Two epic TV shows are streaming again this summer with the help of a Gamecock screenwriter.
First, the supernatural drama Sandman returns to Netflix July 3, nearly three years after the first season topped the streaming charts. About a week later, Apple TV+ will launch season three of the Foundation, one of that platform’s top sci-fi shows.
Both shows come with the challenge of translating popular epics with thousands of pages of source material ― Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels ― into enjoyable television. But they both accomplish this with the writing talents of Greg Goetz, a 2011 graduate of the University of South Carolina.
Goetz has been working in television for more than a decade, racking up credits as a writer and script coordinator for comedies, crime dramas, mysteries and thrillers on Netflix, HBO, ABC, Fox and more. Writing for majors shows like Sandman and Foundation is a dream.
“It is exactly why I moved out there,” Goetz says. “Foundation and Sandman both have been so creatively fulfilling. I’m very lucky to be doing what I’m doing.”
Gamecock alumnus Greg Goetz is a writer on the supernatural drama Sandman, which returns to Netflix July 3.
Goetz came to USC thinking about a pre-med track, but he explored various classes, worked on The Daily Gamecock and Garnet and Black magazine, and ultimately majored in business management. He found his true passion in media arts, which became his minor.
His first screenwriting class assignment allowed him to write a mock script for the South Park cartoon. It was fun, but he also enjoyed the structure that television brings to creative writing.
“Plotting it out to have a fully arced story with three acts in a very short amount of time was an interesting way of framing writing,” he says.
Screenwriting became his hobby, but later classes taught Goetz about the business aspects. He interned with professor Northrop Davis, who involved Goetz in meetings with producers, agents, showrunners and other people in television and publishing.
“All those things together made it start to become a real goal and possibility,” Goetz says. “It became an actual, calcified idea that you could make a career in it. Starting from there, it became like, ‘OK, how do I map this out? And how do I start trying to get into it?’”
When he graduated, he got a job with a printing company in San Diego, where he could easily network with industry insiders in Los Angeles. The path to a Hollywood writers room can be long, with odd jobs like making coffee for the writers along the way, but persistence paid off.
“Trying everything out at South Carolina was what gave me a lot of the confidence to just go,” he says.
As for Sandman, screen adaptations of Gaiman’s comics have been discussed for decades, but by the time Warner Bros. and Netflix finally brought the project to life, Goetz was screenwriting and had connections with the showrunner, who supervises the creative aspects of production.
During season one, Goetz was a script coordinator ― someone who handles continuity of the story, communicating with artists, and “all of the 100 miscellaneous little things that go into making sure the episodes are ready to be shot by the time filming comes around,” Goetz says. For season two, he joined the writing team, helping to shape the story for the entire season and taking the lead on the script for one episode.
This month, Apple TV+ will launch season three of the Foundation, one of that platform’s top sci-fi shows.
He enjoyed the challenge of working with a nearly endless amount of source material and with a protagonist with an endless lifespan.
“It takes place in this realm of infinite possibility, where anything you want to happen can happen through Dream’s powers," Goetz says. “But at the core of it, the show was trying to focus on Dream as a character. He’s this eternal being with infinite powers and an infinite lifespan. How does a character like that change?”
In between Sandman seasons, Goetz got his gig with Foundation. The show follows a group of exiles trying to save humanity from the imminent collapse of a galactic empire. Again, Goetz enjoyed the immense scope of the plot combined with the intimate details of the characters’ lives.
“Because the books take place over hundreds of years, you're dealing with a massive scope of intergalactic chess," he says. “It’s a lot of focus around characters saving the galaxy, but it’s also dealing with very personal power struggles and interpersonal relationships.”
Goetz is excited to see shows with his writing credits streaming, but he’s equally excited to get back in the writers room to work on future projects with the creatives he has worked with for years.
“I've been very lucky with the people that I’ve gotten to work with,” Goetz says. “That's how I've been trying to navigate my career: Just find people I enjoy and try to work with them as long as I can.”