abraham and we usually just split it up, go off and write separately, then come back together to meld the scripts, give each other notes, and ensure that our two halves feel like the same whole both in tone and characters. If I'm writing a 'solo' script by myself, I have to write the full sixty page script myself, if I write with someone like Dustin, it breaks down to thirty pages each.

I actually enjoy doing both. It adds variety to the writing experience.

SAUNDERS REPORT: What has been one of the most memorable things that has happened in the writing room?

ALLEN MACDONALD: We had a hypnotist come into the room a few weeks ago to tell us about that world for a potential episode. That was kind of a wacky experience... in a good way. It worked better on some of us than it did on others.

Shane Saunders is a sophomore in high school, currently working as a freelance writer.