Jumping Out of the Gate in Crisis and in Conflict: A Conversation with ‘Apples Never Fall’ Creator and Showrunner Melanie Marnich

Based on Liane Moriarty’s New York Times bestselling novel, Apples Never Fall centers on the seemingly picture-perfect Delaney family. Former tennis coaches Stan (Sam Neill) and Joy (Annette Bening) have sold their successful tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. While they look forward to spending time with their four adult children (Alison Brie, Jake Lacy, Conor Merrigan-Turner, Essie Randles), everything changes when a wounded young woman knocks on Joy and Stan's door, bringing the excitement they've been missing. But when Joy suddenly disappears, her children are forced to re-examine their parents' so-called perfect marriage as their family’s darkest secrets begin to surface.

Slow burn “whodunnits” are wildly appealing. But “whodunnits” that jump out of the gate and don’t hold back – those are worth sticking around for. And that’s exactly what you get in Melanie Marnich’s television adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s novel, Apples Never Fall. It has it all. Suspense. Intrigue. Loss. Grief. Twists and turns and everything in between. And over the course of the seven episode mini-series, we get an inside look at these characters, these siblings, these children and what they’re holding onto and unwilling to let go.

Melanie Marnich, the creator and showrunner behind the Peacock TV series, spoke with Script about the adaptation process, the importance of jumping into the show's investigation right away, breaking out the intricate relationships between the characters, and building out her writers’ room. Plus, she talks about how her advertising writing background goes hand in hand with being a TV writer and the “art of manipulation” and gives insider advice on breaking into TV.  

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: I'd love to talk about how this novel came across your desk, or was it something that you had read and you were like, ‘This has to be a TV series?’

Melanie Marnich: Yeah, a little bit of both. I was very fortunate. I had a very intense run of work. It was kind of non-stop for a while. I had one job finally, sort of came to an end. And I told my agent, ‘Oof, I have to take a bit of a break. I need to just read, relax, hear myself think again,’ because in TV you're always channeling all the characters voices - your head can get quite filled with voices other than your own, so to speak. So, I was like, ‘I need to take a hot minute and just sort of hear myself think again.’

And probably four weeks later, my agent was like, ‘Yeah, you're done thinking, here's a book,’ and it wasn't a book, it was the galley for Apples Never Fall. She's like, ‘This is a great book. You need to read it.’ And I swear to God, I was literally getting on a plane and I started reading and I was like, ‘This is so good. This is so good.’ And I'm a big fan of Liane Moriarty's.

This one really hit me. It was an extremely fun read. But that was the Trojan horse that she used to get these really potent, deep themes across that were really like she took the gloves off. And a lot of these things regarding long-term marriage and child raising and what it is to be part of a big family. The issues in the book was so beautiful and so muscular. I'm pretty sure I called my agent within a couple chapters and said, ‘I want in on this. I really want to take a swing at this.’

David Heyman, the producer, had optioned the book. So, I had to build my case with him why I was the writer for this. And what was great - and I can't emphasize this enough, because we all do all kinds of development. But what was clear with David, and I think it's something that we all hoped for, is that you share, this isn't common, you both want to make the same show. And I think we can always think we're making the same show. But you have to make sure your taste aligns, your priorities align, what you find in the material aligns. And it was quite clear. Immediately, he and I were like, ‘Yes, it’s this thing. It's this thing. It needs to be this, it needs to be that.’ And so that felt great.

So, between what I loved about the book, and how he and I were talking about it, I felt very fortunate from the start. It was not an easy adaptation. The book is extremely tricky. That was the other thing, I read the book, and at first, I was like,’ Oh, no problem.’ And then when I started it, I was like, ‘I'm screwed. This is really hard.’ [laughs] Half of this is internal monologue, what am I going to do? But the book is brilliant. So, then it was a matter of how do you crack that? How do you translate so much of what's internal to the external needed for TV? How do you dramatize it? It was a journey.

Sadie: That adaptation process, and, I’m still not quite sure how writers like yourself, can distill 50 chapters of a book down to 10 episodes or in this case, seven episodes. You’re like magicians. I keep thinking back to that first episode of the siblings having a meal together, and you're giving us all this information yet it doesn’t feel like it’s on the nose – but you’re world-building and giving us a deep sense of these characters and their sibling dynamics. What was that process like distilling all of that down to these individual character voices?

Melanie: I don't know how other writers are. I can't figure out a shortcut. [laughs] I don't know, is there one? It's like labor. [laughs] It is hard. For the pilot, it went through a few iterations till I embraced sort of the whodunnits of it, because at first, I was like, ‘Oh, this is a deep character drama.’ All these mysteries come to light in the absence of the mother. And that was very charactery, you know, the mystery itself was Joy. And it was lovely, but it lacked muscularity. And I was like, ‘Oh, duh. The investigation.’ But that wasn't my first go-to - originally the investigation started much later in the episode.

And there's a lot to be said about jumping out of the gate right away and I had built a version, which was much more charactery, more let the audience experience why this could happen in this world. And that was an early draft – ‘It happens, boom! We're out of the gate.’ And when you do that, then you have the kids at the table, all the information is coming out, but it's coming out in crisis, it's coming out in conflict, like the burner gets turned up over everything, that even when his time is up, ‘Oh, this stuff should be more gently laid out.’ No, just go for it. And that was really a fun realization that we just hit the ground running.

And I think audiences are so sophisticated now that that setup that I was trying to craft, just jump in, you get it all, and you were just off to the races. I remember in the writers' room, we had the room covered in whiteboards. And every character basically had their own big whiteboard with their backstory, so that when we were writing episodes, we were crafting these scenes, those characters were entering every scene carrying that backstory. 

We didn't have to explain it, we as the writers had it just present, always within eyesight. So that everybody came in with their history, everybody came into a room with their conflicts, everybody came in with their irritation and their love or whatever. And it's always like making sure that every character thinks they're staring in their own show, right? [laughs] And that helps a scene like you cited, be alive. And then it's just like rigorously breaking story, and then equally rigorously structuring.

Sadie: And throwing in all those twists and turns. For you and your writers, how did you go about selecting where it goes, when it happens, and making sure it’s visually engaging, and you're getting some emotional truth out of it?

Melanie: We would break an episode or break an act, sometimes they would be like, ‘OK, that works.’ But it's not Apples. That could be any story, what's the Apples version of it? And for our show, what was sort of relentless and difficult and fun, was making sure that nothing in the crime part of the show moved forward without emotional revelation and no emotional revelation moved forward without resonating in the crime zone. 

So that those things were always handing off to each other as they sort of propelled through time and space, but also by living next to each other, enriching each other, bringing more surprises, bringing more twists, than they would have had they not live next to each other, if that makes any sense. To me the interweaving wasn't just structural, it had to contribute to the essence of the story and to the character development.

Sadie: Again, I keep thinking back to the family but ultimately the sibling dynamics, and how children, without realizing it, will choose a side of which parent they favor most. And just the emotional mind games that they're playing with themselves internally, but also externally. I just thought was so well done.

Melanie: Thank you! I don't have siblings, and I'm obsessed with siblings. [laughs] I think I don't have siblings, because my dad was one of 14. And I think he just wanted to be alone. What's the saying? In families with multiple kids, each kid had a different set of parents, because they were raised by them at different periods of time. I think we say it in one of the episodes where Amy's like, ‘You didn't know Dad, like I knew Dad. You have a different version of Stan Delaney. I have my own version.’ And dear Sam Neill, who could not be more gentle playing that guy who people believe could commit murder. It is really just about looking back always with these characters and what made them them, what wound, what damage? What grief or craving? And that they carry that in their DNA always.

And I think Liane's title is quite apt. All those kids are crafted from their parent's particular wounds. The kids have different relationships. But what was really fun to work out was the dynamics and loyalties between the kids, which kids seem to understand each other, which ones didn't understand each other. And then how that could evolve over the course of the mystery was fun as well.

Sadie: To be a writer and play in that sandbox. It feels it's like too many options, because then you have to make a choice, right?

Melanie: Yeah! That's exactly as I was phrasing that comment, I was like, ‘Oh, I remembered resisting that.’ [laughs] Because of that, it's like, ‘They can do this, or they can do that.’ And that's hard with a project that has almost a Rubik's cube of potential, the interest is in and the compulsion is to keep moving it but it's like, no, you have to make those choices and hope they’re the most powerful choices and choose exactly what pieces you're moving. It's hard.

Sadie: Yeah. But you did it. You figured it out. When you were building out your writers' room, what were you looking for to round out this world and what types of voices that you wanted to highlight or just add flavors to that world?

Melanie: They were all extraordinary writers on the page, flat-out great writers - there's life in the lines they write, in the scenes they write. So that's number one, great on the page. They all had a sense of movement in their writing - like people can do great scenes, but it's like, are you pulling me through your story? Do you have a sense of storytelling and story movement?

And then I'm trying to think...three of them may have been competitive athletes. That was important to me. One was a jock in high school, and I can't remember if she played any specific sport, I think soccer; somebody was a high school tennis coach; and another was a competitive swimmer. And having artists who also have that competitive muscle and know what it was like to be raised to be a high-performing athlete, be a part of a team, be coaching, whatever it may be, that was a really great element, because I don't have that. I hired not to what I have, I hired to my weaknesses. And so that was really incredible to have in there.

And I hired people with siblings, with complex families who could speak to...who were quite generous and open in terms of this is how it works in my family; this is how I felt when my brother was winning and I wasn't - and I think that helped the show. I hope it helped give it some authenticity. I know it's a very heightened show, but it also needed to have some gravitas and authenticity regarding that. So, the competitive athlete thing was it was a real boon. And then also, you know, people who are part of the solutions, [laughs] people who were like, ‘This is tough, but we're gonna figure it out.’ They were all optimists. And I love that spirit. I looked for that as well.

Sadie: Speaking of history, I would love to hear about your writing journey. What inspired you to become a writer and how did find yourself moving from playwriting to TV?

Melanie: It’s maybe slightly harrowing, but actually, I think, pretty cool. [laughs] I started out in advertising as a youngin’ and I loved it. I started out writing TV and radio commercials. And I think it’s an incredible field. I had a blast in it. It was so creative. You work in teams, you're pitching. I mean, there's a big similarity between that and what we do here…I had no reason to leave it. I was like, ‘These are my people. This is my world.’

And then weirdly, I went and saw play one day, and I was like, ‘Uh-oh,’ it was strange. I watched this play and I was living in Cincinnati, and it was by a local guy. And I was like, ‘Oh, that's not Shakespeare.’ It was a person who lived in the town. And I was like, ‘Oh, people like me do this.’ It sounds so cliché, I know, people say that. And there was something in it that I was like, ‘I know how to do this.’ I felt it immediately. I loved advertising. But I always felt that a 32-second commercial wasn't long enough for me, something started to kind of creep into my psyche, like ‘I’m supposed tell a longer story.’ And then this thing happened. And it was sort of just this instinct and kind of a lightning bolt moment, honestly, where I was like, ‘I'm supposed to be writing stories.’

And so, I went about trying to teach myself how to do that. And while I kept working advertising and at a certain point, I was like, ‘I don't know what I don't know. I got to up the ante.’ And I went to graduate school for playwriting. I went to UCSD down in San Diego, which was a phenomenal program. And I got my MFA there in playwriting, and it was extraordinary. And I wound up having, honestly, it sounds strange to say this, I had a really good career in theater. I was a highly-produced playwright. And that was going great. And I loved it. I loved everything about it. And then I was writing one play, and I felt like I was a bit constrained, I felt like I wanted to write for the camera. There was something that emerged, evolved in my writing in theater, and I was like, ‘Hmm, I want a bigger canvas. I want something else.’ And so I started trying to figure out how to write pilots.

And then I wound up getting a TV agent through my theater agent. She made the connection and then sort of unbeknownst to me, this is a really weird part, my theater agent had sent unbeknownst to me a play to a TV agent in LA. And a guy I never met called me one day and he's like, ‘You don't know me, but I shared your play…with the showrunners of Big Love.’ And he's like, ‘You're on a plane Wednesday night, you're interviewing Thursday.’ And I was like, ‘I am?’ [laughs] I didn't know. It was like sort of a case study on how not to do it. But I was completely floored. And that was my first job on Big Love. And it was incredible. And I feel like that's how I learned to run a room and how to break story. But it was that odd and sort of like right place at the right time ultimately. I'm very fortunate, very, very fortunate that one agent sent something to another agent who sent it somewhere else. I hope that still happens for people - that felt sort of magical and weird.

Sadie: I'm curious, because of your advertisement background, does that ever feed into how you approach the page? Because I mean, advertising is all about manipulation and emotional connection, it’s a basic boilerplate.

Melanie: That's a great question. I always say advertising plus theater equals television. And because I loved advertising, and because I really loved writing for an audience, and I loved the responsibility of having to connect with an audience and make somebody want something. But create interest, spark interest - and I think that's my job with advertising. This is 30 seconds. This is 60 seconds. I'm trying to make them not get up and go get popcorn in their kitchen or a snack. And I want to make them stay on the sofa and watch this. That's a really important thing - that's my job as a TV writer, I have to make it worth their while. I have to make it something that is worth somebody wanting. 

I take that responsibility really, really seriously. It's my job to connect with an audience, it's my job to create something an audience wants. I love writing, but I also love not doing it in a vacuum. I like people liking it, and I like my work connecting with people. But that's my job. I think advertising - I was just very aware of keeping eyeballs on the screen

Sadie: Any advice for writers who are trying to break in?

Melanie: Yeah, do not lose faith. I was just flipping through some writers resumes at work the other day - know that showrunners are so busy, we don't have a lot of time to mine. Like, this statement about what they can bring to the room is vague. Tell us, you are wonderful. Tell us what you can bring to a room. Tell us specifically what knowledge you have, expertise, interests, because just like we were talking with Apples, I brought on people who had been competitive athletes. Anytime you can convey beyond your incredible talent, beyond your incredible spirit, what can you bring to this room, that will enrich this room, that will make the showrunners life easier, that will make the show better is amazing. Do not sell yourself short. And do not underestimate the power of specificity in your own gifts. It will go a long way. 

Apples Never Fall is available to watch on Peacock.