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Tyler Perry has a strong hand in all of his work, and he’s happily letting the public know thanks to his social media post revealing that he writes all his T.V. shows. While some followers found his work ethic impressive, other naysayers questioned the opportunities Perry is giving to other creatives.
Perry has a variety of shows across multiple platforms including “The Haves and The Have Nots” on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and his new shows “The Oval” and “Sistas” on BET+. Perry is also gearing up for his new movie on Netflix called “Tyler Perry’s A Fall From Grace”, which just dropped a trailer a few days ago. You’d think with so many shows, movies and the responsibility of running an entire studio, Perry would delegate tasks to other writers.
But no, the 50-year-old mogul is creating the stories all by himself according to his Instagram video.
“I don’t know if you know this, but all shows on television have a writers room and most of the time there are ten people, 12, whatever that write on these television shows,” Perry said in the video. “I have no writers room. Nobody writes any of my work. I write it all.”
In the video, Perry pans to his multiple scripts, including “The Have and The Have Nots”, “Sistas”, and upcoming shows “Bruh” and “Ruthless.”
“I wrote all of these scripts by myself in 2019,” he said in the video. “What’s my point? Work ethic!”
Many people in Perry’s comment section praised his efforts. However, there were other folks in the comments and across Twitter who had critiques.
One Twitter user wrote, “How you have the largest black owned studio in [A]tlanta AND NO WRITERS ROOM?! NO BLACK WRITERS?! and then have the nerve to flex that as if you’re not watering down your own accomplishments. tyler perry irks the living hell out of me.”
Some users also pointed out that Tyler Perry doesn’t have the best history of supporting T.V. writers. Back in 2008, he fired four writers from his show “House of Payne” reportedly because they were trying to get a union contract with Tyler Perry’s production company, according to Deadline. The Writers Guild of America West released a statement at the time reading:
“The four writers, Kellie Griffin, Christopher Moore, Teri Brown-Jackson, and Lamont Ferrell, as well as supporters from the Writers Guild and the community, will be picketing during Saturday’s opening of Perry’s new studio and they’re asking invited guests to respect their picket line. Together, these writers have written over one hundred episodes of House of Payne. Since April of this year they have been involved in a union organizing campaign with the Writers Guild of America, West so that their work on that show and the upcoming Meet the Browns would be covered by a Guild contract. Despite the enormous success of House of Payne, Perry has refused to agree to a contract that would give the writers health care, pensions, and residuals. On Tuesday of this week he fired the writers, after warning them some weeks ago that they should ‘be careful about pushing the WGA deal or you could be replaced.'”
Check out some pointed and hilarious responses to Perry’s claim that he writes all his shows below.
