On Story Season 6

John Singleton, the youngest and first African American filmmaker to win an Academy Award® for his work on Boyz N the Hood, discusses his process, influences, and inspirations, from the work of acclaimed playwright August Wilson to pioneering directors Spike Lee and Federico Fellini.

Perhaps one of the most influential contributors to the landscape of situational comedies and progressive writing in Hollywood, Norman Lear transformed a genre known for play-it-safe humor into a platform for how Americans experience social issues. In this week's On Story, Lear remembers a few of his favorite episodes and how he created some of the most beloved characters in the history of television.

Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Angela Kang (The Walking Dead) explore navigating a male-dominated industry as female genre writers. The women discuss tackling comic book adaptations, the importance of character development, and the fine line between staying true to the spirit of the source material while also breathing new life into preexisting storylines.

Rodrigo Garcia, whose credits include Albert Nobbs, Nine Lives, Mother and Child, and most recently, Last Days in the Desert, contemplates the importance of writing honest relationships in his work, and the visceral connection audiences have with stories about family.

Robert Mark Kamen looks back on his long-time working relationship with Luc Besson and his approach to writing description, violence, and well-developed characters in films such as The Fifth Element, The Transporter, and the Taken franchise. Followed by Luke Patton's short film, Foos Your Daddy?, about a young man's turning point with his overbearing father on the day he leaves for college.

Christos and Ruth Fletcher Gage discuss the process of adapting the Marvel comic Daredevil for television. The duo break down the juxtaposition of brute realism and the moral complexity of Daredevil's characters, along with how they navigated the show's unconventional story structure in the writers room.

Comedy titan Carl Reiner looks back on creating The Dick Van Dyke Show, how the show evolved over the course of its five seasons, and the collaborative efforts of the writers and actors involved. Reiner recalls special moments from behind the scenes and, ultimately, how the creative vision was translated to the screen.

Creator/director/producer/star Issa Rae discusses the unique challenges that surround creating independent webseries, the freedoms that come with doing it your own way, and how to navigate the growing sensation of developing original online content. Followed by The Unexpected, a short webisode from The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl.

Chris Cooper, the Academy Award® winning Best Supporting Actor for his role in the comedy-drama Adaptation, discusses this acting career in both film and television. Cooper looks back on how he managed to navigate through his roles in iconic films such as Lone Star, Adaptation, American Beauty, Seabiscuit, and August: Osage County among many others.

Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker dissects his bleak thriller masterpiece, Se7en and working with director David Fincher to create the cult classic film.

Writer/Director Gary Ross discusses his film trajectory from co-writing the iconic film Big to approaching and adapting Seabiscuit on screen as well as working on historically depicting his new film Free State of Jones starring Matthew McConaughey.

Producer/Emmy®-award winning actress, America Ferrera talks about her early roles in film and television including the hit show Ugly Betty, Real Women Have Curves, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and working with Ryan Piers Williams on the independent film The Dry Land.

Writer/Director/Producer Charles Burnett shares his career development process in narrative and documentary filmmaking with Killer of Sheep (1978), his seminal film, which was definitive in highlighting African American cultural experience. Burnett's films Killer of Sheep and To Sleep with Anger were both added to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress for being culturally significant.

Director John Lee Hancock and writer Kelly Marcel discuss how the script for Saving Mr. Banks was successfully transformed onto the screen using heavily stylized elements, and musical cues from the classic film Mary Poppins to depict the life of author PL Travers during the 1960's.

Writer/director Jason Reitman, whose credits include Thank You for Smoking, Up in the Air, Juno, and most recently the TV series Casual, discusses his journey from novice filmmaker to indie stalwart.