02/01/2025
Preena Squall, anchor at GNBNC and featured in Chuck Hansen’s book “Sacrificial Lambs,” interviews TV hitmaker Taylor Sheridan on this morning’s “Good Mornin’ USA”!!
GNBNC Anchor Preena Squall: We are excited this morning to have with us acclaimed screenwriter and producer Taylor Sheridan, the one-man hit machine behind Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, Landman, Tulsa King and Lionness.
Taylor Sheridan: And Mayor of Kingston.
SQUALL: Yes, of course. That one too.
SHERIDAN: And I’m also a director. And an actor. I contain multitudes, Preena.
SQUALL: Okay, okay. So, Taylor, why don’t you tell us about your next show, which you are now creating.
SHERIDAN: Happy to Preena. What I’ve got in mind is a sweeping narrative that brings the viewer into the real world of my characters, not the namby-pamby image that’s been planted in their minds by mainstream media.
SQUALL: Why is your shirt off?
SHERIDAN: Oh, you think Hemmingway wore a shirt when he was writing “Old Man and the Sea”? Does my chest intimidate you?
SQUALL: [Confused look]
SHERIDAN: So about my sweeping narrative… I am bringing to life the noble and dying vocation of television screenwriting, centered around a writer’s room.
SQUALL: Dying…?
SHERIDAN: F**king-A damn right it’s dying, lady. These days in a writer’s room you’re more likely to find some sh****ad 12-year-old Millennial yapping into a AI Final Draft program than an Underwood No. 5 typewriter, with it’s cast-iron, open-frame design, front-stroke system, rubber-coated platen… [He fades off, his gaze wandering into the distance. His hand slips under the news desk.]
SQUALL: The youngest Millennial is 28.
SHERIDAN: [jolted out of his reverie] What? Whatever. So in this writer’s room, there are 10 writers. One of ‘em’s this cool chick – she’s hard and weird and she has toothpick in her mouth all the time. You can’t understand a goddamn word she says, and she might be a le***an, I don’t know, but she’s cool and they’re cool with her being cool with them being cool about her being cool.
SQUALL: So… one woman in the writer’s room?
SHERIDAN: Yeah, but don’t worry. She’s cool. Also the other writers’ girlfriends come in and out. They don’t say much except “yeah” and “all right” and they wear tight jeans and their tight little tummies show under their tight shirts, and no bras, obviously.
SQUALL: Obviously.
SHERIDAN: There’s also a black guy, of course.
SQUALL: Of course…
SHERIDAN: Yeah, he’s just like the other guys, except he’s black and he’s also cool, and they’re cool with him being cool and he’s cool with them being cool with him being cool.
SQUALL: [stares]
SHERIDAN: And me.
SQUALL: What?
SHERIDAN: I’m in the writer’s room.
SQUALL: I thought you were writing the show…
SHERIDAN: You’re not listening lady. Are you a Millenial?
SQUALL: Ok Mr. Sheridan…
SHERIDAN: Yes, of course I’m in the show. It’s *my* show.
SQUALL: Are you wearing a shirt?
SHERIDAN: Sometimes.
SQUALL: Are there any female characters?
SHERIDAN: Oh, sure honey! [He searches Preena’s face hopefully for irritation.]
SQUALL: [Her expression is unreadable.]
SHERIDAN: But she’s not some DEI hire. [He watches Preena’s face even more intently.]
SQUALL: [Still unreadable.]
SHERIDAN: [Sighs] Yes, the head of the network is a woman. She’s tough and brunette and she’s got legs that go for miles and they come up and make a perfect ass of themselves.
SQUALL: yeesh…
SHERIDAN: The kind of woman who needs a sandwich. Maybe half a sandwich…
SQUALL: Are all the men hot too?
SHERIDAN: Haha of course not. I mean, except for a couple of them. And the black guy. And me.
SQUALL: [Rolls her eyes.]
Sheridan: And every episode, one of the characters goes off on a harang about electric vehicles or kids these days or woke screenwriting… you get the idea.
SQUALL: Oh, I have noticed that! On Landman the other night, you had some kid who didn’t know how to pronounce “abstinence,” and then in the next scene he did a five-minute bit about the geopolitical implications of lithium mining in China.
SHERIDAN: Yeah, like that!
SQUALL: Sort of “Get Off My Lawn TV”…
SHERIDAN: Huh? OH, also, my character’s gonna ride his horse to work everyday.
SQUALL: A horse? In a show about screenwriting?
SHERIDAN: How do you think screenwriters used to get to work?
SQUALL: You mean before cars? And television? And movies?
SHERIDAN: Yeah, every episode will have at least 10 minutes of my character riding his horse – into office buildings, on the Paramount lot, through rush hour traffic, glaring at these wussy modern working women in their wussified modern cars…
SQUALL: Glaring just at the women?
SHERIDAN: Huh? Oh, yeah, I’ll be glaring at the wussified men too I guess.
SQUALL: OK. Interesting… So, how is the real writers room coming together for this new show?
SHERIDAN: The what?
SQUALL: Are the real-life writers in the writers room for this show about writers rooms… are they excited about this challenge?
SHERIDAN: lololol oh Preena! There’s no writers room! I’m the writers room.
SQUALL: Why?
SHERIDAN: Because I’m a control freak! Also I write with my shirt off, and sometimes my pants. And those woke Millennial woman screenwriters can’t handle that.
SQUALL: Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for joining us Taylor, and best of luck with the new show.
SHERIDAN: Thank you, Preena, but I don’t need luck. I’m *me*.
SQUALL: You certainly are.
SHERIDAN: Don’t throw yourself at me, Preena. It’s unseemly.
SQUALL: Okay Tyler.
SHERIDAN: IT’S TAYLOR.
