Greg Berlanti on youth television, sequel to “Red, White and Royal Blue”

When the WB Network offered Greg Berlanti the job of showrunner for the third season of “Dawson's Creek,” he turned it down – several times.

“I thought it was a quick way to get fired, and I liked the job too much to lose it,” says Berlanti diversity.

Who could blame him for his hesitation? The teen drama series, already a cultural phenomenon, was Berlanti's first job on television. He started in Season 2 as a staff writer on the recommendation of his college friend Julie Plec, a future force in the industry who was then working for series creator and showrunner Kevin Williamson. When Williamson and Plec left the series before Season 3, the network brought in an outside showrunner to steer the ship, but midway through the season they were desperate for an in-house leader. They wanted Berlanti.

He eventually took the job, but with a few conditions. Chief among them was his insistence that by the end of the season, Jack, the gay teenager played by Kerr Smith, could kiss a guy he liked without the camera panning away—the usual excuse for same-sex affection at the time. Berlanti had worked with Williamson to write the character's big coming-out episode in Season 2, and championed this particular milestone because he felt it allowed Jack to authentically step into his own role, even if it had never been done before.

“I remember we talked about the violence that was airing at the same time as 'Dawson,'” says Berlanti. “In 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' people get shot and stabbed in the heart. I thought, if they can do that, why can't we show a tender moment between two people of the same sex?”

When the show aired in the third season finale, it was the first romantic kiss between two men in prime time and marked a major step forward in LGBTQ representation on television. Berlanti's involvement in the show alone would have been enough to secure him a place in Hollywood history books, but he used the show to launch a career as a producer, helping other creatives create groundbreaking television shows in all areas of representation. For his work, the Television Academy will honor him with the Governors Award during the 76th Annual Emmy Awards on September 15.

Berlanti isn't a big fan of public speaking, so he'll “keep it short” on the Emmy stage, he says with a laugh. But he plans to thank every creator, showrunner, writer, actor and crew member who has helped him bring more than 40 series to television since his days on “Dawson's Creek.” It was on the set of that show in Wilmington, North Carolina, far from Hollywood, that he first realized that “television takes a village.”

“I quickly realized that I'm not a David E. Kelley or Aaron Sorkin who can write all the episodes myself,” he says. “What I learned most is that I'm very dependent on a base of writers who can figure things out and make things happen together. Perhaps that, more than anything else, has led to the business model I have today.”

As head of Berlanti Prods., he has broken records by airing a staggering number of shows simultaneously, culminating in 2019 with 18 seasons. While he knows these records often bring fame and headlines, he takes pride in other things.

“Whether we're doing two shows, 10 shows, 15 shows, 20 shows or one show, for me the most important thing has never been the shows, it's the people,” he says. “I've been lucky to be there for so many other people, just as people have been there for me. In a way, hopefully it's shown that the key to perceived success in this business is not just how much you do, but actually the number of people and the type of people you can do it with. It's much more of a team sport.”

Berlanti's producer roster is still impressive. At ABC, he produced a slew of dramas in the 2000s, including “Brothers and Sisters,” “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Eli Stone.” He helped change the CW's creative direction by leading the Arrowverse, which consists of superhero series “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Supergirl,” “Legends of Tomorrow,” “Black Lightning” and more. He also oversaw the arrival of new creative voices for the CW on shows like “Riverdale” and “All American.” In the last year alone, Berlanti had prods. series at Max (“The Girls on the Bus” and “Titans”), Netflix (“You” and “Dead Boy Detectives”) and NBC (“Found” and the upcoming “Brilliant Minds”). “All American” and “Superman & Lois” were also the only scripted series to survive the CW's sale to Nexstar.

In other words, Berlanti is good to be in business. But most of these shows occupy a corner of the television landscape that often gets forgotten at awards shows but that audiences line up for — the series aimed at younger viewers. Berlanti has helped create some of the most popular YA and genre series over the past two decades, many of which have pushed forward representation for LGBTQ and POC viewers.

“These shows are a great entry point for creators and people behind the camera,” he says. “But the reality is, if you ask someone what their favorite show of all time is, 90% of people will say they watched that show as a kid. They love not only a story, but the era that made them fall in love with television. So it's a real honor and privilege to be part of these kinds of firsts for people. I've never taken that lightly because I know the impact it can have on the mind and the heart at that age, expanding them.”

For this reason, he never starts conversations with developers by asking what barriers they can overcome.

“When I work in writers' rooms or with showrunners, I always ask them: What is truthful to you?” he says. “It's an incredibly hard job. It's a deep, deep privilege. But it's also a lot of work, and it has to be something that inspires you first and foremost before it can ever inspire anyone else.”

That approach still works. This year, Berlanti was nominated for an Emmy as a producer on Prime Video's Red, White and Royal Blue, the adaptation of Casey McQuiston's best-selling queer romantic comedy. The film has already received a sequel, with director Matthew López and McQuiston almost finished writing the script. From what he's heard about the story, Berlanti is just as excited as fans. “The great thing about it is that it feels like the natural next step in these characters' journeys,” he says, careful not to give anything away.

The film is one of at least half a dozen projects he's currently developing. Even after more than two decades, Berlanti says that wonderfully chaotic moment of writing pilots and shopping series never gets old.

“This is my favorite place,” he says. “I go from room to room and work on designs and materials in the early stages, because then anything is possible.”