This week, actor, screenwriter and author Jason Segel discusses his career from Freaks and Geeks to Forgetting Sarah Marshall to The Muppets and beyond.

Actor-screenwriter-author Jason Segel got his start on the cult comedy series Freaks and Geeks. Since then, he’s gone on to play memorable and endearing comedic roles in film and on television. He wrote and starred in Forgetting Sarah Marshall along side Mila Kunis, Kristin Bell and Russell Brand, as well as 2011’s The Muppets. He went back to television in 2005, playing Marshall Eriksen on the CBS series How I Met Your Mother for nine seasons, and his other films include Knocked Up, This is 40, The End of the Tour and the upcoming Neflix feature, The Discovery. Journalist Matthew Odam spoke with Jason Segel at the 23rd Austin Film Festival in 2016. Clips in this episode copyright Universal City Studios Productions LLLP.

This week, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman discusses her work on that show, HBO’s Dream On and her latest series, Grace and Frankie. Later, we hear from How I Met Your Mother co-creator, Carter Bays.

Emmy and Golden Globe-winning writer, producer and show-runner Marta Kauffman got her big break in the early 1990’s when she and her then-writing partner David Crane created the first HBO original comedy, Dream On. The two went on to create the prime-time network comedy institution, Friends. During its 10-year run (1994-2004), Friends landed 63 Emmy nominations, winning Outstanding Comedy Series in 2002. One of Marta Kauffman’s latest projects is the critically acclaimed Netflix original comedy, Grace and Frankie. The series features a dream-team ensemble top-lined by veteran actors Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston in a story about two nemeses whose husbands announce they are in love with each other and plan to get married – bringing the women together in a strange and often hilarious twist of fate. Barbara Morgan spoke with Marta Kauffman in 2016 at the 23rd Austin Film Festival where we honored Marta Kauffman with AFF’s Outstanding Television Writer Award. Clips in this half of our program copyright Warner Bros. Television, Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and Skydance Productions, LLC.

Emmy and Golden Globe-winning writer, producer and show-runner Marta Kauffman got her big break in the early 1990’s when she and her then-writing partner David Crane created the first HBO original comedy, Dream On. The two went on to create the prime-time network comedy institution, Friends. During its 10-year run (1994-2004), Friends landed 63 Emmy nominations, winning Outstanding Comedy Series in 2002. One of Marta Kauffman’s latest projects is the critically acclaimed Netflix original comedy, Grace and Frankie. The series features a dream-team ensemble top-lined by veteran actors Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston in a story about two nemeses whose husbands announce they are in love with each other and plan to get married – bringing the women together in a strange and often hilarious twist of fate. Barbara Morgan spoke with Marta Kauffman in 2016 at the 23rd Austin Film Festival where we honored Marta Kauffman with AFF’s Outstanding Television Writer Award. Clips in this half of our program copyright Warner Bros. Television, Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and Skydance Productions, LLC.

Carter Bays is best known, with his writing partner Craig Thomas, as the co-creator and show-runner of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. The series stars Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan and Cristin Milioti.

How I Met Your Mother was nominated for 28 Emmy awards in its nine-season run. In that time, the show took home nine Emmys, two Golden Globes and a total of 72 award nominations total. How I Met Your Mother concluded in 2014 with a total of 208 episodes. Literary agent Becka Oliver spoke with Carter Bays in 2016 at the 23rd Austin Film Festival.

It is a truth widely acknowledged that no one goes into theatre to strike it rich as a playwright. As the creative landscape continues to grow within film, television, and new media, there are now more avenues for playwrights to truly make the world their stage. Join Austin Film Festival, the Writers Guild of America, East, and the Dramatists Guild of America for a conversation featuring playwrights who have turned their passion for the stage into a valuable currency in other mediums.

This episode features:
Beau Willimon – Creator/Executive Producer, House of Cards
Warren Leight – Executive Producer, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Adam Rapp – Co-executive Producer, Vinyl
Tracey Scott Wilson – Co-producer/writer, The Americans
Moderator: Howard Sherman

This week, comic genius Paula Pell on life from the writers room to the film set as she discusses her work on Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Bridesmaids, The Heat, Sisters and more.

Paula Pell got her start in the writers room at Saturday Night Live in 1995 and wrote for that show for twenty years. She was a writer-producer on 30 Rock where she played Pete Hornberger’s wife, Paula, and her numerous cameo appearances include Tammy Zero, the mother of Parks and Rec character Ron Swanson as well as performances in the 2015 Oscar-winning Birdman and Anchorman 2. She’s also voiced several animated characters from “Dream Director” in the Pixar film Inside Out to Barbara on Nick Kroll’s Big Mouth. Her film writing credits include additional writing on Bridesmaids, This is 40 and The Heat, as well as the screenplay for the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy Sisters. Paula Pell’s recent web series Hudson Valley Ballers is streaming now on You Tube.

In honor of women’s history month, this week’s On Story features Callie Khouri, (Thelma and Louise, Nashville) Michelle Ashford, (Masters of Sex) and Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands) discuss their illustrious careers in film and television.

Filmmaker Callie Khouri won the Academy Award in 1992 for her first screenplay, Thelma & Louise. The film, starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in the title roles, was directed by Ridley Scott and included performances by Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen and Brad Pitt in one of his earliest appearances on the big screen. Thelma & Louise was once considered controversial for its feminist overtones, but has since achieved classic status even inspiring songs by Tori Amos (Me and a Gun) and Argentinean Fito Paez (Dos Dias En La Vida) as well as countless parodies of it’s final scene on television and even video games. Callie Khouri’s other films include Something To Talk About, Divine Secrets of the Ya-YA Sisterhood and the series, Nashville.

Screenwriter Michelle Ashford is best known for her work on the 2010 miniseries, The Pacific. Her current series, Masters Of Sex is based on Thomas Maier’s biography of legendary sex researchers Dr William Masters and Virginia Johnson. The Showtime drama set in the 1950’s and 60’s stars Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan, and has been renewed for a fourth season to air in later in 2016.

Novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer Caroline Thompson is credited with the screenplays for films Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Addams Family as well as adaptations of The Secret Garden and Black Beauty, which she also directed. Caroline Thompson’s other credits include the films Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, and Snow White: The Fairest of Them All.

This week, Herschel Weingrod, the writer behind Brewster’s Millions, Kindergarten Cop and Twins, discusses his Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd classic, Trading Places. Later, the filmmaker behind Private Benjamin, Father of the Bride and The Parent Trap, Nancy Meyers.

Screenwriter Herschel Weingrod whose credits include the screenplays for the films, Brewster’s Millions, starring Richard Pryor and John Candy, the highly quotable Kindergarten Cop starring none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger, Twins with Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito and Trading Places.

Nancy Meyers is a trailblazing writer-director who has created a body of work focusing largely on the female experience beginning with the 1980 comedy Private Benjamin starring Goldie Hawn, all the way to her most recent film, The Intern, starring Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway. She wrote and directed The Parent Trap starring Lindsay Lohan, Something’s Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton and wrote, directed and produced The Holiday, starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black. Her other credits include the unforgettable films, Baby Boom, Father of the Bride and What Women Want.