Meet Gratitude Productions Founder and Executive Producer Lindsay Goffman

Television has seen a big boom in content across networks and streaming services, and this is thanks to the grab bag of available IP in the global market. Navigating trends and what will sell is a big part of the acquisition cycle, but that’s not the end all that attracts audiences. It’s the universal story. And that’s where Lindsay Goffman, Gratitude Productions founder and executive producer, comes in. Lindsay’s career backbone is finding those needles in the haystack from K-Dramas and more, and zoning in what will bring an audience together around a central character and story.

Lindsay Goffman is a compassionate and gracious industry leader in the television space. And is equally incredibly passionate when she speaks about working with her producing and writing team behind The Company You Keep to recalling a memory of the first time she saw a trailer for the K-Drama series Good Doctor at a conference.

Lindsay recently spoke with Script about her journey in the entrainment industry from working in the mailroom to becoming the Vice President of Development to then finding her entrepreneurial spirit and starting her own shingle. Plus, she shares her process of working and teaming with writers, discovering IPs, the future of ChatGPT, and so much more!

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: What it is about these K-Dramas that draw you in, but also keeping in mind what could work for Western audiences?

Lindsay Goffman: I don't know if you've watched many K-Dramas, but they're addictive. They go from super emotional and dramatic and then things are really funny. And then every single one of them ends on a cliffhanger. So, you're like, ‘OK, what happens next?’ They're well-made TV shows. And obviously, the first one for me started with The Good Doctor, and getting to see that trailer - I went to this conference, it was called K Story, and they shared maybe 10 different trailers, and The Good Doctor was one of them. I just immediately connected to it, because of my son. He has a visual impairment. 

And so, at that point, we were going through so many different therapies for him and so seeing a character who was struggling, but also persevering, it gave me hope. And I thought, ‘Well, if this gives me hope, then I think that could do that for a lot of other people and their families.’ And then because of the success of that show, I feel really fortunate that I have great relationships with the Korean networks. And so, I'm always looking at different catalogs of K-Dramas, and finding the ones that speak to me. But I'm not only doing K-Dramas, I've got like 30 projects on my slate and the IP can come from anywhere.

Sadie: Having 30 projects on your slate all at once certainly is a lot. Do you ever have an internal push and pull with yourself on how much focus you can really give each project for it to have its best chance of success?

Lindsay: Sweat equity is all I have. It's like, what am I going to spend my time on and invest in? And for me, if I commit to something, I don't drop it. I really don't. I believe in it, and I keep going. And I will try so hard to find a home for this thing. Whether it's like, do we need to pair the writer up with a showrunner? Do we need to bring on a director? Do we need to bring on an actor? How do we put this combination together to give it the best chance of success? And look, it doesn't always work. But I have so much respect for these writers and how long it takes for them to put together a pitch. So, the least I can do is call every person that I know at a network and be like, ‘Hey, you have to hear this pitch.’ And work to sell the show for them.

Sadie: With your background as a development exec in the TV space, what are you looking for now as an executive producer?

Lindsay: I mean, I kind of know it when I see it. It's not like there's some specific, ‘I'm looking for a one hour about a con artist in the CIA.’ It's just sort of this is a show that I want to watch. This feels like a unique point of view that we've never seen before. And this excites me. And honestly, I trust my gut, and I trust my taste. And I guess that's why I feel comfortable looking at IP that is often overlooked, because the IP that I'm looking at isn't the most expensive thing. But I think that it's high quality, I think that it's worth putting a show together for. I don't necessarily have to have the most expensive, highest rated IP to sell a show.

When I'm looking for projects, it's a unique point of view. And so, a lot of times, where does a unique point of view come from? Well, it comes from a voice that feels underrepresented, or how can we twist it a little bit to get a different perspective. So, here's another example. I'm working on a project with Jasmine Hill, and Aaliyah Williams and The Roots about the Cotton Club. But we've seen the Cotton Club from the white perspective, we've never seen it from a Black female perspective before. So, I think that's a good example of the kind of projects I'm excited added about working on.

Sadie: Yeah, good story matters, right? What is your working relationship, or even just the creative collaboration like with your writers?

Lindsay: Here's an example, I will usually just fall in love with a writer, [laughs] and just have a writer crush and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm dying to work with this person.’ There's a woman, she's a playwright, and I read her play - and this was back when I started my company in 2018, right before all the craziness and the pandemic - and I read her play, and I was just like, ‘Wow, she is so talented.’ So, I just kept sending her stuff. I think I sent her three different books, and a couple formats. And finally, I sent her a format, I didn't send to any other writers except her, and she loved it immediately. And so, and we ended up just now selling that to a streamer. Getting to work with her I think it comes from you have to find the writer and you have to find the project and making that marriage at the end of the day.

Sadie: Have you ever had a scenario where you thought a specific IP was great for a particular writer, but it just didn’t pan out in terms of them liking it, their schedules, etc.?

Lindsay: I've had a couple of situations where they've really liked the material and then something will happen where, and I understand, they're getting a paid writing assignment or they get on staff or something along those lines and they have to bow out of the project. The good news is that I've still kept positive relationships with all those people. And I'm like, ‘OK, well, that one didn't work. Let's try to find something else to do together.’ 

But I would just say, for writers, I mean, I feel so lucky getting to work with Julia Cohen and Phil Klemmer, but like Julia and I like, and Caitlin [Foito], we were all just really in the trenches together in the beginning of The Company You Keep - I mean, they were my work wives, you know [laughs] now we have Russ [Cundiff], Deanna [Harris] and Milo [Ventimiglia] and that whole crew, which is amazing. You really get to get to know these people as you're going through that development process. We brought Julia on in 2020, actually, so it's years that it takes for these projects, and that one was actually relatively quick because it was at a broadcast network.

Sadie: Yeah, that is a really quick turnaround. Do you think that it's because networks are just hungry for new stories, or just even adapting this kind of IP? Especially with networks and streamers at the battleground of getting good stories out there.

Lindsay: Yeah, I think that's right. And I think also luck and timing really came into play. Milo - getting him coming off of This Is Us, the big question was, ‘OK, what's Milo going to do next?’ And once we got him on board, that was the game changer.

Sadie: Yeah. It's all about timing. What inspired get into this business?

Lindsay: I knew I always wanted to do something creative. I didn't really know what that was. A lot of my friends - I graduated from Indiana University, I grew up in Indianapolis, I never knew anyone in entertainment didn't even realize a career like this could exist for me - they went to Chicago to do advertising and I came out here, and I started in the ICM mailroom. I worked for the agent, Greg Cavic, which was a great experience getting to work with an agent who really had amazing taste, and really cares about his clients. So that was my experience at the agency.

And then from there, getting to work at UPN and do America's Next Top Model and Two and a Half Men with the Tannenbaums. I really feel fortunate that I had so many great mentors along the way, because I think if you don't have great mentors in this business, I mean, this business is hard as it is, but you need people that you can look at and say, ‘Wow, that person is really successful. They're getting to do what they love.’ Like working for Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, they're a married couple and they were non-writing producers together. So, I was like, ‘OK, wow, that's really interesting.’ My husband is a writer, but he's a non-writing EP on a new show for NBC. So, I saw a model on how that can work.

And then getting to work with Matt Gross, he did Body of Proof and then getting to see from an actor's perspective and getting to work with Daniel Dae Kim. And that was cool, because I got to help him build his company from the ground up. He had never had a chance to produce anything before because he was always acting on Lost and Hawaii Five-0. So, getting to understand how valuable it is to have an actor's perspective on development on set, I think that has helped with The Company You Keep and Milo and understanding his perspective.

And then getting to work with somebody like Greg Silverman at Stampede. He gave me a first-look deal. And he's a big reason that I decided to be entrepreneurial and go out on my own. I'd helped other people build their companies. He was just coming out of being the president of Warner Brothers, and just so forward-thinking, and I got to learn a ton from him, too. So, like I said, a lot of it is luck and timing, and learning.

Sadie: What do you think the future of TV will look like in the next five years?

Lindsay: It is so hard to say what it's gonna look like, because it's moving so quickly. ChatGPT, the Writers Guild strike, like what's gonna happen there? TikTok, what's gonna happen there? There are so many questions. There's all these streaming apps, like I can barely keep track of what show is on what platform. And then you've got the TikToks of the world that are completely personalized to you and what you're interested in. I don't know, it's really hard to say, but I think I think it's going to change a lot from where we are now. I think there's no question about that, the genie is out of the bottle with ChatGPT. And it's only getting stronger and smarter. And I just think people are going to be thinking about things differently, and it's going to be more like, ‘OK, what are some creative prompts that I can put into ChatGPT to give me an interesting story to tell?’ That's actually going to be a skill, how do I get these AI tools to work well for me?

Sadie: What’s next for you and where can we catch your produced projects now?

Lindsay: The Company You Keep on ABC and Hulu the next day. And then I've got a bunch of projects coming up. I'm working with Mikey Winfield, who got the Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell, we're working on a project together with Raven-Symoné producing with me. And I've got a project called The Midnight Children that's based on a middle-grade YA book and that Roald Dahl perspective that I'm going to start looking for a writer for that. So yeah, I've got a lot of exciting projects that are coming!