‘Nashville’: EP Ed Zwick Talks Season 5 and His Storied TV Career

Back in the ’80s and ’90s, producing team Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz were two of the biggest names in television, overseeing such acclaimed series as Thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Once and Again. While never ratings blockbusters during their initial airings, those shows have each cast a long shadow of influence on subsequent generations of TV dramas; in fact, you can chart a direct line from Thirtysomething to this season’s breakout hit, This Is Us.

Years of watching their shows end before their time took their toll, though, and the duo made a conscious decision to take an extended break from TV. Now, after a nearly decadelong absence, they’re stepping back into that arena as the new showrunners of Nashville, the country music drama that recently relocated from ABC to CMT for its fifth year.

Related: Ken Tucker Reviews the ‘Nashville’ Season 5 Premiere

“It was kind of an unexpected experiment,” Zwick tells Yahoo TV about his and Herskovitz’s first experience taking over a long-running series. “Someone at Lionsgate [the studio that produces Nashville] offered it to us, and we thought it might be fun — forgetting, of course, that kind of work is rarely only fun, it’s really work! But we’re doing it, and I’d like to think that we’re going to put our own stamp on it.” With the 30th anniversary of Thirtysomething looming in 2017, we asked Zwick for his memories of that formative series, as well as his other acclaimed TV credits.

Thirtysomething (ABC, 1987-1991)
On the timeline of TV dramas, there’s “before Thirtysomething” and “after Thirtysomething.” Zwick and Herskovitz’s groundbreaking ensemble series took a deep dive into the daily lives of an extended group of adult friends still adjusting to the rat race of the ’80s after partying through the heady days of the ’70s. During its critically acclaimed four-season run, the show touched on issues like adultery and the gender divide in the workplace.

What’s interesting to me is how many shows there are now that [focus on] a group of people in relationships. At the time we made Thirtysomething, that seemed radical; TV was all about doctors, lawyers, and franchises. There are still franchises now, but the idea of a humanist franchise is legitimate, and I think that’s a legacy of what we did. If we were going to try to do something like that again, there would be the risk of it seeming to be not unlike some of the things people are doing. I’d like to think we’d do it our own way, and I take pleasure in seeing how that kind of show has become a kind of staple of television after working in a time when it wasn’t.

My So-Called Life (ABC, 1994-1995)
The Thirtysomething writers’ room exposed Zwick and Herskovitz to such emerging talents as Winnie Holzman, who they tapped to create a series that would provide a realistic account of what it’s like to be a modern teenager. “What Marshall and Ed pitched to me was, ‘Let’s do a show about a young teenage girl and make it as authentic as we can,’” Holzman told Elle earlier this year. The result was perhaps too painfully authentic for some, as My So-Called Life only lasted 19 episodes. But those who watched it never forgot it, and its impact can be seen on almost every teen drama made since.

The funny thing about My So-Called Life is that, at the time, it seemed like a radical notion that anyone might be interested in teenagers! To say that now sounds so preposterous, because the whole culture seems, in many ways, oriented towards that age group. We were determined to cast a real teenager and to try to be authentic to our recollection of the experience, while also doing research by hanging out in high schools to get as close as we could to that reality. Had we not found Claire [Danes], the show wouldn’t have had that same extraordinary quality, and Winnie’s voice, as well as the other writers’, really hit home as well. What’s funny to me is how few episodes we actually did. Maybe it was better that way; maybe it would have betrayed the promise of the show if we’d had to do more.

Relativity (ABC, 1996-1997)
These days, producer Jason Katims is a TV veteran with such beloved shows as Friday Night Lights and Parenthood on his résumé. But back in 1996, he was a writer looking for a break in the business, which arrived when Zwick and Herskovitz agreed to produce a series that could easily have been called Twentysomething. Kimberly Williams and David Conrad played a young couple who meet and fall in love during a whirlwind Italian vacation and then return to meet their respective families.

Jason, who had worked with us on My So-Called Life, created a show called Relativity — meaning your relatives. It had a lovely feel to it, but it was a little bit star-crossed in terms of its time slot and the competition against it. So it never got a chance to live as fully as it might have, but I think it was important to Jason and another fond memory for us.

Nashville (ABC, 2012-2016; CMT, 2016-present)
Zwick and Herskovitz were tasked with assuming control of Nashville — which was originally created by Callie Khouri, who remains creatively involved in the series — before its (temporary) cancellation by ABC. They subsequently followed the show to CMT, where fresh episodes will premiere on Jan. 5.

Obviously the thing that makes TV succeed or fail is the audience’s investment in the characters. And I think what we might be able to do is concentrate more on character and less on plot. It’s possible the audience will appreciate what we’re doing… or not! Today, country music is really the last vestige of emotion and narrative [in music], so it’s possible that what we’re doing will dovetail nicely with Nashville, because Nashville itself is like the last artists’ colony in America. The idea of these people all involved in each other’s lives, and being supportive as well as backbiting, is an opportunity for us to talk about what has become of the music business and what it’s like to be an artist now.

Nashville premieres on Jan. 5 at 9 p.m. on CMT; new episodes will also be available on Hulu. My So-Called Life can be streamed for free on Yahoo View.