Since the show’s glory days of the early-mid 90s, The Simpsons has always been considered the ‘mecca’ for aspiring television writers. Although there are Australians currently working on the show (see our podcast interview with Matthew Schofield), it’s not exactly the easiest place to secure a job when travelling all the way from the land down-under. This is what makes Nick Watson’s story so incredible. He is a man who dares do what so many of us are scared to; chase a dream. Using up all of your financial resources and leaving behind family is most certainly a daunting task, however it was one that Watson knew he had to do. We had a quick chat with him about his journey so far to becoming a Simpsons writer.

When did you first decide to chase your dreams of becoming a TV writer in the states?

I’d just finished a degree in Psychology, but started to doubt whether it was really what I wanted to do. The VCA film school had started up a Masters of Screenwriting program the year before, and after acing a couple of Screenwriting classes I took in my undergrad, I decided to go balls-out and give it a shot. It’s something that had always been a passion of mine since I was 15, but I’d always figured I’d have to do it on the side of a ‘real job.’ After graduating my Masters with First-Class Honours at 23, I was asked to go back and *teach* the undergrad screenwriting courses I’d been in only 2 years before. I did that for a year, then got a visa to Canada, as a stepping stone to the states. After a year there working in film and TV, I took a chance on applying for a visa to the US and got it, so now I’m here in LA.

Was working for The Simpsons always high on the agenda?

It’s been a pipe-dream of mine forever, but as I slowly started to realise it could actually become a reality – that I *can* write a decent TV sitcom script, that I *can* get a visa to the States, that other people *have* done it – I started to take it more seriously. The Simpsons was such a formative part of my childhood, my sense of humour, and my writing style, that it can’t help but be in everything I touch. So why not go straight to the source?

I actually started to write a ‘spec’ Simpsons script (essentially an unsolicited ‘fan-fiction’ version of what your own episode would look like) to enter into some fellowships, but common wisdom says never to spec a show you want to write on, as the writers will be too critical of it, but to do something similar – so I wrote a ‘Rick and Morty’ instead. FYI: It was a ‘Whiplash’ parody, where one of Bart’s pranks goes horribly wrong, causing Homer to plow into the school band with his car. Bart is then forced to fill in for the injured triangle player, and Homer for the conductor, but he grows abusive in his drive to make Bart the greatest Triangle player of our time.

What Simpsons episodes inspired you to become a writer?

Anything by John Swartzwelder. One of my first pilgrimages upon arriving in LA was to the Writer’s Guild building, where they keep a library of hundreds of original Simpsons scripts. I spent the whole day there, poring over them, noting the differences between that draft and what ended up on screen. It was fascinating. However if I had to pick a few: ‘You Only Move Twice’, ’22 Short Films About Springfield’, ‘Itchy and Scratchy Land’, ‘Lisa’s Substitute’ and ‘Treehouse of Horror V’.

Amazingly, I got to work for Bob Kushell who wrote ‘The Shinning’ Treehouse V segment . He was our showrunner on ‘The Muppets’, and one of his Co-EPs, Nell Scovell, wrote ‘One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish’ where Homer eats the poisonous Fugu. Definitely got a little star-struck by those two. Over Halloween, I made up nametags with my own ‘Treehouse of Horror’ scary names for all the Muppets crew, including the writers. They loved them and thought they were really funny, so I was stoked.

Was animated comedy always the goal?

I actually started my Masters planning to write Drama, but that changed pretty quickly. I came up with an idea for an animated sitcom that really excited me – a divorced dad who has to juggle fatherhood with his dual-life as a supervillain – and the jokes and story just poured out of me. It didn’t feel like work at all, in fact, I was actually having fun. That’s when I knew it’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I would do anything to make that happen.

To me, animation sometimes feels more like a genre than a medium. It gives you the freedom to be really whacky, absurd and over-the-top, without having to worry about believability or budget. It’s an unbounded world to explore. My comedy is very high-concept, absurd, British farce, satire, parody etc. so it suits it really well. Every time I try to write something live-action, I take a step back and go ‘fuck, I just wrote another animated sitcom.’ So I’ve just come to accept it.

What was the key reason for leaving Australia to further your career?

It’s so hard to break in to the Australian industry, especially as a writer. The infrastructure just doesn’t exist. The fact we’re driven largely by government funding and support means there’s less money to take risks, especially on unknown quantities. You need a well-known producer attached to even be in the running for Screen Australia/Film Vic funding to develop a script, and most of that is for features anyway. On the TV side, we’re being held back by two key things: lack of a writers’ room model, and lack of initiatives/programs for young and emerging writers. Most of our scripted shows, with a few notable exceptions, still don’t use the U.S. ‘showrunner’ model, where a writer-producer has creative control over the show. Instead they have producers who run the show like a business, and the creative integrity often comes second because they’re not thinking about the show and the stories like a writer would. Then the actual writers are treated like second-class citizens. A lot of the time, they don’t even have a writers’ room, they just freelance scripts out to writers they know, which only increases the difficulty of ever getting a shot as a new writer. Whereas in the U.S, you can work your way up through the ranks from Writers’ Assistant/PA, get given a script to write to prove yourself, and make it on to the writing staff after a few years.

Are there more opportunities for writers in the states?

Millions more. I always say I’m in L.A. because it’s the only place in the world that you can make it as a T.V. writer. Even http://www.freeprnow.com/biz/paulsen when they film shows in Vancouver, Atlanta, Toronto, etc. the writers rooms are all here in L.A. The agencies, the management companies, the studios, the networks are all in L.A. This is where they have the meetings that decide if a pilot script becomes a TV show, or if a writer gets a job. Everyone knows everyone, and the longer you stay here, the more people you know, and the higher your chances of knowing the right person at the right time to get you that first writing gig, or find other writers (or directors or producers) to collaborate with. There’s also a lot of great conferences and festivals, like Sundance and the Austin Film Festival, where you can network and educate yourself.

What unexpected roadblocks have you occurred along the way so far?

Visa issues are a pain. I’m here on a 12-month J-1 working holiday visa right now, but to stay longer I need to jump through a bunch of hoops and pay lawyers out the nose. I’m working on it right now, and I’m optimistic, but it’s just one more obstacle that people born here never even have to consider. I also haven’t been back to Australia since I left, because the flights are so damn expensive. Working as an assistant here is the best way to get your foot in the door, but it sure doesn’t pay well. Having enough money to survive (especially after how much you lose in the exchange rate) is probably the biggest problem I’ve faced. You’re constantly trying to keep your head above water, hoping for your big break.

How competitive is the industry?

Someone in the industry recently said on Twitter that as a writer, your only competition is yourself. If you keep working at it, if you write really good shit, and you’ve done the legwork to get to know people who will read it, who know people who know people etc., it will get noticed eventually. Hollywood is begging for great scripts, for great ideas. They may not necessarily make yours, but if they see you can write, you might pick up assignments to write stuff they’re already bought or have in the works, or be considered to write on one of their shows.

That said, there are a lot of good writers out there trying to do the same thing as you. Which is why you have to hustle. The most talented person doesn’t always get the job, particularly if they don’t know the right people. A lot of it also comes down to your personality – could someone stand to be in a room with you 16 hours a day, 5 days a week for months, arguing over story and jokes with you? A lot of meetings you’ll take are literally ‘get-to-know-you’ meetings, or ‘crazy-checks’. Relationships are everything in this industry.

What shows have you worked on up to this point?

In Canada I worked as an assistant on ‘Bates Motel’, ‘Proof’, ‘Electra Woman & Dyna Girl’, ‘The Family’, and the films ‘The 9th Life of Louis Drax’, ‘The Unseen’, ‘Adventures in Babysitting’ and ‘The Shack’. Here in L.A. I’ve worked on ‘The Muppets’ and now ‘Criminal Minds’. I got a lot of my experience through community TV back in Australia, particularly RMITV, as did a lot of people in our industry, and was saddened and angered to hear about C31 being forced off the air by the government. Yet another entry point for young creatives and crew being taken away, and they wonder why our industry is suffering.

How many other Australian aspiring writers have you come across during your time in the states?

Writers? Only a couple, and none who want to write specifically for animated comedy like I do. There are a bunch working their way up the executive ranks, or agencies, or wanting to be directors or actors, but writers are a rarer breed. The ones who are here *really* want to be here. Sacrificing your life and work and friends and family back home, uprooting and coming over here for a one-in-a-million shot, dancing around visas and no money, takes a special kind of person. Take it from me; I had to do it twice.

Have you set yourself a timeline for when you hope to achieve your goal, or is it a week-by-week basis?

Baby steps every day. I started by submitting to screenwriting competitions from all the way back in Australia, and later Canada. After making the finals of a couple, I found there were people in L.A who suddenly wanted to meet me. Since moving here, that’s grown exponentially, by putting my writing, and myself, out there. I recently wrote a script (with my writing partner) called ‘Horsewomen’ which made it onto the 2016 ‘Bitch List’ and got us attention from Krysten Ritter and Rose McGowan’s production companies. From that, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim brought us in for meetings, and have now placed us on their list of recommended writers for staffing on their shows. I landed a manager at one of the big comedy agencies in LA, Principato Young, by going in for a job interview and him seeing all the competition wins on my resume and asking to read my stuff. May is prime-time for staffing new and returning TV shows, so we’re really going to make a push to get meetings with those showrunners and be considered for a spot as a staff-writing team. I don’t know if we’ll get one for The Simpsons, but here’s hoping. You kind of get that one big shot every year in May, and the rest of the time you’re working hard to meet the people who will grant you those meetings, and make a name for yourself with your writing.

What else would you like to mention? (Anything you’d like plugged basically)

For any Simpsons fans in L.A., there’s an awesome free trivia show at Meltdown Comics every 1st Saturday of the month. They give out prizes, watch episodes, and usually have special guests like the actual writers of the eps you’re watching. It’s incredible.

My writing partner and I are having a table read for our Animated Sitcom pilot script ‘Horsewomen’ (about the four horsewomen of the apocalypse who try to end the world, only to find the world refuses to be ended by women) on the 27th April at 8pm at ArtShare LA. We’re going to have some big voice actors, like one of the Powerpuff girls, so any podcast listeners in LA should come along and check it out.

I’d like to express hope and call for change in the Australian TV industry to open the gates to new voices and young writers who just don’t have the opportunity there to break in. We need more funding and focus. Put some programs in place, let them intern in writers rooms, seek out and nurture that talent, or we’ll keep ending up with the same old crap over and over and still wonder why we can’t compete with the rest of the world.

Follow Nick – @_njwatson