Anna Daniels
In the world of showbiz, it’s common to have connective strings among industry professionals and different media properties. Connecting CBS’ Blue Bloods to Marvel might sound like light years away from each other. There happens to be an official connection between the two based on one of the creators of Blue Bloods.
The original showrunners of this popular show are a husband and wife team known as Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green. Many viewers perhaps find those names familiar from show credits since they’ve written for many classic shows over the last 30 years. Some of those go back as far as Northern Exposure and on up to iconic HBO show The Sopranos.
Robin Green is the one who happens to have an interesting Marvel connection. She was lucky enough to get to know the equally legendary creator of the comic book behemoth.
The more humble beginnings of Burgess and Green
Writing for CBS’ early ’90s series Northern Exposure is a great place to kick off one’s writing credits. This is where Burgess and Green started in the realm of TV, eventually becoming executive story editors.
Having them being responsible for the stellar writing on NE tells you everything about their talent. Not that they’ve always had smooth sailing in their writing careers. They’ve had some troubles along the way, most notably when David Chase hired them to write for HBO’s The Sopranos starting around 2000.
By the time Burgess and Green started there, they’d already executive produced or written for several other shows, including the one-season series Mr. and Mrs. Smith, plus Party of Five.
Going by their A-list reputation by the late ’90s, Chase had no hesitation hiring them to write for his controversial characters on The Sopranos through the mid-2000s.
Eventually, Chase felt like Burgess and Green didn’t understand the characters well enough, leading to them being fired. There’s still a lot of perplexed analysis of this today, though the husband-wife team clearly made bank with their own projects later.
Robin Green has had an almost iconic life on her own
During Green’s early days in the 1960s, her career took an interesting trajectory. In those days, she was hired by the still fledgling Marvel Comics and became Stan Lee’s official secretary.
They worked closely together, making Green nearly like the official second pair of arms at the company without creating any of the comic book writing or drawings.
Later, she went to work at Rolling Stone magazine as a journalist, leading her to even more amazing pop culture adventures. Green has basically lived several lives with her TV writing/producing career taking her to even further heights during the 2000s.
All of her career turns led to her writing an autobiography that went into more detail about her time working for Lee. One has to wonder why the MCU hasn’t hired her in some fashion to write for the movies based on her pedigree.
However, because she’s known for a certain type of dramatic writing, perhaps she wouldn’t fit (ironically) into the niche of writing about superheroes.
Just imagine if someone like Kevin Feige hired her, though, and how much of a full circle it would be.
Writing for TV saved Green’s career
Because Green was the first woman journalist hired at Rolling Stone, she had to go through a lot of trials and tribulations to move up the ladder. Over time, she ended up being fired at the magazine, leading to a necessary career reinvention as a TV writer.
Husband-wife teams are almost always more creative and powerful since they can fight for one another. Burgess and Green met already when they were in college, leading to a lifetime partnership that paid off on a major level.
Outside of their firing on The Sopranos by David Chase, the two created and produced Blue Bloods in 2010. While they left the show just a year later (due to creative differences…again), they’re still listed as creators in the credits.
After creating a very surprising hit on CBS Friday nights that keeps going without letup, they’ve cemented themselves in the annals of TV history.
As for Green, let’s hope she’ll be recognized by Marvel in some capacity for no doubt helping Stan Lee get more organized than he probably ever was.
Written by: Cheat
