Editor’s Note: Supporting women should not be limited to a month. So at Reel 360 News, we have decided to amplify and promote dynamic women’s voices all year long. Today, let us introduce you to a very epic woman – Writer, Producer and Chair of the WGA Longevity Committee, Catherine Clinch.
Catherine is a writer and producer with three decades of experience in the entertainment industry. She has written 17 episodes of hit network series, including Hunter, Jake & The Fatman, Knight Rider, Hart to Hart, The Love Boat, and Foul Play—with nine of her first drafts greenlit straight to production without rewrites. She also developed made-for-TV movies with Gross-Weston Productions and ABC Television and served a two-year term on the Writers Guild of America, West Board of Directors.
Balancing her career with motherhood, Catherine took on flexible roles, including writing for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, where she rose from columnist to Associate Publisher and Screenwriting Expo coordinator. She also taught screenwriting and advanced video production as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Loyola Marymount University and California State University, Dominguez Hills. There, she designed Entertain.ment, the first university-accredited course in writing and producing live interactive broadcasts for the Internet, leading a groundbreaking production with real-time participants across the U.S. and Indonesia.
Catherine has produced over 225 hours of live educational television for California State University’s Department of Mediated Instruction and Distance Learning, broadcasting throughout Los Angeles. She also authored a primer for PBS Learning Satellite Service, referenced in multiple doctoral dissertations.
She earned a B.A. in Theatre/Film at 19 from the University of South Florida, followed by an M.A. in Speech Communication at 21. She pursued post-graduate studies in film at Columbia University and was accepted into the prestigious Director’s Guild Training Program.
Catherine remains committed to creating family-friendly and globally appealing entertainment.
Let’s meet her!
What’s your origin story?
I used to joke that I was raised by wolves until I discovered that wolves are far more nurturing than my mother was ever capable of being. I was born to save a bad marriage. So, when I hadn’t succeeded in my assigned role in life by the age of four, my mother spent the rest of her life beating and berating me in one way or another.
That sent me on a lifelong mission to become the best I could be with whatever I did. Ironically, the abuse set me up to succeed at a lot of different things. It also set me on a trajectory to fight for truth and justice in life. The successes I have earned in that fight gave me enough confidence in myself and in my ability to bring about a positive outcome from even the bleakest and most insurmountable of challenges. You need unshakable confidence to survive in the world today.
How did you break into writing for TV?
I was working for Warner Communications while doing graduate studies at Columbia University when I was accepted into the DGA Training Program. I left an amazing company and the school of my childhood dreams to learn how to work as an Assistant Director.
I excelled at the tasks assigned and completed them quickly so I could spend every free minute standing at the camera (with Billy Williams ASC and Script Supervisor Ann Skinner) or talking to the actors (Ruth Gordon, Lee Strasburg and Janet Leigh). This is where I learned the reality of what is important when you make a film.
Who were your mentors?
Sampson Raphaelson is the only screenwriting teacher I ever had. I walked into Columbia University wanting to direct films (which was a ridiculous goal for a girl in the late 1970s) and walked out of there a screenwriter. Sam was 82 and I was 23 – yet we became good friends. He was the first person to believe in me as a writer. The friend and mentor who really helped me understand how the industry works was Larry Gelbart.
He used to say my initials stood for “courage and clarity” and always referred to himself as my “fan.” More than anyone else, Larry helped me understand that age discrimination in Hollywood is not about a writer’s body of work or the quality of that work, but of stereotypical misperceptions about a writer’s relevance after a certain age. Throughout my career, I was blessed to work with some amazing executives and producers – Peter Roth, Alan Landsburg, Aaron Spelling, Fred Silverman, Stephen J. Cannell and Kevin Reilly – all of whom taught me amazing things about the craft of writing.
But Sam and Larry were the two whose support got me going and kept me going. I also had a standup comedy mentor in Lotus Weinstock, who ultimately became one of my closest friends in life.
What fuels your creativity?
The interesting thing about being “aged out” at 40 (“because shouldn’t you be home with all those kids?”) is that it left me with time to imagine things I wouldn’t have otherwise considered. In the years I was Contributing Editor and then Associate Publisher of the print edition of Creative Screenwriting Magazine, I learned what turned out to be the two most important words of my midlife: Press Pass. I averaged 40-50 conferences, summits, and expos each year – topping out at 70 in one particularly inspiring year.
The magic of going to a conference is the ability to listen to people who are at the top of their game discuss the cutting edge of their part of the industry with each other. I was there to write articles for the magazine and online component, but I also took notes that formed the direction of my personal future. A few dozen conferences on advertising and marketing enabled me to become fluent in the seamless integration of brand messages into entertainment.
A few dozen conferences on mobile tech enabled me to invent a Story Delivery System and Method of Mobile Entertainment for which I was awarded three (3) US Patents. Along the way, I started moderating panels because I love being able to ask smart people smart questions about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it. Recently, I’ve moderated three panels and been a panelist on a fourth panel about AI and creativity in Hollywood.
In my spare time, I’m playing with a story that will be delivered via the Google Maps app. Doing something that has never been done is what pushes the boundaries in my work. Curiosity is what keeps me exploring the next new thing to figure out how it can be used to tell an emotionally engaging story.
What’s the biggest myth about women in your industry?
There are so many myths about women that it’s hard to know where to start. The biggest one transcends being a myth because it’s a lie. The idea that women are judged on the quality of their writing is ridiculous. When I first started to get aged out, my then agent – Shelly Wile – suggested that my husband and I go out as a writing team. We have a great relationship and it seemed like a good idea, so he sent us out to pitch together.
Mind you, I already had 11 years vested in the WGA pension and my husband (brilliant and funny though he is) had never written a script. At our first meeting, the two male producers introduced themselves to him, ignored me and never even made eye contact with me. They just talked to my husband and finally decided they wanted to see what he could do on his own.
My husband walked out with a story/option deal for an episode and they never even looked at me. When we got to the elevator, my husband hugged me and said he never realized how bad it was to go into room after room and not be taken seriously. Two days later, the series was canceled – but my husband finally understood what I’d been talking about for two decades.
Representation is another big myth. A middle-aged manager who owns one of the larger boutique firms spoke on a WGA panel. He said, “if you’re a woman who writes action you are in huge demand and I want to represent you.” Having written action throughout my career, I approached him and politely introduced myself. He was completely disinterested in talking to me and told me to send him an email. I asked him
what the address was and he told me to find it online.
I thought that seemed odd, but then it became fairly clear that his email was not published anywhere online. A similar incident happened shortly before the pandemic when conferences were large, in-person events. After I moderated a panel, one man in the audience had several questions to ask me. We stood talking for a long time, during which I made him laugh on numerous occasions and he told me I was fascinating. Feeling that a rapport had been established, I told him I was looking for representation and asked if he could suggest one of his colleagues who might be interested in me.
He literally laughed in my face and said, “You don’t look like a CAA client.” Then he walked away. The tragic fact is that women are judged by how they look, what they wear and how young they are. Perhaps if agencies and management companies, networks, and studios would get rid of the ridiculous “swimsuit competition” regarding which women writers they represent, Peak TV – which started with 599 series on the air – wouldn’t have seen 266 of them canceled or not renewed.
Those numbers amount to a 42% failure rate which, ironically matches the recent announcement that WGA employment is down 40% this year. I can’t help but wonder what might happen if networks and studios opened their eyes and realized the power of including women writers – especially older women writers – based on their craft skills and creative abilities rather than hiring on whether they “look” like good writers.
Name a creative risk you took that paid off.
I wasn’t happy writing afterschool specials and soap operas – which was all that was available to me in as a screenwriter in NYC in the late 70s – so I sublet my apartment and moved to LA with the idea that I would be bi-coastal. Within a couple of months, I was working at Paramount, writing for a show that was perfectly suited to my style.
After that, my career took off quickly. Eventually, the landlord of my apartment (a one-bedroom in a doorman building on West 57th Street, with a decent-sized kitchen, back of the building = no street noise, rent was $275/month under rent control) insisted that I either come back and live in the apartment or move out. I had hoped to be bi-coastal, but in retrospect,t it feels like the universe was pushing me to commit to following my career path in Hollywood. It worked out very well since moving here. I met my husband, we had three sons and we are living happily ever after.
What’s your take on the rise of AI?
AI is a tool and tools are only as good as the person using them. While I am staunchly against copyright violation, there are ways to use image creators that won’t violate anybody’s copyright. The laws are adopting to the use of AI and they are being written in very specific ways to protect everybody’s rights.
Mind you, all of this is in rapid development mode so many elements remain to be defined. But what people need to realize is that they have been using AI for more than a decade without a care in the world. If you used an app to “Simpson-ize yourself” you were using AI. If you used an app to make your photo of the beach look like it was painted by Degas, you were using AI. I would urge people to keep an open mind and follow the developments
What’s a piece of advice from another woman you carry with you?
In the early 80s, I met Viola Spolin and we quickly became good friends. Along with her son, she founded the Compass Players which became the original Second City. We bonded over our love of tea and writing and the delight that our birthdays were two days apart. It was a bonus that our husbands could always find something to talk about when we got together.
Viola loved that I did standup “for fun” and at my wedding, she enjoyed talking to our many friends of ours who were comedians. She respected the fact that (in my pre-motherhood years) I put in a full 8-hour day of writing, reading, research and related work even when I wasn’t being paid to write. Each time we would get together, she would remind me: Never stop writing! I promised her I wouldn’t and I have always stuck to the idea that a writer writes something every day.
Are you rebooting Soul Train, American Bandstand or MTV Spring Break?
Sorry to say, I wouldn’t reboot any of them. But if I had a say in the matter, I would reboot MTV Music Videos. The 80s were one of the most creative decades ever – and almost all of the creative efforts were focused on having fun. When music videos caught their stride, they were some of the best short films ever. That is what I think is worth rebooting.
How do you balance ambition with self-care?
There is no such thing as balance when it comes to being a working woman and taking care of yourself. A balance would imply that an 8-hour work day would be balanced with 8 hours of self-care, followed by 8 hours of sleep. So, instead of balance, I prefer the idea that every day you do something that makes you feel happy.
I used to take great joy in spending time with our sons when they were younger. Sometimes we would pack the boys into the mini-van and do road trips around the country. Weekends were about birthday parties and movies and school events – all of which I cherished and miss now that they’re grown.
Now, much of my joy comes from spending time talking with my husband or just watching movies or series with him. I enjoy cooking for my family and friends and love when I can gather a group of interesting people around a dinner table for conversation into the night. Lately, I’ve rediscovered the joy of creating art and often find myself creating visual projects just for fun. I prefer to think of “ambition” as “creative development.” That’s how I keep my focus on joy and fun rather than considering it “work.”
You’re writing a memoir. What’s the title?
Actually, I am in the process of writing a memoir and the title is under wraps for now.
Go to Karaoke song.
I used to be a mezzo-soprano with a strong two-and-a-half octave range. But during the years that I had to teach my hearing-impaired son how to speak, I strained my voice so much that I lost it. Needless to say, I don’t sing anymore. Most people appreciate that.
In 10 years what do you hope to look back and say you changed?
I want to put an end to age discrimination in our industry.
Catherine’s Social Media:
Facebook: Catherine.Clinch
Instagram: @CatherineClinch
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