By Taylor Rose Clarke
On Monday, Oct. 9, Hofstra students gathered in Studio A of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication to welcome and converse with renowned alumnus, Gary Janetti. Janetti, who graduated from Hofstra University with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts, is a four-time Emmy-nominated television writer and producer.
Janetti began his well-established career as part of the original writing staff of Fox’s “Family Guy.” Janetti went on to write for NBC’s “Will & Grace,” moving up to executive producer and showrunner. In more recent years, he created, produced and wrote the ITV/PBS series “Vicious.”
This event took place as part of the Herbert Insiders program and was sponsored by the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication and the Office for Development and Alumni Affairs. Attending students had the opportunity to converse with Janetti and ask questions about the field of television production and writing.
“It’s great that we have such an inspiring alumni network of people that are willing to come back and give us such amazing advice, like Gary did,” said Sean McNally, a sophomore video, television and film major.
Janetti offered a plethora of tips and advice for students hoping to enter into the field of television. During his time at Hofstra, Janetti did not know what he wanted to do. He described his love for television as beginning at a young age, explaining how he was always watching it. “I was actually educating myself,” Janetti said.
Janetti took his great passion for television and developed it into a well acclaimed career. “It’s finding the thing that you’re passionate about, that is what I was passionate about – sitcoms,” he said. “You have to know what [your passion] is and be willing to do it.”
Aspiring television writers and producers had the opportunity to ask Janetti about crucial elements of writing such as character creation and development, plot lines and production detail.
“It starts with developing a show that has great characters from the pilot stage,” Janetti said.
“I realized from coming to this event that it’s important to follow your dreams, but to make sure that that is actually what you want to do before you pursue it,” said Amanda Lyles, a sophomore television production major. “Like it has to be something you want to do every day of your life and you have to be able to struggle through it. And that is what’s going to get you to where you want to be.”
Lyles recently changed majors from journalism to television production. She felt that this program helped her to gain a better sense of what she was studying.
Throughout the course of the program, Janetti also provided fantastic insight on dealing with failure, rejection and the nerves often associated with the beginning a new job. He shared helpful advice, reminding students, “don’t be afraid of no.”
When asked about his greatest lesson learned from failure, Janetti explained that at first he showed weakness, but then moved on to learn from mistakes. “People make mistakes; I make a lot of mistakes. The trick is only making them once.”
Janetti emphasized the need to find and develop your own voice when writing. He feels that it is important to incorporate that. Janetti recalled trying to mimic the styles of the writers surrounding him during the start of his career. He later realized that he had his own unique experiences and opinions to contribute.
“It’s an asset being yourself, whoever you are,” Janetti said.
Students were able to learn the ins and outs of the television industry. Victoria Murphy, a sophomore television production studies major, felt motivated by Janetti’s personal experience. “It inspired me to not be disillusioned when looking for a writing position in the real world,” she said.
This discussion took place during Professor Randy Hillebrand’s RTVF 144 Television Production: The Sitcom, class. Janetti answered all questions and engaged directly with the students.
His main piece of advice for hopeful writers and producers was: “Feed the thing that you want to feed, that helps you do the thing you want to do.”
Janetti currently works at Warner Bros. Television, developing a live-action remake of the classic series, “The Jetsons.” The show is being refined for ABC and will be directed by Robert Zemeckis.