As Frank Dungan tells it, the writers of M.A.S.H. were already rising from their seats when he heard the show he wrote for, Barney Miller, announced as the winner for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series at the 1982 Emmy Awards ceremony.
He was in total shock as the crowd put their hands together. Dungan heard the cheers again this month when the photo of their award acceptance came up on the screen in Club 88, and a packed room of students broke into applause for their guest speaker.
Such an accolade is a dream for many, and Dungan—the latest guest in Whittier’s Visiting Writers Series—offered advice to the aspiring writers in the room about what it takes to succeed.
He moved to Los Angeles on a whim and started selling jokes to comedians. Dungan soon broke into sitcom writing with Barney Miller, a series about a New York police station that ran for eight seasons. With three storylines running through most episodes, that meant crafting a grueling 66 stories a year for close to a decade. There were nights they didn’t leave the office. Writing the show that eventually won them an Emmy was relentless, but a joy, Dungan recalled.
He also imparted the need for both tenacity and creativity.
“You have to be able to create—create, create, on the spot. You might be down on the stage in front of the cast, and saying, ‘This scene doesn’t work.’ And you might be right there, pitching to them how you can rearrange it because the clock’s ticking and you’re filming,” he said. “You can write a pilot in all the time you want. But once you’re on a show, you’re on a show, and you got to deliver, or else you’ll be out the door.”
The Emmy win gave Dungan cache, and he went on to write and produce in television for decades. But when he was starting out, there were only a handful of networks that everyone watched. Now, with increasingly more platforms and hundreds of shows, the landscape has changed.
Dungan advised the students on the value of standing out in a competitive market. Impress an agent, or find a unique way in. Write a short story that can turn into a movie—that was Brokeback Mountain’s journey, he said. He also pointed to an example of circumventing the system: Tangerine, a 2015 film that was shot entirely on three iPhones, and went on to enjoy a Sundance Film Festival premier and a limited theatrical release through Magnolia Pictures.
“Think outside the box,” Dungan said.
It was honor for the English department to host Dungan’s talk, said visiting instructor Katy Simonian, who met the writer through his volunteer work. Students were inspired by his accomplishments, humor, and the humble way in which he graciously shared advice about writing, she said.
“So many of our students aspire to become writers or work in the film and television industry. Our students appreciated his advice about ways to market themselves and their work in order to break into the industry,” Simonian said. “His insights will inspire our student to create and share their own work, which is the ultimate goal of welcoming such writers to Whittier College.”
Photo by Daniela Gil
