Ep 4: The Professional Evolution of Sandra Allen: From Stage Manager to Award Winning Television Executive Producer

In this episode of 'Up and Comers of Hollywood,' Sandra Allen shares her inspiring journey from a stage manager in college to a prominent  award winning producer and showrunner for unscripted television. Allen discusses her career path, which includes working on shows such as 'Tribunal Justice,' 'Judge Steve Harvey,' and 'Cutler's Court.' She details her experience with the legal and talk show genres and the crucial production roles she has taken on. Sandra also offers valuable insights into the skills needed for television production, the importance of people skills, and how speaking up can open doors in the industry. The episode highlights the difference between scripted and unscripted programs, Sandra's experiences with notable personalities like Oprah and Steve Harvey, and offers advice for aspiring producers. Additionally, Allen talks about her mentoring philosophy and the challenges and successes in her career, emphasizing the importance of finding one's path in the dynamic world of Hollywood production.

IMDBPRO:  https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0021030/overview
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanndra/

Linkedin Learning:  https://www.linkedin.com/learning/browse/business
Writers Guild Foundation: https://www.wgfoundation.org/resource-center
Industry Writing Programs: https://www.wga.org/the-guild/advocacy/inclusion-and-equity/industry-writing-programs
2024 Internships:  https://www.oscars.org/careers/academy-gold-program-internships

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Entertainment Industry
• 0:53 Spotlight on Sandra Allen: A Journey in Television
• 2:11 From San Diego to Hollywood: Sandra's Early Life
• 3:19 Breaking into Television: Sandra's Career Beginnings
• 5:22 The Creative Process: Producing and Directing
• 6:39 Navigating the Industry: Opportunities and Challenges
• 9:56 Memorable Shows and Experiences
• 10:27 Understanding Scripted vs. Unscripted TV
• 13:27 The Role of a Producer: Skills and Responsibilities
• 16:29 Advice for Aspiring Producers
• 18:41 Perceptions and Realities of Los Angeles
• 19:31 Navigating the Entertainment Industry
• 21:53 Advice for Aspiring Creative Producers
• 24:28 Balancing Work and Life as a Producer
• 26:34 Court TV: Behind the Scenes
• 31:58 Exploring Opportunities in Television
• 34:19 The Shift to Streaming Platforms
• 35:16 Conclusion and Farewell

Transcript

0:00

I went right into a paid position as a college as a stage manager, I learned way I learned about putting packages together, video pieces. I learned about camera operation. They let me do everything. I was operating a studio camera for a live show. I learned how to be a stage manager. I am honored to bring you a wonderful interview with Sandra Allen. She is an esteemed producer and showrunner for Scripted Television. She is currently the co executive producer on Amazon TV's Tribunal Justice, created by Judge. Judy Scheindlin. Alan was the executive producer of Relative Justice. Is amazing and long. He played baseball, basketball, and could either go to college full ride or get drafted. So he decided to go with sports. He wanted to get married. I left college at 18. We were young 21, 22 with one semester to go and three months into that I got pregnant with my daughter. So 10 years later when I'm 29, 30, I go back to school, get my degree. That's when my career started. So you actually started later in life. Later. By that time I'm in the Bay Area. I call them up. Say, I want to do an internship. They said, come on down for an interview. I show up, I go to the interview. I'm talking to the gentleman and he's saying, what do you want to do? Telling me about the station and the show At the time, I wanted to be a director. I learned how to be a stage manager. I learned how to do audio. It was amazing. I was there for two years at one point they said to me, is there anything else? What else would you like to do? I finishing , my college, degree and everything. Then I graduated and continued to work there. I'm going to be calling the shots. Ready one, take one, ready two, take two. I got a taste of that creative and I was like, man, this is so much more fun. I just loved it. You have to speak up. Once I got a taste of the creative side, they gave me a position as a talent booker. Booking all of the talent, all the guests who would come on the show, not producing just booking. So finding good people, with good stories to be guests then I went. She calls me and says, donna says you're fabulous and she said it's just like that and I was like, okay, a little shy Not sure what to think. She said Bruce is gonna call you with your contract I said, Do you want to meet me or something? Should I drive down? like you said, it was just meant to be, it came easy for you. Now, it doesn't come easy for a lot of people, just by knowing you right now, we met through a friend and I have to shout out to Dale Turner, a veteran actor here in Los Angeles who recommended Sandra but your personality, getting along with folks, people want to work with people they like, it appears to me in what I'm hearing and experiencing is your energy lightness hard work preceded you. I would say yes to that and I do agree that is my personality. I'm not a bull in a China cabinet. I'll never be that. I'm very low key laid back. And as a person who is in management position, that's my philosophy. I would tell my teams, no stress, no drama, no mess. Let's have fun, but get it done. I'll take the person who may not be as knowledgeable. So whatever that may be. So that's scripted. It could be drama, could be comedy, and then typically it's going to be primetime. Now, unscripted falls into two categories reality TV, which is not technically scripted, meaning it's not a writer's guild or a union show no one's really going to write what the person's going to say, especially on a reality show or a doc you follow. However, what still falls under unscripted would be daytime programming. And that's mainly what I work in, mainly talk shows, but a lot of talk shows Our scripted in a sense that it's scripted for the host. And I also see here that you've worked with Oprah and Steve Harvey. For Oprah, did one of the first Weight Watchers commercials. How do we want to do this? The music, all of that. We started all of that on paper first in the OWN offices. There and deciding what we're going to do. ~Then ~once we had that locked, then we set out to do production. So we had, I think it might've been three days ~of production. ~The first day, we're with the guests in the kitchen. The production ~in turn ~ will come in. ~They're going to ~say, Oh, you want to do that? Okay we can shoot it like this. We can light it like this. So then the two will come together to create the project, but production can't do anything until ~the ~creative decides ~what they're going to do. ~So ~to answer your question, ~yes, this starts with ~the ~creative and as a showrunner, co EP, or even producer, I'm going to decide what we're going to do.~And that's really it. ~That's a producer. ~So ~when you see the news and see what they're talking, or if you watch something on TV and people walking around or see someone doing something, then you know ~that ~a producer had that idea. ~Okay. ~Creative producer. ~And ~correct. ~Correct. They're doing the contracts and everything like that. Correct. Now ~in film the producer is typically the money person. Correct. Okay, and TV, the producers are always their creative person. However, Or for the money side, it's going to either be an EIC, executive in charge, or it's going to be a line producer. What skillset does it take to be the creative producer? ' How does it work? And that's why we're here. Up and Comers of Hollywood is ~helping ~sharing ~this with the world of ~how the business kind of works. It doesn't mean that your career path is going to be the same as Sandra's, but just talking about this, hopefully plant seeds . And there's some folks who just love journeys and ~they ~want to know the story because Hollywood is like Hollywood, they hear all that bad stuff, but there were some good people here so getting back to that what would you recommend going that route? I would say yes, in a sense, because a lot of times shows, they want interns. . And I will give a PA a shot. I have people who I brought in as PAs now. Are my co EPs. Are your supervising producers and eventually become EPs.~And ~I was like, ~Oh my gosh, ~who is that person? Always found something to do. ~If there ~if he was done with something, he'd start wiping down tables and cleaning up. ~And I'm like, and ~I ~just ~noticed them ~anyway, ~but secretly this person was booking on the side because that's what the person really wanted to do. I love our discussion ~right now. Now, before you came to LA, ~what was your perception of Los Angeles before you got here? And ~then ~what is the reality for you? ~Wow. Okay. My. First, ~my perception was, wow, Hollywood ~and ~everything happens and everybody's great and everybody's nice and Then it was like, there's a lot of slick people here. No judgment shade on people from LA, but you find that there's a lot of mean people and there's a lot of conniving people So with that you have to always CYA. Just make sure that you're covering yourself Just be true to yourself. Don't do anything that you don't want to do and it's okay to walk away. Do you have a favorite or ~is there ~an experience that really, Surprised you ~oh gosh Yes off the top of my head.~ People would of course apply to be on the show. And then she would go to them and give them tools on how to fix their lives. She was not a psychiatrist or psychologist. She basically was a life coach with life experience, but people loved her because her nuggets in wisdom was so great. For people who are interested in becoming a creative producer, what kind of resources or books or, I don't know anything on YouTube. Or if you meet somebody, go to networking things, join various different organizations. And when they have seminars or webinars. Get on those webinars and see if you can come and glean and shadow someone. A lot of people will say they'll be okay with that. And when you get that, you can ask a ton of questions. Perfectly said.~ Perfectly said. Now, I want to go back to your education because ~I know you said you went back to school because you didn't finish your bachelors. Because you became a mom. Correct. And a wife. Exactly. And when did you finish your bachelors? I finished it in the Bay Area. It was nine It was in the mid 90s, like 94, 95, somewhere around in there. Have a latte. Have a good day. ~And if not, we're still working You know, unfortunately, I don't, ~I try not to work on weekends. No one wants to work on weekends ~because ~you need to have a life work balance because that will make you crazy if you don't. So the thing is try to, let's get the work done. seeing a PA ~that is ~growing that or that has grown someone that you see, you're teaching them something and then they are just soaking it up like a sponge, and then they're doing it and they're loving their job and they're moving up. That's a success. It sounds like you're a really great mentor, Sandra. So we are just gearing up for that, for, I finished post on that show in August, now in September, we're gearing up now for our third season, and we're about to start that show. And what is that about? Tribunal Justice was, ~you just FYI, this is funny, is ~created by Judge Judy. ~Okay. And right.~ And if you win, ~then the court, ~the show pays your judgment. That's the way that works. Now are most court TVs real? There are some real ones. There are some fake ones. Okay. I was wondering about that because sometimes I'm like, Oh, this one doesn't seem real, but there are some of them there. I won't say the ones who are fake, but yes, there's a lot of fake ones, but there are ~some ~real ones too. Exactly. And then the show then dismisses the case with prejudice with the local courthouse. So you cannot go back and sue that person again for the same thing because it's done. It's over. It's ~considered ~arbitration. And so no more. So they're giving up their rights to do this on television so they can't sue later.~So ~I've learned ~various different very various, excuse me, ~different doctrines of the law and what these different doctrines mean and how you can do this, but you can't do that. It's been very informative. Anyone who wants to get into these type of court TV producing jobs, they don't need to necessarily have law classes. Thank you. I am. I'm flabbergasted by everything you've done. I'm looking at her resume. It's very long. So I had to really prepare for this. And I, even though I prepared, I was not prepared for all this. I'm learning so much I just love to learn behind the scenes of what everyone's doing and how they do it I would just say, if ~when ~you're not ~really ~sure about what you ~really ~want to do, it's okay. They ~also ~have webinars with showrunners and different people. There's so many resources ~out there. So it's, yeah, ~just start looking, start talking to people and you'll be able to find your niche eventually. So the Writers Guild. You do not have to be in union to use it? No, but there's a Writer's Guild that's union, ~but that's your show that's going to be unionized.~~Unfortunately, ~I know ~at one while ~they were trying to start a union for producers. If you are in news, I think you're part of SAG and AFTRA. But ~as far as ~entertainment producers, ~there's no union for us. We ~don't have a union. We don't have anyone fighting for us like writers or directors or, camera operators, they are unionized.~So ~they're not watching cable, but they will stream there, into the streaming and there's money in streaming. So yes, you will find that now they are, transitioning because that's a totally different audience. That may have cut the cable that may not watch TV and then It's a little looser when it comes to streaming, you can hear a few, F words and f bombs and things like that But maybe not the f bomb but you can't hear a f bomb Sometimes on streaming more so than ~you can ~on broadcast.